Kiku: The Japanese Art of Good Listening

Inspired by the Japanese concept of kiku--a more engaged, empathetic style of listening--a sociolinguistics researcher and writer offers a ground-breaking guide to more intentional and meaningful communication. No other life form turns noise into sound, sound into language, then language into understanding quite the way we humans do when we listen. As a sociolinguist who grew up in different places with very different languages, Haru Yamada has always been fascinated with the way people navigate their day listening to language systems that code the world in such dramatically different ways. And it was as Haru was recovering in the ICU from an accident that had inflicted a permanent hearing disability when she rediscovered the extraordinary benefit found in the science of listening--the critical intelligence we need to learn and grow and get better. Now, Haru Yamada offers a practical guide to more effective listening as a perceptive, creative exercise. We don't just listen to what people say and don't say, we reconstruct what someone else is saying and doing and meaning and feeling. Listening is a skill that requires our physical ear and brain power and the effort of our creative mind and social heart to remix what we hear from others and recreate it within ourselves. Kiku will allow you to harness the vital energy of listening to connect, sustain, and enhance the relationships you have with your friends, families, and professional teams.

About the Author :
Haru Yamada is a sociolinguistics researcher and writer with a PhD from Georgetown University. A distinction of her doctoral dissertation on conversational analysis of bankers' meetings led to the publication of American and Japanese Business Discourse, where she introduced the idea of speaker- and listener-led conversations. Developing her concept of listener-led conversations in a publication with Oxford University Press, she published Different Games, Different Rules with a foreword by New York Times best-selling author Deborah Tannen. She regularly speaks at academic conferences. Haru's life mission is to champion listening, in many ways enforced by a serious accident which left her nearly deaf and with a lifelong hearing disability. While hearing loss isn't ideal in someone who spends their time listening, this personal challenge bolsters much of her everyday life and informs the book, making listening a thoughtful part of daily practice, drawing from skills she acquired from over seven international moves before attending university, and further moves as a working adult. She currently lives in London with her French partner, two multilingual, biracial, multicultural children in a hybrid working, bigenerational home.

Review :
"Kiku is a poetic and practical guide based on this essential truth: real transformation begins not with answers, but with deep, wholehearted listening. Dr. Yamada teaches us how to tap into the wisdom and experience of others in a multitude of accessible ways. This book is a profound resource for anyone who believes that questions are only powerful when their answers are met with real presence. A true gift to leaders, educators, and anyone who wants to connect more meaningfully." --Jeff Wetzler, author of Ask: Tap Into the Hidden Wisdom of People Around You and co-author of Extraordinary Learning for All "Combining expertise in the field of linguistics with deep knowledge of Japanese language and culture, Haru Yamada shows that you're already listening in many different ways. Understanding those differences, you can harness and hone the skills you have, to better connect with your own inner voice and the people you talk to."--Deborah Tannen, #1 New York Times bestselling author and University Professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University "Read Haru Yamada's insightful book "Kiku" if you want to understand better what you are doing when you are listening, an indispensable part of the practice of diplomacy and other professions and activities that depend on effective interpersonal communications."--Daniel Shields, Ambassador (retired) "Understanding human listening intelligence is critical to our survival and well-being as we forge forward in the digital world. As Haru Yamada gives us the insight we need to tune in to our many sociocultural groups, 聴くKIKU The Art of Japanese Listening offers a unique Japanese perspective for contemporary communicators to navigate their everyday listening in a speaker-led world."--KONO Taro, Former Minister of Digita Transformation and current Japanese Member of Parliament Amidst the cacophony of the modern world, this book deftly teaches us the many ways we need to listen: fast and slow, across cultures and generations, and at home and work.--Andrew Bernard, Kadas T'90 Distinguished Professor, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth In Kiku, Dr. Yamada presents a compelling and far-reaching thesis on the importance of listening to others not just in negotiations or daily conversations but in virtually all aspects of social interaction that occur in our daily lives. Combining theory with personal experiences and insightful anecdotes of living and studying in several different nations and cultures, this thesis is also a reminder that the cultural values that encourage tolerance, empathy, flexibility, and curiosity lay at the foundation and are the drivers of behavior that facilitate good listening and ultimately the de-escalation of conflict and the creation of harmonious relations in groups and among individuals. In our age of increasing geopolitical tensions and social divisions leading to growing emphasis on achieving narrow self-interests at the expense of others, Dr. Yamada provides us with a valuable contribution for helping us think and reflect upon what it takes, starting with the basic act of listening to what each other is saying or attempting to convey, to develop consensus and mutual understanding in our relationships.--Ko Unoki, Lecturer of Intercultural Business Management and Business Negotiation at the College of Business, Rikkyo University, Tokyo.