By completing the podcast project I hope to learn more about Japanese history, various cultural staples (for example, traditional and contemporary meals), and language. Additionally, I want to learn a new set of methods for communicating in Japanese. Our group will accomplish this through the use of new media formats, translation and script writing, and novel sentence structures. Moreover, I will be able to practice a great deal of necessary skills for communication in the Japanese language, including time spent on speaking, pronunciation, and writing. I also hope to explore further the great variety of Japanese cultural attractions which operate in New York City, including supermarkets, restaurants, and cultural venues such as the Japan Society. Teamwork skills will also be cultivated, since our group needs to plan and develop our ideas in a manner respectful to all group members. Finally, basic movie making skills will be learned, like video and sound editing, dubbing and adding subtitles.
"Communication":
Communication can mean a number of things, but perhaps most generally it refers to any social interaction that is capable of conveying information between two or more persons. When it comes to a video podcast, though, the notion of communication becomes much more distinctive.
Firstly, the medium of video allows for a number of ways of moving information between people that may not be allowed by other forms of communication, most importantly through visual signals: a picture can be provided, or an action reproduced, when the language may not be totally understood by the receiver. As they say, a picture is worth 1,000 words! Moreover, subtler visual cues (such as editing) can also provide the viewer with a great deal of information, while allowing the video producers to develop their argument in more delicate ways.
Second, communication usually takes place between two or more persons, with information flowing from both sides. However, with a video podcast, the audience is not able to respond to the filmmakers. Therefore, it is best to engage a variety of people in the process of developing the podcast. Our group is mindful of this point by interviewing experts in the field, attending cooking and informational lectures, and performing additional research.
