Episode 19 – Why do we think differently?

Japan Intercultural Institute
Japan Intercultural Institute
Episode 19 - Why do we think differently?
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Does culture influence the way people think? Are cognitive processes the same everywhere in the world? In this episode, Yvonne Van der Pol and Joseph Shaules dive deep into the topic of culture and cognition. They discuss the groundbreaking research of Richard Nisbett, who argues that culture shapes our mental processes—and thus our experience of the world—in many ways. They talk about cows, chickens and grass . . . and the student who changed his professor’s understanding of mind by saying that for the Chinese the world is a circle whereas for an American it’s a straight line!

Episode 18 – Culture Shock

Japan Intercultural Institute
Japan Intercultural Institute
Episode 18 - Culture Shock
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In this episode, Joseph Shaules and Ishita Ray discuss culture shock, the psychological disorientation caused by foreign experiences. They tell the story of Kalervo Oberg – the anthropologist who first wrote about culture shock, and explain the difference between culture surprise, culture stress and culture shock. They explore research into resilience, which reminds us that foreign experiences are often deeply meaningful even if they’re not always ‘fun’.

Episode 17 – Honor and Diversity

Japan Intercultural Institute
Japan Intercultural Institute
Episode 17 - Honor and Diversity
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What does it mean to “honor diversity”? Joseph Shaules and Ishita Ray explore this hot-button issue: What is an “honor culture” and how is it a double-edged sword? Is social media the new village square in which our moral values are under public scrutiny? What is the diversity that we are honoring? Ishita shares personal stories from India where the pressure to live up to moral ideals can be positive or destructive. We discuss research into the embodied nature of cultural values and how honoring diversity requires building bridges of understanding.

Episode 16 – A Conversation with Bob Whiting

Japan Intercultural Institute
Japan Intercultural Institute
Episode 16 - A Conversation with Bob Whiting
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In this episode, Joseph sat down with Bob Whiting, the best-selling author (e.g. The Chrysanthemum and the Bat; You gotta have Wa; Tokyo Underworld) who has made a career of finding cross-cultural insight in unexpected places—like baseball and the Japanese underworld. His new memoir is Tokyo Junkie: 60 Years of Bright Lights and Back Alleys . . . and Baseball. It recounts his remarkable intercultural journey – his small town roots; his 60-year love affair with Tokyo; his cross-cultural writing career, and how he learned to feel at home between cultural worlds.

Episode 15: Rubber Time or Slaves to the Clock?

Japan Intercultural Institute
Japan Intercultural Institute
Episode 15: Rubber Time or Slaves to the Clock?
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They are always late! They are slaves to the clock! Joseph Shaules and Yvonne van der Pol explore cultural stereotypes about time. They discuss Edward Hall’s monochronic time and polychronic time, the embodied and embedded nature of time, and Ishita Ray shares her experiences with time logics in India. And you can take a quiz to test your own time logic!