At home and in class, we have watched 3 videos related to intercultural communication problems that can happen in real-life. We also read about Barna’s Stumbling Blocks in Intercultural Communication which is deeply in relate to the videos. The first video on the baseball player eating with a Japanese coach’s family had many examples of the “stumbling blocks.”
First of all, there is the assumption of similarities from the beginning of the video, which is the first and the longest stumbling block mentioned in the article. The assumption of similarities happens because we are all human with needs of food and shelter makes us into thinking we are all the same. In the first part of the video, every family member slurps Japanese somen with chopsticks. These people did not teach Jack, the baseball player, how to eat somen and assumed he can do the same. Once he tries slurping the somen making a huge sound and holding chopsticks like a spoon, all the Japanese family members stare at him. Another example of this stumbling block is when Hiroko, the coach’s sister, tries to serve him and holds up the plate, he does not understand what she is doing and just stare. This is Hiroko assuming that Jack knows what she is doing to serve him but he does not know that since he has grown up in a different culture where people do not serve others. This serving scene is also related to the third stumbling block, nonverbal misinterpretations. This block means that there are different
In the book Learning to Bow, written by Bruce Feiler, Feiler is sent to Japan to teach Japanese students about American values, customs, and its language. Feiler discusses his life and teaching experience in Japan during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. In what became more of a learning lesson however, the author was able to understand what it truly meant to be Japanese. Feiler is better able to understand what it means to be Japanese through his immersion into Japanese society, as well as comparing his Americanized ideals with that of Japan. He is enabled through this immersion to better understand the vast similarities and differences between these two distant countries.
Why Asian Americans Struggle to Be “True” Americans The United States of America is a capitalist country that is widely known for equal opportunity, and the idea of freedom. Lady Liberty greets others as they arrive at Ellis Island, in hopes of becoming a citizen in this praised country. In reality, if these people become citizens the likelihood of them advancing to the same levels of success as white people in America is very small.
8.) Analyze Cause and Effect The people in charge of Manzanar knew little about Japanese culture. How did their lack of knowledge affect conditions in the camp? Caucasians were placed to control and care for the Japanese Americans, however, their lack of knowledge wasn 't any pleasant to the Japanese. Lines 93-95
First, we looked at what this dispute was about for Kelly and Mr. Higashi, and if compromise was possible in this dispute. Next we discussed how cross-cultural communications impacted in this negotiation. Finally we focused on some of factors that influenced this situation, and which of these factors were more
Knowing how to interact with people of other cultures has become an increasingly important issue as international communication and travel becomes more common. With more interactions between cultures, cultural misunderstandings become more common. The satirical book Fear and Trembling by Amélie Nothomb attempts to address this issue, pointing out what people often do wrong. Fear and Trembling is a story which follows Amélie, a young Belgian woman who goes to work for a Japanese company and struggles to fit in, committing many cultural faux pas along the way. Nothomb uses contrasting sentence structure between Amélie 's thoughts and her dialogue and actions to demonstrate the way that Westerners often ignore other cultures despite knowing better because they view themselves as more important.
The stereotypes have brought negative recognition to these ethnic groups. According to an article by Simply Psychology, stereotypes can interfere when an introduction to another race occurs. An individual might sum up the person characteristic based on the stereotypes of the person’s ethnicity. An individual can assume that all Asian Americans are Chinese, and therefore can speak the Chinese’s language as well. This is a negative stereotype of an Asian American that they encounter in their own country.
The novel When the Emperor Was Divine tells a story of Japanese-American families during World War Two. During internment, the U.S. government rounded up many Japanese adults for investigation without first producing evidence that they committed any crimes. The father in this story has been arrested for the sane reason. Army would deport all Japanese Americans to military camps, thus commencing Japanese American internment. So, the woman with her girl and her boy have to move to a camp.
We generally think that everyone who looks the same, is the same. These biased thoughts about strangers get us to act prejudice against people we know nothing about. In my example, I unintentionally stereotyped a customer which led her to stereotype me. Everything seemed so natural at the time, which is what always tends to happen.
Even the African Americans, being victims of racism, have inherited from the American culture and hold racism against the Asians. With all the reflection on the materials, I feel quite happy to find the answers to my puzzled question and not to be a believer in such an
The difference in language leads to miscommunication but the overlying consequence of it is lack of understanding and empathy for one another which leads to conflict. “Language takes on a metonymic relation to culture in Tan's portrayal of the gap between the mothers and daughters in The Joy Luck Club.” (Hamilton). The language barriers between the daughters and the mothers create the cultural barriers. Language barriers emphasize and directly influences cultural barriers.
They found out, “It’s one thing to conclude that groups of people living in circumstances pretty similar to their ancestors’ act a lot like their ancestors” (174). People from different regions have different reactions. Most of the young men from the northern part of the United States treated the incident with amusement. But the
People will often have a preconceived idea about someone they’ve never met, and I remember on my first day of school someone came up to me and started asking me questions. They spoke like I couldn’t understand what they were saying and they over pronounced words because they thought I couldn’t understand English. There was a scene in the first Rush Hour movie where this also happened. Chris Tucker’s character was meeting his new partners character for the first time, Jackie Chan, and he immediately assumed that he spoke no English. He also calls him “Mr. Rice A Roni”, which is the stereotype that Asians only eat rice.
Last thing that one can infer from the quote is his mother’s language barrier. She always speak Chinese to Jack, in the quote his mother uses Chinese word such as “Sha jio chink?”. By saying this Chinese sentence in America, it taunted and made Jack embarrassed because Jack always thought he will not get accepted and his mother was one that is blocking his way to get recognized since, she made Jack different from peers. In the part of Jack rejects many things including the looks , talking to his mother in Chinese and rejects his culture. The toy that his mother made for
Anthropologist Edward T. Hall’s theory of high- and low-context culture helps us better understand the powerful effect culture has on communication. A key factor in his theory is context. This relates to the framework, background, and surrounding circumstances in which communication or an event takes place. The following highlights the problems facing low-context Americans when they interact with people from high-context cultures such as Japan in the movie ‘The Last Samurai’.
The interaction can be described as more interpersonal than intercultural as a result of the degree of interactant is drawing on personality traits, personal values and experience. When people from different cultural background become close to each other, their interactions typically move along the continuum from more intercultural to more interpersonal, though intercultural elements may always play a role. There is no doubt that no matter for casual or business communication, be sensitive to intercultural communication is always a key to achieve