I was glad to be your group member and I really enjoyed sharing the ideas.
We finished this class but I hope we would put our knowledge of intercultural communication to another classes or our lives.
Thank you very much and have a great summer!
2010年6月12日土曜日
Activity12
Intercultural communication has been studied since after the World WarⅡ and its study is continue today. The interesting about intercultural communication is there are no right answers. How people communicate is depends on one’s culture, gender, age, religion, race, and other various elements. Also, intercultural communication is entangled with histories and knowing histories helps our intercultural communication. Intercultural communication is obstructed by stereotypes, prejudice and racism. Minority group members tend to build up one’s racial/ ethnical identity than majority group members because minorities have chance to face different cultures and have needs to ride on mainstream culture. Without understanding characteristics of Whiteness, we cannot understand intercultural communication in the U.S. because Whiteness is often less talked than blacks, Latinos, and Asians. A key point here is “privilege” and “White” is not synonymous because not every Whites have power. In addition, some Whites consider themselves as minorities or being White is a handicap to communicate with minorities because sometimes minorities also judge Whites by prejudice and their stereotyped images such as Whites are racists or despise minorities. When we do intercultural communication, language is very important. Especially, in the United States, people are low context style of communication and they prefer the direct way of speaking. We need to aware the different styles of communication such as high context otherwise it might lead misunderstanding each other. When we communicate with others, we also use nonverbal codes with verbal codes. Nonverbal behaviors are different culture by culture and it could change or emphasize the verbal messages. Verbal and nonverbal communication have important role in our intercultural communication. However, even if we can speak same language, intercultural communication never be easy because even if people speak same language, they might have different beliefs and values. When we face to other cultures, finding similarities are difficult especially at the very beginning and it becomes cause of building stereotyped images and prejudice, and it could be cause of conflicts, which could be both individual and cultural. Moreover, economic problems born many conflicts and underline cultural differences and blaming. To manage conflicts, we have to recognize different point of views, step back when we need, and being flexible to new ideas.
I have experiences of met people from various countries and they had different cultures, religions, races, genders, and languages from mine. I met with culture shocks many times, but at the same time, I was enjoying them. Also, I do not think I am a person who evaluates others by stereotyped image or prejudice. However, more or less, I still judge people who have different cultures or backgrounds by my values. I do not say I have a high intercultural communication skill, but at least, I know every people have different beliefs and values. To develop my intercultural communication skill, I can open my mind. For example, talk to various people. No one has the same background and it might be a chance to break wrong or bad images. Also, I can let them know about my culture. Most of the times, intercultural communication starts from less similarities and it might make hard to communicate each other. However, less similarity means you can learn many new ideas.
Through this course, we learned a lot about intercultural communication. Does this course change your ideas for other cultures?
I have experiences of met people from various countries and they had different cultures, religions, races, genders, and languages from mine. I met with culture shocks many times, but at the same time, I was enjoying them. Also, I do not think I am a person who evaluates others by stereotyped image or prejudice. However, more or less, I still judge people who have different cultures or backgrounds by my values. I do not say I have a high intercultural communication skill, but at least, I know every people have different beliefs and values. To develop my intercultural communication skill, I can open my mind. For example, talk to various people. No one has the same background and it might be a chance to break wrong or bad images. Also, I can let them know about my culture. Most of the times, intercultural communication starts from less similarities and it might make hard to communicate each other. However, less similarity means you can learn many new ideas.
Through this course, we learned a lot about intercultural communication. Does this course change your ideas for other cultures?
2010年6月11日金曜日
Activity11
When people meet new cultures, conflicts often happen. In this activity, I watched Disney movie “Pocahontas” (1995). This movie illustrates the conflict between British colonists and American Indians.
~Story~
Pocahontas was an Indian woman and a daughter of a chief of the village. She believed in beautiful spirits of nature and was very curious. One day, her father recommended her to marry a strong warrior Kocum. Pocahontas hesitated what to do, and at that time, British colonists came from over the sea. The colonists came to this “New World” to get gold, prosperity, and freedom. The colonists cut down trees and dug around to mine gold. John Smith, one of the British colonists, went to scout the New World and met Pocahontas. They were interested in each other and spend a time together. John learned Native Americans’ ideas of the world from Pocahontas and found out there were no gold in the New World. John told the other colonists that there were no gold and good things about Indians. However, the other colonists thought Indians were savage and violent and trying to kill the colonists. While one of the Indian scouts was shot by a colonist and Indians thought colonists were barbarous invaders. Both colonists and Indians stared preparing for a war. Pocahontas met John secretly to stop the war, but she was detected by Kocum. When Kocum sew Pocahontas and John were getting together, he was very upset and he pounced at John to protect Pocahontas from John. At that time, one of the colonists who followed John shot and killed Kocum. The colonist was just tried to protect John. Unfortunately, however, John was caught by the Indians and the tension between the colonists and the Indians climaxed. The next morning, the colonists and the Indians readied for the war and John was almost executed. Pocahontas hazarded her life in saving John, and her father, the chief of the village, was impressed his daughter’s courage and declared that the Indians should have not fought with the colonists. The Indians released John and colonists threw guns away. However, a boss of the colonists did not like this result and tried to shoot the chief of the village. John guarded the chief by using his body and the bullet hit John. The boss was caught by the other colonists and fortunately, John escaped death. When the colonists went back to England, Indians brought many foods for the colonists and showed their feelings.
The major conflict between the colonists and the Indians was regarding others as a bad. When John met Pocahontas, he said the Indians were uncivilized and made her angry. For her, the Indians had their own rules and they lived in peace. However, the British colonists called the Indians savage people without knowing anything about the Indian life and ideas. Also, the Indians called colonists white devil without knowing anything about the colonists. Both colonists and Indians were afraid of each other because they did not know who they were. In addition, they both tended to assume the other by their own values. Now in America, similar conflicts exist. Some people assume particular groups of people by their own values and regard these groups of people as the bad without understanding their cultures. To solve this conflict, people have to aware different point of views and values and understand them.
Have you ever faced to a cultural conflict before? What was that and how did you think about that conflict?
~Story~
Pocahontas was an Indian woman and a daughter of a chief of the village. She believed in beautiful spirits of nature and was very curious. One day, her father recommended her to marry a strong warrior Kocum. Pocahontas hesitated what to do, and at that time, British colonists came from over the sea. The colonists came to this “New World” to get gold, prosperity, and freedom. The colonists cut down trees and dug around to mine gold. John Smith, one of the British colonists, went to scout the New World and met Pocahontas. They were interested in each other and spend a time together. John learned Native Americans’ ideas of the world from Pocahontas and found out there were no gold in the New World. John told the other colonists that there were no gold and good things about Indians. However, the other colonists thought Indians were savage and violent and trying to kill the colonists. While one of the Indian scouts was shot by a colonist and Indians thought colonists were barbarous invaders. Both colonists and Indians stared preparing for a war. Pocahontas met John secretly to stop the war, but she was detected by Kocum. When Kocum sew Pocahontas and John were getting together, he was very upset and he pounced at John to protect Pocahontas from John. At that time, one of the colonists who followed John shot and killed Kocum. The colonist was just tried to protect John. Unfortunately, however, John was caught by the Indians and the tension between the colonists and the Indians climaxed. The next morning, the colonists and the Indians readied for the war and John was almost executed. Pocahontas hazarded her life in saving John, and her father, the chief of the village, was impressed his daughter’s courage and declared that the Indians should have not fought with the colonists. The Indians released John and colonists threw guns away. However, a boss of the colonists did not like this result and tried to shoot the chief of the village. John guarded the chief by using his body and the bullet hit John. The boss was caught by the other colonists and fortunately, John escaped death. When the colonists went back to England, Indians brought many foods for the colonists and showed their feelings.
The major conflict between the colonists and the Indians was regarding others as a bad. When John met Pocahontas, he said the Indians were uncivilized and made her angry. For her, the Indians had their own rules and they lived in peace. However, the British colonists called the Indians savage people without knowing anything about the Indian life and ideas. Also, the Indians called colonists white devil without knowing anything about the colonists. Both colonists and Indians were afraid of each other because they did not know who they were. In addition, they both tended to assume the other by their own values. Now in America, similar conflicts exist. Some people assume particular groups of people by their own values and regard these groups of people as the bad without understanding their cultures. To solve this conflict, people have to aware different point of views and values and understand them.
Have you ever faced to a cultural conflict before? What was that and how did you think about that conflict?
2010年6月10日木曜日
Activity10
1. Who do the members of your culture consider to be part of their family?
In my culture, people think grandparents, father, mother, siblings, spouse, children, and pets are family member.
2. What are some roles and responsibilities of specific family members?
In general, the father has to work for family. The Mother has to do house hold works and traditionally, society expects women who get married to quit their job and become house wife. Daughters are often asked to help house hold jobs. Son is asked to study hard and to go to good college more than his sisters. Oldest brother or sister has to take care of younger brothers or sisters. All family members have to be respectful toward other elder family members.
3. Are family members encouraged to stay in the same house/area as their family after adolescence?
Son does not have to live close by after he graduates college. However, parents often encourage their daughter to lives the same house/area until she get married.
4. What are the cultural norms and taboos regarding dating and meeting people with whom to become romantically involved?
In my culture it looks bad if a young woman were to get home late, sleeps over at someone else’s place, or go on a trip with her friends.
5. How are marriage proposals conducted in your culture?
When a Japanese man asks meet your parents/family, it often seen as marriage proposal. Standard steps for proposing would be to ask your partner first, and then request parents the parent’s permission.
6. What is a typical wedding like?
Young couples prefer to marry at a chapel and hold a wedding party at a restaurant or hotel ball room. The most distinctive Japanese weddings would be to get married at a chapel or church even though they are not Christian.
Traditional style weddings are held at a temple or shrine. Brides wear special white kimono (traditional woman’s clothes) and the groom wears a special hakama (traditional man’s clothes). In Japan, women only wear white kimono when she gets married and when she dies. This is because a bride’s parents recognize their daughter no longer belongs to them.
The big difference between weddings from America and Japan is Japanese brides do not have bridesmaids. Thus, most of the time, brides have to organize all of her wedding preparation by herself.
7. How do members of the culture view divorce?
People have negative image. However, in recent years, divorce (especially vintage year’s) is really in vogue. Also, societies are very cooperative about single mother or father’s support. Therefore, still people have negative image for divorce, however, it is dramatically changed from 10 years ago.
8. If divorce occurs, what are the rights of each partner?
Mother often has an advantage of keeping children and the father is asked to pay the expenses of bringing up a child and consolation money.
9. What is the general opinion of the culture toward homosexuality?
People have a very conservative idea of homosexuality. Especially, we do not talk a lot about lesbianism. However, there are many gay bars downtown in the big cities and it is popular. Also, there are many gay TV performers and they have gained a lot of popularity.
10. How are the general perspectives of this culture the same/different from yours regarding gender roles?
Traditionally, people have the idea that men should work outside and woman ought to keep house. However, society changed a lot from 20 years ago, and most young people do not have this idea anymore. Society supports an idea of “man and woman should be treated equal”. For instance, man can be a house husband and wife can be a support a family and I agree with this.
I found that my personal ideas and my culture’s general ideas are partly similar and partly different. For example, why do women have to do house hold works? It does not make sense to me. However, I do have negative image for divorce. If I get married, I do not want to get divorce (My friends say I will do though). Do your culture’s ideas match to your own ideas?
In my culture, people think grandparents, father, mother, siblings, spouse, children, and pets are family member.
2. What are some roles and responsibilities of specific family members?
In general, the father has to work for family. The Mother has to do house hold works and traditionally, society expects women who get married to quit their job and become house wife. Daughters are often asked to help house hold jobs. Son is asked to study hard and to go to good college more than his sisters. Oldest brother or sister has to take care of younger brothers or sisters. All family members have to be respectful toward other elder family members.
3. Are family members encouraged to stay in the same house/area as their family after adolescence?
Son does not have to live close by after he graduates college. However, parents often encourage their daughter to lives the same house/area until she get married.
4. What are the cultural norms and taboos regarding dating and meeting people with whom to become romantically involved?
In my culture it looks bad if a young woman were to get home late, sleeps over at someone else’s place, or go on a trip with her friends.
5. How are marriage proposals conducted in your culture?
When a Japanese man asks meet your parents/family, it often seen as marriage proposal. Standard steps for proposing would be to ask your partner first, and then request parents the parent’s permission.
6. What is a typical wedding like?
Young couples prefer to marry at a chapel and hold a wedding party at a restaurant or hotel ball room. The most distinctive Japanese weddings would be to get married at a chapel or church even though they are not Christian.
Traditional style weddings are held at a temple or shrine. Brides wear special white kimono (traditional woman’s clothes) and the groom wears a special hakama (traditional man’s clothes). In Japan, women only wear white kimono when she gets married and when she dies. This is because a bride’s parents recognize their daughter no longer belongs to them.
The big difference between weddings from America and Japan is Japanese brides do not have bridesmaids. Thus, most of the time, brides have to organize all of her wedding preparation by herself.
7. How do members of the culture view divorce?
People have negative image. However, in recent years, divorce (especially vintage year’s) is really in vogue. Also, societies are very cooperative about single mother or father’s support. Therefore, still people have negative image for divorce, however, it is dramatically changed from 10 years ago.
8. If divorce occurs, what are the rights of each partner?
Mother often has an advantage of keeping children and the father is asked to pay the expenses of bringing up a child and consolation money.
9. What is the general opinion of the culture toward homosexuality?
People have a very conservative idea of homosexuality. Especially, we do not talk a lot about lesbianism. However, there are many gay bars downtown in the big cities and it is popular. Also, there are many gay TV performers and they have gained a lot of popularity.
10. How are the general perspectives of this culture the same/different from yours regarding gender roles?
Traditionally, people have the idea that men should work outside and woman ought to keep house. However, society changed a lot from 20 years ago, and most young people do not have this idea anymore. Society supports an idea of “man and woman should be treated equal”. For instance, man can be a house husband and wife can be a support a family and I agree with this.
I found that my personal ideas and my culture’s general ideas are partly similar and partly different. For example, why do women have to do house hold works? It does not make sense to me. However, I do have negative image for divorce. If I get married, I do not want to get divorce (My friends say I will do though). Do your culture’s ideas match to your own ideas?
2010年6月9日水曜日
Activity9
“Gossip girl” is one of my favorite American dramas. This drama is mainly about a high school students’ who live in Manhattan, New York Upper East side life. Main character’s name is Serena. She lives in a gorgeous hotel with her family and goes to a prestige private high school. Blair is Serena’s best friend and her mother is successful fashion designer. They were born as elites, and many dramas happening around these two rich girls: betray, love, friendship, secret, school life, family, lies, drag, and anything can happen.
Through this drama, I read some American actions. First, when Blair entered her high school’s principle’s office to talk about her future, she sat a chair without the principle’s permission. As a person who came from outside of American culture, her action was considered very American. In my culture, it was considered rude and arrogant. In another scene, Serena held a magnificent birthday party for her friend Jenny at Serena’s place. However, Jenny wanted to have a small home party only with her family and close friends. Therefore, Jenny was upset when she knew that Serena held such a big party. Jenny ruined the party by letting many strangers in Serena’s place. After the party, those unlisted guests messed up everything and Serena’s house became like after a storm. Serena’s mother got angry and asked Serena and Jenny who was in charge. Serena answered “This is not my mess” and left a room. This scene showed American idea of individualism. Americans think that they have responsibilities only when they think things were totally their faults. In my culture, however, we think both Serena and Jenny have responsibilities for the party. Jenny did invited strangers and consequently, ruined the party. However, it was because that Serena ignored Jenny’s will, and also Serena was one of the hosts of the party. Was Serena’s reaction normal in American culture?
The characters and casts are as interesting as the story. Serena is an active blond girl and used to be a party girl. Blair is an honor student and proud of being in upper class, and she has brunet hair. Here you can see American stereotyped image. Blond is a cheerful and likes playing around. On the other hand, brunet is decent and polite. Practically, Leighton Meester, who acts Blair, had blond hair, however, she changed her hair color blond to brunet in order to fit Blair’s character image. Now, I watched season 1 to season 2, and there were only two African-Americans, two Asian-Americans, and one Latin-American were casted in this drama. I can think of more than thirty casts on this drama and all of them are White except those five of them. If someone who does not have no other experience with the U.S. watches this drama, definitely he or she would think American is White. Also, this drama gives images such as America is wealthy, freedom country (and American people like touch football).
In drama world, you can see what people think of American, American culture, and dramas illustrate American stereotypes clearly more than a real world. Also, Just like Jennifer mentioned, this activity is fun and opening eye. This time, I choose “Gossip girl” because this is my favorite. Maybe this show is not a typical American life, however, this drama showed me a lot about America. If you choose a comedy show, you could see exaggerated typical America. Do you have any TV shows that you think “this is America” except the one you watched this time? And why?
Through this drama, I read some American actions. First, when Blair entered her high school’s principle’s office to talk about her future, she sat a chair without the principle’s permission. As a person who came from outside of American culture, her action was considered very American. In my culture, it was considered rude and arrogant. In another scene, Serena held a magnificent birthday party for her friend Jenny at Serena’s place. However, Jenny wanted to have a small home party only with her family and close friends. Therefore, Jenny was upset when she knew that Serena held such a big party. Jenny ruined the party by letting many strangers in Serena’s place. After the party, those unlisted guests messed up everything and Serena’s house became like after a storm. Serena’s mother got angry and asked Serena and Jenny who was in charge. Serena answered “This is not my mess” and left a room. This scene showed American idea of individualism. Americans think that they have responsibilities only when they think things were totally their faults. In my culture, however, we think both Serena and Jenny have responsibilities for the party. Jenny did invited strangers and consequently, ruined the party. However, it was because that Serena ignored Jenny’s will, and also Serena was one of the hosts of the party. Was Serena’s reaction normal in American culture?
The characters and casts are as interesting as the story. Serena is an active blond girl and used to be a party girl. Blair is an honor student and proud of being in upper class, and she has brunet hair. Here you can see American stereotyped image. Blond is a cheerful and likes playing around. On the other hand, brunet is decent and polite. Practically, Leighton Meester, who acts Blair, had blond hair, however, she changed her hair color blond to brunet in order to fit Blair’s character image. Now, I watched season 1 to season 2, and there were only two African-Americans, two Asian-Americans, and one Latin-American were casted in this drama. I can think of more than thirty casts on this drama and all of them are White except those five of them. If someone who does not have no other experience with the U.S. watches this drama, definitely he or she would think American is White. Also, this drama gives images such as America is wealthy, freedom country (and American people like touch football).
In drama world, you can see what people think of American, American culture, and dramas illustrate American stereotypes clearly more than a real world. Also, Just like Jennifer mentioned, this activity is fun and opening eye. This time, I choose “Gossip girl” because this is my favorite. Maybe this show is not a typical American life, however, this drama showed me a lot about America. If you choose a comedy show, you could see exaggerated typical America. Do you have any TV shows that you think “this is America” except the one you watched this time? And why?
2010年6月5日土曜日
Activity8: Transition Experience
One of the big changes in my life was entering college. Japanese high school and college had a very different system and I needed to change my way of thinking. In high school in Japan, students belong to one class and teachers come to give a lecture. Students always took lectures with the same classmates and sat at the same desk. Therefore, my high school life was easy because I could make friends and could always be with them and could share all the information about school life with my classmates because they took all same lectures and knew same teachers. When I forgot do something important, someone let me know. However, in college, everyone took different lectures and it was hard for me to make new friends because most of the lectures were audit-style and discussion-style classes were rare. Also, Japanese students did not like to speak in class. I did not have a chance to get to know my classmates’ ideas or even their name (we used attending cards, in this way teachers never call students’ name in class). To adjust to these new circumstances, I became more active and held myself responsible because no one would have helped me if I did not ask them and no one would be my friend if I did not be friendly with them. Fortunately, I could graduate college with good grades (I am a transfer student) and meet good friends. I did not think adapting to college life was hard because I knew high school and college were different. However, if I did not change myself to be more active or friendly, my college life would have been very different.
When you adjust you to new place, do you try to change yourself deliberately or did you change unconsciously?
When you adjust you to new place, do you try to change yourself deliberately or did you change unconsciously?
Activity7: Nonverval Communication in Everyday Life
I enlisted my roommate in this activity. She is 21 years old and is a student at UWRF. I have known her since January (5 months) and we are close friends. First, I asked her to help me with my assignment and asked about American history. Of course, I did not say anything about this observation and I just asked about history, stating that this information would help my study. When she started speaking, she looked at my eyes and then she smiled and hid her eyes with her hand. While she was speaking, she looked right front and rarely looked at me. She looked at me only when she wanted to stress her words or when I asked her questions. I thought that was not good because of the rule “do not break eye contact”. So, I bent my body little bit forward and stared into her eyes. Then she started speaking with her eyes closed. I felt really sorry for her because she obviously felt uncomfortable.
After a while, I pretended I was in a deadlock of writing a paper in front of a PC and asked her another question. This time, she used hand gestures, and I felt she was looking at me more than the last observation with eye contact. However, she spoke down and sounded less enthusiastic.
The next day, I went to a grocery store with my roommate and did “back me up”. We were walking on a sidewalk and I slowly moved close to her. However, we never collided because she was trying to keep a constant distance between us. When I moved close to her, she slowed down, or stopped and she had me walk first. I think she did not realize that I was deliberately walking close to her because we kept chatting as usual and I did not read any negative nonverbal cues from her facial expression. Finally, when she was walking too close to a wall, she said “Hey, hey, hey! What are you doing? Walk straight! ”
After we got home, I told her about this observation and what nonverbal cues I read from her nonverbal behaviors. She said she did feel weird when I did the first observation with eye contact. However, she did not realize that she hid her face or spoke with her eyes closed. She felt comfortable with the second observation with no eye contact, but she wondered if I really wanted to listen to her story or not. She also said I looked like I was not that interested in what she said. About the third observation, she thought I was just fooling. According to her, I usually walk very much like I did in the observation. Therefore, she walked carefully, as usual, to not collide with me.
I chose my roommate as an examinee of this observation. However, if I chose a boy friend, the result would be different. I guess if I stared at him, he would have stared at me. If I walked close to him, he would not have kept his distance. Nonverbal behaviors not only change in different cultures, but also change what kind of relationship they are in. For example, when I say “Hi” to my neighbor without eye contact, I think it is little rude. However, when I say “Good morning” to my family without eye contact, it is not rude. Do you agree that nonverbal behavior could change due to a person’s relationship? Why yes or why not?
After a while, I pretended I was in a deadlock of writing a paper in front of a PC and asked her another question. This time, she used hand gestures, and I felt she was looking at me more than the last observation with eye contact. However, she spoke down and sounded less enthusiastic.
The next day, I went to a grocery store with my roommate and did “back me up”. We were walking on a sidewalk and I slowly moved close to her. However, we never collided because she was trying to keep a constant distance between us. When I moved close to her, she slowed down, or stopped and she had me walk first. I think she did not realize that I was deliberately walking close to her because we kept chatting as usual and I did not read any negative nonverbal cues from her facial expression. Finally, when she was walking too close to a wall, she said “Hey, hey, hey! What are you doing? Walk straight! ”
After we got home, I told her about this observation and what nonverbal cues I read from her nonverbal behaviors. She said she did feel weird when I did the first observation with eye contact. However, she did not realize that she hid her face or spoke with her eyes closed. She felt comfortable with the second observation with no eye contact, but she wondered if I really wanted to listen to her story or not. She also said I looked like I was not that interested in what she said. About the third observation, she thought I was just fooling. According to her, I usually walk very much like I did in the observation. Therefore, she walked carefully, as usual, to not collide with me.
I chose my roommate as an examinee of this observation. However, if I chose a boy friend, the result would be different. I guess if I stared at him, he would have stared at me. If I walked close to him, he would not have kept his distance. Nonverbal behaviors not only change in different cultures, but also change what kind of relationship they are in. For example, when I say “Hi” to my neighbor without eye contact, I think it is little rude. However, when I say “Good morning” to my family without eye contact, it is not rude. Do you agree that nonverbal behavior could change due to a person’s relationship? Why yes or why not?
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