Abstract
The number of registered foreigners in Japan has increased by 40% over the last 30 years. Among them, university students from South East Asia have increased considerably. Contact situations between Japanese and foreigners have also increased proportionately. This increase in contact situations between different cultures may result in a variety of misunderstandings. In this paper, contact situations between Malaysians in Japanese universities and their Japanese university student friends, are analyzed. We attempt to show differences in 'norms,' focusing on aizuchi or 'back channels' and the 'norms' which Malaysian students with advanced Japanese language skills and rich experience of intermingling with Japanese counterparts have difficulty noticing. Malaysians' use of back channels differ somewhat from the norms in Japanese. In this study, we found that Malaysians did not notice their deviations from the Japanese norms of back channels, and that their deviations were often not noticed by their Japanese friends. Consequently the Malaysians did not adjust their communication. This paper connects the two phenomena, namely 'the differences of norms' and 'deviation from Japanese norm of back channels', and explains how they are connected.
