Different Games, Different Rules

Haru Yamada puts a finger on why Americans and Japanese continue to miscommunicate after decades of close contact in the twentieth century. Drawing on evidence from personal and business discourse, she illustrates how the two groups aim at different goals in communication. In striving for their ideal of independence, Americans generally aim at explicit talk. In contrast, Japanese speakers tend to work towards a goal of interdependent belonging by using shaded nuances of meaning. Yamada shows how knowledge of each other's "communicative game plans" can help us to avoid these frustrating and damaging failures of communication. For those who wish to put an end to the same old story, here is a new look at an old problem.