WHAT ARE SOCIAL CONVENTIONS?

What are social conventions?

Social conventions are the unwritten rules the society in which you are in. Naturally, social conventions differ from society to society and region to region.

I have lived for half of my life in New Zealand and half of my life in Japan. As you can imagine, these countries have two very different forms of social conventions.

Lets have a look firstly at what social conventions are in New Zealand:

1. Because New Zealand is not very heavily populated and there many wide spaces, this means we don't like to get too close to anyone. (How I have survived on the Tokyo train system for so long is beyond me.) Personal space is different from country to country. Respect the person's space in New Zealand.

2. New Zealanders walk on the left side of the footpath (sidewalk, pavement). I remember when an American lecturer at university said he found that strange because in America it was on the right. (I'm not sure if that is true or not.) That also applied to the staircase as well.

3. New Zealanders smile at each other a lot. This is a type of greeting to a stranger. you don't have to say hello like the video below but don't ignore the person walking past you. That is considered to be very, very rude.

4. If something good happens to you, like there is a birth in the family or even as something like your birthday then social convention would suggest that you have a shout at your workplace. A shout is when that person provides food or drink or both to celebrate. (I must admit, this is one convention that I don't really understand.)


How about Japan?

1. Bowing - I'm sure that even if your knowledge of Japan is minuscule ,  that you know that Japanese greet each other by bowing. Kissing is very, very rare while hand shaking is becoming more and more common, don't expect that firm one that your father told you to do.

2. Another that you are probably all familiar with even if you haven't visited Japan is the idea of taking your shoes off before going inside the house. For me, this seems quite logical but for whatever reason, this hasn't seemed to have taken off in the white man's world.

3. The final one. Eating and eating etiquette is big in Japan so remember to follow the rules like slurp when you eat noodles and don't stick your chopsticks in the rice or even drown it in soy sauce. White rice is very important in Japanese culture and you need to treat it with the utmost respect. I'll let Tom Selleck show you.

There you have it. Social conventions. Some are good. Some are bad. Some are annoying but you can't deny that they make the world go round.