“We Japanese are very shy, so that it is difficult for us to speak up.“ “We Japanese like sushi. Do people in Indonesia eat sushi?” These are typical phrases I have heard in intercultural exchange programs in Japan.
I have been working in the field of intercultural communication and have participated in many cross-cultural workshops and parties. On such occasions, many Japanese tend to talk not as an individual self, but as a “national” self. Once they recognize that they are talking with people from different countries and cultures, they begin to speak as if they are representing typical Japanese. It seems that their individual self-identities are absorbed into the group identity as “We Japanese.”
This “We Japanese” narrative makes it difficult to foster inter-personal communication. This narrative, popular among Japanese, would serve to fix the boundary between “We Japanese” and “You the other,” obstructing deeper mutual understanding.
The OH cards fully work to break the boundary fixed by the “We Japanese” narrative. I ask participants of diverse nationalities to pick a set of cards and to explain what they see in the set. Unexpected combinations of a word and a picture stirs up emotional reactions in one’s heart and facilitates lively and intimate communication among participants.
One can not help but being personal with the evocative power of the OH cards. I often witness that participants are even willing to voice their own thoughts and feelings and to listen to the others’ so that they can share their own memories, insights, and ideas among them. Their tales include stories of family, favorite memory from childhood, own dream and goal, daily routine, fear for the future, little fun in life: none of these stories are either abstract or stereotyped. Yet, their personal stories reflect their own national background and remain cultural/religious traits in one way or another.
Using the OH cards in cross-cultural activities helps us learn and appreciate our similarities and differences beyond the “national” or “cultural” boundaries. It also aids to develop a deep sense of empathy within a group through exchanging personalized vivid life stories to share each other’s rich experiences. For me, the OH cards are a tool to open a field where people can communicate with each other, free from fixed social categories and identities.
Megumi Shibuya
Japan
Excerpted from original material for the book Strawberries Beyond My Window: Games of Association for Opening the Door to Creativity and Communitcation, 2nd German Edition, by Waltraud Kirschke.
