JAPN 306: The Japanese Mind
Course Description:
A project-based course that looks behind the Japanese social mask to understand how Japanese people build relationships, community, and lives worth living. Covers modes of thinking and communicating, negotiating, and decision making; ethical systems; the central role of social status and hierarchical relationships; patterns of making friends and influencing others; psychological factors such as dependence and duty; and the Japanese aesthetics and ideology. (Prereq: Junior or Senior Standing)
A project-based course that looks behind the Japanese social mask to understand how Japanese people build relationships, community, and lives worth living. Covers modes of thinking and communicating, negotiating, and decision making; ethical systems; the central role of social status and hierarchical relationships; patterns of making friends and influencing others; psychological factors such as dependence and duty; and the Japanese aesthetics and ideology. (Prereq: Junior or Senior Standing)
Japanese Mind was a very beneficial course because we were able to share and express intercultural perspectives on many Japanese practices and philosophies through our in-class discussions and group projects. We would often discuss about cultural practices and inquire one another if we did similar practices in our cultures. For example, we talked about the concept of amae, or dependency. Many of Japan's structured relationships rely on dependency while in America, dependency can be perceived as a form of weakness. In my community, everyone can depend on each other, regardless of blood relations, which is why I found both views on dependency to be very intriguing. It also led me to write my final paper on an analysis of amae and uchi to soto, a concept I believed that was closely correlated with amae (as seen below). This is something I would like to continue to study in order to have a better understanding of the Japanese business world, in which both concepts are practiced extensively.
analysis_of_amae_and_uchi_to_soto.doc | |
File Size: | 55 kb |
File Type: | doc |