Different Cultural Roommate

Maria Nugrahayu Vitaningtyas

161214064

Introduction

What is CCU? Well, CCU or Cross cultural Understanding is basic term in interpreting someone’s
behavior or situation because of cultural differences. It is so important when you meet people from
another country, because we cannot prevent ourselves to only meet people who we want to see.
Sometimes, we accidently meet people from different culture. Even with the same culture, we still
have many misunderstanding to each other. So with cross cultural understanding, people can
reduce the misunderstanding or miscommunication from others especially with different culture.

So in this paper will discuss about a case study. It is about finding solution for college roommate
problem, based on writer’s understanding. So, basically it is about 2 different culture meet together
in one room as a roommate. Exchange student who was from Japan named Yoshio placed into a
sophomore student’s bedroom (Chip) from Connecticut (U.S. State).

Discussion

Let’s begin with who is involved in the case “Chip”, a sophomore from Connecticut, and ”Yoshio”,
who is here for one year as a Japanese exchange student. I (Rick) am also a sophomore, also from
New England, and have been friends with Chip since last year. Chip is a member of the debate
team. I know from previous conversations that he finds Yoshio’s quiet manner boring and
sometimes irritating. Yoshio mostly hangs out with other students from Asia and is in the room
much more often than Chip.

The problem begin because Chip felt disturbed because of Yoshio had to answer his phone in the
room when Rick (Chip’s friend) is there. In addition, Yoshio answered the phone very loud and
disturbed everyone in the room.
Reason

The writer read from some QnA in internet about why some of Japanese people are loud or sound
angry when they talked, especially man. The first reason is as a man they need to show that they
are tough man by using their voice. The second reason is Japanese people do not have many
variation of tone.

Then the writer think that a room especially bedroom is a private place for Chip, so when Yoshio
answered the phone call with loud voice, Chip felt disturbed by him.

Solution

From this background reason, the writer think the solution of this problem is it is way better if we
can answered a phone call in a place where we can focus on our conversation without disturbing
others. For someone who is in the shared bedroom, Yoshio was not always alone in the room. He
should took the phone call away from the room because he should know that his voice was so loud.

Chip should tell Yoshio clearly that his voice was loud enough to disturb others so Yoshio knew
clearly where his fault was. For Chip, it is better too if he did not bring his other friend to Yoshio
and Chip’s room, because bedroom was quite private room and better ask Yoshio’s permission
before did that. The bedroom was for 2 people so, it was theirs. Everything in the room was their
responsible.

Final Remarks

This study case about different culture roommate is interesting. When Chip felt disturbed by
Yoshio’s voice, well indirectly Chip had a mistake too, that he did not tell Yoshio properly about
his voice so, Yoshio did not really get his mistake. Also, it was room for two people basically it
was ok if Yoshio wanted to take the phone call there. But it did not mean he used loud voice to
answer it. Well, everything that happened in the room should base on Yoshio and Chip’s
agreement. So there will no misunderstanding or miscommunication.

From the study case above, the writer took few notes to be learnt for life, that we should know the
consequences from living with other people especially someone from other culture. Since we have
to share bedroom which is a private place for us. Understanding one another will be better to
minimize the problem that will come. When we want to do something in the bedroom, it is better
if we asked the other roommate’s permission.

References

Dewi, N. K. (2015). Cross Cultural Understanding in Language Learning. Retrieved from

https://www.isi-dps.ac.id/artikel/cross-cultural-understanding-in-language-learning/
Communicating Across Culture. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.culture-at-
work.com/ex1samples.html
Fredrick, Lynn. (2019,May 10). Why Do Japanese Talk as If They Are Angry?. Retrieved from
https://www.quora.com/Why-do-Japanese-talk-as-if-they-are-angry