International Collaboration

Here’s our scenario for this week’s blog:

Scenario
During spring break, students from Kansai University in Osaka, Japan will visit and collaborate with Kapiolani Community College students. In teams of 3 (1 KCC + 2 KU students), they will visit sustainable living farms and Hawaii’s Plantation Village. They will create a poster presentation at the end of the visit with data collected and a reflection about their experiences. In preparation, the students made slides presentations to each other through Zoom video conference sessions about places to visit, what to bring to Hawaii, and English phrases and cultural terms (such as lo’i and kalo) encountered in Hawaii.

Your thoughts
Given your personal experience in this class and general knowledge about collaboration, what might be the most challenging aspects of such an exchange activity? What suggestions would you have to meet such challenges in order for teams to function effectively?

My thoughts
I think there are obvious challenges that come with Japanese-USA exchange programs like language barrier however, there are subtle differences in culture that influences our learning that may cause more of a challenge.

Japanese pop culture idolizes the US and Hawaii however, most Japanese do not know or understand that Hawaii is a state of the US.  They think the are of separate nations;  they think the US is America but Hawaii is just Hawaii.  The younger Japanese generation develop an interesting and glorified view of what Hawaii is like based on what they see on TV and social media; it’s just a tropical paradise.  But they don’t realize that Hawaii is just like any other US city with many different cultures and ethnicity.  (Granted, this is a very generalized statement of Japanese people but I believe my sample size is larger that 30 though so I would like to express this with at least some certainty ).

Although Hawaii is heavily influenced by Asian culture and is arguably different from the mainland, its residents are still American with very American qualities such as the right to freedom of speech, independence and uniqueness.  Being a Japanese American myself (born in Tokyo, grew up in LA), there is a reason why we have the word “American” in my ethnicity description (race vs ethnicity explanation).  We tend to pick and choose aspects of each culture to make it our own.

These differences in culture translates into teaching and therefore, learning.  Education in the USA encourage students to be bold and creative, taught with behaviorist and constructivist methodologies whereas, education in Japan is still very cognitive and follows a teacher-centered pedagogy.  Therefore, when Japanese students enter into an exchange program in the US, they may not know how to take initiative and be creative.

Due to the language barrier and the learning differences, I can imagine the single KCC student naturally taking the lead in the team, especially because this exchange activity will be in the US, KCC home turf.  With this said, my suggestion for the teams is to raise awareness and be mindful of the difference in personality that can drive learning in a particular direction. 

Advice to the KU students:  Be curious and creative! Ask as many questions as you can think of.
Advice to the KCC students:  Be encouraging and help scaffold learning.