Homework 6

Weddings
Do you think having a massive wedding like Korea or UAE is a good idea? Eloping? Having it in a foreign location like Hawaii?
I don't really like the idea of having a mass wedding. To me that seems very impersonal. A wedding should be about celebrating the love between two people, not two-thousand people. I have no problem with eloping, or having a foreign wedding. Personally I think the big fancy weddings that are popular in Japan and America are too much. I'd much rather have a small personal ceremony with family and a few close friends. Otherwise it becomes way too complicated, and ends up being annoying rather than fun.

What is your ideal wedding?
Well, this is not something I really sit down and think about. But as I said before, I'd like it to be something small, with only a few people, and very personal. Nothing fancy, but it probably won't matter what I want anyway. It's all about what the bride wants!

Homework 5

Superstitions
1. Do you think its important to talk about superstitions? Why?
I think superstitions are important to talk about because they give us some idea of the cultural background of a country. Also, superstitions can sometimes be connected with taboo aspects of culture and they show us who we are supposed to act during certain situations (like passing food from chopstick to chopstick, or leaving chopsticks in the bowl).

2. Is communication affected by superstitions?
I think communication can be affected by superstitions. Superstitions can sometimes can sometimes keep us from talking about certain subjects, such as death. They can also cause communication to breakdown if, for example, we do something inappropriate thats related to a superstition. Even if superstitions don't make logical sense, people tend to believe in them strongly, so doing something against someone's superstitious beliefs can cause a very strong reaction.

3. Do you believe in Japanese superstitions? What do they mean to you?
Since I'm not Japanese I don't really believe in Japanese superstitions. I don't really think I believe in American superstitions either. Although sometimes I do notice myself thinking about superstitious things. I remember recently I thought it was strange when I saw a Japanese person opening an umbrella inside a building (in America this is considered bad luck). Even though I don't believe in that kind of thing, just seeing someone do it was a little shocking to me.

Homework 4

Well since I know what all these proverbs really mean I suppose I should say something about my experience with time in Japan. Something strange that I have noticed since starting to work here. It is said that time is very important to most Japanese. Trains are always on time. Meetings , parties etc always start AND END on time. Schedules are always full. But why is it that whenever I make arrangements to meet with (Japanese) friends they're always a few minutes late? It doesn't bother me, but it seems to be different from what I would expect. Also (and this is something that I really don't understand) why do almost all university classes start 5-10min late? At university in America, if we had to wait too long for the professor to show up, we would just leave, but I have seen students wait for as much as 15 minutes for the professor to get there. I guess it just puzzles me sometimes how the Japanese are very strict about time sometimes, but very loose about time at other times.

Homework 3

Clothes
1. Do you judge people according to what they wear? Why?
I think its only natural to judge people based on what they wear, at least at first. I think humans are very visual, and with out communicating with a person in depth, all we have to try to understand is what we see. I think weather we like it or not, clothes communicate things about us to other people. And of course, people make assumptions based on clothing that may not be true. But as I said, I think its just a natural process.

2. Do you think Japanese society puts an importance on clothing when judging people from other countries?
I'm not really sure, but I think Japanese tend to place people from foreign countries in a special category. Generally it doesn't matter what I wear, I still get treated the same (that is as a foreigner). Even if I'm in a business suit, I get treated pretty much the same. At the same time, I think some Japanese see people from other countries as fashion trend setters. They look at movie stars and models from abroad and want to dress like them (even if those people might not be thought of as fashionable in their own country).

3.What colors are you wearing right now? Do they reflect your mood?
Dark blue, gray, black, olive green. I have not idea, but these are pretty much the colors of my wardrobe. I generally like cool tone colors which I guess shows how I'm a pretty mellow person and I don't like to stand out.

Friends
1.What are some subjects you will never discuss with a friend?
I don't know, I'm usually pretty open with people, friends especially. But I think my level of openness depends on how close I am with the person. For example I would tell my best friend from who I've know since we were children just about anything, but I wouldn't tell a friend from work the same thing. For me there are different levels I guess, that can change over time too. But there are some things I don't tell anybody, friends, and readers of this blog included!

2.Do you have different friends from different times in your life? If so, how are they different to you? Do you talk about different things? Go to different places?
Yes, for example i have friends from my home town and friends I made in college. Our conversations are always different because we have different things in common. For example when I talk with my friends from my hometown we usually talk about people we went to school with, or things going on in town or our own lives. People I met in college we usually talk about other people from college, or Japan (since most of my friends were also the same major). I think you generally make friends with people you share a common interest or experience, but that common interest/experience may be different for different periods of your life.

Homework 2

1. a) How would you express condolences to an American family
From my experiences with funerals, its usually a really difficult thing to deal with. Typically when someone dies say a friend's grandmother (where we don't know the person well) there's not much you can say, usually "i'm sorry for your loss", and you might give flowers or attend the funeral etc. If you know the person better usually funerals are a time for sharing memories of that person, so you might tell a story you particularly remember about the person.
b) Have you ever been to a foreign funeral
Not really, the closest thing I experienced was actually a rather unusual story. It was when I was studying in Japan as a high school student and I was staying at another student's house during golden week vacation. The first night there his Great-grandmother (who lived in the house with them and I met only that first day) died. There was quite a bit of commotion, and I had no idea what was going on. The family tried basically to hide me for a while, I think they were rather embarrassed. They made arrangements for me to go stay somewhere else, so I didn't really see much of what was going on, but the one thing I did notice was that the whole family assembled really quickly (like that very day). Anyway thats the closest I got to a funeral in Japan.

2. a)Why are Japanese designer crazy? why does what you wear matter?
I often wonder about this question myself. In America having a designer hand bag, or wearing designer clothes is generally a sign that a person has a lot of money. But here even the girl that runs the cash register at McDonalds has a Louis Vitton wallet. To me, its really strange, and I think it has a lot to do with Japanese ideas of status. I sometimes feel like its almost a requirement for being a part of mainstream society.
As for what we wear, I think that so much of our first impression of people is dependent on what they wear. We look at a person's clothes and immediately think about how much money the person has, what kind of work they do, etc. Thats why a lot of people spend money on clothes and things to make themselves appear high class, even if they're not.
b)What does "don't judge a book by its cover mean to you?
Don't judge a book by its cover means not to make judgments about a person, especially about their character, based on their physical appearance. Of course in this case we're talking about judging people based on their clothes, but I think it applies to all the stereotypes we have on things such as race, gender, religion etc. We generally have ideas about people based on our experiences and stereotypes that we've learned thorough our lives, but we should try to get to know people before we judge them.

Fall Semester Homework 1

1. Do you agree with the website's description?
I think that there is definitely something to the what the website had to say. Of course some of the things it talked about were rather obvious (even in in American suburbs we have fences wrapped around our houses), but I definitely thing the Japanese like to wrap things in layers. I'm always amazed at how everything, like food, is individually wrapped. Crackers, for example, in America, just come in one big box with maybe one plastic wrapping around 25 crackers. In Japan the same brand of crackers is divided into 4 or 5 smaller packages of 10 crackers with an extra plastic tray to prevent breakage. Sometimes it seems a bit much to me.

What do you do that could be considered wrapping?
I mentioned before about fences around houses which we use to keep outsiders out and insiders in (although now that I think about it, most homes don't have a fence or wall in the front...just my house). I think in general though, Americans are a very touchy people. We like to feel things and get somewhat closer to other people. So maybe thats why wrapping isn't such a big deal to us.

2. a)Where do you go when you die?
I don't really know for sure, but as a Christian I believe that when I die I will go to heaven. What is Heaven? I have no idea, but I assume its a nice place otherwise people wouldn't try so hard to get there. Personally, though, I try not to think of death too much because its really depressing and rather scary.
b)Explain why Japanese have ceremonies 1month, 1year, 3years, 7years, etc. after a person's death.
Of course I'm not Japanese, so I can't really answer this question like a native. But I do know from my studies of Buddhism that the ceremony which takes place 40days after a person's death is to celebrate that person's rebirth. I guess there is a transition period between death and rebirth that takes 40days.

Dating

Lets see if I can get this to work right


Do I need to explain? Haha!

Class #6

1. Are feelings emotions and facial expressions universal across borders, happy, sad, etc..?

I think feelings, emotions, and especially how we express those emotions are very cultural. We may tend to think that we all feel the same, but all you have to do is watch a movie from a different country to see that people don't show emotion in the same ways. Some cultures, Italian comes to mind, are very physical and show their emotions openly with their body. Other cultures, Japanese and Finnish, tend to use more subtle facial expressions and gestures. So sometimes I think it can be difficult to understand how a person from another culture is feeling if you don't know much about their culture.

2. Try to name as many feelings as possible in Japanese. ( 10 minimum) Now write the English translation.

3. Are there any feelings in Japanese that cannot be translated into English?

Rather than answer these questions, I'm going to get a little more specific and talk about the difficulty translating a word/concept between Japanese and English: "LOVE".
If you look up "love" in the dictionary it will probably translate it as either 愛 or 恋. Neither of these words really matches the concept very well. In English, love has a very broad meaning. It can be used to express pleasure with someone or something. It can be a romantic feeling, but at the same time, it can be a more complex (not romantic) attachment between two people. It can be between lovers, friends, or family members. You can love your pet, your boss, you can love people you haven't even met. Its a very diverse word.

At the same time 愛 and 恋 don't translate into English well either. If you look them up they will likely be translated simply as "love" but they are quite distinct emotions. 愛 for example represents a stronger, deeper emotional bond. It can be between lovers, as well as between family members, and in some cases treasured objects. 恋 on the other hand, represents a deep, but usually temporary emotional state. With 恋 it is usually an initial reaction, an almost obsessive and uncontrollable feeling. This can turn into 愛, but it can also simply disappear.

These seem to be such simple emotions, but when we think about them they are really much more complex and connected with our culture than we imagine.

Class #5 Names

1. How do you choose a child's given name in your family?

I think in most families, the parents usually choose a name which they like (and that they both can agree on). Sometimes, though, families have traditional names. It is common in some families to give children the name of past relatives, such as grand parents, aunts and uncles, etc. For example, my sister was named after our great great grandmother, and I am named after my father (although we have different middle names).

3. Does your given name or your family name mean anything?

My given name comes from an old German word meaning "angry or violent wolf." I think this is kind of funny because it doesn't describe me at all. It is a very rare name in America, but much more common in northern European countries (Norway, Sweden, Germany). My family name comes from an old Norwegian tradition. In Norway a child's last name was the a combination of the father's given name + son or daughter. My family name, Siverson, means that somewhere in the past I had a relative named Siver, and he had a son. But in America we keep a single family name, so when my family came to America we kept the name Siverson.

7. How do you know if names are boys' names, girls' names, or both?

This is a difficult question, because usually it is easy to tell the difference between male and female names, but it is difficult to explain why. The only way I can explain it is that there are some names that are traditionally girls' names and some names that are traditionally boys' names. But some names can be either, and these are usually very confusing.

Class #4

I though the presentation by the speaker was really interesting. Her perspective, as someone who converted to Islam, was really fascinating. I think, sometimes, those who have grown up in a particular religion don't understand or appreciate it as much as those who have come to it out of their own interest. I think I learned a lot.

Moving on:
1. How do you greet people in your life? Is it different for different people? Why?

How I greet people really depends on different things, for example how well I know the person, how long its been since I have seen them, and what sort of social situation it is. I might greet my friends with a "hey, whats up" and a wave of the hand, or a nod of the head, but I wouldn't do that to my boss. In America we have more formal greetings as well, although I think they're not as complicated as in Japan. As I said earlier, I think greetings really depend on what your relationship with the other person is.

2. Do you touch people when you talk to them? Why? Or Why not?

I don't usually touch people when I talk to them, although there are people I know who do. I might shake a person's hand, or give them a hug, but I'm not what we would call a "touchy-feely" type of person, and it actually makes me a bit uncomfortable when other people do it. I think, though, that there are many people who like to make a physical connection when they talk with people. Its a good way to keep someone's attention, too.

"How Accents Define Us"

This week I read a very interesting article on the San Jose Mercury News website. The article, titled, "How Accents Define Us" (http://www.mercurynews.com/search/ci_5672461), discussed how the various accents of non-native speakers of English can result in various social problems, as well as in discrimination. In the Silicon Valley, the technology industry has brought together many people of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Thus the only common language is English. However, many non-native speakers of English retain an accent from their native language. This can lead to difficulties in communication, as well as job discrimination.

The article explains that native speakers of English often associate accents with their own cultural biases. For example the movie star Antonio Bandares has a "sexy latin accent", while the Vietnamese restaurant owner has a "a rude and obnoxious accent". In the same way, a Japanese store owner may refuse service to a foreigner, regardless of that persons ability to speak Japanese, because of that person's own bias towards foreigners (this has actually happened to me before). I think sometimes people use language ability and accents to break off communication too afraid or too lazy. This article shows how our cultural perceptions can effect cross cultural communication even when speaking a common language. It is also an important reminder of how stereotypes can lead to discrimination.

Hi Everyone!

Hi Everyone, this is your new teaching assistant Rolf Siverson. I'm going to be blogging and commenting along with you as we learn about Cross Cultural Communication. I think this class will be a lot of fun, and I look forward to hearing what you have to say!