Problemsininterculturalcommunication跨文化交际中的问题

Problemsininterculturalcommunication跨⽂化交际中的问题
Common Problems in
Intercultural Communication
(1)Anxiety
Anxiety occurs because of not knowing what one is expected to do, and focusing on that feeling and not be totally present in the communication transaction.
The film The Y ear of the Y ao shows Y ao Ming’s anxiety about new environment, language and cooperation with the team.
(2)Assuming similarity instead of difference
Beijingers in New Y ork is a TV seriers which shows that Wang Qiming ( acted by Jiang W en ) assumes his friends will take good care of his wife and himself and offer good accommodation when they first come to New Y ork, but on the contrary the friend went away after welcoming them at the airport and left them alone in a totally strange street. So they must struggle for living totally by themselves. And it is really a hard process to find a foothold in this Big Apple. (3)Ethnocentrism
Ethnocentrism means, by the definition of the W ebster’s Third New International Dictionary:
(1) a habitual disposition to judge foreign peoples or groups by the standards and practices of one’s own culture;
(2) a tendency toward viewing alien cultures with disfavor and a resulting sense of inherent superiority.
V arious forms of ethnocentric attitude:
(1)My culture should be the role model for other cultures.
(2)I have little respect for the values and customs of other cultures.
(3)Most people would be happier if they lived like people in my culture.
(4)People in my culture have just about the best lifestyles of anywhere.
(5)I do not cooperate with people who are different.
(6)I do not trust people who are different.
(7)I dislike interacting with people from different cultures.
(4)Stereotypes and prejudice
(A) Stereotypes are the perceptions or beliefs we hold about groups or individuals based on previously formed opinions and attitudes, for example, the conservative and gentlemen-like English, the demonstrative and talkative
Italians, the music-loving, masculine Latinos, and the rugged, bold and unconstrained Chinese northerners etc.
Some other Stereotypes:
(B) Prejudice refers to the irrational dislike, suspicion, or hatred of a particular group, race, religion, or sexual orientation.
(C) Racism is any policy, practice, belief, or attitude that attributes characteristics or status to individuals based on their race. What are the reasons for the persistence of prejudice, ethnocentrism, stereotypes and racism?
Socialization
Social benefits
Economic benefits
Psychological benefits
Here I’d like to refer to the concept named Hate Speech.
Hate speech refers to hostile words or actions that people say or do against
a certain group because that group is different.
(5)Language problems
(A) Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Linguistic determinist is that language structure controls thought and cultural norms.
Linguistic relativity is more scientific. It holds that culture is controlled by and controls language.
(B) Translation problems
Axtell (1991) identifies a number of U.S. translation problems:
1)General Motors automobile "Nova" in Spanish means "doesn't
go";
2)Pepsi-Cola's "Come Alive with Pepsi" when translated in
Taiwanese is "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave";
3)Electrolux, a Swedish manufacturer, used "Nothing sucks like
an Elecrolux," which failed because of the slang meaning of suck in the United States;
4)Bich pens were originally named Bich by their French
manufacturer.
What led to translation problems?
The lack of
a. Vocabulary equivalence “mokusatsu”
b. Idiomatic equivalence “The old man kicked the bucket. ”
c. Grammatical-syntactical equivalence “the different meanings of “book a place” and “place a book” by changing the verb and noun of the phase.”
d. Experiential equivalence
e. Conceptual equivalence “the meanings of department store, shopping mall, and plaza. ”
e. Conceptual equivalence “Corruption in Singapore is an anti-law behavior while in Thailand it is only morally wrong which led to the corruption of the whole society, from the president to the common taxi-driver. ”。