A Study of Intercultural Communication in Japanese
Through an Analysis of Advice-Giving Behavior
(Article itself in Japanese only)
Nakazaki Atsuko
Hokuriku University
The purpose of this paper is to present a view of intercultural communication between Japanese and non-Japanese using the Japanese language. Research to date has tended to examine how skillfully Japanese people use English with foreigners. Not many Japanese have considered their own language as a means of international communication, nor have they paid much attention to how to communicate appropriately in Japanese with people of different cultural backgrounds. However, recent developments have created many more opportunities than in the past for native speakers of Japanese to meet non-Japanese people who can speak Japanese at various skill levels and to communicate with them in Japanese. The focus of this paper is to help Japanese people recognize communication strategies used by learners of Japanese as a second language and show how the Japanese language might be used with less cultural bias. Specifically, the differences of language and behavior employed by Japanese and English-speaking people when offering advice has been examined.
The data for this study includes examples of communication breakdowns between Japanese and foreigners speaking in Japanese, a questionaire completed by university students in Japan and Australia, and some textbook descriptions of social manners for students learning Japanese as a second language. Examination of this data, with regard to behavior and language in advice-giving situations, reveals the following points:
1) One characteristic of Japanese in advice-giving situations is to use strong direct expressions, such as “You must ..." and“You'd better...".
2) Compared with Japanese people, English-speaking people tend to use softer, hedged and indirect expressions almost exclusively in advice-giving situations.
3) Japanese textbooks for non-native learners provide strong, direct sentence patterns for which cultural background is necessary.
4) Japanese behavior in advice-giving situations depends on the perception of the in-group or out-group relationship. Direct speech from Japanese people from within the in-group is considered to be kind rather than threatening.
5) It is difficult for students of Japanese to determine when they are faced with an in-group or out-group situation, and this may be a big barrier to smooth communication.
The author of this paper concludes that non-native learners need to be taught Japanese cultural formulae which are pragmatically appropriate. However, recognizing that students of the Japanese language do not aim to behave like Japanese people and that some learners do not need to learn the culture thoroughly, Japanese people should also be encouraged to be more understanding in their reaction to limited Japanese pragmatic skills. The main desire of learners is to communicate equally in Japanese, a language which they may not have acquired in this country. It may now be the time for Japanese people to stop insisting on tradtional in-group/out-group considerations, so that their language can be used to facilitate international understanding.
