Commonality and Individuality of Business Email Communication

Exploring Applications from the Viewpoint of Japanese Language Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore how commonality and individuality is treated in Japanese language education. The study attempts to clarify commonality and individuality based on interpretations of Japanese business email communications. The paper mainly discusses the recipient’s awareness of business communication. The author conducted an experiment and interviews with subjects through Japanese business email communication. The senders were office workers. The recipients were managers. Firstly, the senders were asked to write emails and the recipients were asked to read them. Then each of the senders and recipients were interviewed. Email data was analyzed via genre analysis. The message utilized was an announcement of a debriefing session to company members using a mailing list. The following situation was given to the senders. They were given the wrong information from the managers and told that they should pass this information on to members of the mailing list. As a result, the commonality found among both senders and recipients was that they paid attention to "consideration of the manager" and "whether the correct information was conveyed to those involved." However, the way in which recipients judged the messages as most appropriate varied among participants. The results suggest that Japanese language education teachers should focus on this sort of awareness in learners. First, teachers should share common norms with learners through educational activities. Moreover, it is important to consider what makes interpretations with individuality possible, even when people share the same opinion. Therefore, it is important to create an environment that allows learners to experience both processes continually.