ibunka TB_ver1.0_how to use the textbook

PART 2: People in Other Cultures In the second part of each unit we widen our view and look at how people in other cultures answered Ibunka Survey questions on the same topic. These were selected to give just a hint of the diversity of cultures outside of Japan, and discourage the simplistic “them vs. us” thinking we want our students to avoid. We are talking about the habits, preferences and experiences of individuals from certain foreign cultures, and not generalizations about entire cultures or countries. Wherever possible, we chose responses that highlighted cultural differences among foreign cultures. American and French cultures are often compared, for two reasons. Firstly, this project has been deeply inYluenced by the work of ethnologist Raymonde Carroll, who compared these two cultures in various aspects of daily life, in her book Cultural misunderstandings : the French-American experience . Secondly, many of the respondents to the Ibunka Survey happened to be from these two cultural backgrounds, so comparisons surfaced naturally.

Realizing that all foreign cultures, and in particular all Western cultures, are not alike, is an important step for our students. They can adopt a wider view of cultural difference; comparing their own culture to more than one foreign culture on a single topic makes for a more three-dimensional way of thinking.

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