COMM 215

Maaya Longo

Conceptual Application

~Japanese

Definition of Culture

Culture is practices, beliefs, and types of people as a whole. Everything that people do and think are part of their culture.

Japanese

◆ I am a member of Japanese culture. I was born and grew up in Japan until 15 years old.

◆ Japan developed its original and distinctive culture, but some of Japanese cultures are originally from China. For example, rice and Japanese characters called kanji are big part of our culture, yet they were imported from China and effected our culture greatly. According to Jirousek, Japan developed unique culture because Japan was isolated from rest of the world during 17th to 19th centuries.

Criteria• Perception

• Beliefs

• Values

• Attitudes

• Language

• Contextual Influences

• Nonverbal Behavior

• Religious

Perceptions• Perception is how individuals

choose, view, and receive meanings and make thoughts about the situation.

• In Japan, people don’t wear shoes in the house; therefore, they most likely will think it’s rude if someone steps in the house without taking shoes off.

• If Japanese people see Americans eating sunflower seeds, they might think it’s strange because it’s not common snack in Japan.

Beliefs• Beliefs are thoughts and ideas

toward object and event that people have within individuals, and what make each of us unique.

• Japanese people often stay where they live for whole life because they believe in passing down the family property.

• Japanese people often pray to their ancestor because they believe that their ancestors are watching down from the heaven.

Values• Values are the scale that

individuals have, and it helps us to decide what is more important than the other.

• Japanese people find importance in unity, so they prefer to be like everyone else.

• Japanese men often value their social status. They might choose to socialize with their boss, and rely on wife to take care of the family.

Attitudes

• Attitudes are depend on beliefs and values, and it’s how we respond and act to surroundings.

• Some teenager boys stop having close relationship with mother because they don’t want to be considered as mommy’s boy.

• Relationship between employees and their boss might seem like cold and unfriendly, but it’s part of showing respect to their boss.

Language

• Language represents and defines its culture and unites people and culture together.

• When parents give name to the child, they consider the meanings that each characters have. (愛 -Ai-love)

• Some area in Japan developed their own language including accents, and it represent them as their unique culture.

Contextual Influences

• Contextual influences are rules that each culture sets for people to behave in certain way.

• In japan, students are taught to respect older people. Starting in junior high school, it is almost required to say “hello” when you pass by people who are above your grade.

• At occasions like wedding and funerals, guests are usually treated with gifts for the sign of appreciation from the family.

Nonverbal Behavior

• Nonverbal behavior is ways that we give and receive meanings by physical expression.

• Japanese people bow to show respect, and it’s often to older people and at formal places.

• When calling someone, fingers toward ground and move them back and forth. This hand signal means “go away” to Americans, but it means “come” in Japanese culture.

Religious

• Often people’s worldview forms based on their religion.

• Most Japanese people believe in it’s called “Shinto” and “ Buddhism,” and they believe in nature and spirits. Unlike Christians, most people might say they don’t belong in any religion, but their beliefs, values, and attitudes are originated in these religions.

• “Obon” is one of event that people believe their ancestors’ spirits return to the world and come visit their families during this time.

Closing

• I didn’t realize that there are so many unique things about my culture, and I appreciate more for being part of Japanese culture. In this project, I was able to see my culture from different angle which allowed me to have opinions in my own culture. I found that Japanese culture has some different perspective toward communication and how people behave. It was interesting to see that our beliefs, religions, and all of components effect on forming perception and that’s what make us unique. By examining how people behave, I realized that there are differences between individuals, but all of us belongs to our culture in some way.

• One of my biggest finding was about the religions. I was one of Japanese who says I don’t have any religion, but by learning deeper, I found myself belong to religion in some way. I learned that our common beliefs are actually originated in religions even most of us don’t realize the fact. I also realized that reasons for our behaviors can be found in our original beliefs that are different from other cultures.

• After completing this project, I now know that Japanese culture has many unique behaviors more than I ever imagined. Although, I didn’t realize that those are original and unique even many of them I practiced in my daily basis. I can now appreciate more for knowing the meanings behind our culture.

• Samovar, Larry A., Porter, Richard E., and McDaniel, Edwin R. Intercultural Communication Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009.

• Jirousek, Charlotte. “Japan: Historic Background.” Art, Design, and Visual Thinking 1995. <http://char.txa.cornell.edu/nonwest/japan/japanhis.htm>

• Wood, Monika D. A Brief Introduction to Japanese Society <http://crab.rutgers.edu/~deppen/Japan.htm>

• Wikipedia. Japanese language <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_language>

• B. A. Robinson. “Shinto, an ancient Japanese religion.” Religious Tolerance.org 1995. <http://www.religioustolerance.org/shinto.htm>

Work Cited

Where I belong...