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Haru Yamada, Different games, different rules: Why Americans and Japanese misunderstand each other. Foreword by Deborah Tannen. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Pp. ix, 166. Hb $24.00.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 1999

Laura Miller
Affiliation:
Sociology and Anthropology, Loyola University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60626, lmille2@luc.edu

Abstract

A prevailing fear of ambiguity, coupled with a global business imperative, has given birth to a new readership for the Japan-book trade. This new market, a large and lucrative one, is for general-interest books targeted at those who read about Japan not because they want to, but because they think they must in order to “succeed.” However, another book focused on Japanese and American communication may still hold the potential to teach us something new and valuable. A recent addition to this burgeoning literature is the book under review. Yamada has a lively writing style, a graceful use of metaphor and stories, and a Tannenesque “linguistics for the masses” formula to lead the reader through a few areas of probable communicative misunderstanding. On the basis of anecdotes, fables, TV dramas, samurai movies, proverbs, and some of her own previously published findings on bank contract meetings, Yamada sets out what she sees as the crucial discrepancies between American and Japanese conversational styles. These are easily summarized with her repeated characterizations of each group: Americans are independent and individualistic, and use explicit language, while Japanese are interdependent and group-oriented, and use implicit language.

Type
REVIEWS
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

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