Please develop your answer carefully, using evidence and citing class readings and lectures to support your statements wherever possible. In writing your essays, remember that you should be trying to answer in a way that demonstrates what you have learned in this course.
PART ONE 60% of the grade: Expected length – up to 4 typed pages.
Upon completing his PhD, John was offered “out of the blue” a job in at the University of Fukoshima, Japan. The position was to start within a week. John never learned Japanese and at his university all classes are taught in English, but that was no deterrence. He immediately bought tickets to Fukoshima, stopping on the way for three night’s family visit in London. Upon landing, he had barely two days to rent an apartment, buy a new suite and locate the departmental office. After a month, he found to his consternation that one of his colleagues was dating a graduate student from the department. He wrote to the professor in question and never received an answer. He therefore emailed the Chairperson to inform him of the situation, and to his surprise did not receive any answer either. Desperate, he wrote an email requesting his colleagues to hold a department meeting to discuss a serious moral breach involving a member of the department. It seemed to John that all knew of the issue, but not only did he receive no response, but it was clear that the other professors avoided him. John decided to go to the dean. The dean received him, offered him a cup of tea, and before John could launch his complaint, stated coldly that the professor and the student were engaged to be married, and that in Fukoshima John’s behavior was considered extremely offensive. He then stood up and terminated the conversation, without letting John say a word. Dumbfounded, John decided to resign and seek another job in Tokyo. However, he also decided that he needed a detailed understanding of what had happened. Having heard of Mendilow’s famous course, he turned to you with a request to offer a detailed analysis of what had happened, why it happened, what he should do before taking up his new position in Tokyo, and what are the theoretical bases of your advice (both to better understand, and to be able to act better in the new circumstances). Please submit your report. Base it on everything you have studied in this class, and explain clearly what you are basing your answer on.
Part II, please answer TWO of the following (20% each): Expected length – up to 2 pages per answer
It could be argued that part of the tragedy of the Israeli –Palestinian conflict is that all are right, and that even though the original causes of the conflict are no longer relevant, the sides so distrust each other that no accommodation is possible. Discuss the claim as an illustration of the barriers to the communication between “others”.
Culture can be understood as a tacit philosophy, in which perception assumptions serve as the starting point and values as conclusions. Elaborate and illustrate by the differences between LCC and HCC.
In your answer explain the failure of the Nimchill campaign and the stumbling blocks that result from ignoring the nature of culture as a tacit philosophy.
Discuss the transmutation of the term “fundalmentalism” and the reason it is a stumbling block in our cross cultural communication. Offer an illustration from the non- religious sphere.
