Question

In a scene from the film "Mr. Baseball" starring Tom Selleck. Tom Selleck's character, Jack Elliot, is an aging baseball player who has been traded to a team in Japan. If Tom wants to continue to play baseball professionally, he must move to Japan.

In the first scene, Tom is being picked up for a business dinner with a woman who is attracted to. He asks one of his team members what his chances are with this woman. The Japanese man responds, "Many torrents, difficulties surround her." Tom's character does not fully understand the comment. He later finds out that it is the boss's daughter.

In the second scene, Tom questions his friend as to why he did not tell him who she was and the friend replies, "I told you many torrents, difficulties surround her." Tom becomes upset at this remark.

Which theory best explains why there is miscommunication Hall, Hofstede, Confucius? Explain which component of that theory is related to this scene.

Answer 1

Hall's theory best explains this scene of miscommunication.

Component of context is related to this scene.The high context factor of Japan where things are not expressed directly but must be understood or taken for granted,makes the Japanese respond "many torrents , difficulties surround her" and he repeats this again when asked for an explanation.While,the low content factor in Tom's culture where things are spoken directly and in a straight forward manner with explanation , prevents him from understanding the indirect language of the Japanese,thus, miscommunication occured.