Introduction In 1876, Captain Nathan Algren, an ex- United States Army Captain is traumatized by experience fighting in the civil war and Indian war. Algren accepts a job by a Japanese businessman to train the Imperial Japanese Army to inhibit a samurai rebellion, led by Katsumoto Moritsugu. He sails to Japan. Most of the soldiers being trained are just slightly better than peasants and farmers that are not experienced. The training is cut off when the samurai rebels attack a railroad owned by Omura (Joshi, 2015). Algren is forced to lead the inexperienced conscripts to engage Katsumoto. Leading his untried troops into battle, Algren lost the battle and is taken captive to the rebel’s village (Ebert, 2003). As time passes, Algren overcomes …show more content…
Anthropologist Edward T. Hall’s theory of high- and low-context culture helps us better understand the powerful effect culture has on communication. A key factor in his theory is context. This relates to the framework, background, and surrounding circumstances in which communication or an event takes place. The following highlights the problems facing low-context Americans when they interact with people from high-context cultures such as Japan in the movie ‘The Last Samurai’. In our notes, it is stated that the high-context culture rely heavily on non-verbal cues to maintain social harmony. This includes many Asian and the Middle Eastern cultures. On the other hand, low-context culture uses language primarily to express thoughts, feelings and idea as directly and logically as possible. Such examples are the American and the European cultures. Although the main conflict of the film lies within the Japanese culture, it encompasses the loss of cultural identity, and how some Japanese choose to embrace a more modern, western culture. By doing so, it pushes the cultural differences to the …show more content…
Katsumoto, on the other hand, dresses in traditional clothing. So do everyone in his village. Katsumoto is the only person in his village that can speak English. The differences between the cultures is most prominent however, in the styles of both verbal and nonverbal communication. Americans are a very direct people when communication style is considered. They often ask specific questions and say straightforward things. They do not “sugar-coat” words to save someone’s feelings, or to “save face”. The Japanese, on the other hand are an indirect culture where they are very ambiguous at times. Katsumoto demonstrated this when asked by Nathan Algren, an American soldier, “What do you want from me?” Katsumoto’s response was “What do you want from yourself?” Katsumoto was very evasive about answering such a direct
The last samurai tells us the story of captain Nathan Algren. Captain Algren served in the American civil war, during this time he was Awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery at Gettysburg. To some this would be impressive to Algren It brings back the haunting memories of Cheyenne women and children being brutally massacred. Captain Algren struggles to find peace from his actions but his mind is clouded by alcohol and emotional turmoil. Can the way of the Samurai help the young captain find peace in his actions or will he fall victim to the bottle?
At the beginning of Shōgun: A historical fiction Novel of Japan. In chapter one John Blackthorne an English pilot, of the trading ship Erasmus a storm causes the ship to wash up on the shore of Japan. Blackthorne and his crew are received well in a Japanese house, unaware that they are about to execute. His involvement begins as soon as he reveals his dislike for a priest. Lord Omi and Lord Yabu see that Blackthorne may be the key to getting rid of the Jesuits.
When I was asked to write about an instance of intercultural communication in a movie, Arrival was not the first thing that came to mind. However, once I had thought about it, I could not get it out of my head, and I knew I had to write about it. The reason behind my determination was that though the parties involved in the conflict are unusual—humans versus extraterrestrial beings—, Arrival still addresses very important issues that could arise during any intercultural communication. This paper will look at the reasons behind this conflict, namely our fear of the unknown, and our tendency to rely on stereotypes and to reflect our negative traits onto the other side. While doing so, it will also briefly touch upon the communicational issues within the human community, caused by the different frameworks through which they look
Knowing how to interact with people of other cultures has become an increasingly important issue as international communication and travel becomes more common. With more interactions between cultures, cultural misunderstandings become more common. The satirical book Fear and Trembling by Amélie Nothomb attempts to address this issue, pointing out what people often do wrong. Fear and Trembling is a story which follows Amélie, a young Belgian woman who goes to work for a Japanese company and struggles to fit in, committing many cultural faux pas along the way. Nothomb uses contrasting sentence structure between Amélie 's thoughts and her dialogue and actions to demonstrate the way that Westerners often ignore other cultures despite knowing better because they view themselves as more important.
Life experiences play a major role in the way that people view everyday activities and the world around them. The Japanese culture places an emphasis on respect and peace, but it also strongly encourages valuing nature. In the novel, The Samurai’s Garden, by Gail Tsukiyama, the gardens of Sachi and Matsu are similar in the way that they represent their gardener’s lives by exposing their creator’s personality through its ambience and past experiences through its design. Matsu’s garden was a living reflection of himself and his life. Matsu was a quiet person, full of mystery and hidden beauty, and he created his garden with a similar ambience.
The samurai from the early medieval time from Japan, and the knights from medieval Europe had a lot of similarities, and a lot of differences, which I’m going to be discussing. My essay will be talking about how the samurais are more prepared and can handle things under pressure. Some of the things I’m going to discuss in this essay is, which group's training was more effective for preparing warriors and, which group was better prepared for physical and mental trials of battles and war. The samurai from the early medieval time are more effective when it comes to preparing for battles.
The obligation a citizen feels to serve their country is a common sentiment. Despite this presumed duty resulting in countless deaths of men and women, many still make the brave decision to enlist themselves during a war. This can be attributed to how those who serve their country’s military are touted as courageous, selfless and heroic. Timothy Findley’s “War” follows the tragic story of a young boy named Neil growing up during World War II. Neil finds himself in a difficult situation upon learning that his father has enlisted himself in the army.
I also wrote the Coast Guard, the Merchant Marine, I wrote to General de Gaulle personally, I also wrote Chiang Kai- shek, and I was about ready to write somebody in Russia’” (103). To Finny, he was always meant to be in the war, he was athletically skilled, always creating games and excelling at games and sports that mimicked aspects of war. Before his accident,
Clint Eastwood’s “Letters from Iwo Jima” is a Japanese-American war film based on the American invasion and subsequent Japanese defence on the island of Iwo Jima. The protagonists of the movie are General Tadamichi Kuribayashi played by Ken Watanabe, and the fictional character Saigo, played by Kazunari Ninomiya. The movie shows the Japanese perspective of the defence on the island of Iwo Jima, to prevent the Americans from achieving a launching point for an invasion of mainland Japan. It follows Kuribayashi struggle to command his troops and defend the island. Meanwhile, it follows Saigo’s struggle to survive the ensuing onslaught to return home to his wife and child.
The film continued to convey untrue information as the story progressed. Soon after Algren agreed to aid the Emperor in training the Imperial Army, he left for Japan. The second scene filmed in Japan was of Captain Nathan Algren meeting the Emperor (Source 2). The first notable inaccuracy in this scene was the age of the Imperial Lord. The actor appears to be eighteen or nineteen years old.
Throughout time, literature has had the power to connect readers around the world by providing them with insight into different cultures. Readers may come together by analyzing different texts and how they represent different backgrounds and give readers from a different culture a new perspective. Matsuo Bashō, a haikai master, provided readers with an insight into Japanese culture by depicting his travels around Japan in his work “The Narrow Road to the Deep North”. In the text, Bashō depicts his journey with the use of prose and haiku. Most importantly, Bashō educates readers by demonstrating the Japanese culture’s value for impermanence, the idea that time is transient.
Languages are complex because they are made up of many components. Some components include the culture, meaning, and interpretation. The way people understand language has to do mostly with their culture and their understanding of what is being said. Also, depending upon where someone is raised, the pronunciation of certain words can be different and therefore it influences the understanding. My goal in this paper is to demonstrate that language and culture are intertwined.
Courage in “Seven Samurai”, by Kurosawa In the film “Seven Samurai”, Akira Kurosawa the director portrays courage through the characters such as the samurais but and the peasants. The story is set in the Sengoku period, which meant that Japan was undergoing numerous civil wars, and bandits were raiding a starving small village where Kambei and the 6 other samurais decide to protect later on in the film. In this essay, I will discuss the ways in which Kurosawa shows courage firstly in Kambei and between the male and the female, secondly its link to Aristotle’s idea on courage, love (both romantically, and in the family), and thirdly its relevance in post war Japan.
They talk in tatemae usually with people that they are not close with because they would worry what they would think of them and a fake smile is also part of tatemae. Even though you and your family made be close but when you invite an “outsider” into the house the family will behave like they are in public “tatemae”. To be honest, everyone speaks in Tatemae and Honne in every country and everywhere, but in Japan, they just have this strong concept of it. Personally, if someone asked me “Does this dress look nice on me?” if she’s not a close friend I wouldn’t say “It looks ugly on you” I would have probably put it in a nice way but if she was a close friend I would have straight up say it’s ugly.
In the social life, language and society are two things that support each other. It is impossible if there is society without language and there is language without society, because language is a device to communicate one to another (Adam J.H, 1982; 3). There is the study to organize between language and the society that is called sociolinguistics.