Conversations between mothers and children in Japanese and North American cultures were conducted to account for the way in which cultural narrative style is transmitted to children. The contrasts yielded from the study are described. (JL)

The form of Japanese children's personal narratives is distinctly different from that of English-speaking children. Despite follow-up questions that encouraged them to talk about one personal narrative at length, Japanese children spoke succinctly about collections of experiences rather than elaborating on any one experience. Conversations between…