Difference between Eastern and Western Culture

Geographically the eastern world includes parts of Asia but conceptually the east and west are differentiated in terms of culture rather than geographical. Roughly the Eastern world includes central, north and East Asia, Middle East, south East Asia and south Asia. The western world includes the part of Europe and America.

There are lot of differences in the culture, traditions, languages and way of living of Eastern people and the western people. For some time they are developed together but after that these are really different from each other. Main differences can be seen in people behavior and attitude towards life.

Culture Differences

Lets start with the cultural difference. The way people dressed up in East and west is completely different from each other. In eastern countries, people wear more covered dresses rather than in western counties. The idea of Family is also different, in Eastern countries, as of in western. People mostly live in joint family system with their father mother, uncle, aunts. All the people live under one roof and take care of each other. The relationships are also family centric in eastern cultures. For marriages couples have to get family approval and then family take steps to organize their marriage. So there are more arranged marriages in eastern society and lesser love marriages. Mostly parents select bride for the groom. In the western culture, personal choice is given preference over family choice and hence decisions of relationships are of the individual. This is one of the major differences between eastern and western cultures.

Another major difference in eastern and western culture is their religion. People give more importance to the religion in eastern countries than in the west. It can be reflected in their way of living, their food, clothes, family lifestyle etc. People are more conservative in eastern countries rather than in western.

In east the family members are dependent on the head of the family to earn livelihood for them. So the head of the family take care of them and provide all the utilities for them. In west everyone earn for their self and fulfill their needs and wishes. So people are more independent in west as their culture allows child to live separately from parents after reaching a certain age. It has its own pros and cones. As child can live as he wishes and will not allow his/her parents to intervene. It makes them independent and confident in their decisions but also makes them to indulge in drugs and early age sex. In East parents guide the children throughout their life.

Well there is more openness in west. Discussing about child birth or sex is a taboo in the East while that is done quite openly and commonly in the West. This conservative outlook and lack of openness creates hurdles in making sex education common in the East as opposed to the west where it is pertaining without any difficulty.

There is a difference in women status in east and west as well. In the East women are expected to sacrifice their careers and professional life so that they can brought up their kids and take care of their family. In the west women are free to decide about their marriage, career and children. In the east now people are changing and women are given their rights but still there are a lot of people who are not giving women equal rights and opportunities.

People are more rigid about their beliefs and ideologies in the East rather than in west. Their traditions and practices are carrying forward from their anccestors from thousands of years. They still believe them irrespective of their fading validity in modern times. However, people are more rational in west and decisions are not made on emotional basis.

Travelling is an important part of the people in the western world. They take out time for travelling around the world. People look forward for the vacations and take break from their work and travel around for fun and recreation. Eastern people also eagerly wait for the vacations but getting vacations depend on the nature of work, workplace environment, individual nature and society mindset. Even after getting vacations, people think travelling as an expense or waste of money and don’t go for that .So in these countries, people rarely take break. (Nobanita Dhar)

Educational Differences

Because of the difference in religions, traditions, history, political regimes etc, people in east and west have different thinking and different approaches towards education.

Western educational system encourages creativity and ideas. It focuses on promoting brainstorming and thinking in the students so that they can develop their intellect and develop knowledge. In Eastern education, it’s all about struggle and hard work. They work on the principle that practice makes a man perfect. So children have to practice enough. In eastern countries, children are taught to work hard and enormous homework is given to them. This makes Asian students more productive when they enter into Western educational system or institutions. Because of encouraging ideas Western education system helps students in becoming active member of the training procedure. Students are encouraged to participate in the class by thinking critically, making inquiries and debating on topics with the teachers. On the contrary, Eastern educational method is less interactive and students have to submit to the authority of the teachers.

In Western education system, steps are taken to include kids with extra needs along with the general mass. It is considered their major right that they should be studies with the ordinary kids. They are given equal educational opportunity in the west. Contrary in the east there are different schools for the disable kids. These kids are sent there for their education and training, and its thought to be logical, not unfair.

Individualism is the most distinguishing feature of Western societies so it is reflected in their education system. So the individuals are considered more important than groups. Western students are lesser afraid of giving their opinions and even making mistakes. As in the personality development process mistakes are considered to be the natural part. On the contrary eastern societies are mostly group oriented which reflect in their education system too. So to be successful in a group the individual needs to give opinion in conformity with the values.

In western system students are encouraged to study what they like and enjoy. In other words, according to the aptitude of the students. This makes study fun and learning rather than a burden on the student. On the other hand, Eastern society’s people are forced to study what they don’t enjoy. Purpose of the study is becoming productive for them and their society despite of their aptitude and inclination. (Jane Copland)

Social Differences

People in west believe in freedom of expression and speak in the straight forward manner. On the contrary people tend to speak indirectly in eastern countries. They don’t speak straightforward about the issues to avoid conflict. Another difference is the form of relationship form by them. Western People don’t make deep relationships with other. They make casual relationships which are professional and friendly. On the contrary eastern people like to make emotional and strong relationships with other. They keep their relationships for life.

Another difference is their expression of emotions. Westerns can become furious quickly and express their emotions in aggressive and loud manner sometimes. But they calm down quickly after the offense is rectified. Eastern’s doesn’t show extreme emotions and mostly are polite else they are pushed over the limits. (chalre.com)

Cuisines

European and American cuisines are characterized as western cuisines. These include steak, burgers, fries etc. In western meals meat are used in huge quantity as compared to the eastern cuisines. Also rice is served as the main dish as compared to eastern where rice is the part of main course. Western dishes e fattening and less healthy .On the contrary eastern cuisines are made up of mostly vegetables which are healthier. Eastern dishes are spicier rather than the western dishes. But the Chinese cuisines are not spicy which are also included in eastern side.

So, this was all about how the culture, social life, education system and food of East differ from the West. East is East and west is West. They never can be the same. World now has become a global village because of the technology. So the important thing is how people of both the regions are adopting each other’s cultural values, social values and education system.

Works Cited

chalre.com. Cultural differences:Asian social culture. <http://www.chalre.com/hiring_managers/asian_cultural_differences.htm>.

Jane Copland. West and East: 5 main diffrences in approach towards education. 19 february 2015. 19 february 2015 < https://www.thepensters.com/blog/west-east-education/>.

Nobanita Dhar. top-10-differences-between-eastern-and-western-cultures. 12 february 2013. 12 february 2013 <https://topyaps.com/top-10-differences-between-eastern-and-western-cultures>.