PDF slideshow with captions briefly explaining the charts and photos. The face-to-face presentation to Thai and Japanese university students and staff is particularly for a group visiting from Rangsit University near Bangkok, Thailand. The presenter is a Japan specialist teaching classes at Osaka Jogakuin University on Intercultural Communication and Bilingualism. The presentation briefly discusses what culture is, world cultures and values, and comparative culture, mentioning other countries including Japan, Thailand, and India. The main topic is American culture and multiculturalism. The U.S. is diverse and multicultural, so it is difficult to generalize about what American culture is, but some American traditions are presented along with cultural research findings. The presentation aims for objectivity as well as frankness, so readers may draw their own conclusions.

2. At Osaka Jogakuin University (大阪女学院大学), I teach
Bilingualism and Intercultural Communication classes.
I was born in Boston, so I will show you some photos.
However, in graduate school, I specialized in Japan at
the University of Hawaii.

3. Fall season in Boston

4. The cultural area of Boston around Northeastern
University, where I studied physics and philosophy.

5. World Cultural Map according to differences in values

6. Based on E.T. Hall’s
Cultural Iceberg Model
(1976). Parts of a culture
that you can see are not as
important as parts that
are hard to see. Therefore,
Hall taught that the only
way to learn the internal
culture of others is to
actively participate in their
culture. We need to get to
know individuals from
that culture.

7. Comparing countries according to Hofstede’s cultural dimensions.
E.g., the U.S. is most individualistic, Thailand is collectivistic, and
Japan is near the average or balanced (Shaules & Abe, 2007, p.5).

8. Immigrants from Japan are only about 1% of the U.S. population,
and they live in relatively safe, wealthy areas (compare next map).

9. The U.S. has extremes of wealth and poverty, safe and unsafe areas. Most murders take
place in poor areas of cities, usually killing people they know. There are also mass killings
at schools and other public places by disturbed individuals who can buy military rifles.
Factors such as the frontier tradition of rough individualism make the problem too hard
to solve. Wealthier people are in a better position to avoid the gun violence and crime.

10. The U.S. leads the world in power and wealth, largely thanks to
immigrants. Because all kinds of people from around the world
live in the U.S., it is difficult to say in general what American
culture is. You would have to look to history, geography, and
legal traditions such as the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

11. Immigrants
keep coming
to the U.S.
because they
can find better
education,
work, and
quality of life.

12. The U.S. is multicultural, and there are always new combinations.
Some people enjoy the diversity, while cultural conservatives
oppose immigration, greater freedom for women, and other social
changes. In Japan also, individuals are free to like foreigners or not.
But the U.S. is divided, not united, and there are many challenges.

13. 11 different cultural regions in North America (Woodard, 2018) to consider.