1.
“Some lights on how culture,
ethnicity and language operate
in counselling and interview”
Kou Kunishige
Diversity Counselling New Zealand

2.
A distance between people
• There always exists a distance
between people in counselling. There
is no set of scales to measure this
distance, but it can be considered in
terms of culture, ethnicity, and
language. I'd like to cast some lights
on these possible dimensions, and
discuss them with you.

3.
A way of measuring a distance
between a counsellor & a client
Language
Culture
Ethnicity

4.
The Same Language & Same Ethnicity
• The same language from the same
region & country
• The same cultural background
• The same ethnicity
• In this simple situation, there are so many
dimensions. So there are a lot of challenges in
term of developing good counselling
relationship. Differences between a counsellor &
a client can be e.g., Age, Sex, Sexuality,
Education, Experiences

5.
The same language & different ethnicities
• The same language
• The same NZ cultural background
• Different ethnicities (e.g. Maori & 2nd
generation of migrants)
• Even though we share the same
language, the level of challenge will be
tremendously increased. E.g., cultural
sensitivities are required.

6.
The common language, same(?) ethnicity, &
different cultural background
• The English language from different
regions or countries (English &
American)
• The same ethnicity (European or
whites) - Under those categories,
people can regard themselves as the
same ethnicity?
• Not sharing NZ cultural background

7.
English for Speakers of Other Languages 1
• People who speak ESOL
• There are migrants who can speak English
reasonably well. It doesn’t indicate their
educational level, but their history of country of
origin.
• There are countries where English is largely
spoken. British colonisation.
• Ironically, they can go out to the other countries
more easily.

8.
English for Speakers of Other Languages 2
• If English is not largely spoken in their country of
origin, it is so difficult for them to learn English,
especially after they grew up.
• E.g., as English does not cover all of sounds
which Japanese has, Japanese does not cover
all of sounds English has. Eventually, people
drop the ability to distinguish particular sounds
which are not required in their own language.

9.
ENGLISH for Japanese
• “R” & “L”, “S” & “Th”
• “Would you like to eat Flied Lice?”
• “Can you sink by yourself?”
• There are some sounds English
Speakers can not differentiate

10.
Difficult sounds for English speakers
Kon Ya Ku Kon Nya Ku

11.
Difficult sounds for English speakers
Byo In Bi Yo in

12.
Characters
• 2000 to 3000 Chinese characters in
Japanese.
• 3500 to 7500 Chinese characters in
Chinese.
• 「生」 means “life” or “fresh”, and
has many pronunciations. 10 to15
pronunciations are regularly used, but
there are more.

13.
Impossibility
of Language
Acquisition

14.
What does this
distance
indicate?

15.
Distance of
contexts that give
meanings to words

16.
Bakhtin, 1986, p.88
neutral dictionary definitions of the words of
a language ensure their common features
and guarantee that all speakers of a given
language will understand one another, but
the use of the words in live speech
communication is always individual and
contextual in nature ... the word is
expressive, but, this expression does not
inhere in the word itself.

17.
Yes or No?
“Yes, I will consider it,” said a Japanese
diplomat.
“Do you mind if I have this?” “Yes,
please”
“Don't you like her?” “Yes, I don’t”
What do you mean by saying “…”?

18.
You can get an
answer, because
you ask.

19.
I ask
What color do
you like most?
You provided a name of color, but
what have I known and what
haven't I known yet?

20.
People will not disappoint you
An answer will be
provided for the
sake of yourself

21.
e.g. Evaluation on my speech
• “How is my speech for you?”
• You have been trained to
provide positive feedback.
• But why do you provide
positive feedback?

22.
How an answer
will be
circulated?

23.
How tsunami survivors responded
• Tsunami survivors who were high
school students went to a school
trip to another city. They were
asked by people about their
experiences.
• How do you imagine this story will
be circulated?

24.
Reporting high school students
•A sport journalist on
young baseball players.
•Often typical questions
does not work.

25.
How can we ask?

26.
Asking a way of questioning
How would you
think of this
question, if I ask
…?

27.
How would you like
to be asked if I
would like to hear
your experience?

28.
Critical Question
Can you help me to
understand more?
It is important to think of what
I may not have known yet.

29.
Diversity Counselling New Zealand
• Each counsellor uses her/his
own counselling philosophy
and skills.
• The most important
requirement from DCNZ to our
counsellors is to understand
his/her client.

30.
A distance between
you and I has a
possibility -
Deconstruction

31.
You can ask
something I have
taken for granted

32.
First hand talk & Second hand talk
• We tend to hear similar stories. We
can not assume that the number of
being-told represents the number of
existence of the story.
• The people tend to circular salient
stories. We cannot spot who told this
story to begin with.
• Original story & Circulated story

33.
Circulated stories by professionals
• Questions can be generated before hand.
Questions themselves would not be
questioned whether they are appropriate
for them or not.
• Questions can generate answers as they
require.
• Such answers will be taken and form
particular stories. Then they will be
circulated.

34.
Echoes
The number of echoes
you hear doesn’t reflect
the number of incidents
themselves.

35.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
The Blue and Brown Books (1958)
Instead of "craving for
generality” I could also have
said "the contemptuous
attitude towards the particular
case"