Tuesday, October 24, 2006

"people must be prepared to interact with member of other cultures in this increasingly multicultural world."

With relatively inexpensive global travel, more and more often people from different cultures are interacting due to changing labor markets, the increased ability of people to move to places where they can increase their standard of living. More companies are also seeking out opportunities in places where previously very little of the population had interactions with members of other cultures. As a result, educating people about how to interact with people from different cultures is becoming more and more important.
One of the first things I was struck by upon coming to japan was an increased sense that A) there was a correct and proper way to act in a given setting and B) I had no idea what it was. For the past three years I had been living more or less at the university as a student. In that environment, there are many ways to interact in situations and often there is no real 'right' way. So, for me this feeling is somewhat unnerving.
As I have adjusted though, I have come to understand that I have a fair amount of leeway in my actions because I am not expected to know what to do. This has made it easier in those times when I felt very confused. Kendo, because I go nearly every day and because I really have not integrated into the club properly feels this way every time I go. But, it is okay because the clubmembers know I am trying and have some understanding of my troubles.
Stereotypes-Charisma Man
I had not seen charisma man before, but I understand the comment it makes on gaijin immediately. In fact, the first of my friends to go to Japan, he went in highschool, experienced the effect. He became very popular and he told many stories when he got home about people saying he looked like tom cruise and other famous people.
I sort of got sick of listening to him after a while.
etic and emic
come from
phonetic and phonemic


I didn't think the book explained the origins of these words very well, so I looked them up to clarify the meaning for myself.

phonemic-concerning phonemes
phoneme- the smallest phonetic unit capable of conveying meaning in a language
phonetic-3.Of, relating to, or being features of pronunciation that are not phonemically distinctive in a language, as aspiration of consonants or vowel length in English.
(from Answers.com)

So phonetic sounds are ones that do not necessarily carry meaning and phonemic sounds are the smallest unit of those sounds that has meaning.
I guess what this means is that etics does not deal with meaning, a kind of analysis of a situation without regard to metadata--how it fits, meaningwise, into a particular culture. I think it is more nuanced than general vs specific but it is sort of hard to pin down exactly. The definitions on Answers.com of etic and emic deal with the lack or presence of structural information concerning place within a system.
I think that this is slightly different than how it was explained in class and perhaps how it is used in communications because those definitions were for linguistics and behavioral sciences. On the other hand, communications is a behavioral science. But I digress. In class, etics was defined as the common values between cultures, e.g. 'it is important to educate children'. Whereas emics are values native to a particular culture but not to all cultures.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

I find it weird how in Japan there is such an emphasis on quiet and yet so many tings are noisy. Traffic is really loud and often there are scooters that have no or badly working mufflers that ride through residential areas after ten. Yet, we exchange students are expected to be quiet in our talking and such.
The sports teams also have a big emphasis on noise. Kendo is very loud with kiyais and slapping feet and every day I hear the tennis practice with their odd almost howling calls.
Perhaps it is the dichomy between the the extreme noise and silence that calls attention to these things, but I thiink that it was not this loud at my home school, generally.

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Restaurants

One of the things I have noticed about Japan in comparison to America is it seems that restaurants are cheaper. I go out to eat more here than I do in the states so there may or may not be a great correlation. But, I find it amazing that I can have a good sized meal and a beer and still have it cost less than $10. It is almost less expensive to go out every night than to cook for myself.
I guess part of this facination with going out stems from having a meal plan the last three years at my home university. I didn't go out with friends very often because I was too busy and it was so much easier to use the cafeteria.
Going out to eat is also different from the cafeteria in how it affects socializing. I have gone out to eat a few times by myself. When I would eat by myself last year, it didn't seem too weird but I always feel alittle strange going to a restaurant alone. I like going alone from time to time however because if I go with my friends I will inevitably spend most of my time speaking english.
It also changes how my social connections are made and maintained. Going out, you don't interact with as many people.