Communication Difference

Submitted by Shumpeik on Thu, 04/26/2007 - 14:57.

Hello,

I am a Japanese student studying in an American University.

Currently, I am studying Intercultural Communication, and
for my report, I would like to ask Japanese-American people for help.

My assignment is to identify Japanese American's value and,
by that, to discover how communication between Japanese and
Japanese Americans can be difficult and how the communication between
two can go well.

Therefore, please let me ask two questions:

What do you think the value of Japanese American is?
When and how do you feel the communication difficulties
between you and Japanese people?

Thank you very much for your time,

S.K.

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welcome to Discover Nikkei!
vkm's picture
Submitted by vkm on Fri, 04/27/2007 - 00:06.
Welcome to our online community! I hope that you are able to find the answers you're looking for. I'd like to try and help with your assignment, but before I can answer your questions, I need a little clarification. Regarding the communication difficulties, do you mean language, cultural, or a combination of both?
For the question about value, do you mean what values do the Japanese American communities hold? For example, like working hard, enduring, etc.? Or, did you mean how important is Japanese American identity or community?
By the way, you might find Issei: The Shadow Generation by Dr. Tsukasa Matsueda interesting. The Japanese American National Museum's online store just posted an interview with the author: "The Issei Legacy: Passing the Values of the Issei onto Younger Generations".

comments about article in Community Forum
vkm's picture
Submitted by vkm on Wed, 05/02/2007 - 11:33.

You can now comment about the article and its topic in the Articles section. Hopefully we can get some discussion going there, so you might want to check it out or post your own comments about what you learn:


Passing on the Values of the Issei


With each succeeding
Submitted by ckomai on Thu, 05/10/2007 - 11:44.

With each succeeding generation of Japanese Americans, it is harder to find common values and beliefs. The earliest immigrants were from Meiji Japan and so they had a shared worldview. Their American-born children mostly were raised in Japanese American communities and also approached the world in a very standard way. The Sansei and Yonsei, however, were mostly raised apart from large groups of Japanese Americans, so they have less in common than the Issei and Nisei.

For all that, many Sansei and some Yonsei do demonstrate shared values. There is a sense of valuing their elders, seeking consensus amongst a group, enryo and the sharing of resources. It is not universal and the degree to which these values are held varies wildly. The main question is whether Japanese Americans will continue identify themselves as part of the larger community, or will the younger generations see themselves first and foremost as individuals and drift away.

Communication with Japanese nationals is difficult. Culturally, Japanese Americans are not Japanese and since most have limited or no language skills, very little real communication can take place. With a common language, the two groups have trouble reaching out to each other.