week 6 post1

Is it possible to perceive others without in some way judging or categorizing them? If so, how? If not, how can we make the judgments we do make more fair?


I think it is impossible to perceive others without judging or categorizing. I believe we always have judgments on others, and everyday we change these judgments by finding out something new about them. Even for the old friends, I sometimes think; “I didn’t know she thinks like that”, or “I cannot believe it. In five years she never came late, but she is not there yet.” I am judging myself too. I sometimes think, “It’s not me” or “I am not that kind of person who says that.” Part of the reasons for these is because I am unconsciously judging and categorizing people, including myself. I remember the movie Spiderman 3, when the girl says, “What’s happened to you?” to the Spiderman. She was judging or categorizing him as a good guy, and confused by his words and acts because these weren’t what she always expected from him. For that, he replies to her, “I don’t know.” He was also confused for him being not like him. Those feelings of betray and surprise are the results of judgments and categorizing of people.

To make the judgments fair, the textbook states the importance of cognitive complexity (page 52). In a court, to make a judgment fair, there are always opinions from both sides for judges. A presiding judge never gave a judgment by hearing opinions from only one side. We should practice this for everything before we judge. For the information we hear from TV or friends, it is always better to listen different opinions, rather than one sided opinion. This is one way to become a critical listener. To become a critical customer, we can have third person voice in our minds. For example, before we buy something, we can ask ourselves; “It is very cute. You should buy it.” and “Will you really use it? Don’t buy it.”
As for people, by seeing others and hearing what they are saying form different perspectives, we can make more fair judgments on them.

Week4 post 3

Pick one concept from the assigned reading (Chapter 9) that you found useful or interesting and discuss it.

From this chapter, I learned the importance of knowing the audience when we do public communication. According to the textbook, in order to convey a message to listeners successfully, a speaker need to know the audiences’ beliefs, attitudes, values, sex, ages, and so on (page 257). When I think about it, it is always important to consider who are the listeners not only when we talk in the public sphere, but also in the private sphere. Needless to say, we change the way to speak, what to speak, and how to speak depending on who we are speaking to.

I think knowing the audiences is extremely important because public speech is not a one way (a speaker to the audience) communication, but it is the audience-speaker communication as the textbook states (page 257). I have seen speakers who speech like they don’t want any responses from audiences, but just want to talk.
One of the examples is when I attended an annual completing semester ceremony when I was an elementary school student. There were always a Mayer, PTA representatives, and people from other organizations who the students never met. We had to sit and listen quietly for those ten to fifteen people giving us the same “congratulation” speeches. I always thought if they see us bored every year for the same speech, they should change the comments to the words actually from “them.”
Ignoring the audiences never be a good idea to attain a successful speech.

Week4 post 2

Consider a well-known speaker, for example, the current President of the United States (or Presidential candidate). What is this speaker's strongest characteristics as a speaker? Is it credibility, attractiveness, power, or all three? In what ways could the speaker build ethos in these areas?


I think Barack Obama is a great speaker in the U.S. His speeches grab listeners’ heart because it has a good content. He doesn’t just talk. He talks because he has something that he wants to tell to particular people with passion. I remember my senior coworker said, “It was like I am seeing Martin Luther King Jr. again when I heard Barack Obama's speech.” I think his attractiveness comes from his young yet intelligent appearance, and the words he says, which are from citizens’ point of view. His intelligence is also a power so people listen to him, and his serious attitude towards social issues raises credibility of voters.

Japan is also in a middle of a presidential election, but all of the presidential candidates don’t seem good speakers. First of all, they don’t speech in a public that often. When they do, it is not a speech, but saying words that are on a transcript. I suppose many Japanese people are thinking, “who ever it will be.”

I believe choosing a president is an extremely important event of a country. Depending on who will be a president, a country and even the world change. Thus, I think these candidates’ campaigns in the U.S. are doing particularly a good job by getting citizens’ attentions to politics.

Week4 post 1

Have you ever been influenced by a speaker? Think of the best speaker you've ever heard. What was it about that speaker that made his or her communication memorable? Think of the worst speaker you've ever heard. What do you remember about his or her message?

The best speaker I have ever heard is Steve Jobs’ commencement speech at Stanford University. I heard his speech when I was about to graduate San Jose State University, and had no plan what to do after graduating. His speech was memorable for me because it seemed like he knows about what I am thinking or worry about. His messages came into my heart smoothly.

One of the messages he talked about was that we should never stop searching what we would like to do in our lives. For about a month after I heard his speech, I searched what I really want to do in my life. I looked back my past, I asked my friends about me, and I finally found something that I can say, “This is what I want to do in my life.” Although this maybe change in the future, finding something I really want to do gave me a great confidence.

The other thing that made his speech memorable for me was that he spoke about his experiences in his stories. Because of this, I could trust what he is saying. I could see what he is saying is really a word from his life. I could associated my experience to him too.

The worst speaker I have ever heard is the speech that the Japanese President Fukuda made. He recently gave a speech that he will quit his job. Although his message was something we weren’t expected, he didn’t give us much explanation about the reason why he is quitting. When a reporter asked him, “You act as if all of this is not your business”, he replied, “I am not like you.” His message not only didn’t made sense, but also gave me an impression that he is running away from his responsibilities and accusations from citizens. It is important for a president of a nation to have both a skill of governing and presenting.

Week 3 post 3

Pick one concept from the assigned reading that you found useful or interesting and discuss it.

An ethnography of communication is interesting for me because I did something similar when I took anthropology classes.

Now, I want to try this model with my job at a small cake shop.

Contexts for Observing Communication
Speech community: part-time workers at a cake shop
Speech situations: chatting
Speech events: When there are no customers

Elements of Communication
Situation: at a small cake shop; whenever there are no customers and boss around; there are no seats to sit down so we are always standing up

Participants: part-time workers (18 yrs old-30 yrs old);our goal is to kill a time and get along

Act sequences: We start talking when there are no customers, and nothing to do. We often talk about which cakes we like, what movies or songs we like, school lives, families, and so on. We stop talking when we see a customer came into the shop.

Key: smiling; explaining

Instrumentalities: verbal

Norms: No chatting when there are customers or a boss

Genre: Chatting



I didn’t really observe the situation at my job, so this report is not as accurate or detail as it should be. However, just by writing these down into small categories, I could be able to notice something that I never thought about.
For example, I realized that a topic we choose is very easy and short to answer. We don’t talk about something serious, such as our deep concerns. Probably, we don’t choose this kind of topic since we really cannot “got into a deep conversation” because of customers who come in to a shop randomly.

I believe this model will help us to understand complex communications. By carefully observing communication, we will be able to see a "tacit consent" of the community that we haven’t noticed before.
It might be fun to observe our daily conversations from a "communication researcher" perspective.

Week 3 post 2

Consider the pragmatic perspective. Does it make sense to think of communication as patterned interaction? How is communication like a game? How is it different from a game?

I think people’s personality is important to know to understand a communication. In a textbook, figure 2.3 on pg. 33 shows moves of a person A and B, but it doesn’t show the reason why A ignored B, or B offered apology for A. There must be their personalities that made them act like that. Without knowing their personalities, we cannot know the reason of their acts.

Furthermore, if there is a communication problem between A and B, it might be hard to fix their problem without knowing personalities of the two. Maybe, a person A only feels calm when she eats a cake. If we just look at the moves of them, we cannot figure out the way to fix the problem.

Communication is like a game because two people who are interacting are a partner, and one’s acts and words changes by the other’s acts and words. It is like a game because depending on how one acts, the other changes his moves.

However, on the contrary to a pragmatic perspective, I think communication is not like a game because people are not like chess that moves only in a certain way. For example, a boy said, “You look terrible” for a girl he likes. He said this because he got very nervous in front of the girl. Even though they used to be a good friend, people sometimes break the rules and patterns they created.
The boy’s act seems illogical, but we can understand the reason why he did it by knowing his personality and feeling.

The pragmatic model is the logical way to see communication, but humans don’t always act logically. I think there is no pattern for human communication, because humans are changing constantly, and how people talk each other changes all the time even little by little.

Week3 post 1

Consider the social constructionist perspective. How do we “build worlds” through communication? Think of some ideas we talk about in our culture that may not exist in other cultures. How do these concepts contribute to our happiness or success (of the lack of these) in our culture?


In Japan, most of children go to their local school until junior high. However, after finishing their junior high, they go to different high schools in a larger local area depending on their grades and results of entrance tests. Each high school has its own school uniform, so people can tell who goes to which school by looking at a student’s school uniform. Thus, I sometimes hear two middle aged women talking, “I saw your daughter the other day. She goes Matsuyama high school, right? I saw her wearing their uniform. I am jealous that your daughter is a smart girl.”
My thirteen years old sister asked me before, “Is this high school’s level high? Was the high school you went smart?” My mom replied, “so-so”, and I said, “It was fun!”

I certainly think we build “our world” through communication. By hearing adults’ conversations, and looking at high school students walking a street in different uniforms and advertisements of study materials in a train, my sister started to recognize that going to a good high school is the reason why she needs to study hard, and this is the norm for most of junior high students in Japan.

It is hard to tell this constructed world is good or bad. It is good that students study hard and get smart. They can use basics they learned and create something incredible in the future. On the other hand, it is bad that some students think going to a good school is the only way of life they have. If some students aim to study just to go a good school, what happens to their other interests, such as hobbies, friends and love?

I think “Going to a good school” is a good socially constructed norm. However, I believe the important thing is to realize that there are other worlds where “Going to a good school” isn’t the priority for teenagers. When Japanese students encounter other worlds like that, they shouldn’t criticize them merely by their own norm.

Week2 Post 3

Pick one concept from the assigned reading that you found useful or interesting and discuss it.

Francis Bacon stated that our clear thinking is interrupted by the “Idols of Tribe”, the “Idols of the Cave”, the “Idols of the Market Place” and the “Idols of the Theatre” (p 10). Among those four idols, I found the “Idols of the Market Place” especially interesting. Words are always in our brain, and I think they can be both interrupting and helping clear thinking.

As Bacon says, words can be “plainly force and overrule the understanding” (p 10). Misuse of language happens every moment, and this can lead a fatal miscommunication depending on the situation we are in. Thus, when we make a promise or an agreement on something, we often sign on a hard document rather than inform orally. Unlike spoken words, written words can stay as long as we hold the document, and those words can be chosen more carefully than spoken words. This indicates that words often are a cause of troubles.

On the other hand, I also think words make our thought more visible and clearer. For example, I can get a solution for what I concern about simply by speaking a loud or taking to somebody whether or not he/she is listening. This happens to me a lot. By putting on words, I can think clearer.

Thus, I believe words can interrupt and also fix and help our understandings.

Week2 Post 2

The Greeks believed that to be an orator, an individual had to be morally good. Comment on whether you agree or disagree. What, if any, is the connection between goodness, truth, and public communication?

I believe an orator should be morally good, but I also believe that a person who is morally bad can be an orator too if he/she has a strong skill of ethos, pathos, and logos. Adolf Hitler, for example, became a powerful speaker. It is unfortunate, but it is not always the case that only morally good person becomes an strong orator.

I think telling the truth doesn’t always equal to goodness. However, when it comes to public communication, I believe telling the truth is a vital moral in our society.
This is because the power of truth becomes even stronger when the truth was revealed in a public space. For example, several years ago, a TV program telecasted that Natto (fermented soybeans) is good to go on a diet if we eat everyday. After the show, the sales of Natto became extraordinary high ever than before. However, several days later, it turned out that a TV program fabricated the data about Natto to get a high audience rating. From this, consumers and Natto companies got extremely upset toward the TV program and its false data, and the program directors were fired.
If the truth wasn’t revealed, thousands of people might be eating Natto everyday believing they will lose their weight someday. Thus, in public communication, not telling the truth is deceiving a public, and this is not goodness. Telling a lie in public is something that shouldn’t occur anywhere.

Week2 Post 1

I admire Steve Jobs when he made a commencement speech at Stanford University. It was a very memorable speech for me because when I listen to the speech, I was about to graduate university, and feeling very anxious about my future.
I think his power to persuade others come from ethos. He talked about his hard college life and about a serious disease he over came. This speech was created from his personal experiences, and I believe this made his speech very strong.

When I speak to others, I always keep in mind that I speak honestly and respect what others are saying. After learning Cultural Anthropology at SJSU, I realized the very basic thing that people in the world think and express themselves very differently. Also, through living in three different countries, I realized that people talk differently by their cultures, and of course, by their personalities. Thus, when I talk to others, I first respect what others are saying and respond to them with honest words. Because I don’t decorate my words with flatter, I got trust from my friends, and my words become persuasive to them.
Since it is my personality that I cannot flatter (even when it is necessary), I believe my power to persuade others come from ethos.