2009年5月27日水曜日

Meeting 6: Culture and Cultural Phenomenon

I Review

How are culture 1 and culture 2 different?
Please discuss human nature, culture and personality.

What are products?
What are examples of products?

What are practices?
Please define Acts and operations

II Culture and Cultural Phenomenon (Cont.)
Practices: Scenarios, life

Practices: Non-verbal communication
Proxemics
proxemics test
- Shogo and Hiroki : 20 centimeters
- Marina and Aimi: 60 centimeters
- Atsumi and Yu: 1 meter
- David and Yukitake: 1 meter
- Yoshiki and Mr. Hall: 0.5 cm

What does this say about acceptable physical distance in your culture?
- Japanese dislike short distance (less than 60cm)
- Different by situation but normally 50CM - 60 CM is acceptable distance. Friends can speak at a shorter distance.
- When we are facing eachother the distance is farther and when we are standing side by side the distance is shorter.


Kinesics
Haptics
Oculesics
Chronemics
Olfactics
Vocalics
Perspectives
Communities
Persons

III Explanation of Breaking Down National Stereotypes Discussion
Give a Survey

Your group is responsible for asking 30 people the following question about the country of your guest:
What are the first three things you think of when you hear the country name "________"?
「国X」と聞いたらどのような事を思い浮かぶか、3つ挙げてください。
In addition to the above question, please ask the age and occupation of the person answering the question. Try not to ask the same people as other CLGs and also please do not ask any member of MMCE to answer the question. Lastly, please ask a Japanese citizen to answer the question.
Your CLG should download the Excel File on the blog and enter the data (The answers of the 30 respondents) in it.
o Do not worry about the "category" column.
o The data should be in English and Japanese, because some participants will not speak English and others will not speak Japanese.
o To do this efficiently, each member of your group can ask 5 - 7 people, and you can enter the data into the excel file together.
o Please e-mail JH the excel file by Monday, June 1, 5PM.


Directions on how to do the survey

2009年5月20日水曜日

Meeting 5: Culture and Cultural Phenonmenon

Note: For the past couple of years I have been discussing the same cultural theory for MMCE primarily referencing Geert Hofstede. This year, I have decided to alter the content and look at culture from a more complete perspective by incorporating other theories into the introduction of culture. I hope that you all find this meeting interesting and useful.

Our Objective: Understand the profound influence culture can have on the way we behave and our outlook on the world.

Today's co-Facilitators: Sayah and Panda

Agenda
1. Review of Meeting 4:
  • What did you think about the other culture you met last week? Please say some key words.
  • Why did you say such words?
  • What could you have done to make your first meeting better?

  • 2. An Introduction to Culture
    a) What is culture?
    b)The Culture Pyramid
    c) Cultural Phenomenon: products, practices, perspectives, communities, persons,


    The Iceberg Model of Culture drawn by Panda

    Products:

    Practices:(We finished our meeting at this point)

    Communities:

    Perspectives

    Persons

    Next Meeting: We will finish pracices, communities, perspectives and persons and then introduce basic information from out countries.
    Next Meeting's Facilitators: Bolero and Pocchama

    Sources used for today's meeting are below:

    Banks, J. (2003). Multicultural Education. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
    Hall, E. (1959). The Silent Language. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, Publishers.
    Moran, P. (2001). Teaching Culture. Australia: Heinle & Heinle.
    Neuliep, J. (2002). Intercultural Communication: A Contextual Approach. California: Sage Publications.
    Thompson, N. (2003). Communication and Language: A Handbook of Theory and Practice. Palgrave Macmillan.



    2009年5月12日火曜日

    Meeting 4: An Introduction to the kind of Culture we will study in MMCE

    Here is our agenda for today's Meeting:
    1) A Discussion of "Maybe we go skating"

    Japanese GroupDutch Group
    Describe how you think the Dutch students feel about the Japanese student's behavior.
    Answer:
    - J students behavior is ambiguous (not clear)
    - The behavior of the Japanese students is irritating (irritates them) Why? Because the D students want clear answers from the Japanese students.
    Describe how you think the Japanese students feel about the dutch students' behavior.
    Answer:
    - It is not good to say too clearly (speak straightly) Why? Perhaps it is important to cooperate others.
    - The Japanese students think the Dutch students candid(frank) people. The Japanese students do not know how to communicate in English very well so they are confused by the Dutch students' behavior.
    Identify the reason why the two sides are conflicting.
    Answer:
    - Difference of culture. The Japanese students are indirect people and the Dutch students say directly.
    - Behind the backgrouns of J culture, Japanese people pay more attention to other people's opinion than their own indivudual opinion. Because it is more polite to reserve their own ideas in front of foreigners with different background cultures. And the Japanese people want to show respect to keep away from direct decision. Therefore, they wait for their questioners' expectancy of answer.
    Give advice to the Japanese side about how to get along better with the Dutch side.
    Answer:
    - Don't be afraid to say your own opinion clearly
    - Don't hesitate to say your own opinion clearly
    - Honesty is the best key to make friends with the foreigners
    Give advice to the Dutch side about how to get along better with the Japanese side.
    Answer:
    - We belong to different thinking types so we have different behavior habits. So the problem is our problem, not just with one side or the other. My advice is that we should spend more time to understand. We must have patience.

    - Please explain detailed information to the Japanese students. For example, date, members' names, place,
    - Students should talk to J students step by step. They should ask questions to the group, not to just one person because typical Japanese students want to act with the group. Sometimes it is hard for them to decide things immediately, so the Dutch students should give the Japanese students time to think about the question. For example, give us the answer by tomorrow.

    2) Short talk on "What is Culture?" (Handout to fill out is here) - This will be discussed next meeting
    3) The Martian and Earthling Activity

    Preparation for Meeting on May 20

    Please be ready to discuss the following about the role play:
    1. What did you think about the other culture you met? Please brainstorm key words.
    2. Why did you say such words?
    3. What caused these misunderstandings?
    4. Could you have done anything to avoid these misunderstandings?
    Next week's assistant facilatators will be Sayahh & Panda. Today's assistant facilitator was 37. Great job 37!

    Preparation for Meeting on May 27
    1. Go to the CIA World Factbook
    As a group find out the following information for your country. Write your information in this sheet and be prepared to report it next meeting:

    Environment:
    Area (How much bigger is the area than Japan?), Climate, Natural Resources, Current environmental issues:

    People:
    Population, Age Structure, Infant Mortality rate, Life expectancy, Ethnic groups, Languages,
    Literacy

    Government:
    Country Name (conventional long form), Capital, Government type

    Economy:
    GDP per capita, Population below poverty line