Intercultural Communication (Japan and Australia) Society & Culture

Subject matter

I have been given an assignment to plan a unit (involving 20 lesson) for a particular subject. I have chosen Society & Culture because I really love the subject and I am also fortunate enough to have a wonderful mentor who is a Society & Culture teacher. This unit focuses on Intercultural communication. You are required to look the communication process in general and then focus on an inter-cultural comparision. I have chosen to look at Japan for this section of the study.


Prior experience and Practical application
My practicum experience involved 4 weeks of teaching one unit from Society & Culture and so I hope to use some of this hands on experience, his expert advice and the many resource I have found online and in other forms to assist in this process. The good news is that hopefully I can implement some of these lessons in the classroom - will just have to sweet talk my mentor.


Reflection
I am finding the process of planning lessons invigorating, if daunting. I have to be aware however that in my excitement about finding materials and putting lessons together I must not lose sight of the other important part of the equation. This is the teaching strategies I must employ when thinking about implementing these in reality. I have found that in my recent experience developing lessons for History (years 7 - 10) I have paid plenty of attention to the lesson planning but not the delivery. I really want to focus on the bigger picture of what I really want the students to get out of the lesson, not just the bells and whistles of the materials used in the lesson. Thinking about this before each lesson and making it explicit to the students will help guide them, and me, in the lesson as it unfolds...hopefully!

Resources

I have compiled a few interesting sites that have relevant materials to this unit for future reference (and for others who might read this site). Particularly interesting to me was the articles by Deborah Tannen who writes a great deal about communication, and in particular, the role of gender in the communication process. Whilst I cannot put the entire article online, the reference is provided below.

Tannen, D. (1995) The Power of Talk: Who Gets Heard and Why. Harvard Business Review, 73 (5). Accessed October 14th, 2008 from Business Source Premier

Extremely useful source when examining hierarchical structures with refer the gender roles. This example focuses on the corporate field but lesson learned can be transferred to other situations.

Australia - Culture, Customs and Etiquette

This site (and the accompanying Japan site) can be useful resources when comparing and contrasting the two societies for this unit. The students can use this site and critique the description given to the Australian society so that they might be more aware of the potential benefits and dangers of drawing generalities about such cultural descriptions.

Japan - Language, Culture, Customs and Etiquette

Although the site is directed toward the business aspect of inter-cultural communication it contains some relevant material about particular Japanese communication both verbal and non-verbal.
It covers the following areas of interest to the studies of Cross-cultural communication:
The Japanese and 'Face'
Harmony in Japanese Society
Japanese Non-Verbal Communication
Japanese Hierarchy
Meeting Etiquette
Gift Giving Etiquette
Dining Etiquette
Watch your Table Manners!

Japan Guide - Non-Verbal Communication


This site is useful for the lesson concerning non-verbal communication in Japan as it details some of the symbolic gestures used in Japan. It covers the following areas: silence, facial gestures, touching, showing respect to objects and general gestures.

Getting Through Customs

This site contains cultural quizzes complete with answers.


What’s in a gesture?
Judie Hayes.


This website contains a lesson about the nature of gestures and how they are used and interpreted in different culture. The lesson is created from an United States perspective which can be limiting but could be adapted and used as a model for similar comparisons between one culture and another, or modified to a particular country.