The Language Teacher
July 2001
Crossing Cultures: New SIG Tries to Cross Cultures with Care
Scott Bronner
This month, Scott Bronner reports on the goals and activities of the Crossing Cultures forming SIG. The coeditors of this column invite you to submit an 800-word report about your chapter or SIG in Japanese, English, or a combination of both.
JALT2000 witnessed the beginnings of our new forming SIG called Crossing Cultures. Its timely objective is to enhance intercultural education, so important now with everyday interactions more and more likely to involve crossing cultures or at least subcultures, especially with the proliferation of the Internet. As the world "becomes smaller," it becomes more critical to develop awareness of the differences others may have in basic assumptions regarding areas like the division of individual and collective responsibility, the place of work and recreation, the importance of face and harmony, the nature of fate, and the role of status in relationships. Often educators and students equate cultural differences to their more transparent aspects like differences in food, clothing, language, and customs. However, below the more obvious variations in surface behaviors are deeper aspects of culture, e.g., concepts of time and ethics which more often result in difficult adjustments. This was witnessed in the recent ship and aircraft collisions in which the nature and timing of apologies differed across cultures.
Thus, the Crossing Cultures (XC) forming SIG is intent on working together with like-minded organizations within and outside JALT toward developing awareness, knowledge, and competence in intercultural communication (IC). This involves promoting research in IC, helping to disseminate the findings and current developments in IC, as well as advocating the inclusion of IC competency in language education and teacher training programs. In teaching a recent course on Intercultural Identity, one student told me that what he was learning, if truly learned worldwide, could dissolve many egregious cross-cultural conflicts and even wars. Even if not everyone shares this idealism, certainly there are many business situations in which it would be highly profitable to have at least a little knowledge about how different underlying cultural values can affect behavior. Cross-cultural skills are no longer just needed by the few adventurous souls in today's fluid society. Consequently, overt teaching of the variety of ways cultures look at behaviors "makes sense." (Double meaning fully intended).
As a teacher, I am learning so much in this area that I wish I had known before coming to Japan. Many of the sample cross-cultural incidences in the texts I am using reveal how good intentions can be thwarted by cross-cultural factors. In trying to work together and help others within another culture, just the opposite may occur due to lack of awareness of expectations and underlying values. For example, if I were working as a manager within a high power-distance, status-oriented society, I might still feel that promoting people based on their talents rather than status is basic to human justice. However, the people I promoted might have had no desire to secure a position outside the realm of their status since within that culture they would not have the contacts or tools to be able to carry out the assignments expected of that position. This was a new idea to me that such a basic value relating to justice and fairness might have undesired consequences not just to those in a high status position but to someone I idealistically promoted to a high-status position from a lower one.
Naturally, crossing cultures is not just about differences but areas where we can relate to each other and build common ground. In addition, the whole concept of culture is undergoing transformation since trans-cultural individuals and multicultural societies are becoming more and more commonplace. Thus, the more monolithic ideas of culture need to be modified, displacing cultural stereotypes so as to not only be more sensitive to individual differences within cultures but also to the increasingly multicultural nature of many areas of the world. The more deeply I delve into the cross-cultural field, the more I realize I have yet much to learn, so the thoughts above may lack sensitivity, but we are all both individuals as well as part of a group in progress, open to appropriate change.
If interested in more details about this new forming SIG, Crossing Cultures, join our free email group at <groups.yahoo.com/group/jaltccsig> or see our new site in progress at <www.voyager.co.nz/~chris100/JALTCCSig/index.htm>.
Those considering membership can also email Stephen Ryan at <RX1S-RYAN@asahi-net.or.jp> or t/f: 0726-24-2793 for a free copy of our first newsletter which includes details about our group, a short resource list, information on several intercultural conferences in Japan and abroad, and a teaching materials' review section. Work is also in progress for a possible summer conference in cooperation with other SIGs, and there will definitely be XC SIG presentations at JALT/PAC3 in Kyushu. General contacts for the XC SIG include: Robert Long <long@dhs.kyutech.ac.jp>, t/f: 093-884-3447 or Warwick Francis <warwick@japan.email.ne.jp>, t: 045-960-3323; f: 045-961-2542.
reported by Scott Bronner
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