Intercultural Communication
Takuro IROHIRA, BB, 131111
In homogeneous society like Japan, it is not too much to say that Japanese people have to pay less attention to the Intercultural Communication than other nations' people, because they are not to encounter with other people from other cultures, but now in the age of Globalism, it cannot be avoidable even in Japan to be faced with that in this current at any time soon as a real matter of theirs. As McDaniel rose up as an example in his article the communication method of Japanese (McDaniel, p1-10) would be quite different from others, represented by the 11 presuppositions, and it seems to be difficult to change its in-ward direction to good out-ward one for Intercultural Communication. Now, it is helpful to think about what in Japan communication is, and how to change, or adapt its way to the Intercultural one so that it would be better with this age, on the basis of articles by McDaniel, Barna, Fisher. McDaniel says "Comprehension must go beyond a topical awareness of another culture's practices and behaviors." (McDaniel, p1), then, it never be possible for Japanese people to comprehend others from different cultures without communication with them, and without comprehension, also never to adapt themselves to Globalism as a real matter around them; otherwise Japan would be isolated in the world. Now have a consideration of what Japanese people should notice here to accomplish a cross-cultural communication for better comprehension, mentioning the ideas of Barna’s and Fisher’s.
First, of six Stumbling blocks in Intercultural Communication by Barna, the forth "Preconception and Stereotype" (Barna, p7) would be the most influential one in thinking about "Obstacle" in Communication, let alone the Intercultural Communication of Japanese people, because, as mentioned before Japan is a homogeneous society, they seem to have had less demand to change its own attitude to other cultures from theirs, and then it could be said that they can probably be, not to say so much but a little, stubborn that they have some difficulties to adapt themselves to communicate with others from different cultures. In this statement, this block is the most influential one for Japanese to be paid more attention to deal with. Otherwise, it would be the most difficult one to solve, because it easily becomes the basement of limitation in Communication.
Second, about how Japanese people tend to perceive others to communicate with, let alone in the case of foreigners. Fisher says that there are 5 natures in perception; Experiential, Selective, Inferential, Inaccurate, and Evaluative. Different from Barna's case, in this case it is difficult to say that what characteristic is more urgent for their better Intercultural Communication, because these 5 natures are overlapped with each other, and cannot be divided into 5 separated ones. It, however, can be said that the ‘’Evaluative” and ‘’Selective” ones are more important than others. As ideas of Fisher’s, “Evaluative” and “Selective” are each explained that the former is an aspect of perception that is not only to be an intrapersonal process but also to be a reflection of personal attitudes, values, and beliefs that people use to assign meaning to the object of perception (Fisher, p9), and the later is an aspect of it whose capacity to process and give information is quite limited both psychologically and physiologically (Fisher, p3). The reason why these two are more important for Japanese than others is that the problems in Intercultural Communication in Japan are often results of "Evaluative" or "Selective" aspects of perception. In communication, people have to speak to others, and as Birks mentioned in his article, when speaks in words, it cannot be avoidable for it to be "Selective" to some degree and “cannot be sure that the facts that sift in to our minds through language are representative and relevant and true” (Birk and Birk, p5), and it is also true of the case of “Evaluative,” while the rest are, in comparison, often dealt with well, or not mattered so much in communication with others; the rest are often mattered in self-perception. If think about the following specific case of Japanese, it is easier to understand this statement; it is often that, if meet foreigner, they often “evaluate” them different from them, for their living society is usually homogeneous.
An example for explanation as a whole; the case of employment of foreign helper. Now in Japan, more and more foreign people come to Japan to work, and especially in medical care of the elderly, a lots people from the Philippines are now employed. The 8th volume of manga “Helpman” by Riju Kusaka picked up this timely issue for its subject. In this manga, a woman from the Philippines is to work as a helper of dementia elderly, and be faced to “Japan.” As she is not “Japanese,” the family of the elderly is at first resist to employment of her as a helper, because of their assumption that the foreigner cannot understand the needs or demand of Japanese, let alone of the elderly demented, but in fact, although it is just a story, she can understand more about the elderly than anyone of their family, and then she says that it is because the Philippines cherish their family so much, and help each other, never exclude them. In this, both “Preconception and Stereotype,” and “Evaluative” or “Selective” perception of the others, now of foreigners, are all founded. The reason Japanese people assume that foreigners cannot fulfill understand Japanese’ need just because they are foreigners does not make sense. Although it is true that it is not always the case, but at the same time, no reason there to say such, because it is now a real matter in their neighborhood. This story is just a story in manga with happy end, but in actual world, it is never, so serious that if do mistake, they are easily likely to fall to the hell. This means that without understanding they might kill people even without knowing it; but on the other hand, with understanding, maybe just knowing it enough, they could help people.
Finally, as a simple conclusion, in order to achieve comprehension across cultures for Globalism with as a small number of misunderstanding as possible, it is required for Japanese people never to live in just their own society, and realize the necessity to pay more attention to the outside, then it will be possible to know where to be, or what is required now. Without trying to realize it, it would never be possible to be an Intercultural Communicator who can let themselves understood across cultures, and understand others in soon coming age as a real matter of their “world.”
Works Cited
From the ELP Reader
1; Barna, LaRay. Stumbling Blocks in Intercultural Communication from Intercultural Communication: A Reader (Seventh Edition). Belmont. CA. 1994.
2; Fisher, Aubrey. Perception of Self from Interpersonal Communication: Pragmatics of Human Relationships. McGraw Hill Book Company. N.Y.. 1987.
3; Birk, Newman, and Genevieve Birk. Selection, Slanting, and Charged Language from Speaking of Words: A Language Reader (Second Edition). Holt, Rinehart and Winston. N.Y.. 1982.
4; McDaniel, Edwin. Japanese Nonverbal Communication (A Reflection of Cultural Themes) from Intercultural Communication: A Reader (Eleventh Edition by Samovar, Porter, and McDaniel). Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning. 2006.
Other Works
5; Kusaka, Riju. The eighth volume of manga, Helpman. Kodansha. 2007.
