Intercultural English and Cultural Context (original) (raw)
Living in Japan for a number of years, I began to appreciate the fact that Japanese conversation operates under different rules from English and that an understanding of the language alone did not necessarily guarantee trouble-free communication. My own impression was that the topics selected for discussion tend to be different; whereas the British often seem to look for reasons to disagree with each other or complain about someone or something, the Japanese dislike anything that might threaten the group harmony and select uncontrovertial and ‘happy topics’ wherever possible. Turn-taking patterns seem different too; while in English the floor is ‘up for grabs’ to anyone who is quick-witted or loud enough to take it, Japanese conversation appears to be a much more gentle affair with participants actually listening carefully to each other.
International Journal of Language Studies, Volume 15, Number 1, 2021
How to do things with words Linguistic communication and speech acts Speech acts across cultures: Challenges to communication in a second language Cross-cultural pragmatics: requests and apologies Politeness: Some universals in language use Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43 Research methodology in second-language acquisition Psychology for AS level Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: Requests and apologies Selected proceedings of the 7th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium
Japanese and non-Japanese perceptions of Japanese communication
New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies (Vol.5, pp.156-177), 2003
Perceptions of the communicative style of different languages can influence the way in which non-native speakers and native speakers of a particular language interact. For example, second-language learners of Japanese often believe that using a lot of honorifics (keigo) to introduce themselves to other students at universities in Japan is more polite. However, since Japanese students themselves tend to use only a limited degree of honorifics in this kind of situation, foreign students can end up conveying an impression of overpoliteness or even aloofness (Ohashi et al 1992). The first step in dealing with these kinds of issues in Japanese language education is to determine what kinds of perceptions are held by Japanese and non-Japanese in regards to Japanese communication. 2 The past 20 years has seen a phenomenal growth in both the number of non-Japanese studying Japanese throughout the world, and in the number of non-Japanese living in Japan. The number of students studying Japanese outside Japan has increased 9.5 times from 127,167 in 1979 to 2,102, 103 in 1998 (Japan Foundation Japanese-Language Institute 1998), while the number of non-Japanese residents has doubled from 774,505 in 1979 to 1,556,113 in 1999 (Immigration Bureau, Ministry of Justice, July 2000. 3 The subsequent increase in the number of non-Japanese who can speak Japanese has gone some way to changing the perception that Japanese is too difficult for foreigners to master (Haugh 1998), but the effect of the internationalisation of Japanese on perceptions of Japanese communication has received little attention to date. 1 Michael Haugh (m.haugh@uq.edu.au) has submitted a doctoral dissertation entitled " Politeness implicature in Japanese: A metalinguistic approach" at the University of Queensland, Brisbane. His research focuses on pragmatics and sociolinguistics with particular reference to linguistic aspects of interpersonal and intercultural communication. This paper is based on a significantly revised version of a paper presented at
Hiroshima studies in language and language education, 2017
The Japanese language has an extensive history of adopting words from foreign languages and adapting them substantially for easy use by its native speakers. The most recent and extensively influential contact language has been American-English from the post-World War II US occupation and currently due to the popularity of information and communication technology and pop-culture. A 2007 estimate has approximately 10% of the Japanese lexicon being of foreign origin or 'gairaigo' and of the 10% of gairaigo in Japanese dictionaries, up to 90% is reported to be of English origin . In addition to these many established gairaigo entries in standard Japanese and/or specialized loanword dictionaries, there is frequent coining and usage of new 'pseudo' or 'made-in-Japan' English, 'wasei-eigo', and foreign language 'waseigaikokugo'. Even when the coinages are not based on English words or undergo mutations that render them unrecognizable to native speakers of English, Japanese speakers of English can regularly be heard using such coinages in English-language discourse with speakers from other cultures. Though the initial focus of the study was Japanese speakers' use of Japanese or Japanized foreign terms in English language discourse, a close look at a first time interaction between a fourth-year Japanese university student and an Indonesian researcher points to the value of also raising Japanese speakers' awareness of different conversation styles of non-Japanese speakers of English.
Emerging English-speaking business discourses in Japan
Asian Business Discourse(s) Part II, 2006
Taking an ethnographic approach, this research investigates workplace interaction in English in a Japanese chemical company, a subsidiary of American multinational corporation. While previous research on business communication has focused on specific linguistic or rhetorical features, this study offers new insight through the incorporation of socio-economic, historical, and cultural elements in the analysis, and by taking a dynamic view of language, human beings and organisations. The researcher collaborated with the human resource manager of the participating corporation as a hired consultant in an intra-organisational communication development project. The data was collected through interviews, observations, and email exchanges. Initial analysis showed that the dominant Discourse in the company was based on western business values. Further analysis unveiled the changing nature of the Discourse as it is influenced by the local and American education systems, human resource ideologi...
2016
This study focuses on first-time encounter conversations in intercultural settings. The data that were analyzed were three English data sets between two Japanese and two English native speakers and two Japanese data sets between two Japanese and two English native speakers. The previous studies (Tsuda et. al., 2015; Shigemitsu, 2015) suggest that Japanese speakers and English native speakers have different perspectives as to the ideal conversation. This paper illustrates how their L1 (first language) affects the discourse when they speak in FL (foreign language). The Japanese tend to take the listener's role; when other participants start to talk, they easily relinquish the floor. As English native speakers expect to gain new knowledge in most conversations, this behavior by the Japanese does not satisfy English native speakers. The study also shows evidence of some minor problems in the data. Many ESL situations in Japan have claimed that the reason why Japanese English learners are often not ideal at speaking within intercultural settings is that people in Japan are shy, but this paper claims that the different discourse styles exhibited in conversations within intercultural settings may on their own cause an underdevelopment of Japanese speaking skills in English. 2. Previous studies This study focuses on the conversational style differences between Japanese and English. The study was motivated by observable Japanese ESL (English as a second language) situations. Many of the learners of English have good ability in reading, grammar, and vocabulary. Some hardworking learners are also good at writing and listening. However, with speaking, the situation is different. According to Terauchi et al. (2008), based on their questionnaire to thousands of Japanese businessmen, "Japanese people tend to listen to the others talk and miss a timing to say their own opinion" and "Japanese people feel difficulties in objecting during the discussion." Moreover, Terauchi et al. (2008, 2013) concludes that Japanese behavior is influenced by their reserved attitude. On the other hand, Tsuda et al. (2015) provides refuting claims. The reason why Japanese people feel difficulty in speaking English, according to Tsuda, is due to the discourse style differences between English and Japanese. According to results of interviews of both English native speakers and Japanese speakers participating in conversation, some of the Japanese participants categorize themselves as listeners in conversation. They say that they like to listen to other people's stories and do not like to talk much. While listening, they seldom ask questions or do not object. A few participants say that asking questions is an impolite behavior. Therefore, their cultural norms may be in evidence as they speak in English. Otani, M., Iwata, Y., & Shigemitsu, Y. (2016) analyzed first encounter conversations by male participants. They picked up common features from their British data, American data, and Australian data. They focused on listeners and
Griffith Working Papers in Pragmatics and Inter-cultural Communication
"We extend our sincere thanks to Michael Haugh and Susana Eisenchlas for giving us the opportunity of editing this issue of Griffith Working Papers in Pragmatics and Intercultural Communication (Volume 3, Issue 1, 2010). The issue introduces the work of students in the School of Education and Professional Studies enrolled in the Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics at Griffith University. The special focus of this issue is on sociolinguistics, or the study of the relationship between the ways in which language is used and the sociocultural context in which it is used, for language teachers. Each of the papers is based on original data collection and analysis and is in new and interesting areas of research. There are five papers in this issue. 1. Tok Pisin, and Internal Variation by Ricky Gure 2. Vietnamese Expressions of Politeness by Vu Mai Yen Tran 3. Code-switching: A Korean Case Study by Amy E Pagano 4. On ‘Non-Arabic Speaking’ Muslims by Bader Saleh Almansour 5. Urumqi Dialect of Chinese ESL Students: Some Teaching Implications by Mali Kong We hope that the issue will encourage others to pursue work on these important areas of sociolinguistic inquiry. Catherine Demosthenous and Hellene Demosthenous March 2010 "