 On behalf of OIST, it is absolutely my pleasure and honor to extend an absolutely warm welcome to all of you. For those of us, those of you who have traveled from far away, our keynote speakers, those of you who have traveled from other parts of Japan or Okinawa, and also our entire OIST community that is here with us today, thank you so much for joining us. We're excited to have you. This is our third annual symposium of the Center for Professional Development and Inclusive Excellence, commonly known as C-HUB, here is easier to say. And our annual symposium brings together bold ideas and innovative thinkers to explore themes that enhance our ability to engender excellence through inclusion. Our 2024 theme, Inclusive Communication, explores the ways in which we can center equity and inclusion to break down barriers and in so doing reveal new insights that lead to broader deeper understandings. Inclusive Communication holds all of us accountable for our assumptions and biases that exclude the voices and the contributions from certain groups. One might venture to say that communicating clearly and inclusively is a moral act, the great enemy of clear language and inclusivity's insincerity. And to be insincere is to be untrue. Inclusive Communication creates paths toward clarity and exchange and sincere interaction. So what could it mean then to take an empathetic stance toward constructing meaning through our interactions? The late Nobel laureate and human rights activist, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, espoused the philosophy of Ubuntu, which describes an African value system of the interdependence of humans on one another. Ubuntu is translated as I am because we are. We are human only through relationship. Archbishop Tutu said that a person is a person through other persons. Inclusive Communication highlights our interdependence and allows us to consider the biases and actions that exclude meaningful participation and inhibit our collective well-being. Our keynote speakers have been instrumental in breaking down barriers to fully participatory engagement. They'll raise our awareness of what critical voices, data, and representation are raised when information is biased or access to participation is limited. Their work will inspire us to take action in our own roles and our environments and institutions to enable all of us to embody an ethos of Ubuntu to work toward an inclusive collaborative culture. And now I'm pleased to introduce my colleagues Chiaki Chibano and Misato Matsuda, who will introduce our dance performance group to open our symposium. Thank you, Cathy. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for coming to Okinawa for the symposium and to Oysters. Thank you for walking all the way to LaFour. Today we would like to welcome you using Uchinaaguchi, the indigenous language of Okinawa. That's what Misato has been speaking. We are now standing on the land of Tancha. So we would like to welcome you through a traditional Okinawan dance rooted in Tancha, called Tancha-me. It literally means, in front of Tancha, that's the beach. Cathy mentioned how we build a community together, and they say in Tancha everybody had a role to play and the dance shows the life of Tancha community, and you see one person going fishing with a paddle, a cook with a paddle, and another person selling the fish in the basket, Baki. We are honored to have dancers from Shimabukuryu, Chihirokwai. We have Lena Shinshi, Lena Shinshi, and Ami Shinshi Ami with a paddle egg. She actually works at Oyst. Ami, Lena, please dance the Tancha-me for us. Thank you, Lena, Ami. That was the Tancha-me, the dance rooted in this area. We hope this symposium will be an Ajikuta symposium for you. Ajikuta in Okinawan language means rich in flavor. So enjoy this Ajikuta symposium. Thank you. What a wonderful real-kill dance performance by incredible talented artists. And this is one of the best ways that we can think of to really welcome you here to the Okinawa Island, to Oyst, and also to remind all our Oysters that we are actually living in such a wonderful place in front of this fantastic beach and the culture that is here. And that also is part of our mission to support and make the most out of. So in that way, I want to also say good morning to everyone. And I am Karin Markides, president of Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology called Oyst, of course. And thank you for joining us at this event. And I feel that I want to also welcome all of you that have traveled from far away and the ones that are based at Oyst. You are equally welcomed, of course, to this day. And we are especially pleased and thankful to have an outstanding list of keynote speakers here with us today. And it's a great, great honor to have with us the U.S. Council General, Master Yudalva, and to Dr. Natalie Konomi from Kyoshi University, Dr. Kana Grace from University of College London, and Professor Catherine Dignasiu from MIT, and as well as Dr. Vik Savanathan and Dr. Laura Bonnet from the Harvard Hughes Medical Institute. And it was actually in December 2021 that Oyst established this new center for professional development in inclusive excellence, also called C-HUB here at Oyst. And in just two and a half years, Dr. Cathy Tamayama and her team have actually really done a wonderful work out of this C-HUB activities and building a culture here at Oyst. This annual C-HUB symposium is just one of the activities that C-HUB's valuable in C-HUB's valuable portfolio. And it has become a signature event, you can say, for Oyst. So many of you have also participated in the peer-to-peer mentoring circle that was established by C-HUB. And I'm sure that the ones of you that did participate in that will appreciate the focus today to dismantle individual and societal biases and barriers and to communication through more empathy, understanding and accountability. So I'm looking forward to hear more about that after this symposium. Each year the C-HUB symposium gives us an opportunity to explore in depth an important topic that can enhance our ability to really achieve excellence through inclusion. And in the past years we have learned about inclusive leadership and mentorship with the help of distinguished speakers and participants from Japan and around the world. And this year we have another exciting and significant topic in focus in the inclusive communication. So when I first heard about this topic I thought that it would mean many different things for different people. So I'm also very much looking forward to hearing from the experts about their perspectives in this most relevant topic. But one thing that I'm convinced about is that inclusive communication requires active and thoughtful participation from the members of community. I also know that inclusive communication is a base for building trust. And it is by the actively participation in discussions, exchanging views, asking questions, insights and giving feedback that we can ensure that the understanding of a message and the interest of everyone is considered. A leader has the responsibility to make sure that everyone has free access to participation. And it is also everyone's responsibility to listen, to observe and engage in the inclusive way that will build the trust in the team. It is known that a fraction of our employees do not feel fully included at their workplace. It is true all over the world, but even so here. OIST is a young organization that has grown fast and attracting people of very diverse backgrounds. The development of a truly inclusive culture will be essential for OIST. Communication and visibility plays a central role in reaching an inclusive culture where all employees are valued and able to participate fully. In this culture, curiosity-driven research, transformative innovation, value-added collaboration and equal opportunity to contribute will flourish. While clear policies are important, of course, it is the daily communication practice in the workplace that gives the important sense of belonging and respect. Right now, our priority is to develop a forward-looking strategy for OIST where we can reach our mission goals and be a proud example of a university in this century where verified knowledge prevails. To all the members of the OIST community in the audience, I would like to say that OIST's new strategy will give you many opportunities to participate in and shape the future of OIST. We began this process by a commitment to our mission and confidence that we know who we are and who we are today and by the way that we analyzed unsolved internal challenges through something we call strategic working groups. This resulted in defined projects that now will be the base for taking OIST to a more inclusive and mature university. Many of you have already engaged in preparing for the upcoming strategic process and you shared your concerns with me during my listening tour also across OIST and participated in giving feedback to the strategic working groups. These are important baselines to establish before embarking on something new and calibrate the dynamic range of our university in our mission areas. To breathe life in the strategy. A yearly process to include voices from each employee in an organized process and communication channels will be activated very soon as we start the new physical year in April. More information on the strategic process with opportunities for your feedback is still possible and it is coming up in March 18 in a strategic town hall event. I'm looking forward to a most inclusive dialogue there to steer OIST in the direction of our shared vision. At OIST we truly are incredibly, we have an incredible community. The talent each one brings to the organization is just remarkable. We have people with such a diverse range of backgrounds and lived experiences. So in addition to thinking beyond the boundaries of traditional science at OIST we are also aiming to think beyond the boundaries of our perception. This symposium is an opportunity for us to learn how to practice inclusive communication by challenging our assumptions, questioning our current knowledge and fostering new insights. Together we can relearn the tools and best practice in a partnership across different generations that will build the future. So inclusive communication is a strategic advantage to attract talent and to make everyone feel valued. And of course to make OIST to reach its mission goals. Its mission goals where we are here in the town, the Tanja beach. So thank you very much and I wish you all a very fruitful day and that you can take a lot of things with you from this inclusive communication focus day. So now friends, it is my pleasure to also here introduce the first keynote speaker for today. So Dr. Natalie Konomi is the Vice President for International Affairs and Diversity at Kyosha University. She has over 20 years of experience in academia. Her research spans organizational management, strategic alliances and inter-culture communication. She has dedicated her work to promoting cross-culture understanding and internationalization in Japanese universities and communities. Very important topics indeed. Her global efforts have been recognized through the several awards including the Hokkaido Social Contribution Award for connecting Katami City in Japan to Ulaanbaatar city in Mongolia. She has extensive experience in navigating different teaching environments and customizing classes for diverse cohorts of international and Japanese students. So please help me to welcome Dr. Natalie Konomi. So President Markides and Kathy, thank you so much for inviting us to this great symposium. It's the most important topic ever I believe, inclusive communication. And I will focus today a little bit more on the cultural and language part. So I don't know if you see the slide, yes. So the topic is building bridges through inclusive communication. And I just really want to share my insights from my experiences. It's going to be very basic, right? So you're going to feel like in the classroom maybe. And I'm using two computers as you can see, one with the slides and one with my script, to not confuse our translators, our great interpreters in the back, and to stick to the time schedule. So first of all, okay. A little bit about myself, right? So there was this great introduction of myself. So I'm going to talk a little bit about myself and we're going to see the topics that I will cover here today. As I made, it's always for me amazing to witness the positive impact that all this communication into inclusive or intercultural communication has on individuals and organizations. So on a small scale or on a larger scale and how it really helps breaking down the barriers and fostering awareness. And awareness is really my keyword always when I speak to people about this topic. And also then to come to at least some more understanding among the diverse groups. Working in Japan again with some Japanese only groups or Japanese only classes, which are diverse too. And then the more visually more diverse international classes with various age groups and genders. It's always fascinating in the end to see that the people really show similar worries, similar fears and scares when working with strange or other environments or cultures or people. Anything that's unfamiliar really to them. So in the end really it's just important of trying to understand each other. And that's, it sounds so simple and yet it's so difficult. So today again I want to go through these various aspects and hope that we will leave this room a little bit more awareness. And it might be helpful for the next sessions that are coming up as well. So there was this nice introduction of myself. So thank you again for the one part introduction of me. So I'm Natto Ekonomi, Professor and Manager of the Global Strategies Office and Vice President for International Affairs and Diversity at Kyushu University. And I've lived and worked and studied, well worked mostly in higher education in Japan for 26 years now. And as my bio tells me, tells you when we're looking at this nice kind of boring points. This slide is not very interesting maybe. I've, so basically I hold degrees from Augsburg University in Germany. I'm originally from Germany, from Nagoya University in Japan. And my research again covers organizational management and strategic alliances but mainly nowadays I totally shifted into intercultural communication. My experience is again in education, intercultural communication. It includes as introduced navigating the diverse classrooms and helping, well, survive in diverse environments. Mainly in Japan as I mentioned. So again it's really for classrooms, Japanese enterprises of all sizes that I provided training sessions, also local communities. And recently also we have a lot of university networks with other countries. And we noticed that we never have any intercultural or intercommunication sessions really in them. So I also offer training sessions before the symposia start for example. So the main reason for me to do this is really, especially for in Japan, again, foster intercultural awareness. And I keep repeating awareness, awareness, because I think it's the most important aspect here. Now with this, you probably have a certain impression of me. I'm talking here using my hands all wiggly. And what kind of impression do you have of me now? With this information and me talking here and what President Makita has provided, I'm sure you have your first impression of me. Let me show another slide. This is me. When I was really cute. I was born actually in Scotland. That is the map for those who don't know where Scotland is. But I'm sure we're all okay. As I said earlier though, I'm German. I moved to Germany when I was six years old actually for the first time, so to say. Before that, I lived with my parents in Canada and the United States. And as I said, I lived a long time now with 26 years in Japan. And in Japan I moved to various places. I started off in Nagoya. I had enough of the heat in the summer. Went up to Hokkaido, to Kitami, all the way in the north. And then I came to Kyushu in 2019. In between there were some times in Tokyo as well. And yes, so I lived in Japan for, I would say, one and a half years. When I was a junior high school student. And I always wanted to live in Japan after that. It was such a great experience for me. So I came to study at Nagoya University. That was my dream, to study in Japan and come and stay for a year and then leave again. We all know how that worked out, so 26 years here now. I had the opportunity to meet a lot of international students. And I did my degree at Nagoya University here with some Chinese colleagues of me at that time. So, wherever I lived in Japan, wherever I lived in the world, I always noticed it's different. And just the performance of our, on the Ryukyu, the dance, and the language shows it's different. I mean everybody says we're in Japan, but I mean this is Okinawa. The indigenous language is very, very different. And it's something that we always have to keep in mind. So, you know, just with this information now, I don't know, has your image changed a little bit of myself, of me? English is not my first language, as you can notice. So, why am I telling you all of this now? One reason is, again, to show you how the impression that you have of a person changes with the number of information you receive about that information, about that person. So, the second one is really to show you how my childhood, I was already raised in various, or I got the experience of various cultures. Of course, I was not conscious about that as a child. You just enjoy what you experience. But it taught me a lot to already adapt in certain situations. And that can be starting with non-verbal communication, right? So, I want to do a little wake-up, wake-up, no warm-up practice with everyone to make sure y'all stay awake in the morning. This is a possible gesture that you can see in Japan, or maybe in other countries as well, putting your hands together in front of your face. And then sometimes in the textbooks, it's from a textbook actually, it says, usually applied by women. What do you think could this be? Yeah, already see, like, I see something. Maybe what does it mean in your country? Maybe I'm doing something really bad in another country with a gesture like that. But in Japan, it would be, for example, that one. I'm sorry, right? I'm sorry. Go man. The cute version, I guess. Or, please do me a favor. Onegai, right? One example. What about this one? Waving your hand back and forth in front of your face. So, what does it mean? I get the laughter. What would it mean? Something stings. Yeah, something stings, exactly. That's the most common version. In Japan, it can also be. Chigau, no, no. No, you're wrong. No, no, no, no, I'm not going to do this. Or it can be no way. Tonde monai, right? Or it can be just, it stings. Another example, pointing with your index finger towards you. And the Japanese people are like, no, we don't use that. But then when they do have conversations, they sometimes do it. What could this be? For those who are in Japan, you know, probably. Yes, exactly. I told you it's a classroom. So it's basically me. You can do like this. Me, other countries do it like this. Often it's like this. Just another cute one. Both hands in height of your face. Palm down. Palm hand pointing to the ground. Like this. Sometimes get like a dog or something. In Japan, this can be, where are the Japanese? It can be ghost. Right? The symbol for ghost, for example. So just an example of gestures, right? That can have totally different meaning. And we all know, obviously, that there are various behaviors or types of behaviors that we take place in different cultures and different settings. This can be based on cultural differences, of course, but also on personal differences. What kind of gestures do we use? So even within the same or similar culture backgrounds, there are just different ways on how we use our body language, the space, for example, to connect with other people. And different cultures will have different notions, norms, really. And if two people, as you know, who are from different cultures or different norms come in contact with each other and then use different gestures, it can be sometimes very misleading. So already here, when we talk about communication, we also have to include things like this, the non-verbal aspect, to stay warmed up a little bit more of some questions that I have for you. Please raise your hand if one of the following statements now applies to you. I sometimes sing in the shower. OK. Or in the bathtub for the ofudo. They work quite a lot, very nice. I've spent more than one month in the country other than my birthplace. OK. I guess that goes for everyone here in this room. Or maybe not necessarily. See. I'm already making here some assumptions. I don't know. Maybe some of the oysters here have been here, here and oist, or not oist, but Naha or Okidawa. Right. What about this one? I can speak a second language. OK. Also everyone. Very nice. Sometimes I get very different answers to this one, right? Depending on the classroom that I'm teaching. And then how about this one? I made a mistake when dealing with another culture. I think we've always, everybody has been through that, right? It's nice to see, though, that you're raising your hand. You're like, I'm aware I made a mistake. Right. That's where it starts already. And how about this one? I've been irritated by people's different working styles and perspectives. This is where inclusive communication comes in, right? So I just think such small, simple, warm, like warm-up or task can really help create, again, awareness already when we start. It helps us to think about the communication aspect. And most importantly, in a fun and simple way. So I'd like to use what was such simple activities. I do use those always in my classrooms for any activities, just, again, to create awareness. Now, you might have noticed that I often talk about intercultural communication or intercultural communication, which is my main field, as I mentioned. However, sometimes I also use the word inclusive communication. And I use it in a similar context. Why do I do that? Why is that? So to me, inclusive communication involves, of course, the strategies and language choices. It ensures everyone in the conversation feels respected, valued, of course, and understood. No matter really the backgrounds or identities. Now, it aims to remove the barriers, which could exclude people from different groups. Now, intercultural communication, on the other hand, focuses specifically really on the interactivities between the people from different cultures. And it emphasizes understanding the values again and the norms and the practices that shape how we communicate in diverse cultural contexts. This understanding, again, is really what enables the effective and respectful exchanges across cultural lines. Now, both inclusive and intercultural communication at the end, they center on respecting and understanding diversity, I think. So inclusive communication has a wider scope, I would say. But it encompasses not only cultural, but also all other types of diversity. But in the end, both aim to bridge the differences and sort of, well, between different worlds. That can be my own personal little world that I have or the common stereotype worlds that we have. Whether culture or any other type. And they start with how we perceive the things differently in the end. So again, awareness and understanding are the key points. And the approach to reaching that are similar, I believe, in inclusive and intercultural communication. So a little question here. Do you recognize any of these words? And if so, what is like the equivalent word in English or Japanese or your mother tongue? Because I'm sure everybody's from a different country here. It's very international. So we have, for example, and my pronunciation might be wrong. So, sobremesa. Hugge, right? Pristiti. Ma. And schlotkreia. So do you recognize any of these words? So I'm yes, so that's how I'm yes. So that was wrong pronunciation, right? Yeah, let's take a look at sobremesa, maybe. Right? It's Spanish. And it describes the time we spend after a meal with friends or family just chatting and laughing and speaking before we even clean the table or leave the table. So it's this whole atmosphere, this whole culture expressed in one word. Do you have a similar word in your language? I cannot come up with anything in German language or even in Japanese. So, one interesting example. Another one, as I mentioned, is the higge. Has anyone heard? I'm sure. Karen, you have. Yeah, so yeah. Pristiti. Yeah, exactly. So higge is Danish. It can be used as a noun or as an adjective as well. And yeah, in the dictionaries, it's kind of defined as a cozy quality that makes a person feel content and comfortable or invoking or fostering a sense of coziness, contentment and well-being. But when you look at all the different meanings it has now used in the language and not only in Denmark, it's really like live the hig away or simply have a beer with a friend or without friends. Just by yourself can be higge. You have the most higge bicycle even. Or just like the part, the taste of your childhood can be higge, right? So again, I don't know, can you think of a word in your language that kind of represents this feeling? And the other word was, again, appricity. Appricity, appricity, bad pronunciation. But this is... All our English speakers should know. It's actually English and it's the warmth of the sun on the winter's day. So it's kind of a winter word, right? But not necessary used in Okinawa maybe, I don't know how cold it gets. Or the word ma, right? This is a Japanese word and I'm actually going to talk about that later so I'm not going to ask you here what you think it is but just think of what it could be for the Japanese as well. Think of, oh, how could we explain ma in English, right? I'll share my thoughts about that later. What about this one? Schlotkreia, okay. So actually, this is a word that a colleague and I were bored and we were just making up a word. So it's basically 13 characters in search of a meaning. We can define it as we like. If we use it a lot in the world using online nowadays we might be able to spread it, it might end up in the dictionaries. So we can give definitions to a word based maybe on our culture or our backgrounds. So just something to keep in mind. Another example can be how you name colors. For example in this image, which is not showing up. So what do you name the colors in this image, right? So we have red probably in many countries. In Japanese we say aka with traffic lights. Now here it already becomes tricky. My UK colleague say ember. In Germany you might say orange or yellow even for it. In Japanese it's kido. So I say tendency is more yellow. Green, green light. In Japanese we use owl. Which actually would be if we translated nowadays, blue. In Japanese we have aoringo. Blue apples. Auber, the green vegetable. So for plants. What about... We call these birds in German hot keelchen, so we use red. The hair color. What language do you use to describe this color? What word? And in Japanese language, so there's also separate terms for blue and green because I said owl is blue nowadays and green is midori. But the word owl was used in all Japanese for green and blue. So we have a kind of culture mix now from past, how the words were defined in the past and nowadays. And some of the older terminology sticks to certain objects still. For example. So different words, different worlds. So something that I want everyone again to think about. Now this is just one example of how our language and our culture really influences how we perceive the ways by ourselves. Now as people we perceive the world in particular ways according to really how we have become socialized to do so. But also what experience we've had. And we each act in accordance with the perception that we have. So when we look at the, for example, I like to use this Shibuya Scramble Crossing. It's very famous in the world. One person here might see chaos. Another person might say, oh it's really orderly, like they're not bumping into each other. The same goes for justice and fairness. One person might perceive something as just, as fair. Well another perceives it as unequal. Or institutional discrimination. Any kind of sound for one person this might be music. For another that might be noise. And the color was just another example, the blue and green. So personal perception is what again influences then our way of communicating. And we have to be aware of that. So yeah, these are our personal normalities. So what we think is maybe the correct way, or the normal way. And some aspects again, as I mentioned that earlier, we share with others, but some we might not share with the others. And it's really influenced by so many factors. For example, and I hope this shows up here. Someone might have grown up in Holland, and another person in Hawaii. Changes everything. I might have grown up in the city, another person in the countryside. Or I might have grown up in the 1980s, and you in the 2000s. Yes. So gender gaps, another issue. But in the end, yes. So in the end, it's all our personal perception. We need to be aware that they are different. So what happens when you come into one another's world? I would say usually we each act in the scene according to what we believe are the rules for this. We may read the actions of others from our viewpoint. And we may assume that others read our actions from our viewpoint too. Now in the end, we always seek out ways to interpret conduct that does not match what we would expect to be according to our rules. So again, we have to be aware of this in any social setting, be it in the classroom, in a business meeting, or simply really dealing with, or having any encounter with a person we haven't met before maybe. So again, it's all about awareness. So I want you to imagine another setting. Okay, Dell Update, but not Red. So imagine a scenario in an international company, they are holding a meeting in Thailand. I actually joined a meeting like that, and I had the chance to talk to the participants there. So we had Thai, US, French participants. It was about mainly US participants and Thai, and then we had a few French and one Japanese colleague joined. And the meeting was held in English. And it's dominated by the English speaking, or the US speakers to be honest. With Thai and French and Japanese, well they spoke a little, right? And my question is, have you experienced meetings like this? Probably a lot of people who work in an international setting. So what's going on here? Now when asking the participants again, so from now being West European sort of, from a West European worldview or perspective, and here we're talking stereotypes. Again, very important. The US colleagues presumably use English as a first and main language, and therefore they are more confident. That's what most people would answer, or do answer often when we ask them. The other nationalities might feel more insecure about their English, so the French, Thai and Japanese. And therefore the Americans will basically dominate and probably drive maybe even the decision making of the meeting. So they're more confident, and the other countries are maybe a little bit more insecure about their language and reluctant to participate, or lose face even. And you might notice, I keep using gestures that might not necessarily be understood by every person, but I do assume, assuming that everybody gets this, right? That tend to use, but in Japan it's not used that much actually. So again, when I talk about awareness, I'm aware, but I always use it anyway. Right. So keeping this meeting scenario in mind, I have a question for you now again. This slide is a bit slower. What's happening here? Okay. What do you see here? Okay, flowers. Basically it's flower arrangements. Right. Sort of the Western style with the Japanese style. Two different styles. Ikebana style. Right. So when we look at this, do you notice something different? First of all, the Japanese style arrangement really fills out the whole space. Right. And it's full. Whereas the Japanese arrangement is more open and uses spaces. And these spaces in Japanese are called, what I mentioned earlier, the word ma. Now to all the people in the room who do speak Japanese, how would you define ma? How would you explain a foreigner the word ma? Or a foreigner or a person who doesn't speak Japanese? Right. So ma is a very interesting word. When you look it up in the dictionary, it's basically covers like time, interval or space, or the kanji. The Chinese character is made from gate and sun, actually. And combined, it's ma. Yes. But it can also be, sorry, that's what happens when you use animation. But it can also be something like anything that's left unsaid. Space, emptiness or mission. But it can also be like the space that allows for reflection and quiet. It can be the pause, the space between notes of music. It can also be like the shape of space between walls. You have ma. So it has many, many different meanings. And so now it comes up to animation. So in the flower arrangement, this is exactly what you see. You have the one tendency to fill space and the other tendency to kind of leave space. The ma. And in the culture, that's also the same. And it's important for knowing when you have communication in Japanese on an intercultural level. So for example, it's also interesting how you can use the ma, the word ma, in combination with other Japanese or Chinese characters. For example, a human being is ningen, the person, and ma combined. Ningen, human being. There is also the nice word. Ma nuke. Ma nuke without. It can mean idiot or stupid if we translate it into English. It wouldn't be that direct, necessarily in Japanese. But with these words, they describe sort of already a way of thinking, how people perceive something in Japanese culture, maybe, that is not visual really in the language to other people who learn the language. So now take a moment again to imagine the scene again in the meeting. So what could the US colleagues think about their participation themselves? So they might be okay, we're confident, creative, dominant, leading, wonderful. But from a Japanese colleague's perspective, what do they think maybe about the US colleagues in that situation? Well okay, they seem really pompous, they don't have the ma maybe. And I asked a Japanese participant actually about that and this was like an answer I got from them and they were like yeah, but I think it's because the Americans from a Japanese perspective, they don't have job security in the US so they have to make themselves more loud, they have to be more confident to make sure they don't get fired. Stereotype, right? Based on an image and perception that they have of another country. They always have to compete with each other. So this kind of situation can actually to really unwanted development. For example, what happened actually at that meeting was, and I'm lucky because I speak Japanese so they kind of included me in that part as well, is the Thai, French and Japanese later met again in a different setting and discussed again about the contents. So in the end, they might kind of exclude the US colleagues again from the decision making just based on this kind of bias and stereotyping in that sense. So they would, for example, meet away from the US colleagues afterwards to have some time to talk with each other because they didn't have enough time to express their opinions. So they're creating barriers, these stereotypes, these biases that we have in meetings and settings like this as well. So how can we break down these barriers? And a knowledge that biases when we work with cultural and other stereotypes and differences. So communication barriers are, as I mentioned, language, cultural norms, accessibility which can hinder our ability to really connect. Now recognizing, again, being aware of these barriers is the first step toward inclusivity. And again, I keep saying that again and again because I think awareness is the key. And with that awareness comes the next step of having to at least try to overcome personal biases and we all have biases. So even through my work and experience in diverse settings, I've learned that how important it is to continuously self-reflect and stay open because I also have biases and I have to remember and again and again make myself aware and act accordingly. So self-reflect a moment. What kind of biases do we have and do we sometimes act on those still? Now when we work with cultural and other stereotypes, the more we have experienced, and I think everybody here probably has, experienced a lot of intercultural settings, the more we kind of come to expect to encounter and navigate different normalities. So we are aware that working with other involves taking time to explore how much overlap and difference there is between the members. So always something to keep in mind. Now when we talk again about stereotypes, so the set of ideas that people have about what someone or something is like, especially an idea that is wrong usually, there are more immediate accessible markers. So again, what we have nowadays, a lot of gender ethnicity and age. We might analyze a person's dialect or dress and we make assumptions on their like socio-economic background. Of course nationality, their sexuality or educational backgrounds. And there is a greater interactional space involved in asserting other aspects such as forms of address, institutional roles or geographic origin, language identity and any shared history as well. So kind of teasing out into cultural dimension is really how do I read you and how are you reading me? And when we look at the meeting scenario again, some of these stereotypes may have already existed for the individual as individual ideas about one another before the meeting. But in developing a collaboration and members need to move these ideas really into the public sphere then where they can be acknowledged and modified as a basis of shared knowledge between the respective parties and the groundwork for shared social engagement. So, and that brings me to another very quick example of COVID-19. We all remember that, right? It's not over yet really, really. So, but in 2022, the UK government dropped the recommendation to wear masks and is now it's leaving it up to the individual to decide whether to wear a mask or not, right? Now, this is a photo taken in the UK. When do you think it was taken? Right, probably during the pandemic, so before 2022. And, yeah. Why do you think the people are wearing masks? Right, so usually, I got something in the back just now, but why are they wearing masks? Maybe COVID protection or another person might think, oh, I want to protect the others. It's the rules, right? I don't want to get into trouble with the peers around. Now, in Japan, the government dropped the recommendation to wear masks in March 2023, right? And I'm showing a picture now again. So, where might this photo have been taken? Yes. Yes, everybody here traveling into Japan even probably noticed. This could have been taken any time. Why do you think they're wearing masks? Right? Again, there are many, many reasons nowadays, or in Japan, it makes me look more attractive. I don't want others to feel uncomfortable. I have a cold. I didn't feel like shaving today. I'm not used to showing my face anymore. The pandemic has strongly influenced me. It's fashion nowadays. It makes me anonymous. Oh, it's allergy season, right? So, there are many, many reasons why people are wearing masks in Japan today. At my university, and I do think in many places in Japan, also, the government is kind of calling for it, but we are constantly reminded not to judge people based on if they're wearing a mask or not. So, it's up to you and there should be no discrimination based on wearing a mask, even, because I just came back from Australia, actually, with a mask. When I started wearing a mask coming from Japan, people would stare at me because no one wears masks there, so I felt this peer pressure of taking it off. So, I'm sorry if I come down with the flu again. So, to really enhance individuals or groups' abilities and confidence or authority by using approaches that are inclusive, we need to explore different ways of interacting. And this mask was just an example for that situation. So, practical strategies for inclusion from my experience in my class and workshops on intercultural communication are really to encourage participation to use inclusive language, which is, again, then different depending on the language you use in that classroom. And at least try to understand that cultural nuances can significantly enhance our interactions. So, again, it's being aware of it. And the goal of these kind of strategies is to create environments where everyone has the opportunity to contribute and thrive and leading to better outcomes for individuals and the group as a whole. And so, I keep saying awareness, awareness, awareness. So, starting with awareness as an individual, what can you do to really contribute to your own and other intercultural communication? And I always list these 10 points. They're textbook points, I think. Try to understand each other's way of thinking. Don't be caught only in your own cultural way of looking at things. Be open-minded, develop the ability to withhold your judgment sometimes. And develop the ability to even control your emotions sometimes. The other five points would be have a flexible mind, sympathy for the other person. Try to become a good listener. Have a feeling of enjoying differences. And learn to develop a certain flexibility to be able to laugh at your own mistakes as well. Right? All these points sound really easy, but we all know in reality they're not. It's really, really difficult to keep those in mind and try to follow them. That's the part where everybody kind of has to self-reflect and keep in mind to try to look at things from a new angle, right? And I know this is very basic, but I do think that every time it's really important to remind people of that. And in the classroom, when I do activities, I always start with activities like this, self-reflection activities before any discussion. So it's like, I might start with a question like, okay, you've traveled, remember a time when you traveled somewhere, what made you feel insecure? What made you feel comfortable? It can be things like that. Of course, it's always very good to have group activities that raise awareness and build trust within the group in the classroom in a setting to communicate with each other. Because if there is no trust, if you don't start to build that trust, you will never cross a certain level of communication with that other person. So I do include a lot of different training exercises, which I'm not going to do with you today. But actually, I'm going to do one with you. One plus three. Four. You can do that, right? Four plus three. Seven. Five plus ten. Three. Four plus nine. One. Six plus eight. Two. Nine plus seven. Four. Seven plus ten. Five. Three plus nine. Twelve. Ten plus five. Three. Two plus one. Three. All happy? Did anyone get confused? Anything wrong here? So, and usually that's what I'm not doing in the classroom. I don't rush through it and go, okay, that's it. Because that would leave my students very confused and explain exactly what's going on. But it's basically the idea of having a ten numerical versus the twelve numerical counting, right? We all usually in the classrooms maybe use five plus ten is 15. But when you look at the clock at the watch, 15 is three. So using the three would not be wrong according to certain other rules. Right? Does that make sense? Because I don't want to leave you all confused now. When I have sessions with companies I often at the beginning ask, okay, what can the company do on an organizational level to promote inclusive communication amongst its employees. And they're usually the common four points that you get of ease, right? So provide training for staff communication, create opportunities for positive exposure. So all these points are things that I think everybody's already trying to do. And I think even that, like especially at OIS as well, C-HUB is doing a lot of effort in this as well. So these are things that I just want everybody to be aware of when we do when we talk about inclusive or intercultural communication in my case. So with this I hope I was able to kind of chaotically navigate you through the basics of the rich landscape that we have on inclusive communication and maybe help you understand. This is a very international group already and I really know that you probably have all the basics. But you will help contribute to global harmony. And it sounds huge but I think it's really what is, that's what inclusive communication is about. And I hope that you will leave this session a little bit with heightened awareness that I keep reminding people about of the importance of the role of inclusive communication and also to be aware that in whatever setting you are you can always provide a space for inclusive or intercultural communication and tear down the barriers. So each one of us can really contribute. It's not we might or we have to but we can really do it. So that's the point of how to build bridges between different cultures or settings. And with that I hope this was a little bit of an interesting for you and I'll come to an end and happy for any questions or thoughts. Thank you. I was, what I wanted to to ask you about is with your sort of list of points at the end about the desirable qualities about having a flexible mind and so on is that these are kind of quite tough things to do. And if you had any recommendations or things that you use in your work that you could point people to things that you can read things that you can watch to help you enrich your understanding some tools to how to do this because sure you can have training maybe I don't know once a term or whatever but this is really I think later on or one of these that the key thing is that or I think really important is the self-awareness and how many quick prejudgments you make all the time anyhow so to get to the questions what would you recommend about somebody who wanted to develop this more in themselves any favorite materials that you recommend or any favorite sort of processes that you'd recommend. So I do have a number of favorite books share the list with everyone later also I do tell the students take a look at YouTube videos even and I give them some interesting links and for example during the pandemic the big coil boom came I would say with the collaborative online international learning classes and I had a lot of sessions on how to provide coil meaning training sessions for myself how to do it online and most of these sessions were hosted by American counterparts so for example New York SUNY SUNY who kind of developed coil first and was really interesting for me is like we joined these sessions all the Japanese universities gathered at a forum and they provided the session and we were all sitting there and were like great ideas great videos that they provided but we might not be able to use them in the Japanese classroom necessary it was a very American way of dealing with the issues so depending on the groups that you're dealing with or working with my material choices change again so I might use for Japanese there are some videos or nice stories about how like half Japanese person or child kind of lives or experiences the school life and to show a video of how they experience it and make Japanese students for example aware of how they kind of already discriminate in some situations that person so it really again I use a lot of YouTube to be honest because there is great material out there but depending on the classroom you really have to make your choice which is the target group and look at the culture backgrounds as well so but I'm happy to share some sources that I'd like to use Thank you very interesting and I think we all took a lot of things with us from this one thing that I was wondering about is this word MA that you said you talked about because you said that it really kind of shows the open space in this culture but when you made it to it a different how it really what it contains it was a lot of love reflection and things like that so but I was wondering do you think that this culture then that has that MA awareness also are more can understand are more aware of the possibilities for exploration in that space because if you have a culture where everything is filled and it's not so much thinking about what curiosity can take us in the next transformation the world needs and everything do you think that there could be actually a better situation here in this culture that could understand that there is a lot in that empty space I'd like to think that because yes I do think that I do think it can help maybe for them for them I'm saying for anyone who has this thinking of MA to be more observant of a situation and maybe a little bit more open and flexible but that's like an ideal way of looking at it sometimes you have this MA and you kind of but interpret everything that goes in there your own your normalities right so if you don't follow that MA or if you talk too much again the Japanese would say you talk too much so you must be insecure or it's just you might define or misunderstand the situation and at the same time what you have in Japan or in that culture I believe is that not everybody has the same definition so this already leads again to misunderstandings and the problem with MA is that you have these unspoken rules that you kind of are supposed to know about because you were grew up in this situation with this background in a certain environment and that can again lead to some difficulties because you're not used to actually talking about that situation so the communication part maybe is less trained or less evolved maybe one way to put it so it's kind of both you can have them be more observant and leaving more space to be more flexible or able to understand but it can also go into the other direction so I wouldn't say it's a better way necessarily like a nice in between would be great a balanced approach thank you very much for a really great talk I wanted to ask about the meeting situation where you had the 20% Americans and someone has mentioned about self-awareness but what advice do you have when you know I'm a native speaker and maybe I'm very self-aware and want other people to speak but there might be two other native speakers who are just going for it they're like speaking really fast and I've tried doing things like being like oh so what do you think Japanese person and then they're like why are you putting me on the spot and so they get more alienated and so what can you do as kind of an ally kind of situation I want to help but I don't know what to do in that situation you don't want to create this for them maybe the place where you lose face or put them in a weird situation awkward situation so sometimes you just have to go with the flow and after the meeting for example try to set up like a different space where they can all meet together maybe drinking I think out of the meeting rooms is a better placement sometimes for them to communicate once there is some alcohol for example in that case we did have a number of meetings afterwards like the dinner party and then suddenly with a little bit of alcohol the communication went better but like if it's a place like that in a classroom I can use a talking stick for example I don't know if you know about that but you can just decide from the beginning everybody is getting a talking stick everybody can speak who has a talking stick you're not supposed to interrupt but the person everybody has to take the talking stick once to share their ideas you don't really do that usually in that situation I would have been in the same situation like okay how do I do that how do I put them not on the spot I did not leave that meeting in other scenarios I kind of translate so I sit usually I sit like close to the Japanese and I kind of explain something and then I kind of try to pull them in as an observer from the back and share their ideas and I might share those then as a translator actually but I it is actually the big question of how can you do that without making them feel uncomfortable and again it depends on the person on each individual right so some might be cooler about it others be more scared about the whole situation so I don't really have the perfect answer for that Hiya, thank you for the talk I'm just reflecting on the same situation but sort of thinking of it more in terms of as scientists because as scientists we meet together you know scientists as a global sport we meet together at conferences and it's always an international group and I just think for me if I'm thinking back to my early career where as a woman I was a minority then I think that wasn't so much the English speakers it was more a case that the men had the voice and were competitive and the result of that I think was that women, female scientists actually they became more collaborative and they sort of joined forces and they joined forces in not only their science but also in sort of addressing the gender issues so you know it can move on absolutely because I mean the examples I gave they were very they didn't focus on the aspect of gender for example or it was just like the overall picture and like for example myself I'm working as a vice president in a Japanese national university and I'm a foreigner, I'm a woman there are not many females in positions like that at many universities in Japan I think so the way as a woman I sit in some of the meetings is in Japan different than how I sit in another meeting at an international conference so I kind of try to read the atmosphere it's male based but I still want to make comments so I have to kind of adapt and see how I can you know depending on the age age range of the leadership as well it differs in that sense as well so the gender aspect as a woman the whole thing becomes even more the whole situation becomes sometimes a little bit more complicated and see how to build this inclusive communication in that area as well important comment hi thank you I actually have an example that just happened applause when I came here I had to kind of relearn because in Austria at the university we knock and then also I was mostly a musician for some time and there are some musicians who prefer their audience to hum at the end instead of clapping or something like that and I've kind of reflected now and for me it's the humming is like appreciation the knocking is more like ah thanks colleague let's talk about this afterwards it's more like this and the applause for me actually makes it more difficult to ask a question or approach the speaker because I feel like it's a very formal thing and it's just the way we do applause and this again is very interesting because it's also a generation thing I think because in Germany when I was in university a long, long time ago we applause still and then I came to Germany to give a talk actually in a classroom I haven't been in a German classroom in a while and then after my talk they did the knocking and I got so scared I was like what's going on so yeah they were all like no we always do that we didn't do that like years ago so it's also how it evolves and how it can bring in really weird situations and that brings me actually to one one funny experience that's actually not funny because we're taking a group photo at an orientation session for our international students and we took the photo about 60 students I think over there and the camera man is looking at the picture and I was like okay just wait a second everyone shut their eyes blinked and one student suddenly said there was something really racist to say I was like oh my god like I'm like seriously I think of myself as hopefully not racist I was like what do you mean and he was like well we Asians have very small eyes and if you say you're looking you know if they check if the eyes are open that's I feel very insulted and I was like oh okay now we have to be careful with the language even in that scenario because I thought he was joking first I was like oh you're joking right it's like everybody closes their eyes sometimes on the picture but he was really serious about it and he said I really hurt his feelings so it's just like I don't know some generations might be a little bit more sensitive on that as well and while okay now I come to the stereotype of generation X and Z and blah blah but this was another interesting experience to me actually so how it evolves in time gestures the way we talk the language itself and how we have to adapt even in that sense so I think that's what makes inclusive or intercultural communication even more difficult and we have to keep that in mind as well a very nice example I hate to cut on this wonderful discussion but I need to make sure that people like my team is giving me the question oh okay go for the knock I'm trying to hold it in go out go out oh yeah so other people do this right thank you so much thank you very much