People from different countries have different cultural values and these differences may lead to misunderstandings or even conflict when people from different cultures. Hence, it is important that we understand the other person’s culture or learn to be empathetic towards different cultures in order to be better prepared to communicate more effectively and avoid intercultural conflict. The intercultural scenario that I have chosen is one in which I was in a foreign land and had difficulty communicating with a local.
I visited Japan in May this year and this was one of the main incidences in which our lack of comprehension of the Japanese language presented itself as a real handicap. There was no actual conflict in this situation but a certain degree of embarrassment and unnecessary stress for both parties could have been avoided if my family and I had better understood the Japanese culture.
I was exploring a small shopping centre with my parents and we decided to buy some groceries on our way back to the hotel. We could not find any supermarkets so we decided to ask a Japanese lady who was shopping with her daughter. We asked her in English and both of them could barely understand what we were looking for. Next, they replied in incoherent English which led to our difficulty in understanding them. Hence, the most distinct barrier to communication in this situation was clearly language. This could have been avoided if I had brought a Japanese phrasebook with me to aid in my communication with the locals.
Following that, my family spent some time repeating what we were looking for and the Japanese lady gave us a general direction after conferring with her daughter in Japanese several times. It was clear that we could not understand each other throughout the few minutes but the lady tried her best to help us while struggling with our language and smiling sheepishly all the time. She only apologized and stopped trying to help us when we thanked her and went on our way. It would have saved both parties a significant amount of effort and stress if I had better understood the Japanese culture and realized that they are not accustomed to saying ‘no’ even when they cannot help you. Therefore, I could have thanked them for their assistance sooner when I realized that they simply could not understand us. At that point, I merely thought that the Japanese lady was very helpful and patient with us and did not realize that she may have felt at a lost but just could not bring herself to tell us she could not help.
One more point was that the lady gave us a bow when she apologized but we did not bow back but gave a slight nod of the head and gave her our thanks. In hindsight, it would have been more polite if we were to adopt their custom and had returned the bow.
In conclusion, it is important to be aware of the different cultural norms and values in order to communicate better with a person from a different cultural background and avoid conflict as we can better understand them. By the way, we failed to locate the supermarket that day by the way.
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2 comments:
hello.=)
Just a few weeks ago, I had to host a family of Japanese who came to visit singapore. I observed that they were really soft-spoken and shy people. Greeting them included handshakes and bows which I wasn't very used to and felt quite conscious of myself while bowing. haha. But in order to show respect for their culture, I thought it was necessary.
In your case, language was obviously the biggest barrier. A majority of Japanese still have poor command for english language and it's really hard to bring a simple idea across. For instance, I had to resort to demonstrating how to eat a xiao long bao because it was just too hard to tell them that they should use a spoon and savour the gravy inside the xiaolongbao. haha.
However, it makes it easier if both parties make an attempt to understand and respect each other's culture. So, even if sometimes one party fails to comply to the other person's culture, conflicts or misunderstandings could be avoided.
Hey!
I've visited Japan before and could totally understand how difficult it is to communicate with the locals.
I agree that it would have been much easier if you had brought along a Japanese phrase book or had "read up" a little on their culture. However, I believe, that the Japanese on their part should also do a little on at least learning a bit of english so as to communicate with other tourists.
Well, I say english as this remains largely the international language at present which most people can communicate in. Hence, it is clearly an effort from both parties to make things easier. If you had known about their politeness and if they had tried to pick up a bit of english, things would have been much better.
I believe the take home message is to be open minded about others' cultures and willing to learn something new.
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