This workshop is intended to help clarify some of the areas of intercultural communication education that have been left ambiguous.

A New Starting Point for Intercultural Communication Education: Clearing Up the Ambiguous and Fuzzy Points.

Facilitators: Milton Bennett, Shizu Yamamoto, Takehito Ishiguro

Date & Time: September 3, 2023, 13:00-16:00

Method & Lang: in-person, JPN & ENG

Place: Toyo University, Hakusan campus, Room 1307 (Bldg 1, 3F)

Fee: Member: 1000yen, Non-member: 1500yen, Student: free.

Application & Payment: Peatix

Session 3 Workshop Overview:

This workshop is intended to help clarify some of the areas of intercultural communication education that have been left ambiguous. For example, how should we think about the Similarity base and Difference base approach in intercultural communication? What does Dr. Milton Bennett, who formerly wrote about the Golden Rule (similarity-based sympathy) and the Platinum Rule (difference-based empathy), think about this issue now? Finally, we would like to ask you to envision what we have been thinking about throughout the past three sessions and how we can make it into educational material.

☆Milton Bennett is an Executive Director of the Intercultural Development Research Institute. Dr. Bennett earned his master’s degree in psycholinguistics from San Francisco State University, and his doctorate in intercultural communication and sociology at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Bennett is the author of Basic Concepts of Intercultural Communication: Paradigms, Principles, & Practices (Intercultural Press), co-editor and contributor to the third edition of The Handbook of Intercultural Training (Sage, 2004), co-author (with Edward Stewart) of the revised edition of American Cultural Patterns: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (Intercultural Press).

☆Shizu Yamamoto is a professor of intercultural communication at Tokai University. Dr. Yamamoto earned her master’s degree in speech communication from Portland State University and her doctorate in education from Sophia University. Her research interests are centered on intercultural sensitivity and the development of intercultural training methods. Based on the results of previous studies, she developed a Japanese psychological scale for DMIS (Multicultural Relations, 2022).

☆Taketo Ishiguro is an intercultural communication scholar (Ph.D. in Intercultural Communication Studies) whose research centers on intercultural discourse in multicultural organizations/teams. He has published such books as Images of Japanese leaders in multicultural organizations: A life-story interview approach (Shumpu-sha) and Multicultural teams and Japanese leaders’ dynamic thought processes: A grounded theory approach (Shumpu-sha).

Please contact:

Yuka Suzuki (Japanese) & Soyhan Egitim (English)

Program Directors

“There are people with different cultural backgrounds. There are cultures that are different from ours. And such differences should be respected.” Intercultural communication education, which has flourished in the age of internationalization, began with this kind of narrative. 

The June meeting will be June 25, 13:00-16:00. It will be conducted online.

Please see attached for details. Registration is available via Peatix.

“There are people with different cultural backgrounds. There are cultures that are different from ours. And such differences should be respected.” Intercultural communication education, which has flourished in the age of internationalization, began with this kind of narrative. However, when we engage in this kind of narrative, social categories are more likely to be perceived as substantive. For example, people who are represented by the names of categories such as Japanese, Americans, the elderly, politicians, and athletes are more likely to be perceived as if they really exist in the world in such a way. Today, as the word diversity becomes more familiar, we need intercultural communication with an updated narrative in order to be aware that we create many different positionalities in every aspect of our daily lives. Supporting this paradigm shift was the purpose of “Intercultural Communication Training: Growing Up with Differentness” (2022, Sanshusha), which was published last December.

While some people said that they could grasp the ideas they wanted from this book easily, others said that it was too theoretical and difficult to understand, or that they were confused because it was quite different from traditional intercultural training. Therefore, we have planned a three-part series of workshops to discuss frankly about today’s societies and educational practices in the field, and to find points of contact between contemporary issues and this book so that we can make the best use of it.

Session 1: Sunday, June 25, 2023, 13:00-16:00

What can we do now for intercultural communication?: Facing the “differentness” that has manifested itself in our immediate surroundings.　Shizu Yamamoto and Taketo Ishiguro, Method: ONLINE (ZOOM), Japanese.

Session 2: Saturday, July 15, 2023, 13:00-16:00

Overcoming Stereotypes: Establishing a Context in which Using Cultural and Social Categories is Not Detrimental. Yuka Suzuki, Shizu Yamamoto, Taketo Ishiguro, Method: in-person,

the location: Tokai University (Shinagawa Campus, Room 1201, 2nd floor, Bldg. 1), Language: Japanese.

Session 3: Sunday, September 3, 2023, 13:00-16:00

A New Starting Point for Intercultural Communication Education: Clearing Up the Ambiguous and Fuzzy Points. Milton Bennett, Shizu Yamamoto, Takehito Ishiguro, Method: in-person, the location will be in Tokyo. We will inform you as soon as it is decided. Japanese and English.

Session 1 Workshop Overview:

We will consider why we need to work on intercultural communication in this day and age. The purpose of this workshop is to create a common understanding of what intercultural communication education aims to achieve.

What was it that got you involved in intercultural communication in the first place? Many of you may have experienced discomfort, isolation, friction, or conflict, as well as new discoveries and joys, around “differentness.” If you can organize yourself in your own way in response to what you are experiencing, you may feel a little better. This will probably give you the mental space and energy to tackle the challenges you face. In this workshop, for starters, let’s talk about our experiences with intercultural communication studies that have made it easier for us. What were the theories and teachings that had a particular impact on you, how did they affect you in a way that made you feel more comfortable, and in what state or situation did “feeling more comfortable” mean in this case? In verbalizing and sharing these ideas, we will visualize the wisdom of individuals involved in intercultural communication education in order to make things easier for students. By finding connections to the theories and concepts in this book, we will search for more concrete ways to apply them in the classroom. Let’s also think about how we can verbalize the role of intercultural communication studies beyond the verbalization of “getting comfortable,” and create a common knowledge of why intercultural communication is necessary for people today.

For another piece of work, let’s try actually doing the “Let’s talk about Differentness! (p.180)” activity. In Professor Yamamoto’s class, students are asked to give a five-minute presentation on the above theme, and it is an exercise that has received a great deal of positive feedback. Participants will be informed of the content of the story that they will need to prepare prior to the day of the event. If you don’t have time to prepare, you can just watch and not be the speaker. This method was presented at the annual conference of The Forum on Education Abroad in 2022 as the “Micro-otherness approach.”

Session 2 Workshop Overview:

The program will be led by Yuka Suzuki, a specialist in intercultural training and facilitation in companies and universities. The plan is to bring together several chapters, such as Chapter 5 Observational Categories, Chapter 10 Context Shifting, Chapter 11 Stereotypes, etc., and to synthesize our teaching materials, questions, themes for dialogue, etc., to cover these chapters in class. We will create teaching materials from the perspective of perceptual constructivism, put them into practice, and think about potential areas for improvement.

Session 3 Workshop Overview:

This workshop is intended to help clarify some of the areas of intercultural communication education that have been left ambiguous. For example, how should we think about the Similarity base and Difference base approach in intercultural communication? What does Dr. Milton Bennett, who formerly wrote about the Golden Rule (similarity-based sympathy) and the Platinum Rule (difference-based empathy), think about this issue now? Finally, we would like to ask you to envision what we have been thinking about throughout the past three sessions and how we can make it into educational material.

Guest Speakers:

Session 1-3, Shizu Yamamoto is a professor of intercultural communication at Tokai University. Dr. Yamamoto earned her master’s degree in speech communication from Portland State University and her doctorate in education from Sophia University. Her research interests are centered on intercultural sensitivity and the development of intercultural training methods. Based on the results of previous studies, she developed a Japanese psychological scale for DMIS (Multicultural Relations, 2022).

Session 1-3, Taketo Ishiguro is an intercultural communication scholar (Ph.D. in Intercultural Communication Studies) whose research centers on intercultural discourse in multicultural organizations/teams. He has published such books as Images of Japanese leaders in multicultural organizations: A life-story interview approach (Shumpu-sha) and Multicultural teams and Japanese leaders’ dynamic thought processes: A grounded theory approach (Shumpu-sha).

Session 2 Workshop Overview:

The program will be led by Yuka Suzuki, a specialist in intercultural training and facilitation in companies and universities. The plan is to bring together several chapters, such as Chapter 5 Observational Categories, Chapter 10 Context Shifting, Chapter 11 Stereotypes, etc., and to bring to each other teaching materials, questions, themes for dialogue, etc., to cover these chapters in class. We will create teaching materials from the perspective of perceptual constructivism, try them out, and think about areas for improvement.

Session 3, Milton Bennett is an Executive Director of the Intercultural Development Research Institute. Dr. Bennett earned his master’s degree in psycholinguistics from San Francisco State University, and his doctorate in intercultural communication and sociology at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Bennett is the author of Basic Concepts of Intercultural Communication: Paradigms, Principles, & Practices (Intercultural Press), co-editor and contributor to the third edition of The Handbook of Intercultural Training (Sage, 2004), co-author (with Edward Stewart) of the revised edition of American Cultural Patterns: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (Intercultural Press). [Participation Fee & Registration Procedures]

Please register through Peatix and beware that your registration will not be valid without a membership number. If you are a member, please write your “membership number” after your name.

1. June 25, 2023, 13:00-16:00  https://sietarjune.peatix.com

2. July 15, 2023, 13:00-16:00 https://sietarjuly.peatix.com/

3.September 3, 2023, 13:00-16:00 https://sietarseptember.peatix.com（Access will be available after July.）