Intercultural Communication Case Study

1256 Words6 Pages
Globalization is no longer an unfamiliar word with people in the world as it has been casting an enormous influence on every corner of modern life; therefore, cultural sphere cannot escape from the sprawl of societial homogenization. According to David (2002), globalization can be viewed as a process of “harminizing different culture and beliefs” (cited in Yusuf). Globalization, to some extent, has created a “ubiquitous and complex context” for the study of interculteral communication (Sorrells, 2012). Interculteral communication competence is one way or another daily necessity in the present circumstance, especially for travellers to a new destination. On the light of this essay, a variety of intercultural communication related concepts would…show more content…
Social practices consist of two types: informal and formal (Lustig & Koester, 2010). The way one eats, sleeps, talks,….is the former type. In the very first scence of the movie, Bob is quite shock when meeting his Japanese business partners as each of them gives him presents along with business card. For Japanese, a business card can be considered as an extension of their identity; however, the common way to greet in America is just handshake. It’s quite obvious that American has the tendency to behave casually while Japanese place high priority on politeness. The second type of social practices occurs in a more formal context with the ceremonies, ritual process or public strutured routines (Lustig & Koester, 2010). As Charlotte is wandering around Tokyo, she happens to see a part of the wedding ceremonies in Japan. The bride and the broom dressed in traditional kimono quitely move along the road to the temple. The groom before entering raises his hand and the bride slowly places her hand inside his hand. It can be seen from this scence that the intimacy between spouses in Japan is rarely shown and also restricted. Japanese considers intimate gestures in public inappropriate whereas American people tend to express their feelings more openly like kissing or hugging. In short, social practices stand as the manifestation of norms, beliefs and values of…show more content…
It can take a very long time for some people as their cultural indentity is too strong and perhaps too different from the new environment. However, for Bob and Charlotte, it takes only a few days. The reasons for this occurance is that they are both American lost in the bustling city of Japanese culture. The movie truly steps into the spotlight when two character meet and help each other to overcome the segregation and lonesomeness. Since they understand, they together go to the bar, get to know the people they used to feel as aliens, experience things that scare them at first. They come to realize that Japan is not something
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