Intercultural dialogue

Fruits of American Intercultural studies in abroad. Intercultural communication has evolved due to the activity of The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) in the United States, in a result of efforts to make more effective the FSI’s activity in communication with another nations or civilizations. – In parallel, actually, the church evolved its own theory and practice of intercultural communication, too, since and after the Second Vatican Council. Especially in Saint John Paul II’s activity, who was canonized in 2014 by the recent Pope Francis, who seemed to follow his great predecessor and it was evaluated by such Israeli politicians as Simon Perez. – Saint John Paul II’s entire pontificate was full of intercultural actions: praying together with the Dalai Lama in Assisi (1986), while putting a Buddha on the altar; and he was who has first visited the Jewish synagogue of Rome. -- All these led to the culmination of the interfaith communication in his address to the Muslims in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, May 6, 2001. - He was criticized by the conservative wing of the church, but his activity was developed ahead by the posterity, when the recent pope Francis went ahead by modernisation of the church.

This article deals with how fear is misused in media discourse. Pursuing the claim that it is impossible to eliminate fear from the public sphere, this paper argues that fear control is a technique widely used by certain interest groups to generate and spread uncertainty among people in order to create an atmosphere in which their goals are easily reachable. This paper will discuss the concepts of discourse, hegemony, and power relations in order to show how public language (both written and spoken) in media discourse reflects, creates, and maintains power relations. In this sense, fear, which is a crucial “energizing fuel” of such public language, could be considered and further elaborated as both a contextual variable and as a tool for facilitating power relations by applying various techniques. Aiming to show how media use and control the nature and level of fear in public discourse, I will discuss two techniques – the commercialization of fear and the method of “othering.” While commercialization implies the mass (re)production and (re)appropriation of fear in a public space, “othering” has been applied when the object of reporting is an out-group individual or community and self-group is using the media as a tool for their negative portrayal, thus creating boundaries and provoking discrimination and violence. The case of Serbia will be used to indicate how techniques of “othering,” linked with the regime’s propaganda, may contribute to the creation of an atmosphere of fear, and make a people seek protection and become easy prey for manipulation.

This paper is aimed at debating intercultural competences and intercultural dialogue issues
within a multicultural learning environment. It supports the idea of cultural dimension and
quality in higher education with a focus on intercultural sensitivity, intercultural dialogue and
intercultural effectiveness. The paper disseminates a part of the results obtained within the
national research project "Parteneriate/Partnership 92116". The research project takes into
account ethical and moral issues in higher education with special references to equality of
chance, management of diversity and intercultural dialogue-as prerequisite for higher
education development and sustainability. The designed methodology consists of case studies,
interviews and questionnaires applied both to the Faculty of Business Administration (with
subjects taught in foreign languages) at the Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest and the
Faculty of Engineering in Foreign Language at “Politehnica” University from Bucharest.
Qualitative interpretation refers to students opinions regarding intercultural sensitivity within
the two faculties that function as multicultural learning environments. The team supports the
idea according to which intercultural sensitivity and intercultural dialogue issues are very
important for better understanding the complexity and dynamics of multicultural learning
environments. Intercultural competence and effectiveness can make the difference for the
quality and sustainability of higher education. In Romania the previous studies concerning
intercultural sensitivity have focus mostly on the ethnic dimension. The originality of our
research regards the fact that it focuses mostly on topics such as intercultural effectiveness and
intercultural dialogue analyzed within a multicultural learning environment where students
interact by learning the same subjects in a foreign language.

(Dutch follows English:)
How can personal identity be determined in such a way that developments, experiences and other dynamic and context-dependent aspects of that identity can be taken into account? For several decades now, the narrative, the story, has often been referred to in answering this question as a cognitive instrument that can adequately deal with those aspects. The monologue thus appears to present itself as a medium in which personal or autobiographical identity is formed. However, what happens when we place the identity narrative in a dialogue: when two people with very diverse backgrounds have a dialogue that touches on their identity? Does this perhaps provide an entirely new challenge and enrichment of that narrative, which can have a major impact on both the individual and the relationship? I want to explore these questions in this article, motivated by both the philosophical perspective and my experiences as co-initiator of the "Keti Koti Table", in which such a dialogue plays a central role. To this end, I will first discuss the dynamic aspects of the narrative, in which the phenomenon of "refiguration" as presented by Ricoeur is key. This is then discussed in the context of the dialogue. In § 4 I discuss the specific dialogue method that we have developed for the Keti Koti Table. Subsequently, in § 5, some experiences of participants are discussed, whose identity refigurations are analyzed under the influence of the dialogue in § 6. It is concluded with a brief conclusion about the special significance of the dialogue for the narrative self-constitution in a diverse society.
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Hoe kan persoonlijke identiteit bepaald worden op zo'n manier dat rekening kan worden gehouden met ontwikkelingen, ervaringen en andere dynamische en contextafhankelijke aspecten van die identiteit? Sinds enkele decennia wordt voor de beantwoording van die vraag vaak verwezen naar het narratief, het verhaal, als een cognitief instrument dat adequaat met die aspecten kan omgaan. Daarmee lijkt de monoloog zich te presenteren als een medium waarin persoonlijke of autobiografische identiteit wordt gevormd. Wat gebeurt er echter wanneer we het identiteitsnarratief plaatsen in een dialoog: wanneer twee personen met een heel diverse achtergrond een dialoog voeren die raakt aan hun identiteit? Levert dit misschien een geheel nieuwe uitdaging en verrijking van dat narratief op, die zowel voor het individu als voor de relatie een grote impact kan hebben? Deze vragen wil ik in dit artikel onderzoeken, gemotiveerd door zowel het filosofische perspectief als door mijn ervaringen als mede-initiatiefnemer van de ‘Keti Koti Tafel’, waarin een dergelijke dialoog centraal staat. Daartoe zal ik eerst ingaan op de dynamische aspecten van het narratief, waarbij het fenomeen ‘refiguratie’ zoals Ricoeur dat presenteert centraal staat. Vervolgens wordt dit besproken in de context van de dialoog. In § 4 bespreek ik de specifieke dialoogmethode die wij voor de Keti Koti Tafel ontwikkeld hebben. Vervolgens komen in § 5 enkele ervaringen van deelnemers aan bod, van wie de identiteits-refiguraties onder invloed van de dialoog geanalyseerd worden in § 6. Afgesloten wordt met een korte conclusie over de bijzondere betekenis van de dialoog voor de narratieve zelf-constitutie in een diverse samenleving.

An analysis of the themes of religion, social cohesion and religious and cultural diversity emerging from the second Gallup/Anna Lindh Poll of the Euro-Mediterranean region. Published in the Anna Lind Report 2014, Alexandria, 2014. Also available in French and Arabic from the ALF website: http://www.annalindhfoundation.org/download-full-reports

Despite the advent of the Age of Rights in the aftermath of World War II, a large number of people still live precarious and disposable lives due to war, poverty, and discrimination. Although human rights has become the common language of humankind, the violation of those rights has also become the common experience of many people in the world. How can we transform human rights knowledge and practice to respond to current and emerging questions of co-existence, dignity and justice?
Critical Appreciative Dialogue: Pedagogy for Critical Human Rights Education critically analyses the shortcomings of human rights theory and highlights how to engage with multiple religious and philosophical traditions to transform the way we think, teach and act through human rights.
The book synthesises ideas from diverse philosophical and religious traditions, insights from working with grass roots organisations in Africa, and research and teaching in tertiary academic institutions to present a locally sensitive and globally plausible approach to human rights education. It provides guidance and insight for students and practitioners alike.

The article discusses the problem of worldview and its role in the francophonie as sociocultural multilingual dimension. The author addresses the francophonie as a poly-cultural multi-ethnic world, which is characterized by a plurality of worldviews, a plurality of francophone ethnolinguistique worldviews in all areas of human activity (science, economics, sociology, education, law, history, etc.). Since the francophonie encloses a linguistic diversity of cultures and civilizations, it spreads through the French language not only the culture and civilization of the French people, but it also makes an important contribution to the implementation of a distribution policy of different spiritual values of other francophone countries. Therefore, this movement develops another worldview, a French pluralistic worldview. The diversity of ethnical worldviews of the francophonie cohabits and try to live in peace. The specific point of view, to conceive or understand the world materialize in heritage visions of objects, characters, famous people, phenomena or social, historical, political, cultural, national events, etc. These ethno-linguistic worldviews of designated objects are structured constantly in the consciousness and the linguistic system of the people and should be decoded in order to avoid the clash of cultures that may burst. In conclusion, we can say that the knowledge, understanding and acceptance of the worldviews would allow the full integration of ethnic groups in the francophone world, the effective function of this system and its harmonization with other systems of the universe.

"Though the term is difficult to define, multiculturalism, in essence, is a socio-political ideal that seeks to appreciate, respect, and protect disparate ethnic groups within a unified society, all under the guise of tolerance. How societies attain such an ideal is a rather contentious subject as numerous strategies have been advocated. Social work, particularly international social work, wrestles with the chameleon “politics of recognition” that demands equal rights based on ethnicity. It is argued, according to Charles Taylor, that misrecognition distorts one’s personal identity and is thus a form of oppression, sequestering people into a distorted mode of existence. In order to alleviate such oppression, we must “recognize” particular groups and afford them equal rights to ensure that various ethnic groups have the opportunity to reach their potential (Taylor 1994). Consequently, social workers are faced with accounting for “the other” in their theories, methodologies, and praxis, requiring an expanded base of knowledge and ethnic specific competencies. Furthermore, such plurality, it is often presumed, leads to a relative basis for defining social values, thereby undermining any sort of normative ethic for attaining justice for or intervening on behalf of the disenfranchised. Should ethnicity, though, be the fundamental criteria for defining what it means to be human?

The intent of this paper seeks to address a theoretical concern confronting social work in general and international social work in particular, namely to situate the politics of recognition within a larger framework of what it means to be human. In other words, the call to recognize various disparate ethnic groups within a society is actually an expression of a more complex, fundamental, and profound human need—the need for cceptance and belonging within human society. This need at its core is a religious need that finds expression in an I-Thou relationship, as Martin Buber suggests (Buber 1970). Hence, “every people, even the very smallest, represents a unique facet of God’s design,” whereby “you shall love all other people as your own,” as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn contends (Solzhenitsyn 1991, 23). Such a theological argument rejects a variety of egoisms (e.g., race, class, culture) and calls for a sense of humility where one’s “respect and pride [for one’s culture],” according to Steven Rockefeller, “grow out of recognition of the value of the uniqueness in the identity of all other peoples and life forms” (Rockefeller 1994, 88).

The formation of human identity, then, is dynamic, dialogical, and relational rather than static, monological, and individualistic. To the extent that social work consumes itself with the particularities of the politics of recognition without situating them within a broader understanding of human being, social work will find itself mired in power schemes and capitalistic economic structures where human beings are viewed as individual consumers and customers rather than relational creatures of intrinsic worth that possess a sacred life. This paper hopes to shift the focus of the debate by creating linguistic space for an interdisciplinary conversation on the nature of human being. By engaging in this conversation, perhaps we will better understand our differences, and more importantly, what binds us together as human beings."

Longtemps marginalisé par la critique, Les Voix de Marrakech est assurément l’un des plus beaux livres d’Elias Canetti, l’un des plus accessibles et fascinants aussi. Né d’un voyage authentique entrepris en 1954, ce bref et dense récit offre un saisissant portrait de la ville marocaine, ainsi qu’une véritable introduction à l’univers et à la pensée du Prix Nobel de littérature. Dans la mesure où Canetti, cet auteur interculturel par excellence, a défini l’écrivain comme « gardien des métamorphoses », son livre sur Marrakech peut se lire comme un véritable tableau de métamorphoses interculturelles illustrant un sentiment à la fois de dépaysement et de proximité face à la ville marocaine et ses habitants.
Fruit d’un long travail de recherche, cette étude est la première à proposer une analyse intégrale de ce récit de voyage d’un genre particulier. En se référant au texte original aussi bien qu’à la traduction française, elle se destine à tout étudiant, enseignant ou chercheur souhaitant entreprendre une lecture approfondie de l’œuvre.

This paper aims at reviewing the content of Buen vivir as an emergent discourse within the “gravitational field” of sustainable development: its genesis, its foundations and its singularity. First, we consider the criticisms to the development discourse and to its direct descendant: sustainable development. Next, we review the position of Latin America in the global discursive field of sustainable development and the situation of Buen vivir facing the debates therein. Drawing on the traditional repository of the aboriginal cultures of the continent, this new discourse has been theorized in the academic sphere and translated into normative principles that have permeated the political sphere, which is especially visible in the cases of Ecuador and Bolivia. In this article we refer to “Buen vivir” as the contemporary reelaboration of the quechua concept Sumak Kawsay, and other similar concepts from other indigenous nations. It includes both the idea of interdependence between society and its natural environment, as well as a conception of the universal as plural. Lastly, beyond its implications for environmental debate, Buen vivir also involves an imperative for the redefinition of relations between the citizenry, the state and the market.

Najobszerniejszy jak dotąd wybór twórczości eseistycznej Krzysztofa Czyżewskiego umiejscawia Europę Środkową w samym środku najważniejszych dla współczesnego świata pytań i problemów: kryzysu wspólnotowości, pogłębiających się podziałów i coraz ostrzejszych wojen kulturowych.
Dla współtwórcy ośrodka „Pogranicze” Europa Środkowa nie jest tylko geopolityką i nie ma – jak chciał Peter Handke – znaczenia „wyłącznie meteorologicznego”. Jawi się bardziej jako etos i postawa, która wykorzenieniu przeciwstawia przynależność, kompleksowi prowincjonalizmu – siłę prowincji, a ostro zarysowanym granicom – przestrzeń przenikania i współistnienia.
Czyżewski zawzięcie poszukuje żywej i wychylonej ku przyszłości, scalającej narracji, zdolnej stworzyć przeciwwagę narodowych mitów, tak silnie określających naszą rzeczywistość w ostatnich dwóch stuleciach. W leksykonie najważniejszych dla niego pojęć znajdują się zapomniane słowa, takie jak „agora”, „pogranicze”, „obcowanie”, „tkanka łączna” czy magiczny „neimar” – budowniczy mostów.
W swoich eseistycznych peregrynacjach podąża po mapie wyznaczonej przez outsiderów, wygnańców i kontestatorów, wędrownych artystów czy niesfornych intelektualistów, dla których Europa pozostawała i pozostaje ciągle niezrealizowanym w pełni projektem. Często przywołuje Mickiewicza, Vincenza, Rotha, Stempowskiego, Giedroycia, Kołakowskiego, Tischnera, Barańczaka, Venclovę, a nade wszystko Miłosza, którego jest wyjątkowym i wnikliwym czytelnikiem.

Se reporta el análisis de un estado de conocimiento respecto de algunas significaciones de la interculturalidad. Éstas se pusieron en diálogo con tres herramientas de intelección provenientes del Análisis Político de Discurso: puntos nodales, juegos del lenguaje y relaciones de poder. Se reconoce que, a pesar de la diversidad de trabajos académicos, la intercultu-ralidad tiene un fuerte arraigo en el diálogo, respeto y comunicación entre los sectores denominados indígenas y no indígenas.

Das " Wir " und das " Andere " bzw. das " Eigene " und das " Fremde " sind Konnotationen, die zu einer Klassifizierung führen. Es sind Paradigmen der Gegensätze und der Dualität, die in mehrfacher Symbiose entstehen können: Überlegenheit vs. Unterlegenheit, Macht vs. Schwäche, West vs. Ost, Superiorität vs. Inferiorität-im Sinne E. Said-und Verständnis vs.

L’objectif principal de cette mission est l’évaluation de l’im- pact du Festival sur le Niger (FSN) et de ses organisations asso- ciées : Fondation Festival sur le Niger (FFSN), Centre Culturel Kôrè (CCK), Institut des Arts et Métiers Kôrè (IKAM), etc. La recherche a été réalisée d’octobre 2020 à avril 2021 par l’équipe composée de Milena Dragićević Šešić en tant que responsable de recherche et de Maïga Lalla Mariam Haidara en tant que chercheuse de terrain. L’évaluation a principalement utilisé des méthodes de recherche qualitative, se concentrant sur l’impact profond et à long terme (entretiens avec 51 personnes, quatre discussions de groupe comprenant 38 participants et une dis- cussion de groupe en ligne avec 30 participants ; analyse du contenu des programmes, des sites Web et des récits des médias sociaux ; méthodes d’observation et analyse iconologique). Les données quantitatives ont été collectées dans le cadre d’une recherche documentaire, à l’aide de statistiques disponibles, de documents de politique juridique et stratégique, d’études d’impact antérieures et de rapports sur le Festival.
L’organisation Festival sur le Niger n’est pas seulement un festival annuel, mais une grande initiative culturelle, compre- nant la Fondation Festival sur le Niger (FFSN), Le Festival en tant que telle (FSN), le Centre Culturel Kôrè (CCK), l’Institut Kôrè des Arts et Métiers (IKAM), la Caravane Culturelle pour Paix et Circuit mandingue. Le festival agit comme un volant d’inertie pour les changements sociaux, un « réseau » culturel, un incubateur, une plate-forme d’apprentissage et d’éducation et une plate-forme de réunion / discussion. C’est un amplifi- cateur et un catalyseur de différentes pratiques artistiques,
culturelles et socio-économiques. La recherche a montré une contribution extrêmement importante du Festival à différentes couches de la vie sociale et économique, au renforcement du secteur culturel, en particulier des petites organisations cultu- relles entrepreneuriales, des artistes et des entrepreneurs cultu- rels individuels au Mali et au-delà du Mali, dans toute l’Afrique. Son importance supplémentaire réside dans son succès dans la promotion d’un développement endogène, la restructuration et l’approbation du renforcement du secteur culturel au sens large d’une manière éthique, car ses activités, y compris l’entrepre- neuriat, sont basées sur les valeurs traditionnelles de Maaya.

The years between 1934 and the late 1950s were a period of modernisation through urban reconstruction. The clearance of the slums was a viable way to eradicate disease and provide better housing for lower income families. The New York City Housing Authority was created in an effort to manage all the reforms that the city needed. It was NYCHA's intention not only to replace the old poverty-stricken tenements with modern housing, but also raise the living standards of the poor so that they acquired middle-class behaviour. However, Negro citizens did not have full access to these improvements. They often faced discrimination in this period in which public housing was marked by racial conflicts.

¿Qué le puede aportar la filosofía al Islam contemporáneo? Esa es la pregunta principal sobre la que indaga esta comunicación, que tiene como objetivo introducir y dar a conocer lo que está ocurriendo entre filosofía e Islam en el mundo actual. Como objetivo secundario, la comunicación muestra brevemente, a los no-especialistas, cuales son los temas que han contribuido a este debate: Islam y proyectos políticos, Islam y Derechos Humanos, el papel de la sharia’ y la filosofía del derecho, etc, y los pensadores clásicos (‘Alama Iqbal, Sayyid Al Qutb) y contemporáneos (Tariq Ramadan, Hamza Yusuf) que lo han llevado a cabo.

Il testo presenta un’analisi dell’esperienza delle associazioni interculturali di donne in Italia alla luce della critica al concetto di “sorellanza globale” operata dal femminismo postcoloniale. Attraverso un’analisi delle dinamiche di identità e alterità presenti nelle associazioni, delle pratiche considerate simbolo di diversità culturale e del lavoro domestico e di cura, il volume affronta il tema della costruzione di percorsi comuni tra donne posizionate in maniera diseguale, nella direzione di un femminismo interculturale fondato su un concetto di solidarietà femminista riflessiva.

This article explores the concept of transdisciplinarity as a cultural endeavor. It centers on the concept of transdisciplinary hermeneutics, as a form of contextualizing science in the framework of cultural ideas, subjective experiences of the researchers involved in the research process, and of imagination and the artful creation of possible new realities. The concept is rooted in the work of Basarab Nicolescu and the Paris based CIRET, the " Centre International de Recherches et Études Transdisciplinaires. " In this approach, reality is seen as complex and multilayered, and cannot be known only through the lens of modern science. Philosophy, art and subjective experience are essential and complementary ways of knowledge production that provide context to scientific knowledge, giving it meaning and perspective. To be able to engage in transdisciplinary hermeneutics, researchers need to complement cognitive knowing with embodied and enacted knowing. They as well need to combine the formal and science-based language of what is seen and measured, with the poetic, polyphonic and metaphorical language of what is unseen but sensed, felt and envisioned. The article finally sketches the importance of two competencies that transdisciplinary researchers need to acquire, the competencies of mindfulness and of transdisciplinary dialogue of knowledges.

[NOTE: The captions of fig 6 and 7 have images of fig 7 and fig 6]

Internet necessitates and Unicode facilitates multilingual typography on a scale never seen before. As a result, multilingual typesetting, something that used to be an obscure academic specialism, suddenly sprung to the limelight. Since printing with movable type originated in Europe in a Latin-scripted environment, other scripts still tend to be treated as a complement to Latin script and their measurements normalized accordingly. The challenge that designers are facing is to create computer typography that does justice to all scripts and cultures, according to their own standards. This makes it all the more relevant to come to terms with Arabic.

Arabic and English manual for the first computer naskh typeface with variations. The typeface was not driven by smart font technology, but static. For this reason it consisted of 31 fonts, each with a fixed selection of variation features . Inside the fonts, the smallest number of glyphs was used, while each glyph was made with the smallest number of points, so that all 31 fonts files plus the instructions fitted on a single 1.4 MB floppy disk.
The text was set using Microsoft Word for Windows, with the very DecoType Professional Naskh font set that it describes. This font introduced novel features like variation and stretch that raised the level of ambition and interest in classic features throughout the design world.

The purpose of this document is to support the education and training of community interpreters. It does so by providing structured and detailed guidelines for professional conduct in accordance with principles and values that underlie widely accepted practice in the field. The concept of communicative autonomy is introduced in this document as a fundamental principle. Communicative autonomy is defined here as the capacity of each party in an encounter to be responsible for and in control of his or her own communication (despite language and cultural barriers).

“Sons of Ishmael”: this is the epithet that many Christian writers of the Middle Ages gave to Muslims.  Bible and Koran both agree, after all, that the Arabs were the descendants of Ishmael, son of Abraham and Hagar.  Genesis describes him as “a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him”; this, to many medieval Christian authors, is a prophecy of the violent contention between his progeny and the Christians, supposed spiritual descendants of his half-brother Isaac.
Sons of Ishmael brings together ten essays on the history of conflict and convergence between Latin Christendom and the Arab Muslim world.  These articles explore, in greater depth than was possible in my recently published and critically acclaimed Saracens (NY: Columbia University Press, 2002), such themes as the polemical strategies of polemicists Peter the Venerable or Pedro Pascual, common Christian-Muslim devotion to the Virgin in twelfth-century Syria and Egypt, or the chivalrous myths surrounding Saladin and other Muslim princes.  The book provides a close look at the varying ways in which Europeans perceived Islam and Muslims in the Middle Ages and a window into understanding the roots of current stereotypes of Muslims and Arabs in European and American culture.

Hip hop culture is typically excluded from conventional educational spaces within the U.S. Drawing on the experiences of an educator who works with urban high school students and university level pre- and in-service educators, this article examines the role of hip hop culture for student engagement in two settings—an alternative high school setting and the university classroom. The article explores how dialogue, as a core element of hip hop culture, is used in disrupting traditional vehicles of engagement, particularly between youth connected to hip hop culture and educators who are traditionally disconnected from the culture. Drawing upon dialogical pedagogy and analyzing an actual dialogue between urban youth and preservice teachers, the author examines the ways in which the student-researchers were “dissed” (disrespected) during and after the dialogue. Implications for practice and policy are explored.

Rodríguez, L. F. (2009).  Dialoguing, Cultural Capital and Student Engagement:  Using Hip Hop Culture in the High School and University Classroom.  Equity and Excellence in Education,
42 (1), 20-35.

The arts of Japan have a long tradition of cultural interactions with surrounding civilizations, like Korea and China. This fact turns very difficult to distinguish the autochthonous features of the Japanese art from the external influences. Therefore, the appropriation and refinement of the forms and aesthetic concepts from other cultures and the way these elements are integrated and assimilated are some of the most interesting characteristics of Japanese art.
During the short period between the arrival of the Portuguese merchants and missionaries to the southern isle of Tanegashima in 1543, and their expulsion from the archipelago after the promulgation of the final edict in 1639, the arts of Japan became profoundly influenced by the Western artistic trends. On the other hand, within the framework of the Jesuit missions throughout Asia European artists, as well as the Chinese and Japanese artists converted to Christianity and introduced to the European artistic techniques by the Italian painter Giovanni Niccolo, appropriated the schemes and prototypes of Buddhist and Shinto art to combine with Christian themes and iconography.
This paper examines the entanglement of namban art as a result of the artistic confluence inherent to the cultural exchange between the namban-jin and the Japanese, during the Momoyama and Early Edo period. The first part discusses the influence of European continuous narrative painting in the byōbu depicting the arrival of the Portuguese trading vessel, combined with the caricature and exotic portrait of the Portuguese. One of the most intriguing elements of the namban byōbu paintings are the ‘frames of reality’ standing as a visual document of the wide range of commodities from Europe, Asia, and Africa brought to Japan by the Portuguese trading vessel. Many of these exotic and rare objects, made with different materials and techniques, were immediately adopted and refined by the local workshops and commissioned by the Shogunate and the European merchants.
The second part of the paper examines the interplay of Christian and Buddhist art, in particular the permeation of Christian art to Buddhist archetypical representations of the bosatsu, accordingly with the Jesuit approach of cultural accommodation, as well as the role of the Seminary of the painters established in Nagasaki by the Italian Jesuit painter Giovanni Niccolo, in the global context of the Jesuit missions in all Asia. Furthermore, in this cultural and artistic framework and taking into consideration the accuracy of the namban byōbu paintings in the rendering of urban landscapes, it is critical to discuss the influence of Japanese architecture in the layout and interior decoration of the Christian churches in Japan, with particular attention to the arrangement of the devotional altars.

Communication, which has always been one of the basic elements of life, is becoming more and more intercultural in today’s world. People are not only transferring goods and technology among nations; they are also transferring their thoughts, ideas, and cultures. As this flow of communication among nations becomes common, intercultural communication problems, which can be called intercultural miscommunication, is becoming common as well. This paper investigates possible reasons for miscommunication among people from different cultures. Twenty-two participants from different nationalities took part in the study, and shared their intercultural miscommunication experiences. The researchers analyzed these miscommunication experiences by classifying them according to the categories suggested in the literature and the categories the researchers themselves suggested. The participants’ feelings and thought about their miscommunication experiences were also investigated. This study showed tha...