In Japanese culture, a geisha is a traditional entertainer, highly respected for her skill in dance and singing. In the West, however, “geisha girls” are often wrongly viewed as women of the night — a massively insulting stereotype and cultural faux pas.
It’s the kind of erroneous assumption students in Bryant’s “Intercultural Communication” course are learning not to make.
In a classroom exercise organized by Emi Kanemoto, Ph.D., assistant professor and director of the Intercultural Communication Program in the department of Communication and Language Studies, students are shown a series of images depicting human interactions. They are then challenged to describe, interpret, and evaluate the nonverbal personal and cultural communication cues they see.
When an image of a bowing woman impeccably clad in a silk kimono comes up, student evaluators use descriptors like “formal,” “polite,” and “friendly” — descriptors that reflect what’s actually in the image — without falling back on cultural assumptions or stereotypes.
The nonverbal communications exercise is one facet of Kanemoto’s GEN201 class, a general education course that all Bryant students are required to take. The requirement is unique to Bryant, says Kanemoto, whose teaching journey in the United States began when she emigrated from Japan about a decade ago. Yet, while it may be rare, the class is important.
“In the work setting, you have to work with people from other cultures, even within the U.S.,” Kanemoto notes. “Navigating these spaces is important not only in the workplace, but in your personal life, as well.”
Course goals include teaching members of the dominant culture to avoid committing microaggressions and improving their respect for marginalized communities. But the class also helps international students and other members of minority communities thrive in a sometimes unfamiliar and confusing cultural environment.
“In class we do a lot of self-reflection,” says Kanemoto. “We learn about other cultures, but also about ourselves.”
Unpacking stereotypes and oversimplifications are part of the learning process, as is unlearning attitudes about culture, race, gender, sexuality, national origin, and more, she says.
“Students gain language to call out someone or explain issues, such as how to respond to microaggressions,” Kanemoto says. “We learn about idioms and metaphors and how to navigate them. It helps students to live in a diverse space. We use knowledge to empower one another, as well as ourselves, to create an inclusive society.”
Lily Kimball ’27, a Biology major and Human Resource Management minor, sees the course as especially valuable for students who may have been relatively sheltered prior to college.
“For some students who come to Bryant, it’s their first interaction with people from different cultures,” she says. “It’s important not to see one culture as being better than another, while at the same time respecting your own.”
Kanemoto, who was inspired to pursue intercultural education through personal conversations with members of marginalized communities, says the general education requirement for students reflects a deep commitment to diversity at Bryant.
“Bryant has a culture change happening on campus,” she says. “I want to be part of the change.”
Language isn’t the only way people communicate; equally (and often even more) important are nonverbal cues such as hand gestures and eye contact, which can differ widely from culture to culture.
Examples of nonverbal communication, Kanemoto says, include:
Proxemics: the physical space and distance people use in communication. When people refer to their “personal space,” they are defining proxemics. U.S. visitors to the Mideast may find that conversations with locals can get a little too close for comfort, for example.
Chronemics: how we refer to and perceive time. This includes behaviors like punctuality and willingness to wait. Experiencing “island time” on vacation, for instance, is a classic example of chronemics.
Kinesics: body movements such as nodding or hand movements that are sometimes (but not always) accompanied by speech. Eye contact — or lack thereof — is also part of kinesics. Sustained eye contact is generally viewed as attentiveness in Western cultures but avoided in some Asian cultures as a sign of respect in certain social interactions.
Haptics: the use of touch in communication. Some U.S.-centric examples of haptics include functional-professional touch (a doctor touching a patient); social-polite touch (a handshake or a pat on the back); friendship-warmth touch (hugging or a kiss on the cheek); love-intimacy touch (kisses between lovers); and sexual-arousal touch. Touch rules and customs vary widely among cultures: Islamic communities, for example, generally frown upon touch between genders, but view behaviors like men holding hands in friendship as acceptable.
Paralanguage: verbal and nonverbal aspects of speech that influence meaning, including tone, intensity, pauses, and silence. An extended pause to emphasize the meaning of a word or statement is one example. Culturally, speaking loudly is a type of paralanguage that can be viewed as authoritative in Western countries; in some parts of Asia, it’s considered rude or, in Japan, a sign of loss of control in some contexts.
