Page 108 - Silence in Intercultural Communication

Chapter 4. Perceptions of silence 95

ing their personal life and experiences outside the classroom with the knowledge
learned in the classroom:
(51) For example, it is impressive to see them [Australian students] making clever
use of their own knowledge or something they have seen on TV, or something
from other books that they read not necessarily for the particular class.
[28:114 F4]

(52) Especially when those people who ask questions to the lecturers, who have
their own stances, bring in examples from something they are personally
familiar with, well, often these things are not familiar with me, and I feel
‘Oh, I have no idea,’ and give up. [22:18 F10]
This tendency of Australian students may disadvantage overseas students who are
less able to participate since they may be less familiar with local issues or with as-
pects of culture including history, media, sports, entertainment or general social
issues.
However, when issues relevant to countries other than Australia are brought
into class discussions, participation can be expected, as in the case of the educa-
tion major student mentioned earlier (Section 4.3.1). In another example, a lec-
turer in business in an Australian university gave me an account (personal cor-
2
respondence) in which one Australian student had showed his surprise saying
“Asians can contribute!” after Asian overseas students had actively participated in
the class. In relation to the issues being discussed in his class, this lecturer tended
to offer examples from Asian countries. This meant that Asian students were able
to share their background knowledge with the class.
In addition, it is also possible to find cases of Japanese student adaptation to
the Australian education framework:

(53) I said something once, in class. I expressed my ideas and the lecturer
expanded on my ideas. That was quite good, as learning…. I think that kind of
participation is actually to receive some feedback. It doesn’t really look like
they want to show off like Japanese do, does it? It’s not that they want to show
that they know this and that, but somehow it’s like genuinely, they share what
they know and want to get some feedback for it. [13:13-109 M8]
In fact, numerous comments indicate Japanese students’ appreciation of the Aus-
tralian educational framework as allowing them to explore their ‘own’ ideas and
opinions. The expression jibun no kangae ‘my own idea(s)’ was frequently used in

2. I would like to thank Dr. Loong Wong from the University of Newcastle, Australia for shar-
ing his experiences and insights in relation to Asian students’ silence.