Amae and Japanese learners of English: How they deal with problems in understanding in conversations with native and non-native speakers
Emiko Kamiya
SUNY Albany
Abstract
The purpose of the study is to investigate how amae may affect Japanese learners of English when they are exposed to intercultural communication. Amae is a concept that a Japanese psychiatrist Takeo Doi introduced as a key to understand the psychology of Japanese people. It is roughly translated as “dependence” but indeed a combination of patterns of behaviors. Although the concept is frequently mentioned in the studies on the Japanese culture and society, not much is known about the ways in which the predisposition of amae is brought into interaction where the Japanese use their second languages.
In this study, amae is applied to the analysis of 34 Japanese university students’ performance in conversations with native speakers (NSs) and non-native speakers (NNSs) of English, in particular the subjects’ performance in segments where they have problems in understanding. Methods drawn upon from Conversation Analysis are used to analyze naturally-occurring skype-video-conversations between the Japanese subjects in Japan and their international partners: NSs in the US, and NNSs in Taiwan and Germany. The study reveals that, when they encounter problems in understanding, the Japanese subjects employ various strategies including: immediately displaying non-understanding, displaying partial understanding, using delaying tactics to get a chance to transform their non-understanding into understanding, and not displaying understanding or non-understanding. While some of them may effectively work to resolve the problems, others may result in confusion and communication breakdown. When amae is attempted, the Japanese subjects do not explicitly display understanding or non-understanding, and their requests for help require the partners to exercise sasshi or guess what is going on. This indicate that, even about 60 years after the first mention of amae by Doi, amae-based attitudes are observable in the intercultural communicative performance of today’s Japanese young adults. In response, the partners handle the amae attempts differently according to their linguistic and cultural backgrounds. The findings show differences not only between NSs and NNSs, but also between the two NNS groups. Educational implications, as well as suggestions for English language education in Japan, are discussed.