2012.05.30

Communication Style WorkshopHisao Tsujimura

112年6月9日土曜日

Which Do You Think Is A Japanese?

A

B

C

212年6月9日土曜日

In Old Anthological Grouping...

Chart byCarleton S. Coon Caucasoid Mongoloid

312年6月9日土曜日

Japanese and Chinese are almost DNA relatives :-)

Human Generic Clustering: Neighbor-joining method, by Naruya Saitou and Masatoshi Nei (2002)412年6月9日土曜日

Similar AppearanceMakes Us Believe

We Are Similar

512年6月9日土曜日

SimilarityMakes Us Believe

We Can Understand Without EffortTHIS IS NOT TRUE AT ALL!

612年6月9日土曜日

How Different Are We?

✤ Let’s think about how Japanese would react to some questions.

✤ How would Chinese react to the same question?

712年6月9日土曜日

Q1: Taste Bad!

✤ When dishes taste bad at the restaurant, what would Japanese typically do?

✤ 1) Give the cook suggestions to improve the dishes.

✤ 2) They say “unique taste” but not “taste bad.”

✤ 3) They don’t say anything, but they never go to the restaurant again.

✤ What is the Chinese reaction?

812年6月9日土曜日

Q2: Sold Out

✤ You went to a department store to buy a clothes. You cannot find the one you would like to buy. When you ask the staff of the store, which of the followings is considered to be the most appropriate manner in best Japanese department stores?

✤ 1) Tell the customer it is sold out.

✤ 2) Suggest an alternative because the one customer wants is sold out.

✤ 3) Tell the customer to check the inventory first, go backyard and then tell the customer it is sold out.

912年6月9日土曜日

A Few Phrases To Understand Japan (1)

✤ Mencius

仁　Have considerate mind

義　Have mind to know the shame

礼　Have mind to be modest

智　Have mind to distinguish right and wrong.

✤ 鄧小平氏(Deng Xiaoping)　「韜光養晦」 … Similar idea with “礼.”

1012年6月9日土曜日

A Few Phrases To Understand Japan(2)

✤ “Respect the Harmony.”「和（わ）をもって尊（とうと）しとなす」

✤ The original meaning is “We tend to have stubborn believes and opinions and make silos. Therefore we need to respect others and work together based on reasoning.”

✤ A lot of Japanese believes this means “Getting along each other is precious. We should act like others.”

✤ “Arigato” (Thank you.)

✤ Arigato literally means “it is difficult to exist.” Japanese are not very good at saying thank you because it makes us blush.

1112年6月9日土曜日

High Context Culture and Low Context Culture

High Context Culture Low Context Culture

Values in traditions and history Values in new and innovation

Values in groups and organizations Values in individuals

Indirect expressions / metaphors Direct expressions

Constitute of similar ethnic groups Variety of ethnic groups

Weight on non-verbal communication Weight on verbal communication

Implicit rules Explicit rules

Likes to build long-term relationship Short term, goal-based relationships

Group responsibility Individual responsiblities

Respect harmony Getting Jobs Done is a priority.

1212年6月9日土曜日

High Context Countries

Relatively High Context Countries Relatively Low Context Countries

African United States

Arab Australian

Brazilian English

Chinese English Canadian

Indian German

Italian / French / Greek Irish

Japanese New Zealand

Korean Scandinavia

Thai

et al...

1312年6月9日土曜日

Cultural Context Spectrum

✤ German-Swiss < German < North American < French < English < Italian < Spanish < Mexican < Greek < Arab < Korean < Japanese < Chinese < High context culture

✤ Low context culture ✤ High context culture

Scandinavian

German-SwissGerman

NorthAmerican

FrenchEnglish

Spanish

MexicanGreek

Arab

KoreanJapanese Chinese

1412年6月9日土曜日

High Context Culture

✤ Japan and China have high context culture. We don’t need to explain much but understand each other.

✤ Going over cultural boundary makes high context culture difficult to understand because each culture has unique backgrounds but do not express themselves explicitly.

✤ There are individual differences, but Chinese and Japanese will have friction because of this.

1512年6月9日土曜日

Q3: What Do Hotels Do?

✤ In high context culture, it is expected that servers tries to predict customer requests at the certain level. How do hotels handle this sort of situation where they come across “first time” guests every day?

✤ What can we do?

1612年6月9日土曜日

A Couple Examples

✤ We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen. (Ritz-Carlton Hotel)

✤ Customer Notes

✤ Record everything -- customer name, likes, good/bad experience and serve better next time.

✤ Take claims for Improvement

1712年6月9日土曜日

My Experience

✤ Japan has custom of sending wrist-watches in return to engagement rings.

✤ Mine broke and I fixed my watch. Watch manufacturer returned me old parts in an envelope. For some reason, I left it in a hotel room.

✤ After a 2 years or so, I stayed at this hotel. At check-in they asked me if I left an envelop 2 years ago.

✤ It is their policy to keep everything is their lost and found until the hotel no longer exist -- even a piece of memo on the coffee table because it may be part of guests’ memory.

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Summary

✤ Japanese and Chinese are different. We should be aware of the differences and keep communicating.

✤ Keep thinking -- What can we do?

1912年6月9日土曜日

References

✤ High Context - Low Context Culture

✤ Edward T. Hall Website

✤ Edward T. Hall and the History of Intercultural Communication: The United States and Japan by Everett M. Rogers, William B. Hart and Yoshitaka Mike.

✤ Wikipedia - High Context Culture

✤ http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue1/wuertz.html

✤

2012年6月9日土曜日