The Japanese attitude

As I was watching a video in which a Japanese coffee expert shared his advices on making coffee, the expression he used intrigued me. He was being too modest when trying to pitch his advices and saying, "I believe this video will help you make better coffee. Such possibility exists." This seems to indicate some characteristics of the Japanese nationality, that is, the overemphasis on 禮 (best translated as ritual or courtesy). 

Normally I would never expect a Chinese vlogger of the similar kind to say anything close to "such possibility exists." (unless for joking) They simply make statements as if they were mere facts. Typically they'd say, "put tofu into hot salted water so that afterwards the tofu won't shatter when cooked" (one of my recent epiphany for cooking) but never anything like the Japanese expression. In other words, the Chinese teach while the Japanese suggest. 

Man, we Chinese do love to teach others whenever possible! We actually have an idiom for it: 好为人师. It may have something to do with our tradition of sanctifying a teacher (Confucius) rather than a soldier or a prophet or a merchant, but the truth is, what Confucius taught is quite the opposite of 好为人师. He was quite persistent on his students being modest and humble all the time. In "The Analects" there's a story that goes like this:

子使漆雕開仕。對曰：“吾斯之未能信。”子說。 

The Master was wishing Qi Diao Kai to enter an official employment. He replied, "I am not yet able to rest in the assurance of THIS." The Master was pleased.

Confucius was pleased because Qi had the merit of humbling himself and always prepared to learn more from others. Which is quite similar to the Japanese, not the Chinese, attitude these days. Of course, the Japanese have been learning from China for thousands of years, and in some ways, have outperformed the contemporary Chinese, especially in the cultural spheres.