“Old Enough”

debate!
What responsibilities do you have?
Let’s prepare!

● Take five minutes with a partner and look up ten

words that are related to the words “errand” and
“labor”
● Look up “collectivist society” and “individualistic
society”. Define them or give an example!
How would you describe Spanish
society?

Is Spain individualistic or collectivist? What

do you think?
Spain according to Experts:

“Spain, in comparison with the rest of the European countries (except for
Portugal) is Collectivist (because of its score in this dimension: 51). However,
compared with other areas of the world it is seen as clearly individualist. This
has made Spaniards quite easy to relate with certain cultures -mainly non
European- whereas other cultures can be perceived as aggressive and blunt.
On the other hand, teamwork is considered as something totally natural,
employees tend to work in this way with no need for strong motivation from
Management. (Information from Hofstede insights).”
 How does the United States compare?
“The fundamental issue addressed by this dimension is the degree of interdependence a society maintains
among its members. It has to do with whether people´s self-image is defined in terms of “I” or “We”. In
Individualist societies people are only supposed to look after themselves and their direct family. In
Collectivist societies people belong to “in groups” that take care of them in exchange for unquestioning
loyalty.

The fairly low score on Power Distance(40) in combination with one of the the most Individualist (91)
cultures in the world reflects itself in the following:

The American premise of “liberty and justice for all.” This is evidenced by an explicit emphasis on equal
rights in all aspects of American society and government. Within American organisations, hierarchy is
established for convenience, superiors are accessible and managers rely on individual employees and teams
for their expertise. Both managers and employees expect to be consulted and information is shared
frequently. At the same time, communication is informal, direct and participative to a degree. The society is
loosely-knit in which the expectation is that people look after themselves and their immediate families only
and should not rely (too much) on authorities for support. There is also a high degree of geographical
mobility in the United States.”
What about Japan?

“Japan scores 46 on the Individualism dimension. Certainly Japanese

society shows many of the characteristics of a collectivistic society: such
as putting harmony of group above the expression of individual opinions
and people have a strong sense of shame for losing face. However, it is
not as collectivistic as most of her Asian neighbours. The most popular
explanation for this is that Japanese society does not have extended
family system which forms a base of more collectivistic societies such as
China and Korea.”
Japan looks after little ones!

“What accounts for this unusual degree of independence? Not self-sufficiency, in fact, but
“group reliance,” according to Dwayne Dixon, a cultural anthropologist who wrote his
doctoral dissertation on Japanese youth. “[Japanese] kids learn early on that, ideally, any
member of the community can be called on to serve or help others,” he says.

This assumption is reinforced at school, where children take turns cleaning and serving lunch
instead of relying on staff to perform such duties. This “distributes labor across various
shoulders and rotates expectations, while also teaching everyone what it takes to clean a
toilet, for instance,” Dixon says.” (Taken from The Atlantic-
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/10/why-japanese-kids-can-walk-to-school-alone/408475/
Many Japanese children go to
school by themselves using
public transport from an early
age!
Let’s watch!
We’re going to watch an episode of
Japan’s famous series “old enough”
which features young children running
their first errands. Be prepared to
discuss afterwards!
Let’s debate!
For Against
If you are chosen to If you are chosen to
represent the “for” represent “against” then you
side you will research will research points that are
points supporting against allowing children
allowing children to run errands at such an early
run errands at an early age.
age and be this
independent.