Activities Activity 1

Activity 5. Write commentaries to the given scenarios below (A, B).

Scenario A.

You are from a high-context culture, and you just moved to a law-context country. You meet your neighbor, who tells you to “drop by” anytime. You don’t have many friends yet, so you decide to accept the invitation, and you show up at his/her door unannounced. Your neighbor, who seemed so friendly before, seems surprised to see you and tells you he/she is busy now and doesn’t invite you in.

Scenario B.

Martha, an American teacher in the US, had just started teaching English to a group of Japanese students. She wanted to get to know the students more informally, so she invited them to her house for a party. The students all arrived together at exactly 8.00 p.m. They seemed to enjoy the party: they danced, sang, and ate most of food. At about 10.00 p.m., one of the students said to the teacher, “I think it’s time for me to leave. Thank you very much for the party”. Then all the other students got up to go, and all left at the same time. Martha decided she would never invite them again!

Activity 6. Watch the video “Low and High Context Cultures” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tIUilYX56E) and answer the following questions:

1. 
   What are the features of high-context culture?
   
2. 
   What are the features of low-context culture?
   
3. 
   What countries belong to high/low context cultures?
   
4. 
   According to what features these countries belong to high/low context cultures?
   
5. 
   How would a context help explain instances of miscommunication between North Americans and Japanese?
   
6. 
   How could you become a better international communicator?