Availability of web information for intercultural communication

Abstract

Language and cultural differences pose significant barriers to intercultural communications. In our study, we specifically focus on sharing of semantic information as a method for overcoming cultural differences between. It was our belief that users must create their own annotations manually. However, we found that it is difficult for users to add annotations during chat communication. Therefore, we have developed a system that can automatically acquire these annotations. We performed experiments using this system for the case of communication between Japanese and foreign students. We present the results of these experiments regarding the users' evaluations and discussions. (1) The annotation contents of an image obtained by the automatic acquirement function obtained a relatively good evaluation. (2) With regard to annotation sentences, the content acquired through a multilingual links was given the highest evaluation. (3) With regard to the annotation images, the content acquired through an image search service was given the highest evaluation. © 2008 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.