Re: Doing Your Communication Styles Homework

Cynthia, I love your emphasis on the importance of etiquette rules in business dealings in Asia and especially how you connect it to the importance of working as a teacher with parents of Asian origin. Parent-teacher conferences are already incredibly complex, in attempting to understand the unique behavioral norms with which each parent operates, and this can become even more fraught if cultural misunderstandings occur between the teacher & parent (i.e. if a teacher misunderstood the silence of Japanese parents). I believe this may be an incredibly smart way to frame the "relevance" of learning about Asia in the classroom: to aid students in truly succeeding in not only working with Asian business partners in the global marketplace, but in simply relating more to individuals of Asian descent in a world that is connected on an international level through social media & the internet. I think a fascinating lesson would be to split the class in two parts, then give each students slips with contrasting "cultural customs" and attempt to take part in some role-play business dealing. Having students witness first-hand how misunderstanding cultures can lead to failed "business" would be an extremely powerful lesson for a young person! By then following up this role-play activity with students researching Japanese communication styles would also make this an overall powerful experience to help students become more deeply engaged with understanding the necessity of learning about Asia from an Asian-centric (rather than Western) perspective.