Snapshots of Yoko's Intercultural Conversations

By Scott Johnston

In conversations with people from other countries, have you ever wondered, "Why does she take so long to answer?" or "Why doesn't she say what she wants?" On the other hand, the other person may be thinking, "Why is she so pushy?" Why does she talk too much?"

This book contains numerous short conversations between Yoko, a Japanese woman, and Scott, an American living in Japan, and people from different countries and backgrounds. Scott created these conversations while teaching intercultural communication in Japan for over 15 years.

The conversations are divided into general topics, the world, family & friends, business & work, and superstitions. Some possible explanations of the causes of the miscommunication are included after each dialogue.

In addition, at the end of the book, some key concepts are explained. Some of these are high & low context, time differences, Hofstede's cultural dimensions, and indirect & direct ways of communicating.

We often read about miscommunication without thinking about the causes. As a result, we are apt to make the same mistakes over and over. Thus, this book's short conversations can help the readers to focus on the miscommunication, due to different cultural norms.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scott Johnston
• Release date: Feb 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215747100

Scott Johnston

Scott Johnston was a professor at Osaka Jogakuin University (OJU) in Japan for 18 years, where he taught courses in intercultural communication, culture & language, and English writing. At OJU, he also created learning materials for students in these areas, as well as for studying abroad. He continues to observe the world for miscommunication and write about it. Scott was not always international. He was born in Bay City, Michigan, but, in high school, he became a summer exchange student in Japan, and this sparked his interest in communication and miscommunication. Since he could not speak Japanese, he learned the importance of gestures and other nonverbal styles of communication. After earning a degree in zoology from the University of Michigan, he joined the United States Coast Guard to see the world, and he succeeded to an extent. In the USCG, he was stationed on an icebreaker that went to Antarctica, and he served in Alaska and Okinawa. After the Coast Guard, he went back to university to earn a master’s in education in TESL, and then he started his teaching and research career, which has taken him to Taiwan, Australia, China, Thailand, and other countries. He retired from teaching in 2022 and moved to the Kanto area of Japan; a quiet place to think, write and relax.

Book preview

Introduction

This book contains numerous short conversations with Yoko, a Japanese woman, and Scott, an American living in Japan. While we are married in real life, we are just one Japanese and one American having intercultural conversations.

The conversations are based on real-life situations as well as discussions with students in my culture classes in a Japanese university where I taught for more than 16 years. Many conversations were created to help the students better understand miscommunication.

I remember reading Cross-cultural dialogues: 74 brief encounters with cultural difference by Craig Storti (1991) while teaching. That is when I realized that short conversations with explanations could be a powerful teaching tool to learn about intercultural miscommunication.

People often read about miscommunication, but, if they do not think about the causes, they are apt to make the same mistakes over and over. Thus, this book includes short conversations so that the readers can focus on the miscommunication and not the complex sentences in longer readings.

One big problem with writing a book like this is that it seems to promote stereotypes. When you write about miscommunication and use people from specific countries, as I do in this book, people might think that the dialogues would be true for all people in that country.

While there might be tendencies for people to behave a certain way due to cultural e influences, each person is an individual and is therefore unique. For example, being late may be more common for people in Hispanic countries or the Middle East, but this does not mean all Hispanics and Middle Easterners are late. It is just a tendency among some cultural groups.

In this book, the word culture has a broad meaning. Of course, it includes the fine arts (music, theatre, etc.), but it also includes the beliefs and values of a group of people as well as the behaviors of this group. As such, it includes food, language, beliefs about time and religion, and how people communicate.

In Japan, as elsewhere, there are many subcultures, such as Kanto/Kansai, the elderly and the young, etc.

Thus, intercultural miscommunication can occur almost anytime two people have a discussion, including people within the same subculture.

In the conversations presented herein, some key concepts are repeated. Some of these are high and low context, time differences, and indirect and direct ways of communicating.

Hofstede et al. (2010) elaborate on some cultural dimensions that influence the way people communicate. These are power distance, individualism vs collectivism, masculinity (competitive) vs. femininity (caring), and uncertainty avoidance. These concepts are explained in more detail at the end of this book.

While not everyone agrees on which concepts are appropriate and which are too general to explain intercultural miscommunication, these concepts were selected because they are useful for understanding what is happening within the conversations.

Conversations

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