Summary

Debbie, Cafazzo. (2009, March 27). Baby sign: parents can communicate with babies by teaching them sign language. The Wenatchee World. Retrieved March 29, 2009 from http://wenatcheeworld.com/article/20090327/FAM/703279984/0/ARTS12?Baby-sign--Parents-can-communicate-early-with-babies-by-teaching-them-sign-language.

Cafazzo (2009) reports that the use of American Sign Language (ASL) is beneficial to babies. It means that even though a vocal area in a baby’s brain has not developed adequately, he or she can communicate with their parents and friends using sing language. Utilizing sign language contributes young children to develop their language ability and keep their emotion stable. Also, compared with the children who did not learn sings, the children who acquired the skill have richer vocabulary.

These pictures are one of the sings....

The first child expresses "awake"

The next baby indicates"eat"

First sources - Intercultural conflict

I found two sources about my topic ....

Frost, J, H., and Wilmot, W, W. (1978). Interpersonal conflict. Dubuque, IA: WM.C. Brown
Ting- Toomey, S and Chung, C, L. (2005). Understanding intercultural communication. Los An geles, CA: Roxbury publishing company.

Joyce Hocker Frost and William W. Wilmot mention that there are four factors of interpersonal conflicts: “an expressed struggle, perceived incompatible goals, perceived scarce rewards and interdependence and independence” (indivisalism and collectivism). Firstly, when people express emotion, conflict occurs. For instance, when one party does not agree with the other, and when a student insists this class is futile in a class, people often experience goals. I think when a party communicates with the party who has a different cultural back ground. Secondly, they argue that different goal issues are attributed to conflict. Also they mention three different types of goals: content goals, relational conflict goals, and identity based goals. The third set of factors is perceived scare resources. Ting- Toomey, S and Chung, C, L classified two kinds of perceived scare resources and named tangible resources such as money and water and intangible resources such as love, esteem, power, and respect. From Joyce Hocker Frost and William W. Wilmot’s research, they found that if people lack the power and esteem, they are easy to get involved in conflicts. Lastly, personally I believe that the most important factor of intercultural conflicts is interdependence and independence (individualism and collectivism). Also, Ting- Toomey, S and Chung, C, L. state cultural value patterns such as individualism and collectivism often make our basic idea and appropriate behavior. If we contact other people who are belong to different culture types, there is a high possibility to clash with each other.

In my research paper, I want to focus on the factor of intercultural conflicts. I agree with Joyce Hocker Frost and William W. Wilmot’s opinion. However, I want to emphasize interdependence and independence” (indivisalism and collectivism).Thus I will find other sources which are related to interdependence and independence” (indivisalism and collectivism). Writing research paper is not easy but I believe that this is a good chance to deepen our knowledge!!!

sunny and mai

impressive advice for me

Although I have never given good advices, I have gotten a lot of inputs. However, one of the most impressive advices for me is “be insensitive.” I extracted this advice from a famous philosophical book published in Japan about two years ago. According to the author, Japanese are so sensitive to anything so we need to be more insensitive, and we do not care about what people say.

Actually, in 2004, 32,325 Japanese committed suicide. The author mentions that the reason a lot of people kill themselves is Japanese are so busy and we care about other people too much. It means that Japanese are sensitive. I think that this is somewhat true. If we are so busy, we become sensitive to everything because we cannot take enough time to relax and we care about what people say and think too much. Therefore, they feel stressful and they finally kill themselves. Probably, Japanese are not good at relieving their stress. However, if people become insensitive to other people, notice the importance of their existence, and admit their individuality, we will reduce stress and live more lively. Thus, ‘”be insensitive” is important

Also, he states that the first step to be insensitive is that Japanese need to express their opinion directly and honestly. In this respect, I agree with him. I believe that compared with other Asians such as Korean and Taiwanese, Japanese are humble and hide their true opinions. Even though I am Japanese, it sometimes makes me confused and frustrated when I talk with Japanese. I believe if we tell our opinions honestly, we will communicate with other people smoothly.

The author’s opinion is so complex; however, I was really impressed. What do you think Japanese are more sensitive? How about your countries? I think almost all Japanese might disagree his advice and do not follow his advice but I think it is an interesting idea.

Kurt and Sunny

research paper! yeah!!

My major is Intercultural communication and I focus on studying culture. Actually, studying intercultural communication is not so popular……. However, I believe that studying culture is important because of globalization in these days. Therefore, my research paper will discuss one of the most intercultural communication topics, nonverbal communication.

Many professors estimate that “about 65 percent is inferred through nonverbal channels in every encounter”. It means that we depend on nonverbal communication such as a gesture unconsciously in daily life. Sometimes it is stronger than verbal communication. For example, although you make a big mistake in your company, your boss does not shout at you but he just stares at you seriously. I think you probably feel scared and stressful. In this situation, nonverbal communication is stronger than verbal communication. Furthermore, gestures are different among counties. For example, when Chinese counts from one to ten, they count the number with one hand. It is really impressive for me.

I have not decided supporting details at all but I think this is a good opportunity to deepen my knowledge about nonverbal communication. Also, I think that my topic is interesting for you so if you have chance, can you become my peer editor? Be careful !! my English ability is surprisingly terrible!! HAHAHA!!


sunny and kurt

Are Japanese foods healthy?

Some people have negative images about American foods because they think that American foods are high calories and somewhat oily. Also they think Asian foods are healthier than American food. However, I do not think that it is always true.

Actually Japanese foods contain a lot of salt. Although the body only requires salt about 200 mg a day, the average Japanese consumes 4500 mg salt per day. This number is the highest in the world! Why do Japanese consume a lot of salt? I guess that Japanese foods are often seasoned with soy sauce and fermented soybean paste which is called MISO. These seasonings contribute us to eat a lot of salt. From my experience, I have never eaten salty foods since I came to America……….

Furthermore, consuming a lot of salt causes cancer. The number of people who develop cancer is the largest in the world. Japanese doctors and scientists reported that this is related to our eating habit. Not only cancer but also high blood pressure is also a serious problem in Japan. This is also linked to our traditional diet styles.

With these reasons, I think that Asian foods are not always beneficial for our health. However, In Japan, life expectancy of people is more than 85 years! Foreigners think that Japanese foods make our health but I think that there are other reasons.


Kurt, Sunny, and Y.

I believe that this quote indicates that an optimist tries to find positive aspects spontaneously in daily life, and a pessimist tries to see negative aspects involuntarily. I think that I am really a positive thinker, and I like my positive and optimistic ideas and behavior. Although some people state that optimists are careless, and they are not practical, I strongly believe that optimistic attitude is better than pessimist attitude.

Optimists can encourage me. Whenever I am depressed, I try to talk with optimists because they usually look on the bright side. Also, they try to overcome problems, and resolve difficulty. Therefore, they make us relieve our stress. Optimists have a splendid power!! However, negative thinkers and pessimists often make me frustrated because they do not try to change terrible situations. They just lament how they are sad.

Our life is not flat so we face difficulty and troubles many times but we have to overcome these situations. Therefore, we need to be optimists. Yesterday I read a Japanese magazine. It said that popular men and women are usually optimists. It means that if we become an optimist, we will have chance to get handsome and beautiful lovers!! Everyone let’s smile!