Asian culture is...
Having flown for six years at Japan Airlines, Asian culture is.....
1) Accepting the fact that as a foreigner, you are a second class citizen.
2) In training, you are inferior to the local pilot, but we locals can train you to our standards.
3) As a foreigner, never question why the Asian airline does things this way or that way. And never ask why you don't do it the American way or the Canadian way. That will get you fired immediately.
4) Their standards can be difficult to understand and /or adjust too as a foreigner.
5) Never ask the WHY question (Japanese "DO****A"). i.e... Why does this do that? Or why do you do it that way? It places Asians in an uncomfortable position of explaining something they themselves don't know. Because Asian society accepts things as fact.
6) In Japan, discrimination will exist. (Very subtle). Foreigners can't just rent a place to live anywhere. Often Japanese landlords won't allow foreigners to rent from them. So, often foreigners are forced to live in a central location with other foreigners...like Yokahama.
7) JAL ticket agents were notorious for attempting to downgrade foreign aircrew members from First to Business (Captain's) and Business to Coach
(First Officers and Flight Engineers) when deadheading on International legs. While providing First and Business class seats to Japanese crews on the very same flight.
8) One foreign JAL Captain, who was fluent in Japanese, was subjected to a Japanese (JAL) Flight Attendant racial slur. She had apologized to a Japanese businessman -in Japanese- who was sitting next to the foreign JAL captain in first class (he was deadheading out of uniform) between Hawaii and Tokyo. That the airline was sorry that he (the businessman) had to sit next to the smelly foreigner in First Class and there were no other seats to relocate the businessman too.