Bruce Feiler’s book Learning to Bow is a memoir that offers a detailed description of what it means to be Japanese. Feiler who is an American from Georgia was sent to Japan to teach Japanese students about American values, customs, and language. Feiler discusses his experience teaching and his life in Japan during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. In the meantime, in what became more of a life lesson, the author learned to understand as an outsider what it truly meant to be Japanese or as the title suggests, “to Bow”. Through his immersion into Japanese society or “the open door” , Feiler begins to understand how to bow, how to send a letter, and most importantly what it means to be Japanese. Through this search for the “Japanese Dream” he discovers that his Americanized ideals are more in sync with that of Japan than preconceived. This immersion enabled him to better understand the vast similarities and differences between the two distant countries.
Feiler’s trip to Japan came about from the…show more content… He sheds light on an education system that inspires in students lifelong commitment to their community. In the book the students band together and create a Trash Day after noticing how much trash accumulates around their community. Feiler argues, “Schools are successful in Japan for this simple reason: they are seen as a national security priority.”
Feiler also dispels many myths that Americans hold towards Japanese, and vice versa. Learning to Bow offers a better understanding of Japanese society in the Modern World. Upon his arrival in Sano, locals react in shock when Feiler can use chop sticks. Shocked are the locals that a white “American” can use chop sticks and speak Japanese. To the Japanese these aspects were customary only to those who were from Japan, and to see a foreigner being able to exhibit these skills was unfathomable to
