Video Analysis Of Barna's Stumbling Blocks In Intercultural Communication

At home and in class, we have watched 3 videos related to intercultural communication problems that can happen in real-life. We also read about Barna’s Stumbling Blocks in Intercultural Communication which is deeply related to the videos. The first video on the baseball player eating with a Japanese coach’s family had many examples of the “stumbling blocks.”
First of all, there is the assumption of similarities from the beginning of the video, which is the first and the longest stumbling block mentioned in the article. The assumption of similarities happens because we are all human with needs of food and shelter makes us into thinking we are all the same. In the first part of the video, every family member slurps Japanese somen with chopsticks.
Once he tries slurping the somen making a huge sound and holding chopsticks like a spoon, all the Japanese family members stare at him. Another example of this stumbling block is when Hiroko, the coach’s sister, tries to serve him and holds up the plate, he does not understand what she is doing and just stare. This is Hiroko assuming that Jack knows what she is doing to serve him but he does not know that since he has grown up in a different culture where people do not serve others. This serving scene is also related to the third stumbling block, nonverbal misinterpretations. This block means that there are different interpretations of gestures and actions of others in diverse cultures. Hiroko intended to serve Jack holding up the plate, but this act did not mean anything to Jack. Another example is when the coach holds up the cup for his sister to pour the drink in, Jack thinks he did that to give a toast and puts his own cup up. Whereas Hiroko thought Jack also wanted her to pour in his cup but when she tries to, he just clings his cup with the drink she is holding and pour it into his own. These actions not only confuse Jack but leads
Assumption of similarities, as I mentioned before is the assumption that people are all the same because of biological needs and not consider things can be different in another culture. The assumption in this video was that the English man thought it would be nice to give Sofia, the Italian woman flowers and brought them to her house as a gift. Though in Italy, the flowers he brought were the kind of flowers used for funerals and sadness which led to misunderstanding that Sofia has died, when he only wanted to give her flowers. Tendency to evaluate here is that the Italian woman who found the flowers in front of Sofia’s house immediately thought Sofia died because of the flowers without listening to the English man. That causes so much misunderstanding between the two