Using a diary method as a unique way to improve intercultural communication

抄録

　　　This study designed to develop a new method named the Diary Method to facilitate mutual understanding between a foreign visitor and people in the host country. The method consists of three stages; (1) a foreign visitor keeps a diary in his/her native language, (2) the diary is translated into the native language of the host country, and (3) the people who host the visitor read the translated version of diary and discuss about it with a facilitator who belongs to the host country and but is familiar with the visitor's country. This method aims at changing analytic narratives, or personal theories, that people in the host country had concerning individuals in the visitor's country by providing opportunities to be faced with conjunctive narratives, or narratives in a narrow sense, written in the diary.
　　　A case study was carried out to examine the effectiveness of the method. Specifically, two Indonesian authors of this paper kept a diary in the Indonesian language for a few months when they stayed at a Japanese university's laboratory while being hosted by four Japanese graduate students who worked in the laboratory. The diary was translated into Japanese and then was read by the four Japanese students. The graduate students discussed the diary with their Japanese colleague who had previously stayed in Indonesia. As a result, the four students changed their personal theory and behaviors. This change made another Indonesian researcher who ever heard the impression of his two colleagues, could not believe he was in the same laboratory when he visited the same laboratory the following year. Both positive and possible negative effects of the Diary Method were discussed from the viewpoints of both narrative and cognitive approaches.