IE 3 ICC Seminar: Lesson 3

4/21/2015

Hi everyone,

At the start of class, I collected your journals. I’ll review them this week and return them to you in next week’s lesson.

Subcultures and Subgroups:
We went through the differences between subcultures and subgroups, and you came up with your own subgroups in Japanese cultures. Subcultures exist within a dominant culture and include a large group of people who identify with a set of values different from the dominant cultures (e.g. Ainu, Ryukyu, Zainichi). A subgroup also exists within a dominant culture, but they are dependent on that culture. They often include occupation subgroups (e.g. gyraru, otaku, geisha).

Stereotypes and Prejudice:
We also leaned the difference between stereotypes and prejudice. Stereotypes are naïve images (often not true) of a group form through one’s personal value system. Prejudice, however, is a negative attitude towards a group, which is not based on objective facts.

Be aware that our cultural values and personal bias (e.g. stereotypes and prejudices) affect how we observe other cultures.

Cambodian Writing Exchange Project:
As part of the intercultural awareness component of our course, you'll be participating in a writing exchange with one of my Cambodian students who attend the Bayon English Academy in Siem Reap.

We had a short slide presentation on Cambodia and the challenges for students to get an education. We also went through the Letter Writing Guidelines. In next week's lesson, you'll have time to discuss letter #1 before you submit it to me.

Homework:
1. Write Letter #1: self-introduction and lifestyle
2. Blog Posting #3
3. Reading, chapter 3, pp. 59-76

Blog Question #3:

How do stereotypes and prejudice affect intercultural communication? Include specific examples in your answer.

*Write 8-10 sentences.
*Use capitalization, punctuation & spelling correctly.
*Submit by Monday, April 27 by 6:00pm.

9 Comments

IE3S-Sayaka

4/23/2015 06:19:16 pm

We learned about stereotypes and prejudice in our last class. It was very surprising for me to have some kinds of them unconsciously. As Nicole said, most of them come from the way medias such as TV, newspapers, radio transport news in those countries. Our stereotypes and prejudice are resolved only by learning about them, or seeing how do people in those countries live on our own eyes. Stereotypes and prejudice affect intercultural communication when you communicate not only with people from such countries, but also people from different countries. You can't tell things you are not sure that to be truth, because people are apt to believe in what people from other countries said. But you can learn or look directly at them and spread the real state about what happened on those countries to the world.

IE3S-Kentaro

4/25/2015 05:53:53 pm

In my opinion, stereotypes and prejudice against a culture arise from unreliable information reported by mass media. Especially TV has the biggest impact on them, I guess. Mass media in Japan, for example, often report the news that Chinese people are against Japanese policy. I would often misunderstand that all the Chinese were anti-Japanese whenever I watched this on TV. After talking with my Chinese friends in person, however, I was able to realize that not all the Chinese were necessarily considering Japan as an opponent against China. Before, I was a bit hesitant to talk to the Chinese, sinse I thought that they hated the Japanese including me. But after all, I noticed that it was just a kind of "cultural misunderstanding." Another example is this. I visited South Korea about three years ago, when Japan and South Korea were in a bad relationship on the issue of territorial rights over Takeshima island. Before leaving Japan, I was asked not to refer to the issue at all when talking with Korean people. However, people there were really kind to me, and I was just able to enjoy the stay. This is a kind of "cultural misunderstanding" as well. From these self-experiences, it is obvious that stereotypes and prejudice result in leading cultural misunderstanding in intercultural communication. They would prevent us from communicating with people from different cultures smoothly. In order to avoid this, it is really significant not to stick to the information reported by mass media. It is also crucial that we get the information actively, not passively, in order not to get the one that has a possibility to lead cultural misunderstanding. I mean, each person should try to confirm whether the information is true or not. At least these steps are necessary -- 1) gather a variety of information from a few sources at first. Then, 2) compare them with each other. And finally 3) judge what is the truth. It is not until we take these steps that we are able to get reliable information. Even the final one might not the truth, though. Yes, the key to smooth intercultural communication lies in our attitude toward mass media.

IE3S-Saya

4/25/2015 08:28:35 pm

Stereotypes and prejudice affect intercultural communication in different situations. When communicating with people from other countries especially when meeting them for the first time, we think of the stereotypes in our heads. The stereotypes we have of other people can affect how we communicate with them. For example, foreigners have stereotypes for Japanese as quiet and modest people. Perhaps when communicating, foreigners try to talk a lot. However, of course, not all Japanese are like that. Also, in arguments, Westerners tend to say their opinions clearly and try to get it resolved while East Asians don't pay too much attention on the problem but try to work it out while keeping the relationships with people around. These tell us that we have to be careful of stereotypes when we are having intercultural communication.

IE3S-Yumi

4/26/2015 02:21:08 am

In the last class, it was quite interesting that our images towards developing countries had nothing positive. But after we saw the letters from Cambodian children, it turned out to images that were positive, or we even noticed that they were just like us. They do have food and jobs and they enjoy music too. According to this, we tend to have negative images that are often different from what it is really like to live in developing countries. Those stereotype and prejudice could affect our intercultural communication behavior towards people from different country. One of my such experience is that when I was in Canada having a stereotype that Canadian are all open, they are like friends with everyone even they meet for the first time. But when I was at school trying to be like Canadian I had imagined, and talked to other students, not all of their response were open. They were shy too, just like Japanese. We cannot believe in what we don't see and make up the images that are not true.

IE3S-Manami

4/26/2015 01:43:13 pm

I was surprised that we happened to have some stereotypes with other cultures we need to be aware of that stereotype can easily be prejudice. In the class we saw a picture of house in Vietnam and we all thought people who live their must be poor and unhealthy. I really did had a stereotype that African countries and some south East Asian countries are poor and they have worse lifestyle than us. However, I wasn't right. Some countries are really poor and needs help but for example South Africa, they live like us. It is very dangerous that stereotypes can be prejudice so easily and I think what we've learnt in our last class was very important.

IE3S-Yuma

4/26/2015 02:45:21 pm

We learned about stereotypes and prejudice through the picture of Cambodian village.
Our group thought of the words,"poverty",messy,garbage,and so on.They were all negative words.However, the people are educated and have jobs.They are similar to us.Our stereotypes come from mass media.I think that our idea about foreigners especially Korean and Chinese are largely effected by mass media.For example,some people think that most Korean and Chinese hate Japanese but,of course,it is not true.They come to Japan,enjoy sightseeing and realize the difference between information by mass media and the fact.

IE3S-Takahiro

4/26/2015 04:41:08 pm

Many of our ideas on matters could consist of our prejudice and stereotypes. Understanding them precisely would be almost impossible, unless we see the internal parts of them, what they are in reality. For we are apt to see only the surface of them. And we tend to make our minds up on what we have never experienced through only what we have ever seen.
Prejudice often leads to discrimination, and they go hand in hand. And to make matters worse, they could make us in the fierce conflicts, and in the worst case we would shed our blood to the end. Needless to say, we all want to avoid any conflicts, and live in peace. Therefore, I think we have to learn more to broaden our horizons and to make us understood one another as correctly as possible from the bottom of our hearts.

IE3S-Kohei

4/26/2015 04:58:58 pm

In my opinion, the most biggest reason of stereotypes and prejudice is TV. A few years ago, we watched many programs that broadcasted the news of disturbance against Japanese company in China. They reported as if all of Chinese people did it so that we thought that all of Chinese people hated Japan. However, of course, it is not true. Before I went to Beijing, I felt uneasy about trip. However, I felt that they were kind and friendly during the trip. I think I couldn't feel it unless I actually went there. In order not to have prejudices toward other cultures, we should try to know people in other cultures by communicating with them, not by watching mass media such as TV.

IE3S-Jumpei

4/26/2015 07:09:54 pm

Stereotypes and prejudice are surrounding us daily. We even bear stereotypes to the products around us. For example, a cup would be normally be used as a container to drink something. However changing views, it could also be used as a pen holder or a vase. But these ideas would never be found if we don't wipe off the major image. Like this, if we have a stereotype against a different culture and when you realize the reality, it would be hard for you to receive it. In worse cases you could act in a negative way and hurt someone, which is called a prejudice. So what's important, you have to be tolerant to other cultures, and do not act or even bear bad images before checking the reality yourself.

IE 3 ICC Seminar: Lesson 3

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