First of all, I think I will be learning many new words that I would not have learned in class otherwise. This is an important part of being an autonomous learner. To memorize new vocabulary outside class. Another important aspect is to effectively and efficiently learn how to learn how to work in a team and share knowledge and material with other members of the group. Many brains are better than just one. The final product is bound to be better if everyone help each other out. Another important thing that spins off from good team work is the time management within the group and be able to develop organization skills in order to satisfy different schedule request.
Regarding the communication and what message we as a group want to convey, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. We need to make sure that the message is clear and who we target. Yes, we target the Japanese audience, but what group of people in particular? In our case, we try to target Japanese people who are coming to New York to live, either for work or school. One also wants to remember to not step on other people's feet by breaking cultural boundaries. In other words, we need to be careful and make sure we don't offend anybody. Some things that are not offensive in one culture could easily be highly offensive in another culture. As a group it's crucial to understand that we are working in a cross-cultural setting.
The point you make about working in a cross-cultural setting is very well-put, and I think that we can extend this even further to say that keeping an intended audience in mind is key to communicating any message effectively. I think that communicating is, as you've suggested, only partially about message content; rather, it requires careful packaging of this content, and an understanding of how to convey just as much as what to convey. In this same vein, what is communicated must also be reconciled with what is not communicated -- as you've put it well, choices about dealing with cultural boundaries and potentially offensive topics will mediate how well any audience receives even an otherwise carefully packaged message.
ReplyDeleteYou make a great point about cultural offenses, sometimes we are so ingrained in our own culture that we don't even realize that something we do without thinking can be highly offensive to someone else. It's very perceptive of you to notice something that can often be hidden from plain sight. Cross-culture consideration is extremely important for communication because if you accidentally offend someone the communication may stop entirely. One challenge I see is that as beginning learners of Japanese we may have trouble understanding some of the finer nuances of Japanese respect/mannerisms. I look forward to seeing your podcast project^^
ReplyDeleteTarget, or audience, is always important in an effective communication. How the audience receive the message that one wants to convey actually helps constuct the message as well. Also, how we make our audience understand what we want to say, and how we guide them to see and think are all crucial.
ReplyDeleteRespect and an understanding heart in a cross-cultural communication is necessary as you pointed out. We need to always be objective instead of judgemental. We should give every culture a chance to speak. But in reality unfortunately this equal discourse among cultures is hard to achieve.