跨文化交际CASE2
跨文化交际实用教程unit2
gererosity
criticalness sarcasm humor
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Case 5. Borrow Money & Lend Money
Question 1: If you were “I” in this case, how would you adjust yourself? Question 2: What’s the response of the the American if you are generous and say: “Don’t mention it again. You don’t have to pay me back.”
Title+Surname
Surname+Title Given Name
Title+Surname Given Name Given Name
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How to express fu +title?
Please match the following two groups.
vice associate assistant
行政头衔以副字的表示副职的行政职务头衔可用vicedeputy表达
Unit 2
Daily Communication (I)
Objectives
Learn the differences of addressing
people and greeting between Chinese and western culture. Learn what are the topics at the beginning of the conversation. Learn how to visit someone and how to leave.
跨文化交际实用教程胡超编著unit_4
There was a man on the roof doing repairs. “Didn’t you hear me call ‘Look out’?” he demanded. “Yes, and that’s what I did,” she replied.
as Chinese word “干部”.
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知识分子
In CC, it refers to people including college teachers, college students, middle school teachers, and such people as medical doctors, engineers, interpreters.
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Can you find the equivalent words in English for these Chinese words?
龙 干部 母马
扁担 一本书 知识分子 社会科学
dragon cadre female horse?/mare?
a carrying pole; a shoulder pole
Rosalita, a Brazilian woman Roger had known for some time. Roger generally had a very good impression of her and always felt at ease with her.
跨文化交际英文案例
Case 1 Girl-nessAs a visiting professor in an American university, Zhang Hua was invited to give a lecture to a group of American students. He talked about university students in China. During the question-and-answer period after the lecture, one female student asked a question that surprised Zhang Hua. “When you talked about female students, you referred to them as girls. Why?”“Because they are girls. That’s what they are called,” Zhang Hua tried to answer, but he knew he did not really understand the intent of the question. “ I don’t quite understand your question, I’m afraid.”“In the States, we call ourselves ‘ women’ if we’re old enough to go to the university. Calling us ‘girls’ is insulting.”Do Chinese female college students prefer to be called women?Case 2Many years ago, a Chinese man showed a photo of his wife to some American visitors. Out of courtesy, they all said,” She is very beautiful.” Also out of courtesy, the man replied with what he would have done in Chinese under the circumstance,” Where! Where!” Quite taken aback, nobody said anything for a moment, until the most ingenious one among the visitors, taking another look at the photo, said, “Oh, everywhere!”What did the Chinese intend to mean by replying with “ Where! Where!”?Case 1 Girl-nessAs a visiting professor in an American university, Zhang Hua was invited to give a lecture to a group of American students. He talked about university students in China. During the question-and-answer period after the lecture, one female student asked a question that surprised Zhang Hua. “When you talked about female students, you referred to them as girls. Why?”“Because they are girls. That’s what they are called,” Zhang Hua tried to answer, but he knew he did not really understand the intent of the question. “I don’t quite understand your question, I’m afraid.”“In the States, we call ourselves ‘women’if we’re old enough to go to the university. Calling us ‘girls’ is insulting.”Do Chinese female college students prefer to be called women?Case 2Many years ago, a Chinese man showed a photo of his wife to some American visitors. Out of courtesy, they all said,” She is very beautiful.” Also out of courtesy, the man replied with what he would have done in Chinese under the circumstance,”Where! Where!”Quite taken aback, nobody said anything for a moment, until the most ingenious one among the visitors, taking another look at the photo, said, “Oh, everywhere!”What did the Chinese intend to mean by replying with “ Where! Where!”?Case 3 “I Just Wanted to Talk”.Wu tong was a graduate student in a Chinese university. Like many students these days, he was very keen on learning English. He would talk with English speakers as often as he could.One day, he saw a new foreigner on campus, Leonard Ramsay, and overheard him speaking English. When Mr. Ramsay finished speaking with the other person, he turned to go, but Wu Tong stopped him. He went up and said, “ You speak English, is that right?”“Yes, why?”“I’d like to practise my English with you, if you don’t mind.”Mr. Ramsay looked a little annoyed. “ I prefer not to, if you don’t mind.”Case 4 An Unwanted Food ServiceDuring a lunch buffet at a conference in China, Wu Fa, the interpreter of the conference, sat with four foreign participants. They were having a good time talking. When Wu Fa stood up for more food, she asked whether she could bring anything back for them.Everyone thanked her and said “no”. A while later, Wu Fa came back with a plate full of food, and asked whether the others would like to have something from her plate.Again, the four others said , “No”.“ Oh, please take something, I can’t eat this much food myself.”The foreigners shrugged and one or two of them even frowned a little.Case 5 Simple Can Be SpecialWen Hong had an American professor in her economics class in China. She had given the professor a lot of help during the course. At the end of the semester，the professor and his wife invited her to their home for dinner. They said they were going to cook her an American meal.Wen Hong felt very flattered and excited，since McDonald，KFC and Pizza Hut had been her only exposure to Western cooking.They had salad to start with，then steak with potatoes，followed by ice cream. Wen Hong had expected more courses but the meal came to an end. She knew the professor and his wife were being kind to her，but somehow she was a little disappointed. She wondered whether Americans do eat like that at home.Case 6 Chinese Coffee CustomsWhile studying in the United States, Lin Jun made a few American friends. One day he invited two of them to his apartment and cooked them a meal. When his friendssaid they would like some coffee, he started boiling some water. Without asking them any questions, he made three cups of 3-in-1 coffee, the way he usually took it.Both friends tasted the coffee and frowned. One said she always took coffee black，the other said he preferred to have less sugar in his coffee. They also told him that the spoon is for stirring the coffee，not to drink from like he did. Lin Jun was embarrassed. He had thought that everyone drank coffee the same way as he did. Case 7 Noise from NoodlesJane and Peter were Chen Dong’s landlord and landlady when he was in the States. They had bee good friends by the end of his one-year stay. They kept in touch with each other after Chen Dong returned to China. Jane and Peter decided to visit China soon after Chen Dong left the States.They made a special stop in Guangzhou where Chen Dong lives. Chen Dong had promised to show them around the city and let them try some authentic Cantonese food. One thing，in particular，he wanted them to try was noodles. He knew several restaurants that served good noodles and took the couple to one of them for lunch one day.Noodles typically e in soup in Cantonese cooking. Chen Dong started eating the noodles with chopsticks，while Jane and Peter exchanged a look at the noise that came with his eating. After a little hesitation，they asked for forks. A waitress told them that they did not have forks，and Chen Dong explained that noodle restaurants do not usually keep forks because no one would think of using forks for noodles.In the next half an hour，Jane and Peter had a hard time trying to roll the long noodles onto their chopsticks. Chen Dong said，“that’s not the way we eat noodles. You put the noodles directly to your mouth with your chopsticks.”“But that’s not the way we eat noodles，” Jane and Peter said, frowning. Case 8 Dinner in a Chinese HomeBesides taking Peter and Jane to restaurants, Dong Chen also invited them to his home for dinner once. Dong Chen ‘s mother is a nice wife, and made eight courses for four of them.“I'm sorry there isn’t much for dinner, she said.”“God this is much more than enough food,” Jane said. Peter was too overwhelmed to even respond to Dong Chen‘ motherDong Chen was a little embarrassed. “This is what we usually say to guests，even though there’s plenty of food” he explained．What bewildered Jane and Peter most was that though Dong Chen’s mother kept saying that the food was not good，she constantly served helpings to Jane and Peter．Peter did not like two of the courses very much，and felt bad that his plate was full with whatever he would not be able to eat. At seeing Dong Chen's mother’s next move to serve him food，he said in a begging voice，“Please don’t give me any more food．Let me do it myself．Case 9A Not-sociable DrinkMartin was sent by an American pany to work in a special economic development zone in China for a year. He became very friendly with a few Chinese colleagues. Soon, he started to go out with them. He noticed that Chinese like to have something , such as peanuts, when they have beer, instead of just drinking beer without anything to eat as many North Americans do.One day he was invited to a dinner party to celebrate a colleague’s birthday. They ordered alcoholic beverages and toasted the guest of honor frequently. Soon Martin realized that the plan was to get their friend drunk. Each colleague would offer a toast, concluding with a cheery “ gan bei!” and tried to get Martin to join in, even though he was unwilling to do it. Martin didn’t think it a good idea, and tried to talk them out of the game. However, he was accused of not being a good friend for not co-operating.Martin remained an outsider during the rest of the dinner. He was getting increasingly worried as he watched the poor guest bee increasingly inebriated.Case 10 A Misunderstanding at a Dinner TableRoger was a student majoring in East Asia Studies in an American university. He started an correspondence with Zhang Li, a sociology major in China, who was introduced to him through a mutual friend.Upon graduation, Roger got a big gift from his grandfather. Grandpa would pay for a round-trip ticket to China. He told Zhang Li the good news, and the two decided to meet.Zhang Li decided to give Roger a very special wele: she and the three women students in her dormitory would cook him an authentic Chinese meal, as Roger had told her that he loved Chinese food.However, when Roger was presented the dinner, he was almost terrified by some of the food: pork stomach soup, pig liver with ginger and spring onion, chicken with mushrooms in which the chicken had been cut to pieces with bones attached to the meal.Fortunately , there were courses like tofu, stirred fried beef, steamed fish and vegetables that Roger loved. He tried to stick to them but Zhang Li kept putting food he did not like on his plate. When she asked how he liked the liver, Roger said, “ It’s very unusual…and interesting. “ This seemed to make Zhang Li happy. And she gave him more liver. Roger tried to stop her, but she would not be stopped. Roger was so frustrated that he told her that he did not really like it that much. “ But you said it was unusual and interesting!”Zhang Li said. “ Well, they both mean something less than positive,” Roger said carefully, trying not to hurt their feelings.Zhang Li and her friends became concerned at this.”“So you don’t like the food?” I’m not used to eating liver, that’s all. But I do like the chicken, the beef, the tofu, and the vegetables. I have had more than enough to eat. I never make this much food at home,” Roger was eager to let them know how much he appreciated their effort. “Trust me, I’m enjoying the food. I know what I like.”Having said that, he found a piece of chicken that was less bony, held it in his hand to eat it, and then licked his fingers. Zhang Li and her friends looked at each other in shock.It was not a perfect first meeting for either Zhang Li or Roger.Case 11 Over-dressed TouristsAs a van stopped in front of Niagara Falls, a group of Chinese officials streamed out. They were dressed in suits and ties, wearing leather shoes. Many of the men also had left the manufacture’s tag on the sleeve of their suit jacket. As they wandered around Niagara Falls, some of them started to smoke. Their attire drew the stares of North American tourists, some of whom quietly laughed with their friends and pointed at the Chinese visitors. Others frowned at seeing the smoking and shook their heads in disapproval.Case 12 Tie CultureJane was a tourist and spent some time staying with a Chinese friend at her home. They watched a children’s porgram while having breakfast one morning. A young man, the host of the program, gave instructions of a game to a few children, and then joined them running in a circle.“My, he’s wearing a tie and running crazy with the children!” Jane exclaimed.The Chinese friend shrugged,”Is this very unusual?”Case 13 An American in ChinaProfessor Smith and his assistant，Chen Ming，were doing fieldwork in a small city in China. It was hot and humid, and both were casually dressed. One evening as they were leaving for dinner，a local administrator told them that the mayor of the city, who was interested in the type of research they were doing, would like to say hello to Professor Smith. As luck would have it，the Mayor was dining in the same restaurant as Smith and Chen Ming.Professor Smith said he had to go back to his room to change.“You look fine，e on，the mayor is waiting，”the administrator said.“No, I can’t meet the mayor in my shorts”Case 14 The Generosity of a Chinese StudentMatt was invited to a Chinese university to give a few lectures. During his short stay there, a graduate student volunteered to show him around the city. Matt accepted the offer gratefully. It was summer and soon both Matt and the graduate student began to get quite hot. While Matt took some pictures, the graduate student went to buy some drinks.“Thank you. How much do I owe you?” Matt asked.“Nothing.” The student smiled.“ Are you sure?”“Yes.”At lunchtime, Matt suggested they have a quick meal. They stopped by a McDonald. Again, the graduate student tried to pay for Matt.“No, this is my treat. You’re a student, I’m a professor. You’ve given me the time to show me around. You already paid for my drink. I can’t let you pay for my lunch again.”Case 15 A Gift from a Chinese StudentXie Dong did his graduate study in an American university. He came back to China for summer vacation. When he went back to his program, he paid his supervisor a visit and presented him a gift.The professor opened the gift. It was a ginseng with its many tiny roots spreading out in a very artistic pattern. It clearly was an expensive gift.The professor’s eyes shone at the ginseng, but he then began to feel uneasy. “Xie Dong, I appreciate your kindness, but I can’t take this as a gift.”“ Why? Don’t you like it?” It was Xie Dong’s turn to be uneasy now.“ Oh, sure, I love it. But I can’t accept it.”“Why?”“ Because I didn’t do anything to deserve such a gift.”Case 16 Telephone CourtesyKathy and David, a couple from the US, signed a one-year contract to work in China. Both were extroverted and soon made some Chinese friends.Before long, people started calling them at home. David was sometimes away on business trips for a few days, and if someone looked for him, Kathy often would find the conversation awkward.“ Where did he go?” The caller typically would ask.“Can I pass on any message?” Kathy asked politely, trying to avoid the question.“Is he out of town?” The caller was usually very persistent.“Yes, can I help you in any way?” Kathy tried to be polite, but she could not help feeling unfortable.Case 17 “Not So Close, Please”He Jia had lived in the United States for 7 years before she came back to work in China. She found that she had bee accustomed to social habits in North America and that some Chinese behaviours now caused her some disfort. For example, one day, back in China, she was in a queue to use an ATM. She had noticed that people were standing very close to each other. In fact, the person behind her could, if she or he wanted, to see her enter the PIN of her ATM card. He Jia wanted to make people aware of the disfort of the user by keeping her distance from the person in front of her. However, the people behind her pushed her to move forward.Case 18 The Privacy of the PageSimon and Cheng Feng often studied together to prepare for exams. One day, in the middle of a study session, Simon said he wanted to get a coffee. He asked Cheng Feng if he wanted any, but he said, “No”. When he came back, he found Cheng Feng reading his notes. He was upset and, although he didn’t say anything at the time, he never studied with Cheng Feng again. Cheng Feng noticed the change and wondered what had happened.Case19 The Privacy of PhotographsRose invited Lili to her home one day. While they were having coffee, Rose showed Lili a few pictures of her boyfriend in a photo album. Lili casually turned to other pages after that.Rose stopped her, “I’d rather you not look at other pictures.”Lili was embarrassed, and apologized, “I’m sorry.”Case 20 The Privacy of PriceAfter living in the States for some time, Ping Li observed that Americans like to ment on each other’s looks and clothes. So when she saw a fellow graduatestudent wearing a nice dress at a party, she plimented her by saying. “This is a very beautiful dress.”“Oh thank you , I bought it last year before Christmas ,”the student very pleased. “How much was it?” Ping Li asked.“Well I don’t quite remember,” the student seemed unprepared for thequestion, and answered a little hesitatingly.Case 21 The Privacy of the PersonZou Qing and Nancy became friends after they met in a course they both took．Nancy had had gray hair much earlier than people of the same age，and had been dyeing her hair for several years.While they were having a break one day in between two classes, and Zou Qing noticed that Nancy had some invisible gray hair on her. She told her so, but Nancy changed the topic right away.When everyone else left，Nancy said to Zou Qing，“Please don’t mention my gray hair while there were men around.”Case 22 Unacceptable CuriosityMr and Mrs Peterson came to China with a tour group. One evening, they decided to take a walk outside their hotel. They soon noticed that quite a few people stared at them. One man even quickly walked past them and then turned back to look at them several times. Both Mr and Mrs Peterson felt unfortable about the staring and went back to the hotel sooner than they had planned.Case 23 Confusion in municating LoveLe, a Chinese woman, and Bill, an American man, were very much in love. Their relationship started with their shared interest in photography. As time went on, however, Le became dependent on Bill whenever she wanted to take a picture, because she felt that Bill was a much better photographer than she was. Whenever she noticed a scene that would make a good image, she would ask Bill to take the picture for her. Bill was not very pleased but did not say anything for a while. However, Le soon got to a point where she began to ask Bill to load and unload the film. Bill decided that it was too much for him to bear. He exploded, “What’s the matter with you? Don’t you know how to load and unload a film? Can’t you take a picture any more?”Le was so shocked that she burst into tears. “I ask you to do things only because you do it better than me. What’s wrong with that?”Case24 Unwanted AttentionTeresa is a Chinese American teaching English temporarily at a Chinese university. She is very easy going, and soon the students got to know her well enough to invite her out regularly.Crossing the very busy and wide streets in the city was a scary experience for Teresa, and she plained of it repeatedly. As a result, the female students began to try to help her by taking her hand or grasping her arm while the male students seemed to be shy about protecting her.Teresa was unfortable with her female students touching her, and told the women they did not need to do it. Her female students thought she was being polite and continued to take care of her the same way. Teresa became so unfortable that she tried to move away from her female students whenever they had to cross the road.Case 25 Holding HandsChris was a visiting professor in China. On one day, one of his students, Sun Hui, showed him around the city. Sun Hui soon noticed that Chris was interested in taking pictures of men that were walking arm-in-arm or touching each other when they talked.“ I don’t see anything special about those men,” Sun Hui said curiously.“ Well, we don’t see much of that in men in the States,” Chris said,“ They’re gay, aren’t they?”Case 26 Friendship MisunderstoodYan Hong was a Chinese painter who immigrated to the United States. She met Jenny, an American physician in a club one day. They soon became friends, and sometimes went out for coffee and lunch together.One day, Jenny gave Yan Hong a very beautiful vase. Yan Hong loved the vase very much, and felt she should give Jenny something in return. So she gave Jenny a painting she brought from China. Jenny was very pleased.A few days later, Jenny invited Yan Hong to her home for the first time. They made dinner together and enjoyed the meal a lot. Then they sat down to watch TV. When Jenny tentatively held Yan Hong’s hand, Yan Hong was not aware of anything unusual. However, when Jenny sat closer to her and kissed her, Yan Hong was terrified. She pushed Jenny away and cried, “ I’m not a lesbian!”Jenny was in shock, and asked accusingly, “ Then why didn’t you tell me earlier?”Case 27 Learning about FlirtingChen Qing was a visiting scholar in an American university. He had made some friends with professors and students there. One day he went to a party where the atmosphere became less and less inhibited. Chen Qing noticed that men and womentouched each other a lot more than he was used to. At the end of the party, most people hugged each other good-bye. One woman came to hug Chen Qing, but he stiffened as she attempted to give him a hug. He had never hugged any women except his wife in his life. Other women noticed this, and no one else tried to hug him.However, Chen Qing felt left out when people hugged each other but not him. He found himself in a very awkward situation: he didn’t want to be hugged, neither did he want to be left out. He did not know what he wanted or how to resolve his conflicting emotions.Case28 Lost in LoveLi Ying fell in love with an American man in her second year in the United States. They spent a lot of time together. After they had been to all the places of interest in the city, they had to decide where to go or what to do for the next date. John typically would ask Li Ying, “ What do you want to do today?” , or “ Where shall we go?”Li Ying would sometimes tell what she wanted, but more often than not, she would say “It’s up to you”, or “ Whatever you want to do”, or “ Wherever you want to go.”John frowned at such responses several times until one day when Li Ying said “ up to you” again. “For God’s sake, tell me what you want to do!” He cried out loud.Li Ying was shocked at his reaction. “ Isn’t it clear to you? I’ll do what you want to do.”“ No, it isn’t clear at all. I want to know what you want to do!” John was almost angry. “ Don’t you realize that sometimes I want to do what you want to do, too?”Case 29 Lovers Bee StrangersXiao Xin and Peter are newly-weds. Though they spent a lot of time with each other before getting married, they never really lived together. Not surprisingly, their marriage was followed by a series of minor problems while they tried to adjust to each other’s ways of life. One difficult issue came up about two months after their new life, when Peter came home from work looking unhappy.“ What happened?” Xiao Xin asked.“Nothing much, I’m just very tired,” Peter said.“I can tell that it’s more than that.”Peter gave Xiao Xin a quiet look, went into the bedroom, and threw himself to bed. Xiao Xin followed him in. “Don’t you want to talk about it?”“No, I don’t.”“Perhaps I can help?” Xiao Xin suggested.“ Xiao Xin, sometimes you just have to give me some space. All I need now is some privacy!” Peter yelled.Xiao Xin was in shock. “Don’t you trust me?”“Geez, it’s not a matter of trust! Can’t you accept the fact that talking to you isn’t the solution to every one of my problems?” Peter was being frustrated and impatient.Xiao Xin was in tears. Her husband seemed to have bee a stranger to her.Case 30 A Gift of SelfZhang Ge and Simon were head over heels in love with each other. They decided to go away to spend a major holiday somewhere. It was winter time, so they flew south in search of sunshine and warm water.However, Simon developed diarrhea soon after they settled in a hotel. He felt weak and had to lie down for a rest. Zhang Ge was worried and stayed him in the room. Outside the window, the sun was shining, and they could hear the surf. The sun and beach is what they had dreamed about for months during the winter back home.“Go and have some fun,” Simon said to Zhang Ge.“ How can I go and have fun while you’re sick in bed?”“Why not, it’s not your fault that I’m sick. Besides, there’s nothing you can do here.”“Nonsense! I can keep your pany, and you’ll feel better with me around you.”“Are you sure you want to do this instead of going out?”“Yes, I’m sure. I won’t go without you.”“Oh, you’re so special. I love you so much!” Simon drew Zhang Ge near and kissed her.Case 31 A Close GirlfriendLiu Hong and Wu Xin have been good friends since they were young girls. Both eventually had the opportunity to study in the United States, although they ended up in two different cities. After their first year of hard work, they decided to do some traveling together. Liu Hong went to stay with Wu Xin for two days before they set off. Then they visited three cities over the next 10 days.Liu Hong came back from the trip and told her American friends about the trip. She casually mentioned that they had to share one bed in one particular motel.“ Oh, did you?” , said one of the friends in a tone that made Liu Hong feel unfortable.Case 32 Interpreting a Smile. Peter is the general manager of an American pany in China. Recently, Chen Jun, one of the Chinese managers made a mistake at work that caused some difficulties that required a lot of effort to fix. Chen Jun was very upset about what had happened, and came to Peter’s office to make a formal apology.Chen Jun went into Peter’s office after being told to, smiling before he spoke. “ Peter, I’ve been feeling very upset about the trouble I’ve caused for the pany. I’m here to apologize for the mistake. I’m terribly sorry about it and I want you to know that it will never happen again.” Chen Jun said, looking at Peter with the smile he had been wearing since he walked into the office.Peter found it hard to accept the apology. He looked at Chen Jun, and asked, “ are you sure?”“ Yes, I’m very sorry and I promise this won’t happen again,” Chen Jun said, with a smile even broader than before.“I’m sorry I just can’t take your apology. You don’t look sorry at all!” Peter said angrily.Chen Jun’s face turned very red. He did not in the least expect Peter to take it negatively. He was desperate to make himself understood. “ Peter, ” he managed to smile again, “ trust me, no one can feel any more sorry than I do about it.”Peter was almost furious by now, “ if you’re that sorry, how can you still smile?”Case33 Interpreting a LaughHuihua, a Chinese student, and Mary , an American student studying Chinese in China, were on their way to a bookstore. As they got to the bookstore, they saw a young man walking down a flight of stairs. In his hurry, he missed the last two steps, and fell on the ground. He struggled to get back to his feet while people around him laughed. Fortunately, he seemed to be O.K.Mary was worried. She found Huihua smiling a little and was not fortable about it. Tell me, Huihua, how could people laugh when someone fell like that? Do they care at all? Shouldn’t they go up and ask the young man whether he was hurt?”Huihua said, “ they knew he wasn’t hurt too much.”-“ But I still don’t understand. A fall is a fall. In my culture, people would do anything but laugh!”Case 34 Different Lunch BoxesPeter was one of the American technicians who came to China to help set up a coffee plant. He was in China for six months．Before leaving for home，one of his Chinese colleagues took him out to dinner. Peter decided to ask him a question that had puzzled him for as long as he worked in the plant．Why is it that the Chinese workers have stainless boxes for their lunch，while us foreigners have lunch put in the disposable plastic boxes?”The Chinese colleague smiled，“It’s because the plastic boxes are more convenient；they are disposable．With the stainless boxes, you have to wash them after every meal.”But Peter was not convinced．“I don’t think so．Stainless boxes are much better than plastic boxes．They look more professional, they are more durable, and they protect your lunch better.可修编。
新编跨文化交际CASE答案
Case 1 (Page 23) This case took place in 3 cultures. There seemed to be problems in communicating with people of different cultures in spite of the efforts to achieve understnading.1 In Egypt as in many cultures, the human relationship is valued so highly that it is not expressed in an objective and impersonal way. While Americans certainly value human relationships, they are more likely to speak of them in less personal, more objective terms. In this case, Richard’s mistake might be that he choseto praise the food itself rather than the total evening, for which the food was simply the setting or excuse. For his host or hostess it was as if he had attended an art exhibit and complimented the artist by saying, “What beautiful frames your pictures are in!”2 In Japan the situation may be more complicated. Japanese people value order and harmony among a group, and that the group is valued more than any particular member. In contrast, Americans stress individuality and are apt to assert individual differences when they seem justifiably to be in conflict with the goals or values of the group. In this case, Richard’s mistake was making great efforts to defend himself even if the error is notintentiona. A simple apology and acceptance of the blame would have been appropriate 3) When it comes to England, w expect fewer problems between Americans and Englishmen than between Americans and almost any other group. In this case we might look beyond the gesture of taking sugar or cream to the valuess expressed in this gesture: for Americans, “Help yourself”; for the English counterpart, “Be my guest.”American and English people equally enjoy entertaining and being entertained, but they differ in the value of the distinction. Typically, the ideal guest at an American party is obe who “makeshimself at home”. For the English host, such guest behavior is presumptuous or rude. Case 2 (Page 24) A common cultural misunderstanding in classes involvs conflicts between what is said to be direct communication style and indirect communication style. In American culture, people tend to say what is on their minds and mean what they say. Therefore, students in class are expected to ask questions when they need clarification. Mexican culture shares this preference of style with American culture in some situations, and that’s why the students from Mexico readily adopted the techniques of asking questions in class. However, Korean people generally prefer indirect communication style, and therefore they tend not to say what is on their minds and to rely more on implications and inference, so as to be polite and repectful and avoid losing face through any improper verbal behavior. As is mentioned in the case, to many Koreans, numerous questions would show a disrespect for the teacher, and would also reflect that the student has not studied hard enough. Case3 (Page 24) The conflict here is a difference in cultural values and beliefs. In the beginning, Mary didn’t realize that her Dominican sister saw her as a member of the family, literally. In the Dominican view, family possessions are shared by everyone of the family. Luz was acting as most Dominican sisters woould do in borrowing without asking every time. Once Mary understood that there was a different way of looking at this, she would bec ome more accepting. However, she might still experience frustration when this happened again. She had to find ways to cope with her own emotional cultural reaction as well as her practical problem (the batteries running out). Case4 (Page 25) It might be simply a question of different rhythms. Americans have one rhythm in their personal and family relations, in their friendliness and their charities. People from other cultures have different rhythms. The American rhythm is fast. It is characterized by a rapid acceptance of others. However, it is seldom that Americans engage themselves entirely in a friendship. Their friendship are warm, but casual and specialized. For example, you have a neighbor who drops by in the morning for coffee. Y ou see her frequently, but you never invite her for dinner------not because you don’t think she could handle a fork and a knife, but because youhave seen her that morning. Therefore, you reserve your more formal invitation to dinner for someone who lives in a more distant part of the city and whom you would not see unless you extended an invitation for a special occasion. Now, if the first friend moves away and the second one moves nearby, you are likely to reserve this------see the second friend in the mornings for informal coffee meetings, and invite the first one more formally to dinner. Americans are, in other words, guided very often by their own convenience. They tend to make friends rapidly, and they don’t feel like it necessary to go to a great amount of trouble to see friends often when it becomes inconvenient to do so, and usually no one is hurt. But in similar circumstances, people from many other cultures would be hurt very deeply. Unit 2 Culture and Communication The analysis of this case: (Page 38) The least three things among the following Tom did that were regarded to be impolite: b. Tom opens the gift as soon as he is presented with it. d. Tom does not make a second offer of drinks when they refuse the first. e. Tom talks about the cost of living in the U.S.A. f. Tom does not ask them to stay longer when they say they must be leaving. g. Tom does not go out to see them off. Case 5 (Page 60) Analysis: The Chinese guide should refuse the first offer because he is obeying the Chinese rules for communication. We Chinese are modest, polite and well-behaved. Maybe the guide is waiting for a second or third offer of beer, but he doesn’t know the reasons behind the rule in American culture that you do not push alcoholic beverages on anyone. A person may not drink for religious reasons, he may be a reformed alcoholic, or he may be allergic. Whatever the reason, you do not insist on offering alcohol. So they politely never made a second offer of beer to the guide. Case 6 (Page 61) When a speaker says something to a hearer,there are at least three kinds of meanings involved: utterance meaning, the speaker’s meaning and the hearer’s meaning. In the dialogue, when Litz asked how long her mother-in-law was going to stay, she meant that if she knew how long she was going to saty in Finland, she would be able to make proper arrangements for her, such as taking her out to some sightseeing. However, her mother-in-law took Litz’s question to mean “Litz does not want me to saty for long”. From the Chinese point of view, it seems inappropriate for Litz to ask such a question just two days after her mother-in-law’s arrival. If she has to ask the question, it would be better to ask some time later and she should not let her mother-in-law hear it. Case 7 (Page 62) Analysis: Keiko insists on giving valuable gifts to her college friends, because in countries like Japan, exchanging gifts is a strongly rooted social tradition. Should you receive a gift, and don’t have one to offer in return, you will probably create a crisis. If not as serious as a crisis, one who doesn’t offer a gift in return may be considered rude or impolite. Therefore, in Japan, gifts are a symbolic way to show the care, respect, gratitude and further friendship. Keiko’s college friends would rather round up some of the necessary items and they are willing to have her use them. They really expected nothing from her. For in America, people donate their used household items to church or to the community. They would never consider these old items as gifts to Keiko. So Keiko’s valuable gifts have made her American friends feel uncomfortable Case 8 (Page 62) When the Chinese girl Amy fell in love with an American boy at that time, it seems that she preferred to celebrate Chritmas in the American way, for she wanted very much to appear the same as other American girls. She did not like to see her boyfriend disappointed at the “shabby”Chinese Christmas. That’s why she cried when she found out her parents had invited the minister’s family over for the Christmas Eve dinner. She thought the menu for the Chritmas meal created by her mother a strange one because there were no roast turkey and sweet potatoes but only Chinese food. How could she notice then the food chosen by her mother were all her favorites?From this case, we can find a lot of differences between the Chinese and Western cultures in what is appropriate food for a banquet, what are good table manners, and how one should behave to be hospitable. However, one should never feel shame just because one’s culture is different from others’. As Amy’s mother told her, you must be proud to be different, and your only shame is to have shame. Unit 3 Cultural Diversity Case 7 (Page 76) Between friends there is inevitably a kind of equality of give-and-take. But in different cultures, people view this differently. In Chinese culture, friendships develop slowly because they are built to last. We Chinese prefer the saying “A friend indeed is a friend in need.”And we never refuse the asking for help from a friend. We never forget the timely help by a friend when we are on the rocks. But In American culture, they view this in a different way. Once helped, they offer their help only once. That’s why Jackson said that Mr. Zhao was asking too much. In their view, friendships are based on common interests. 1 Different Lands, Different Friendships (P 77) French Friendships German Friendships English Friendships Chinese Friendships (见补充材料 American Friendships (见补充材料 补充案例 American Friendship Two mothers, Carmen and Judy, are talking to each other at a park while their children are playing together in the sand. Caemen: Hi, Judy. Judy: Hi, Carmen. How are you? Carmen: Fine. I’m glad to see that our children like to play together. Judy: Y eah, me too. I remember just a month ago they weren’t sharing their toys. Carmen: Now it looks like they’re enjoying each other. Judy: Finally! Maybe we could get together at each other’s houses sometime. I’m sure the kids would enjoy that. Carmen: Sure. That’d be nice. Judy: Well, let’s do it soon. Carmen: O.K. (Judy and Carmen continue to talk while their children play.) Case Analysis Judy and Carmen are not real friends. They don’t want to get together, really. They once met each other a month ago. Americans sometimes make general invitation like “Let’s get together sometimes.”Often this is just a way to be friendly. It is not always a real invitation. If they’d like to set a specific (exact) time, that means a real offer. 2 Family Structure (P83) Chinese Family Filipinos Family V ietnamese Family Japanese Family (See Case 9 and Case 10) Latin American Family Case 9 (Page 96) Traditional Japanese respect their elders and feel a deep sense of duty toward them. The elders in traditional Japanese families are typically overpowered. So the grandfather seemed to be an absolute authority for the young chairman. In Japanese culture challenging or disagreeing with eilder’s opinions would be deemed as being disrespectful. That is why the young chairman said nothing but just nodded and agreed with his grandfather. And it results in the Japanese company’s withdrawal from the negotiations concerning a relationship with Phil’s company a week later. Case 10 (Page 97) In Japan, a company is very much like a big family, in which the manager will take care of the employees and the employees are expected to cevote themselves to the development of the company and, if it is necessary, to sacrifice their own interests for the interests of the company. But to the French, a company is just a loosely-knit social organization wherein individuals are supposed to take care of themselves and their families. And the family is the number one priority, which is unlike the Japanese model “not involving females and the right to decide by dominant male”. Case 11 (Page 97) In most cultures, an apology is needed when an offence or violation of social norms has taken place. To many Westerners, Japanese apologize more frequently and an apology in Japanese does not necessarily mean that the person is acknowledging a fault. To many Japanese, Westeners may seem to be rude just because they do not apologize as often as the Japanese would do. In this case, the atitude of the Australian student’s parents is shocking the Japanese but will be acceptable in an English-speaking society, for the student is already an adult and can be responsible for her own deeds. Case 12 (Page 98) In this case, it seems that the Chinese expectation were not fulfilled. First, having two people sharing host responsibilities could be confusing to the Chinese.Second, in China, it is a tradition for the host to offer a welcome toast at the beginning of the meal. By not doing so, the Canadian might be thought rude. The abrupt departure of the Chinese from the banquet was probably an indication that they were not pleased with the way they were treated. The Canadians’lack of understanding of the Chinese culture would be a problem in their dealing with the visiting delegation.。
跨文化交际英文案例
Case 1 Girl-nessAs a visiting professor in an American university, Zhang Hua was invited to give a lecture to a group of American students. He talked about university students in China. During the question-and-answer period after the lecture, one female s tudent asked a question that surprised Zhang Hua. “When you talked about female students, you referred to them as girls. Why?”“Because they are girls. That’s what they are called,” Zhang Hua tried to answer, but he knew he did not really understand the in tent of the question. “ I don’t quite understand your question, I’m afraid.”“In the States, we call ourselves ‘ women’ if we’re old enough to go to the university. Calling us ‘girls’ is insulting.”Do Chinese female college students prefer to be called women?Case 2Many years ago, a Chinese man showed a photo of his wife to some American visitors. Out of courtesy, they all said,” She is very beautiful.” Also out of courtesy, the man replied with what he would have done in Chinese under the circumstance,” Where! Where!” Quite taken aback, nobody said anything for a moment, until the most ingenious one among the visitors, taking another look at the photo, said, “Oh, everywhere!”What did the Chinese intend to mean by replying with “ Where! Where!”?Case 1 Girl-nessAs a visiting professor in an American university, Zhang Hua was invited to give a lecture to a group of American students. He talked about university students in China. During the question-and-answer period after the lecture, one female student asked a question that surprised Zhang Hua. “When you talked about female students, you referredto them as girls. Why?”“Because they are girls. That’s what they are called,” Zhang Hua tried to answer, but he knew he did not really understand the intent of the question. “ I don’t quite understand your question, I’m afraid.”“In the States, we call ourselves ‘ women’ if we’re old enough to go to the university. Calling us ‘girls’ is insulting.”Do Chinese female college students prefer to be called women?Case 2Many years ago, a Chinese man showed a photo of his wife to some American visitors. Out of courtesy, they all said,” She is very beautiful.” Also out of courtesy, the man replied with what he would have done in Chinese under the circumstance,” Where! Where!” Quite taken aback, nobody said anything for a moment, until the most ingenious one among the visitors, taking another look at the photo, said, “Oh, everywhere!”What did the Chinese intend to mean by replying with “ Where! Where!”?Case 3 “I Just Wanted to Talk”.Wu tong was a graduate student in a Chinese university. Like many students these days, he was very keen on learning English. He would talk with English speakers as often as he could.One day, he saw a new foreigner on campus, Leonard Ramsay, and overheard him speaking English. When Mr. Ramsay finished speaking with the other person, he turned to go, but Wu Tong stopped him. He went up and said, “ You speak English, is that right?”“Yes, why?”“I’d like to practise my English with you, if you don’t mind.”Mr. Ramsay looked a little annoyed. “ I prefer not to, if you don’t mind.”Case 4 An Unwanted Food ServiceDuring a lunch buffet at a conference in China, Wu Fa, the interpreter of the conference, sat with four foreign participants. They were having a good time talking. When Wu Fa stood up for more food, she asked whether she could bring anything back for them.Everyone thanked her and said “no”. A while later, Wu Fa came back with a plate full of food, and asked whether the others would like to have something from her plate.Again, the four others said , “No”.“ Oh, please take something, I can’t eat this much food myself.”The foreigners shrugged and one or two of them even frowned a little.Case 5 Simple Can Be SpecialWen Hong had an American professor in her economics class in China. She had given the professor a lot of help during the course. At the end of the semester，the professor and his wife invited her to their home for dinner. They said they were going to cook her an American meal.Wen Hong felt very flattered and excited，since McDonald，KFC and Pizza Hut had been her only exposure to Western cooking.They had salad to start with，then steak with potatoes，followed by ice cream. Wen Hong had expected more courses but the meal came to an end. She knew the professor and his wife were being kind to her，but somehow she was a little disappointed. She wondered whether Americans do eat like that at home.Case 6 Chinese Coffee CustomsWhile studying in the United States, Lin Jun made a few American friends. One day he invited two of them to his apartment and cooked them a meal. When his friends said they would like some coffee, he started boiling some water. Without asking them any questions, he made three cups of 3-in-1 coffee, the way he usually took it.Both friends tasted the coffee and frowned. One said she always took coffee black，the other said he preferred to have less sugar in his coffee. They also told him that the spoon is for stirring the coffee，not to drink from like he did. LinJun was embarrassed. He had thought that everyone drank coffee the same way as he did.Case 7 Noise from NoodlesJane and Peter were Chen Dong’s landlord and landlady when he was in the States. They had become good friends by the end of his one-year stay. They kept in touch with each other after Chen Dong returned to China. Jane and Peter decided to visit China soon after Chen Dong left the States.They made a special stop in Guangzhou where Chen Dong lives. Chen Dong had promised to show them around the city and let them try some authentic Cantonese food. One thing，in particular，he wanted them to try was noodles. He knew several restaurants that served good noodles and took the couple to one of them for lunch one day.Noodles typically come in soup in Cantonese cooking. Chen Dong started eating the noodles with chopsticks，while Jane and Peter exchanged a look at the noise that came with his eating. After a little hesitation，they asked for forks. A waitress told them that they did not have forks，and Chen Dong explained that noodle restaurants do not usually keep forks because no one would think of using forks for noodles.In the next half an hour，Jane and Peter had a hard time trying to roll the long noodles onto their chopsticks. Chen Dong said，“that’s not the way we eat noodles. You put the noodles directly to y our mouth with your chopsticks.”“But that’s not the way we eat noodles，” Jane and Peter said, frowning. Case 8 Dinner in a Chinese HomeBesides taking Peter and Jane to restaurants, Dong Chen also invited them to his home for dinner once. Dong C hen ‘s mother is a nice wife, and made eight courses for four of them.“I'm sorry there isn’t much for dinner, she said.”“God this is much more than enough food,” Jane said. Peter was too overwhelmed to even respond to Dong Chen‘ motherDong Chen was a li ttle embarrassed. “This is what we usually say to guests，even though there’s plenty of food” he explained．What bewildered Jane and Peter most was that though Dong Chen’s mother kept saying that the food was not good，she constantly served helpings to Jane and Peter．Peter did not like two of the courses very much，and felt bad that his plate was full with whatever he would not be able to eat. At seeing Dong Chen's mother’s next move to serve him food，he said in a begging voice，“Please don’t give me any more food．Let me do it myself．Case 9A Not-sociable DrinkMartin was sent by an American company to work in a special economic development zone in China for a year. He became very friendly with a few Chinese colleagues. Soon, he started to go out with them. He noticed that Chinese like to have something , such as peanuts, when they have beer, instead of just drinking beer without anything to eat as many North Americans do.One day he was invited to a dinner party to celebrate a colleague’s birthday. They ordered alcoholic beverages and toasted the guest of honor frequently. Soon Martin realized that the plan was to get their friend drunk. Each colleague would offer a toast, concluding with a cheery “ gan bei!” and tried to get Martin to join in, even though he was unwilling to do it. Martin didn’t think it a good idea, and tried to talk them out of the game. However, he was accused of not being a good friend for not co-operating.Martin remained an outsider during the rest of the dinner. He was getting increasingly worried as he watched the poor guest become increasingly inebriated.Case 10 A Misunderstanding at a Dinner TableRoger was a student majoring in East Asia Studies in an American university. He started an e-mail correspondence with Zhang Li, a sociology major in China, who was introduced to him through a mutual friend.Upon graduation, Roger got a big gift from his grandfather. Grandpa would pay for a round-trip ticket to China. He told Zhang Li the good news, and the two decided to meet.Zhang Li decided to give Roger a very special welcome: she and the three women students in her dormitory would cook him an authentic Chinese meal, as Roger had told her that he loved Chinese food.However, when Roger was presented the dinner, he was almost terrified by some of the food: pork stomach soup, pig liver with ginger and spring onion, chicken with mushrooms in which the chicken had been cut to pieces with bones attached to the meal.Fortunately , there were courses like tofu, stirred fried beef, steamed fish and vegetables that Roger loved. He tried to stick to them but Zhang Li kept putting food he did not like on his plate. When she asked how he liked the liver, Roger said, “ It’s very unusual…and interesting. “ This seemed to make Zhang Li happy. And she gave him more liver. Roger tried to stop her, but she would not be stopped. Roger was so frustrated that he told her that he did not really like it that much. “ But you said it was unusual and interesting!”Zhang Li said. “ Well,they both mean something less than positive,” Roger said carefully, trying not to hurt their feelings.Zhang Li and her friends became concerned at this.”“So you don’t like the food?” I’m not used to eating liver, that’s all. But I do like the chicken, the beef, the tofu, and the vegetables. I have had more than enough to eat. I never make this much food at home,” Roger was eager to let them know how much he appreciated their effort. “Trust me, I’m enjoying the food. I know what I like.”Having said that, he found a piece of chicken that was less bony, held it in his hand to eat it, and then licked his fingers. Zhang Li and her friends looked at each other in shock.It was not a perfect first meeting for either Zhang Li or Roger.Case 11 Over-dressed TouristsAs a van stopped in front of Niagara Falls, a group of Chinese officials streamed out. They were dressed in suits and ties, wearing leather shoes. Many of the men also had left the manufacture’s tag on the sleeve of their suit jacket. As they wandered around Niagara Falls, some of them started to smoke. Their attire drew the stares of North American tourists, some of whom quietly laughed with their friends and pointed at the Chinese visitors. Others frowned at seeing the smoking and shook their heads in disapproval.Case 12 Tie CultureJane was a tourist and spent some time staying with a Chinese friend at her home. They watched a children’s porgram while having breakfast one morning.A young man, the host of the program, gave instructions of a game to a few children, and then joined them running in a circle.“My, he’s wearing a tie and running crazy with the children!” Jane exclaimed.The Chinese friend shrugged,”Is this very unusual?”Case 13 An American in ChinaProfessor Smith and his assistant，Chen Ming，were doing fieldwork in a small city in China. It was hot and humid, and both were casually dressed. One evening as they were leaving for dinner，a local administrator told them that the mayor of the city, who was interested in the type of research they were doing, would like to say hello to Professor Smith. As luck would have it，the Mayor was dining in the same restaurant as Smith and Chen Ming.Professor Smith said he had to go back to his room to change.“You look fine，Come on，the mayor is waiting，”the administrator said.“No, I can’t meet the mayor in my shorts”Case 14 The Generosity of a Chinese StudentMatt was invited to a Chinese university to give a few lectures. During his short stay there, a graduate student volunteered to show him around the city. Matt accepted the offer gratefully. It was summer and soon both Matt and the graduate student began to get quite hot. While Matt took some pictures, the graduate student went to buy some drinks.“Thank you. How much do I owe you?” Matt asked.“Nothing.” The student smiled.“ Are you sure?”“Yes.”At lunchtime, Matt suggested they have a quick meal. They stopped by a McDonald. Again, the graduate student tried to pay for Matt.“No, this is my treat. You’re a student, I’m a professor. You’ve given me the time to show me around. You already paid for my drink. I can’t let you pay for my lunch again.”Case 15 A Gift from a Chinese StudentXie Dong did his graduate study in an American university. He came back to China for summer vacation. When he went back to his program, he paid his supervisor a visit and presented him a gift.The professor opened the gift. It was a ginseng with its many tiny roots spreading out in a very artistic pattern. It clearly was an expensive gift.The professor’s eyes shone at the ginseng, but he then began to feel uneasy. “Xie Dong, I appreciate your kindness, but I can’t take this as a gift.”“ Why? Don’t you like it?” It was Xie Dong’s turn to be uneasy now.“ Oh, sure, I love it. But I can’t accept it.”“Why?”“ Because I didn’t do anything to deserve such a gift.”Case 16 Telephone CourtesyKathy and David, a couple from the US, signed a one-year contract to work in China. Both were extroverted and soon made some Chinese friends.Before long, people started calling them at home. David was sometimes away on business trips for a few days, and if someone looked for him, Kathy often would find the conversation awkward.“ Where did he go?” The caller typically would ask.“Can I pass on any message?” Kathy asked politely, trying to avoid the question.“Is he out of town?” The caller was usually very persistent.“Yes, can I help you in any way?” Kathy tried to be polite, but she could not help feeling uncomfortable.Case 17 “Not So Close, Please”He Jia had lived in the United States for 7 years before she came back to work in China. She found that she had become accustomed to social habits in North America and that some Chinese behaviours now caused her some discomfort. For example, one day, back in China, she was in a queue to use an ATM. She had noticed that people were standing very close to each other. In fact, the person behind her could, if she or he wanted, to see her enter the PIN of her ATM card. He Jia wanted to make people aware of the discomfort of the user by keeping her distance from the person in front of her. However, the people behind her pushed her to move forward.Case 18 The Privacy of the PageSimon and Cheng Feng often studied together to prepare for exams. One day, in the middle of a study session, Simon said he wanted to get a coffee. He asked Cheng Feng if he wanted any, but he said, “No”. When he came back, he found Cheng Feng reading his notes. He was upset and, although he didn’t say anything at the time, he never studied with Cheng Feng again. Cheng Feng noticed the change and wondered what had happened.Case19 The Privacy of PhotographsRose invited Lili to her home one day. While they were having coffee, Rose showed Lili a few pictures of her boyfriend in a photo album. Lili casually turned to other pages after that.Rose stopped her, “I’d rather you not look at other pictures.”Lili was embarrassed, and apologized, “I’m sorry.”Case 20 The Privacy of PriceAfter living in the States for some time, Ping Li observed that Americans like to comment on each other’s looks and clothes. So whe n she saw a fellow graduate student wearing a nice dress at a party, she complimented her by saying. “This is a very beautiful dress.” “Oh thank you , I bought it last year before Christmas ,” the student very pleased. “How much was it?” Ping Li asked.“Well I don’t quite remember,” the student seemed unprepared for thequestion, and answered a little hesitatingly.Case 21 The Privacy of the PersonZou Qing and Nancy became friends after they met in a course they both took．Nancy had had gray hair much earlier than people of the same age，and had been dyeing her hair for several years.While they were having a break one day in between two classes, and Zou Qing noticed that Nancy had some invisible gray hair on her. She told her so, but Nancy changed the topic right away.When everyone else left，Nancy said to Zou Qing，“Please don’t mention my gray hair while there were men around.”Case 22 Unacceptable CuriosityMr and Mrs Peterson came to China with a tour group. One evening, they decided to take a walk outside their hotel. They soon noticed that quite a few people stared at them. One man even quickly walked past them and then turned back to look at them several times. Both Mr and Mrs Peterson feltuncomfortable about the staring and went back to the hotel sooner than they had planned.Case 23 Confusion in Communicating LoveLe, a Chinese woman, and Bill, an American man, were very much in love. Their relationship started with their shared interest in photography. As time went on, however, Le became dependent on Bill whenever she wanted to take a picture, because she felt that Bill was a much better photographer than she was. Whenever she noticed a scene that would make a good image, she would ask Bill to take the picture for her.Bill was not very pleased but did not say anything for a while. However, Le soon got to a point where she began to ask Bill to load and unload the film. Bill decided that it was too much for him to bear. He exploded, “What’s the matter with you? Don’t you know how to load and unload a film? Can’t you take a picture any more?”Le was so shocked that she burst into tears. “I ask you to do things only because you do it better than me. What’s wrong with that?”Case24 Unwanted AttentionTeresa is a Chinese American teaching English temporarily at a Chinese university. She is very easy going, and soon the students got to know her well enough to invite her out regularly.Crossing the very busy and wide streets in the city was a scary experience for Teresa, and she complained of it repeatedly. As a result, the female students began to try to help her by taking her hand or grasping her arm while the male students seemed to be shy about protecting her.Teresa was uncomfortable with her female students touching her, and told the women they did not need to do it. Her female students thought she was beingpolite and continued to take care of her the same way. Teresa became so uncomfortable that she tried to move away from her female students whenever they had to cross the road.Case 25 Holding HandsChris was a visiting professor in China. On one day, one of his students, Sun Hui, showed him around the city. Sun Hui soon noticed that Chris was interested in taking pictures of men that were walking arm-in-arm or touching each other when they talked.“ I don’t see anything special about those men,” Sun Hui said curiously.“ Well, we don’t see much of that in men in the States,” Chris said, “ They’re gay, aren’t they?”Case 26 Friendship MisunderstoodYan Hong was a Chinese painter who immigrated to the United States. She met Jenny, an American physician in a club one day. They soon became friends, and sometimes went out for coffee and lunch together.One day, Jenny gave Yan Hong a very beautiful vase. Yan Hong loved the vase very much, and felt she should give Jenny something in return. So she gave Jenny a painting she brought from China. Jenny was very pleased.A few days later, Jenny invited Yan Hong to her home for the first time. They made dinner together and enjoyed the meal a lot. Then they sat down to watch TV. When Jenny tentatively held Yan Hong’s hand, Yan Hong was not aware of anything unusual. However, when Jenny sat closer to her and kissed her, Yan Hong was terrified. She pushed Jenny away and cried, “ I’m not alesb ian!”Jenny was in shock, and asked accusingly, “ Then why didn’t you tell me earlier?”Case 27 Learning about FlirtingChen Qing was a visiting scholar in an American university. He had made some friends with professors and students there. One day he went to a party where the atmosphere became less and less inhibited. Chen Qing noticed that men and women touched each other a lot more than he was used to. At the end of the party, most people hugged each other good-bye. One woman came to hug Chen Qing, but he stiffened as she attempted to give him a hug. He had never hugged any women except his wife in his life. Other women noticed this, and no one else tried to hug him.However, Chen Qing felt left out when people hugged each other but not him. He foun d himself in a very awkward situation: he didn’t want to be hugged, neither did he want to be left out. He did not know what he wanted or how to resolve his conflicting emotions.Case28 Lost in LoveLi Ying fell in love with an American man in her second year in the United States. They spent a lot of time together. After they had been to all the places of interest in the city, they had to decide where to go or what to do for the next date. John typically would ask Li Ying, “ What do you want to do today?” , or“ Where shall we go?” Li Ying would sometimes tell what she wanted, but more often than not, she would say “It’s up to you”, or “ Whatever you want to do”, or “ Wherever you want to go.”John frowned at such responses several times until one day when Li Ying said “ up to you” again. “For God’s sake, tell me what you want to do!” He cried out loud.Li Ying was shocked at his reaction. “ Isn’t it clear to you? I’ll do what you want to do.”“ No, it isn’t clear at all. I want to know what you want to do!” John was almost angry. “ Don’t you realize that sometimes I want to do what you want to do, too?”Case 29 Lovers Become StrangersXiao Xin and Peter are newly-weds. Though they spent a lot of time with each other before getting married, they never really lived together. Not surprisingly, their marriage was followed by a series of minor problems while they tried to adjust to each other’s ways of life. One difficult issue came up about two months after their new life, when Peter came home from work looking unhappy.“ What happened?” Xiao Xin asked.“Nothing much, I’m just very tired,” Peter said.“I can tell that it’s more than that.”Peter gave Xiao Xin a quiet look, went into the bedroom, and threw himself to bed.Xiao Xin followed him in. “Don’t you want to talk about it?”“No, I don’t.”“Perhaps I can help?” Xiao Xin suggested.“ Xiao Xin, sometimes you just have to give me some space. All I need now is some privacy!” Peter yelled.Xiao Xin was in shock. “Don’t you trust me?”“Geez, it’s not a matter of trust! Can’t you accept the fact that talking to you isn’t the solution to every one of my problems?” Peter was becoming frustrated and impatient.Xiao Xin was in tears. Her husband seemed to have become a stranger to her.Case 30 A Gift of SelfZhang Ge and Simon were head over heels in love with each other. They decided to go away to spend a major holiday somewhere. It was winter time, so they flew south in search of sunshine and warm water.However, Simon developed diarrhea soon after they settled in a hotel. He felt weak and had to lie down for a rest. Zhang Ge was worried and stayed him in the room. Outside the window, the sun was shining, and they could hear the surf. The sun and beach is what they had dreamed about for months during the winter back home.“Go and have some fun,” Simon said to Zhang Ge.“ How can I go and have fun while you’re sick in bed?”“Why not, it’s not your fault that I’m sick. Besides, there’s nothing you can do here.”“Nonsense! I can keep your company, and you’ll feel better with me around you.”“Are you sure you want to do this instead of going out?”“Yes, I’m sure. I won’t go without you.”“Oh, you’re so special. I love you so much!” Simon drew Zhang Ge near and kissed her.Case 31 A Close GirlfriendLiu Hong and Wu Xin have been good friends since they were young girls. Both eventually had the opportunity to study in the United States, although they ended up in two different cities. After their first year of hard work, they decided to do some traveling together. Liu Hong went to stay with Wu Xin for two days before they set off. Then they visited three cities over the next 10 days.Liu Hong came back from the trip and told her American friends about the trip. She casually mentioned that they had to share one bed in one particular motel.“ Oh, did you?” , said one of the friends in a tone that made Liu Hong feel uncomfortable.Case 32 Interpreting a Smile. Peter is the general manager of an American company in China. Recently, Chen Jun, one of the Chinese managers made a mistake at work that caused some difficulties that required a lot of effort to fix. Chen Jun was very upset about what had happened, and came to Peter’s office to make a formal apology.Chen Jun went into Peter’s office after being told to, smiling before he spoke. “ Peter, I’ve been feeling very upset about the trouble I’ve caused for the company. I’m here to apologize for the mistake. I’m terribly sorry about it and I want you to know that it w ill never happen again.” Chen Jun said, looking at Peter with the smile he had been wearing since he walked into the office.Peter found it hard to accept the apology. He looked at Chen Jun, and asked, “ are you sure?”“ Yes, I’m very sorry and I promise this won’t happen again,” Chen Jun said, with a smile even broader than before.“I’m sorry I just can’t take your apology. You don’t look sorry at all!” Peter said angrily.Chen Jun’s face turned very red. He did not in the least expect Peter to take it ne gatively. He was desperate to make himself understood. “ Peter, ” he managed to smile again, “ trust me, no one can feel any more sorry than I do about it.”Peter was almost furious by now, “ if you’re that sorry, how can you still smile?”Case33 Interpreting a LaughHuihua, a Chinese student, and Mary , an American student studying Chinese in China, were on their way to a bookstore. As they got to the bookstore, they saw a young man walking down a flight of stairs. In his hurry, he missed the last two steps, and fell on the ground. He struggled to get back to his feet while people around him laughed. Fortunately, he seemed to be O.K.Mary was worried. She found Huihua smiling a little and was not comfortable about it. Tell me, Huihua, how could people laugh when someone fell like that? Do they care at all? Shouldn’t they go up and ask the young man whether he was hurt?”Huihua said, “ they knew he wasn’t hurt too much.”“ But I still don’t understand. A fall is a fall. In my culture, people would do anything but laugh!”Case 34 Different Lunch BoxesPeter was one of the American technicians who came to China to help set up a coffee plant. He was in China for six months．Before leaving for home，one of his Chinese colleagues took him out to dinner. Peter decided to ask him a question that had puzzled him for as long as he worked in the plant．。
跨文化交际教程案例分析答案
Case 1:An Interview in IndiaCase analysis: The case is about an interview between an American program host and an Indian interviewee. They talk about some aspects of Indian culture and the changes occurred these years. The case reflects some basic cultural elements people may find in all cultures: language, family pattern, marriage, wedding ceremony, food and the way to eat food, etc. From this case, guide the students in culture study and culture comparison. The students should realize that there are both similarities and differences in culture. Culture is in fact very dynamic and pervasive. Case 2:White DressCase analysis: The Indian women might think the wedding ceremony is a funeral if they see the western bride in white gown. The case reflects the similes and metaphors in the text. Culture is like an iceberg: we can identify the color of the dress worn by women in different cultures, but we do not know the values underneath. Culture is like the water a fish swims in: people wear dress of different colors for different context but they usually take it for granted and never ask why.Case 3:The French in North AmericaCase analysis: The French were able to see Indian behavior only in the light of their own hierarchical social system, where it is natural for the few to command and the many to obey. Social systems that worked on other principles were literally unimaginable.Case 4:Coconut-skatingCase analysis: The case reflects the characteristics of culture. We can tell from the case that culture is pervasive and it’s learned. People may invent different ways for things even as simple as the issue of floor moping. The Philippine woman must have learned this way of mopping from her own culture.Case 5:A Black Girl’s IdentityCase analysis: Although we may say that identities are constituted by our communication, it is obvious from the case that we cannot simply choose at any moment what our identity will be regardless of the context. First, we often do not share the recipe for certain identities with others even if we belong to the same ethnicity, gender, or nationality. Understanding this can help us avoid some of the broad assumptions made about groups of people based on the reflective way of thinking. Second, as we learned in the very first chapter, all meaning in communication is to some extent situational. Thus, the context mediates what identities we can choose. Sometimes things one may have no control over, such as age or skin color, are seen as essential parts of how one communicates an identity.Case 6HippiesCase analysis: Hippies could be defined as a subgroup, as the hippies culture tends to be temporary. In modern American society, hippies culture could also find traits, but it has wide spread influence on American value system.Case 7Clean up the Bathroom!Case analysis: Cultural differences decide the two students are going to communicate in different ways. The Chinese student wants the American student to understand the underlying means of his words, but the American student is used to the direct style of communication. This is decided by culture. In Chinese culture, people want to save face of both themselves and others, so they would not express their ideas directly. However, in the United States, unless you express yourself clearly and directly, the others cannot understand you.Case 8:She Has Three HandsThis case can reflect the different communication styles between Chinese and Canadians. In western cultures, communication is the means of transmitting ideas. Western people usually communicate directly with each other. That is why the Canadian in this case says what is in his mind directly in front of the Chinese woman without hiding anything. While Chinese culture stresses harmony and emphasizes the relationships between the communicators. Chinese people view communication as a process where all parties are searching to develop and maintain a social relationship. So the Chinese woman in this case tries not to argue with the Canadian face to face to keep the “harmonious relationship” between them.Case 9:A Piece of CakeThis case wants us to recognize some components of communication. Sender/source refers to the person who transmits a message.Receiver is any person who notices and gives some meaning to a message. Context refers to a setting or situation within which communication takes place. In this case, Marilyn and Richard are simultaneously the senders and receivers. And their room, where the communication event happens and which makes the couple feel comfortable and relaxed, is just the context.Case 10:The Place to Have LunchThis case reflects that communication is contextual, which means that communication does not happen in isolation and it must happen within a setting or context. Whether this context is quiet or noisy is important to the smoothness of communication. When the communication event is disturbed by noise, the communication can not go smoothly. In this case,Case 11:Making an AppointmentThis case can reflect how culture affects its communication style. Each culture encourages a particular communication style expected within it. This implies not only using correct symbols, but also applying the appropriate communication style for the occasion. Communication styles include mannerisms, phrases, rituals, and communication customs appropriate for various situations in a culture. In this case, knowing the communication style of the Americans which is characterized by direct, exacting and instrumental, the exporter manager fulfills his job successfully.Case 12:Why Don’t You Eat the Pizza?This case can reflect the problems appearing during intercultural communication and how ignoring cultural differences can affect communication. In Malaysia, where most people are Muslims, people think the left hand is used only for cleaning the body and thus it is dirty and can not be used to pass food. Knowing nothing about the cultural difference, the American student puts himself in an embarrassing situation.Case 13:We and They?This case reflects that in intercultural communication, people always regard themselves as the best group in the world. This is actually inappropriate and should be avoided.Case 20:Chinese Hospitality — OverdoneThis case reflects that sometimes people unconsciously assume that people from another culture may behave in a way which is similar to theirs. The Chinese usually attach a lot of importance to taking care of their guests. When it comes to a foreign visitor, Chinese hospitality is usually more than what can be understood by a Westerner, who is uncomfortable when he is always surrounded by people attempting to be kind. Concerning this case, Hong tried to respect her traditions and her friend by doing more than she could really afford to do for Joe's visit, having no idea that Joe ended up feeling frustrated.Case 21:A Danish Woman in New Y orkThis case can reflect assuming similarity instead of difference. When communicating with people from another culture, one is likely to regard and treat other people as “his people” and to assume there must be only one way of doing things: that is “his way”. In this case, the Danish woman assumes that her behavior of leaving the baby alone, which is common in Denmark, is also appropriate in New York. Here, she assumes what is suitable in her own culture is also indisputable in another culture. That is why the small conflict happens.Case 22:Ambiguous TimeThis case can reflect ethnocentrism. Cultures train their members to use the categories of their own cultural experiences when judging the experiences of people from other cultures. They will believe that their culture is the center of the world and their standard should be the role model for the rest of the world. Concerning this case, somehow Chinese people have habitually referred 12:00 a.m. as the time around lunchtime, making 12 : 00 p.m. midnight. Fortunately, the way they tell other times are the same as that used in the States, so there's usually no misunderstanding between people from the two cultures. However, there is this one difference and Fan learns it by paying a fine since she may hold that her culture is the center of the world.Case 23:Girl-nessThis case can reflect one of the translation problems: the lack of conceptual equivalence, which refers to abstract ideas that may not exist in the same fashion in different languages. Different cultures may attach different meanings to the same thing or person. Concerning this case, we should know what young females call themselves is very different in China from the States. In China, "girl" means someone who is young and single. In a way, it makes a female sound more desirable to be called a girl rather than a woman. For most people, "woman" means someone who is married and who probably is not young. In fact, most single Chinese females, such as university students, would be insulted to be called "women". While in the West, in formal, public settings, it is customary to call any woman who is past puberty a woman, even though she may not be legally old enough to vote, marry, purchase alcoholic beverages, drive a car, or sign a contract. This terminology became widespread during the "women's liberation movement in the 1960s". The term "'girl" is sometimes interpreted to be demeaning or disrespectful.Case 24:An Unfair DecisionThis case reflects prejudice, which involves an unfair, biased, or intolerant attitude towards another group of people. In this case, Mr. Bias decided to select someone else, instead of applicant from the country Levadel, for the position. That is just because he holds prejudice towards people from the country Levadel.Case 25:Success StoryOne of the sources of the frustration and misunderstandings that occurred in this case was different notions of what was verbally relevant. In this case, Mary was expecting a much more direct response to her question. Ms. Goshima, however, was uncomfortable with the question and felt her response should be very indirect and establish a proper sense of modesty before revealing the answer to the question. If Mary had been more patient, she would have eventually heard the answer to her question, but she was not really paying attention when it finally came because she felt that Ms. Goshima's comments weren't really relevant to her query.Case 26Slogans and the Importance of LanguageThe intercultural encounters we experience are not only influenced by language and perceptual differences, and language choice based on restricted and elaborated social situations, but also on language and how it is translated for members of a culture. For many reasons linguistic interpretation and semantics provide the source of numerous misunderstandings. For instance, an insurance company discovered that fires inadvertently occurred because warehouse employees acted carelessly around "empty" barrels of gasoline, although they previously had exercised great caution around "full" drums of gasoline. The terms full and empty seem to mask the real danger in working with gasoline drums. Empty drums are extremely combustible, while full drums pose far less threat. The linguistic perception of the word empty in the general culture signified null or void, but in the work culture of volatile products like gasoline the semantic "interpretation" was disastrous. A story is told of a Christian Scientist who refused to take vitamins, since the recommender described them as "medicine." However, the same person gladly took the vitamins when he was told they were "food."Case 28Two Different Communication StylesThe dialogue takes place between a young couple who have been dating for a short time. The man is a U.S. student, and the woman is from an Asian culture. Note the misunderstanding that results as a consequence of the use of direct and indirect modes of communication.In all likelihood, Jim is not going to get much of an answer from Michiko. She continues throughout the dialogue using rather general answers to Jim's very specific and direct questions about her feelings toward the United States. Michiko might believe that Jim is being far too direct and invading her privacy. Besides, the fact that she has traveled halfway around the world should lie indicative of her desire to be here, right? There must he something about the United States that attracted her. Michiko cannot possibly say something critical about the United States because she would lose face, as would Jim, as a native. She relies on imprecise and indefinite answers.Case 29MisunderstandingIdioms are simply statements that are not strictly true, but their meaning is understood by a group of people. If you ask what happened to Martha and people say, "She kicked the bucket," it does not mean that she literally did this; it means she died. Just like in the case my student's friend did not literally mean that Shang should get out of the apartment. Idioms are common in all cultures, but when used in intercultural settings they can create a lot of confusion. One potential area of misunderstanding related to idioms is when to use them and with whom. For example, I would not use the "kick the bucket" idiom just any setting or with just any person. If I am talking with my grandmother and I am going to tell her about someone who has died, I may use what is often perceived as a gentler idiom and say the person has "passed away." Understanding the context of when an idiom is appropriate or sensible is part of intercultural knowledge.Case 31Going Out to EatIn the interaction, Jim is a student at a local university. He was born and raised in the United States. Akira is an exchange student from Japan. Jim and Akira are eating dinner together in a local restaurant. They have known each other for only a short time. Not only is Jim's style of communication overtly personal, but he's also quite direct.Jim is trying to involve Akira in the conversation by relating to him his personal experiences and preferences. Jim uses the first person "I" no fewer than eleven times and even refers to Akira as "Buddy." Akira never refers to himself in the first person; Akira generally defers to Jim and says little, even addressing Jim as "Mr. Jim." As a foreigner, Akira probably sees Jim as socially superior and uses a formal title. Moreover, rather than talking about his personal preferences, Akira mentions that Japanese people enjoy restaurants.Case 32:What Is Wrong with the Interaction?This case can reflect different nonverbal communication patterns exist in the actual intercultural communication. Nonverbal communication differs according to different cultures. People might have different opinions about the proper space, time, body language and paralanguage. If we don’t pay attention to intercultural nonverbal communication, we will have some misunderstanding and conflict. In this case, Jim (an American), Mitsuko and Akira (two Japanese) belong to totally different cultures; they have very different opinions about the space and body languages. Therefore, Mitsuko and Akira felt uncomfortable when Jim gave some exaggerated body language and kept close space distance in communication.Case 33:Are Americans Indifferent?This case can reflect different nonverbal communication patterns exist in the actual intercultural communication, especially facial expression differ according to different cultures. Compared to most Chinese, Americans like to smile a lot and to have causal and rich facial expressions in their daily lives, even though they have some misfortune. In this case, because of the different opinions about facial expressions in intercultural communication, the American lady talked about her father’s sickness and deat h in a smiling way to show she still has the optimistic way to treat the future life, which is misunderstood as being indifferent and selfish by the Chinese. Case 34:What Is Sue’ s Problem？This case can reflect nonverbal intercultural communication should be according to the different context, too. Context refers to the actual setting when communication occurs and is also important in nonverbal communication. In this case, Sue knew how to wai and she knew that bowing was generally important in the Thai culture, but, as is so easy to do in a new environment, she forgot to consider the context. Relational hierarchy is very important in Thailand. Sue’s deferential actions may have appropriate in certain settings, but given her status of elder visitor such actions directed toward the children were extremely confusing and uncomfortable for the students and teachers alike.Case 35:A QuarrelThis case can reflect the different use and understanding of silence can influence the actual intercultural communication. Different culture might have different interpretations to the silence. The Eastern culture usually attaches more meanings to silence, while the most western cultures consider silence to be absence of communication and most rude communicative behavior. In this case, Li Hua wanted to provide the opportunity for them to calm down and think about the matters carefully and so she kept silence, while this silence was misunderstood by Smith as the absence of communication and he might think Li Hua looked down upon him and became angrier.Case 36:Don’t Put Your Hand on My ArmThis case can reflect different cultures have different opinions to spatial relations. Different cultures have very different opinions about an individual’s unconsciously structuring the microspace immediately surrounding the physical body. Some cultures can have relatively close distance when communicating while other cultures cannot. Some western cultures consider body touch between people of the same gender to be cultural taboo and a symbol of being homosexual. In this case, Sam is from western cultures and knows the social taboo of body touch very clearly, so he wouldn’t let others misunderstand Mark’s close body distance and touch with him, even though Mark from Chile doesn’t know the cultural taboo at all.Case 37:What’s wrong?This case can reflect different gestures can represent different meanings in different cultures and misuse of some gestures can lead to ineffective intercultural communication. For example, the common “OK” gesture means being good and friendly in some western countries such as USA, while in Latin America it represent something dirty and obscene. Therefore, in this case, the gesture of the American politician is really a disaster and it hurt the people in this Latin American country and also made himself to be unwelcome person.Case 38:An American Librarian’s PuzzleThis case can reflect the meanings shown by facial expressions and gestures differ according to different cultures in intercultural communication. For example, the smile in China can convey lots of meaning, such as being friendly and attentive and nodding one’s head in China is not always to say “yes”, sometimes it is just to say “I’m listening.” While in USA, nodding one’s head and smiling is usually to say “yes” and show agreement. Therefore, in this case, the American Librarian misunderstood the Chinese student Zhu Xiaohua’s facial expression and gesture –nodding and smiling and felt quite puzzled.Case 39:Marriage and Social StatusShaheed was disappointed, but he understood the problem and accepted the situation. However, in part because of different worldviews, this story really bothers .many Americans. How many differences in worldviews did you recognize in this experience? I count at least five. For example, an American would have felt that the hierarchical nature of the situation that helped to establish the concern in the first place was inherently wrong. Shaheed and the woman would be seen as equals. In addition, if there were to be any differences between the two, they should have been determined by achievement, not ascribed to the individuals by birth. Third, the decision to go with what is wanted by the families or groups involved is in line with a collectivistic approach rather than an individualistic approach, which would have encouraged each person to do what was best for him- or her-self. Fourth, Shaheed's mother's understanding of the meaning of being served bananas at tea depended entirely on lhe context rather than the verbal message. Many Americans who hear this story worry, about whether Shaheed's mother got the right message. Finally, Americans would tend to want to discuss the issue more, asking, "Why won't this work?" and trying to convince the young woman's mother that it is okay. This orientation is grounded in using communication primarily as an information source rather than as a social lubricant, which Shaheed's mother did by not threatening the face of the other person or the status quo of the current relationship.Case 40:How Can We Lend Money to Her?It is not unusual for married couples to come into conflict over money or how they relate to in-laws, but in this case it is complicated because there are cultural differences in what is good and bad and what is morally appropriate in this situation. In Germany there are strong norms against borrowing unless you absolutely have to, and then you borrow from a bank and pay it back as quickly as you can. Except for very rare occasions in which a child must borrow from a parent, you would never borrow from family members, because they have enough problems of their own. In contrast, Lao borrowing norms indicate that borrowing is a natural and ongoing part of life. No one has everything they need, so everyone will need to borrow at some time. Buddha has said, "Do good and good will be done to you," so loaning is an honor. Finally, borrowing from an institution is frowned upon because you will not get a good deal and it will look like your family does not care about you.Case 41:Getting FrustratedJay was frustrated in large part because many of the norms he was used to didn't apply in Saudi Arabia, and many Saudi norms did not make sense to him. Much of the business done inSaudi Arabia depends on baksheesh, a type of kickback to a middleman (and it is a man), who facilitates contacts between potential business partners. The middleman is doing a service and expects to get paid for it. The more baksheesh the person gives, the more likely it is that the person will succeed, because the middleman will be sure to treat him very well. Giving baksheesh is a norm in the Saudi business community. In addition, Saudis believe that God gave us multifunctional hands and that the hand is our best tool for eating. However, they are also concerned with hygiene. They reserve the left hand for cleaning themselves and use the right hand for eating. Saudis have a number of norms related to restricting male and female interaction that, within the context of their religious beliefs, make perfect sense but would be very inappropriate to most Westerners.Case 42:Wrong Signal?Ning Tong was not observing the house rules for watching TV, which was probably why he eventually stopped saying anything in the argument. Usually, when a Chinese chooses not to say any more things in an argument, it would mean one or both of the following: the person feels that he/she is wrong; the person wants to stop the argument by not talking any more. The latter would often mean tolerance as one has to resist the impulse of reasoning with the other, especially when one feels he/she is right. When Ning Tong became quite, he was hoping that his silence could stop Tom since Tom would not have anything to respond to.Tom was clearly frustrated at not being able to relax and enjoy some programs connected with what is happening back home. Tom probably thought Ning Tong’s decision to stop arguing was “passive aggression”--- making the other person look bad by pretending to be mild-mannered or even not interested---yet not yielding in an argument.Case 43:The Improvement Does Not WorkFollowing their individualistic orientations, Mr. Patterson and Mr. Wyman were perfectly comfortable with the idea of creating team leaders within the individual sales groups. However, as Park Young Sam mentions, doing so upset the harmony of the groups, which in turn led to poor performance. In the United States, workers are often motivated by the opportunity for promotion and advancement as this serves the individualistic drive for individual achievement. In collectivistic cultures, however, workers may be motivated by being a part of a cohesive and productive team.Individualism and collectivism are terms that describe whole cultures. But cultures are not pure. Members of collectivist cultures may practice individualistic tendencies while members of individualist cultures may value collectivist ideals. For example, Denmark is a country with both collectivistic and individualistic tendencies. In Denmark, individual freedom is nurtured through a devotion to established traditions and customs. Regarding income and social rank, Danes are staunchly egalitarian. At the same time, however, Danes consider themselves free to be nonconformist and to stand out from the group. In this way, Danes may be at the theoretical midpoint of the individualism and collectivism cultural continuum.Case 44:When Shall We Meet For Dinner?Uncertainty avoidance orientation can be seen in this case. In the dialogue presented below, Kelly and Keiko are interacting about a dinner invitation. Kelly, from the United States, possesses a relatively low uncertainty avoidance index, while Keiko, from Japan, comes from a culture with a relatively high uncertainty avoidance index.In the di alogue above, Keiko is confused by Kelly’s easygoing attitude toward the evening’s plans. Coming from a high uncertainty-avoidant culture, Keiko would prefer to plan ahead to avoid uncertainty and prepare her script for the evening. Kelly, on the other hand, is perfectly comfortable making plans based on how the evening progresses. Without a plan, how will Keiko know how to act?Case 45:What Is Valued?This student's desire for privacy and personal space became obvious in a setting that denied her the ability to achieve either one. Things we value, such as privacy, honesty, ambition, kindness, and so forth, are things we hold as important and desirable. Therefore, it is when we are unable to experience them that we most clearly understand what we value.Case 46:How Do Students Learn?The American teacher cannot adapt to the traditional Chinese way of learning and interpret the students’ behaviors as a problem. In China, being modest is a virtue and nobody wants to be special and boasting, so students would rather keep silent even though they know the right answer. Chinese people love keeping harmony, so they would not point out the mistakes in their classmates’ composition, because this is seen as a disturbance of harmony.Case 47:Talk or not Talk?If you see an American friend, you can just say, "Hi, how are you?" and keep on walking without even slowing down, but with his friends from the Middle East he needs to stop and talk for awhile, no matter where he is and what he is doing. Khalid explained knew John had been in a hurry the other day and Khalid did not want to cause him to be late, so he thought it best to avoid any interaction rather than either be rude to his friend or cause John problems.Coming from an individualistic perspective, the idea of just briefly greeting a friend from a group I belong to and continuing on with my own plans seems like no big deal. However, these connections are much more vital to who we are from a collectivist perspective, and it is important to maintain these connections even if we are personally inconvenience in the example, Khalid recognized the predicament that he would face if he met his friend when he was with John, who was in a hurry to get to a meeting, and wisely avoided it. We cannot always avoid such predicaments, but if we understand what is involved in them, we can better manage them when they happen.Case 48:Gift from a ChineseChinese people love giving gifts. Usually, the value of the gift is an indication of how important the receiver is in the sender’s eyes. Most people giving gifts are concerned about whether the gift will be seen as valuable enough. An inexpensive gift means a loss of face. Dongxie may have a practical reason in giving the ginseng to his manager, but most Chinese will take it as something usual for a subordinate to do this to a manager out of a sign of respect.North American companies do occasionally receive gifts out of appreciation for the friendship and assistance the manager may provide. Such gifts are treasured; however, the value usually is fairly small, a bottle of wine, a music CD, a small book, or other tokens.Case 49:。
大学英语跨文化交际所有CASE复习资料
大学英语跨文化交际所有CASE答案！！！是WORD格式不是PDF格式的！！！Case 1:An Interview in IndiaCase analysis: The case is about an interview between an American program host and anIndian interviewee. They talk about some aspects of Indian culture and the changes occurred these years. The case reflects some basic cultural elements people may find in all cultures: language, family pattern, marriage, wedding ceremony, food and the way to eat food, etc. From this case, guide the students in culture study and culture comparison. The students should realize that there are both similarities and differences in culture. Culture is in fact very dynamic and pervasive. Case 2:White DressCase analysis: The Indian women might think the wedding ceremony is a funeral if they seethe western bride in white gown. The case reflects the similes and metaphors in the text. Culture is like an iceberg: we can identify the color of the dress worn by women in different cultures, but we do not know the values underneath. Culture is like the water a fish swims in: people wear dress of different colors for different context but they usually take it for granted and never ask why.Case 3:The French in North AmericaCase analysis: The French were able to see Indian behavior only in the light of their own hierarchical social system, where it is natural for the few to command and the many to obey. Social systems that worked on other principles were literally unimaginable.Case 4:Coconut-skatingCase analysis: The case reflects the characteristics of culture. We can tell from the case that culture is pervasive and it’s learned. People may invent different ways for things even as simple as the issue of floor moping. The Philippine woman must have learned this way of mopping from her own culture.Case 5:A Black Girl’s IdentityCase analysis: Although we may say that identities are constituted by our communication, itis obvious from the case that we cannot simply choose at any moment what our identity will be regardless of the context. First, we often do not share the recipe for certain identities with others even if we belong to the same ethnicity, gender, or nationality. Understanding this can help us avoid some of the broad assumptions made about groups of people based on the reflective way of thinking. Second, as we learned in the very first chapter, all meaning in communication is to some extent situational. Thus, the context mediates what identities we can choose. Sometimes things one may have no control over, such as age or skin color, are seen as essential parts of how one communicates an identity.Case 6HippiesCase analysis: Hippies could be defined as a subgroup, as the hippies culture tends to be temporary. In modern American society, hippies culture could also find traits, but it has wide spread influence on American value system.Case 7Clean up the Bathroom!Case analysis: Cultural differences decide the two students are going to communicate indifferent ways. The Chinese student wants the American student to understand the underlying means of his words, but the American student is used to the direct style of communication. This is decided by culture. In Chinese culture, people want to save face of both themselves and others, so they would not express their ideas directly. However, in the United States, unless you express yourself clearly and directly, the others cannot understand you.Case 8:She Has Three HandsThis case can reflect the different communication styles between Chinese and Canadians. In western cultures, communication is the means of transmitting ideas. Western people usually communicate directly with each other. That is why the Canadian in this case says what is in his mind directly in front of the Chinese woman without hiding anything. While Chinese culture stresses harmony and emphasizes the relationships between the communicators. Chinese people view communication as a process where all parties are searching to develop and maintain a social relationship. So the Chinese woman in this case tries not to argue with the Canadian face to face to keep the “harmonious relationship” between them.Case 9:A Piece of CakeThis case wants us to recognize some components of communication. Sender/source refers tothe person who transmits a message. Receiver is any person who notices and gives some meaning to a message. Context refers to a setting or situation within which communication takes place. In this case, Marilyn and Richard are simultaneously the senders and receivers. And their room, where the communication event happens and which makes the couple feel comfortable and relaxed, is just the context.Case 10:The Place to Have LunchThis case reflects that communication is contextual, which means that communication doesnot happen in isolation and it must happen within a setting or context. Whether this context is quiet or noisy is important to the smoothness of communication. When the communication event is disturbed by noise, the communication can not go smoothly. In this case,Case 11:Making an AppointmentThis case can reflect how culture affects its communication style. Each culture encourages a particular communication style expected within it. This implies not only using correct symbols,but also applying the appropriate communication style for the occasion. Communication styles include mannerisms, phrases, rituals, and communication customs appropriate for various situations in a culture. In this case, knowing the communication style of the Americans which is characterized by direct, exacting and instrumental, the exporter manager fulfills his job successfully.Case 12:Why Don’t You Eat the Pizza?This case can reflect the problems appearing during intercultural communication and how ignoring cultural differences can affect communication. In Malaysia, where most people areMuslims, people think the left hand is used only for cleaning the body and thus it is dirty and cannot be used to pass food. Knowing nothing about the cultural difference, the American studentputs himself in an embarrassing situation.Case 13:We and They?This case reflects that in intercultural communication, people always regard themselves as thebest group in the world. This is actually inappropriate and should be avoided.Case 14:Perception of WarThis case can reflect different cultures can give different influences on human perception.People can have very different perceptions even on the same object or phenomenon because they have different cultures and are living in the different social realities. In this case, Jim and Olgahave very different attitudes and perceptions towards historical events because their nations’different experiences and histories.Case 15:Observations on a SoldierThis case can reflect the basic model of human perception. Human being is equipped to sensethe outside stimuli and perceive the outside world. And the perception follows a certainmodel—after being gained through the five basic senses, information is processed through selection, organization and interpretation. In this case, Sherlock Holmes and Mycroft did observations on the soldier according to the basic model of human perception. They selected some useful information which they gained from outside world through their five basic senses,organized it in a reasonable logic and then attached meanings to it.Case 16:Different Responses to NoiseThis case can reflect different culture can give different influences on human sensation. No two of people can assume that their sensations are the same, especially when they come from different cultures. Different social reality and living conditions can equip them with different way to sense the world. So it is very common for them to have totally different sensations even towards the same condition. In this case, the German professor and Japanese professor have very different response to the noise producedby the same motor for the heating system because of their cultures and living habits.Case 17:What Is Black?This case can reflect we have some barriers to accurate perception in intercultural communication. We have the ability to perceive the outside world, but we cannot always get the accurate perceptions, especially when we do the perception on other cultures, we often give the inaccurate and negative perceptions. In this case, on discussing the impersonal color “black”, wegive so many bad and negative meanings while black pupils can give some objective descriptionsand associations about the color. The barriers can include ignoring details, over-generalizing,holding on to preconceptions and stereotypes imposing consistency, preconnecting causes and effects, preferring simple explanations, ignoring circumstances, crediting irrelevant information and focusing on the negative.Case 18:Are Perceptions Always Right?This case can reflect our perceptions on outside world are not always right, especially whenwe do perceptions on other cultures. We usually perceive others according to our own culture.This can lead to ineffective intercultural communication. In this case Pat and Chris gaveinaccurate and negative perceptions on Akira and Michiko just because of theirIrresponsible judgment and they also gave completely positive perceptions on Marie just becauseof their simple expectations. In order to avoid the inaccurate perceptions, we need some skills, including increase your understanding of the perceptual process; increase your observational acuity; recognize the elements to which you attribute meaning; check your perceptions; increase your Awareness of perceptual inaccuracies and compensate for them ;increase your awareness of others’ perceptionsof you; and develop social decentering, empathy, and other-orientation.Case 20:Chinese Hospitality — OverdoneThis case reflects that sometimes people unconsciously assume that people from anotherculture may behave in a way which is similar to theirs. The Chinese usually attach a lot of importance to taking care of their guests. When it comes to a foreign visitor, Chinese hospitality is usually more than what can be understood by a Westerner, who is uncomfortable when he isalways surrounded by people attempting to be kind. Concerning this case, Hong tried to respecther traditions and her friend by doing more than she could really afford to do for Joe's visit, havingno idea that Joe ended up feeling frustrated.Case 21:A Danish Woman in New YorkThis case can reflect assuming similarity instead of difference. When communicating withpeople from another culture, one is likely to regard and treat other people as “his people” and to assume there must be only one way of doing things: that is “his way”. In this case, the Danish woman assumes that her behavior of leaving the baby alone, which is common in Denmark, is also appropriate in New York. Here, she assumes what is suitable in her own culture is alsoindisputable in another culture. That is why the small conflict happens.Case 22:Ambiguous TimeThis case can reflect ethnocentrism. Cultures train their members to use the categories oftheir own cultural experiences when judging the experiences of people from other cultures. Theywill believe that their culture is the center of the world and their standard should be the role modelfor the rest of the world. Concerning this case, somehow Chinese people have habitually referred12:00 a.m. as the time around lunchtime, making 12 : 00 p.m. midnight. Fortunately, the way theytell other times are the same as that used in the States, so there's usually no misunderstanding between people from the two cultures. However, there is this one difference and Fan learns it by paying a fine since she may hold that her culture is the center of the world.Case 23:Girl-nessThis case can reflect one of the translation problems: the lack of conceptual equivalence,which refers to abstract ideas that may not exist in the same fashion in different languages.Different cultures may attach different meanings to the same thing or person. Concerning this case,we should know what young females call themselves is very different in China from the States. In China, "girl" means someone who is young and single. In a way, it makes a female sound moredesirable to be called a girl rather than a woman. For most people, "woman" means someone who is married and who probably is not young. In fact, most single Chinese females, such as university students, would be insulted to be called "women". While in the West, in formal, public settings, itis customary to call any woman who is past puberty a woman, even though she may not be legally old enough to vote, marry, purchase alcoholic beverages, drive a car, or sign a contract. This terminology became widespread during the "women's liberation movement in the 1960s". The term "'girl" is sometimes interpreted to be demeaning or disrespectful.Case 24:An Unfair DecisionThis case reflects prejudice, which involves an unfair, biased, or intolerant attitudetowards another group of people. In this case, Mr. Bias decided to select someone else, instead of applicant from the country Levadel, for the position. That is just because he holds prejudice towards people from the country Levadel.Case 25:Success StoryOne of the sources of the frustration and misunderstandings that occurred in this case was different notions of what was verbally relevant. In this case, Mary was expecting a much more direct response to her question. Ms. Goshima, however, was uncomfortable with the question and felt her response should be very indirect and establish a proper sense of modesty before revealing the answer to the question. If Mary had been more patient, she would have eventually heard the answer to her question, but she was not really paying attention when it finally came because she felt that Ms. Goshima's comments weren't really relevant to her query.Case 26:Slogans and the Importance of LanguageThe intercultural encounters we experience are not only influenced by language and perceptual differences, and language choice based on restricted and elaborated social situations, but also on language and how it is translated for members of a culture. For many reasons linguistic interpretation and semantics provide the source of numerous misunderstandings. For instance, an insurance company discovered that fires inadvertently occurred because warehouse employees acted carelessly around "empty" barrels of gasoline, although they previously had exercised great caution around "full" drums of gasoline. The terms full and empty seem to mask the real danger in working with gasoline drums. Empty drums are extremely combustible, while full drums pose far less threat. The linguistic perception of the word empty in the general culture signified null or void, but in the work culture of volatile products like gasoline the semantic "interpretation" was disastrous. A story is told of a Christian Scientist who refused to take vitamins, since the recommender described them as "medicine." However, the same person gladly took the vitamins when he was told they were "food."Case 28:Two Different Communication StylesThe dialogue takes place between a young couple who have been dating for a short time. The man is a U.S. student, and the woman is from an Asian culture. Note the misunderstanding that results as a consequence of the use of direct and indirect modes of communication.In all likelihood, Jim is not going to get much of an answer from Michiko. She continues throughout the dialogue using rather general answers to Jim's very specific and direct questionsabout her feelings toward the United States. Michiko might believe that Jim is being far too direct and invading her privacy. Besides, the fact that she has traveled halfway around the world should lie indicative of her desire to be here, right? There must he something about the United States that attracted her. Michiko cannot possibly say something critical about the United States because she would lose face, as would Jim, as a native. She relies on imprecise and indefinite answers.Case 29:MisunderstandingIdioms are simply statements that are not strictly true, but their meaning is understood by a group of people. If you ask what happened to Martha and people say, "She kicked the bucket," it does not mean that she literally did this; it means she died. Just like in the case my student's friend did not literally mean that Shang should get out of the apartment. Idioms are common in all cultures, but when used in intercultural settings they can create a lot of confusion. One potential area of misunderstanding related to idioms is when to use them and with whom. For example, I would not use the "kick the bucket" idiom just any setting or with just any person. If I am talking with my grandmother and I am going to tell her about someone who has died, I may use what is often perceived as a gentler idiom and say the person has "passed away." Understanding the context of when an idiom is appropriate or sensible is part of intercultural knowledge.Case 31:Going Out to EatIn the interaction, Jim is a student at a local university. He was born and raised in the United States. Akira is an exchange student from Japan. Jim and Akira are eating dinner together in a local restaurant. They have known each other for only a short time. Not only is Jim's style of communication overtly personal, but he's also quite direct.Jim is trying to involve Akira in the conversation by relating to him his personal experiencesand preferences. Jim uses the first person "I" no fewer than eleven times and even refers to Akira as "Buddy." Akira never refers to himself in the first person; Akira generally defers to Jim and says little, even addressing Jim as "Mr. Jim." As a foreigner, Akira probably sees Jim as socially superior and uses a formal title. Moreover, rather than talking about his personal preferences, Akira mentions that Japanese people enjoy restaurants.Case 32:What Is Wrong with the Interaction?This case can reflect different nonverbal communication patterns exist in the actualintercultural communication. Nonverbal communication differs according to different cultures. People might have different opinions about the proper space, time, body language and paralanguage. If we don’t pay attention to intercultural nonverbal communication, we will have some misunderstanding and conflict. In this case, Jim (an American), Mitsuko and Akira (two Japanese) belong to totally different cultures; they have very different opinions about the space and body languages. Therefore, Mitsuko and Akira felt uncomfortable when Jim gave some exaggerated body language and kept close space distance in communication.Case 33:Are Americans Indifferent?This case can reflect different nonverbal communication patterns exist in the actualintercultural communication, especially facial expression differ according to different cultures. Compared to most Chinese, Americans like to smile a lot and to have causal and rich facial expressions in their daily lives, even though they have some misfortune. In this case, because of the different opinions about facial expressions in intercultural communication, the American lady talked about her father’s sickness and death in a smiling way to show she still has the optimistic way to treat the future life, which is misunderstood as being indifferent and selfish by the Chinese. Case 34:What Is Sue’ s Problem？This case can reflect nonverbal intercultural communication should be according to thedifferent context, too. Context refers to the actual setting when communication occurs and is also important in nonverbal communication. In this case, Sue knew how to wai and she knew that bowing was generally important in the Thai culture, but, as is so easy to do in a new environment, she forgot to consider the context. Relational hierarchy is very important in Thailand. Sue’s deferential actions may have appropriate in certain settings, but given her status of elder visitor such actions directed toward the children were extremely confusing and uncomfortable for the students and teachers alike.Case 35:A QuarrelThis case can reflect the different use and understanding of silence can influence the actual intercultural communication. Different culture might have different interpretations to the silence. The Eastern culture usually attaches more meanings to silence, while the most western cultures consider silence to be absence of communication and most rude communicative behavior. In this case, Li Hua wanted to provide the opportunity for them to calm down and think about the matters carefully and so she kept silence, while this silence was misunderstood by Smith as the absence of communication and he might think Li Hua looked down upon him and became angrier.Case 36:Don’t Put Your Hand on My ArmThis case can reflect different cultures have different opinions to spatial relations. Different cultures have very different opinions about an individual’s unconsciously structuring the microspace immediately surrounding the physical body. Some cultures can have relatively close distance when communicating while other cultures cannot. Some western cultures consider body touch between people of the same gender to be cultural taboo and a symbol of being homosexual. In this case, Sam is from western cultures and knows the social taboo of body touch very clearly, so he wouldn’t let others misunderstand Mark’s close body distance and touch with him, even though Mark from Chile doesn’t know the cultural taboo at all.Case 37:What’s wrong?This case can reflect different gestures can represent different meanings in different culturesand misuse of some gestures can lead to ineffective intercultural communication. For example, the common “OK” gesture means being good and friendly in some western countries such as USA, while in Latin America it represent something dirty and obscene. Therefore, in this case, the gesture of the American politician is really a disaster and it hurt the people in this Latin American country and also made himself to be unwelcome person.Case 38:An American Librarian’s PuzzleThis case can reflect the meanings shown by facial expressions and gestures differ accordingto different cultures in intercultural communication. For example, the smile in China can convey lots of meaning, such as being friendly and attentive and nodding one’s head in China is not always to say “yes”, sometimes it is just to say “I’m listening.” While in USA, nodding one’s head and smiling is usually to say “yes” and show agreement. Therefore, in this case, the American Librarian misunderstood the Chinese student Zhu Xiaohua’s facial expression and gesture–nodding and smiling and felt quite puzzled.Case 39:Marriage and Social StatusShaheed was disappointed, but he understood the problem and accepted the situation. However, in part because of different worldviews, this story really bothers .many Americans.How many differences in worldviews did you recognize in this experience? I count at leastfive. For example, an American would have felt that the hierarchical nature of the situation that helped to establish the concern in the first place was inherently wrong. Shaheed and thewoman would be seen as equals. In addition, if there were to be any differences betweenthe two, they should have been determined by achievement, not ascribed to the individualsby birth. Third, the decision to go with what is wanted by the families or groups involved is inline with a collectivistic approach rather than an individualistic approach, which would have encouraged each person to do what was best for him- or her-self. Fourth, Shaheed'smother's understanding of the meaning of being served bananas at tea depended entirely onlhe context rather than the verbal message. Many Americans who hear this story worry,about whether Shaheed's mother got the right message. Finally, Americans would tend towant to discuss the issue more, asking, "Why won't this work?" and trying to convincethe young woman's mother that it is okay. This orientation is grounded in using communication primarily as an information source rather than as a social lubricant, which Shaheed's mother did by not threatening the face of the other person or the status quo of the current relationship.Case 40:How Can We Lend Money to Her?It is not unusual for married couples to come into conflict over money or how they relate toin-laws, but in this case it is complicated because there are cultural differences in what is good and bad and what is morally appropriate in this situation. In Germany there are strong norms against borrowing unless you absolutely have to, and then you borrow from a bank and pay it back as quickly as you can. Except for very rare occasions in which a child must borrow from a parent, you would never borrow from family members, because they have enough problems of their own. In contrast, Lao borrowing norms indicate that borrowing is a natural and ongoing part of life. No one has everything they need, so everyone will need to borrow at some time. Buddha has said, "Do good and good will be done to you," so loaning is an honor. Finally, borrowing from an institution is frowned upon because you will not get a good deal and it will look like your family does not care about you.Case 41:Getting FrustratedJay was frustrated in large part because many of the norms he was used to didn't apply inSaudi Arabia, and many Saudi norms did not make sense to him. Much of the business done in Saudi Arabia depends on baksheesh, a type of kickback to a middleman (and it is a man), who facilitates contacts between potential business partners. The middleman is doing a service and expects to get paid for it. The more baksheesh the person gives, the more likely it is that the person will succeed, because the middleman will be sure to treat him very well. Giving baksheesh is a norm in the Saudi business community. In addition, Saudis believe that God gave us multifunctional hands and that the hand is our best tool for eating. However, they are also concerned with hygiene. They reserve the left hand for cleaning themselves and use the right hand for eating. Saudis have a number of norms related to restricting male and female interaction that, within the context of their religious beliefs, make perfect sense but would be very inappropriate to most Westerners.Case 42:Wrong Signal?Ning Tong was not observing the house rules for watching TV, which was probably why he eventually stopped saying anything in the argument. Usually, when a Chinese chooses not to say any more things in an argument, it would mean one or both of the following: the person feels that he/she is wrong; the person wants to stop the argument by not talking any more. The latter would often mean tolerance as one has to resist the impulse of reasoning with the other, especially when one feels he/she is right. When Ning Tong became quite, he was hoping that his silence could stop Tom since Tom would not have anything to respond to.Tom was clearly frustrated at not being able to relax and enjoy some programs connectedwith what is happening back home. Tom probably thought Ning Tong’s decision to stop arguing was “passive aggression”--- making the other person look bad by pretending to be mild-mannered or even not interested---yet not yielding in an argument.Case 43:The Improvement Does Not WorkFollowing their individualistic orientations, Mr. Patterson and Mr. Wyman were perfectly comfortable with the idea of creating team leaders within the individual sales groups. However, as Park Young Sam mentions, doing so upset the harmony of the groups, which in turn led to poor performance. In the United States, workers are often motivated by the opportunity for promotion and advancement as this serves the individualistic drive for individual achievement. In collectivistic cultures, however, workers may be motivated by being a part of a cohesive and productive team.Individualism and collectivism are terms that describe whole cultures. But cultures are notpure. Members of collectivist cultures may practice individualistic tendencies while members of individualist cultures may value collectivist ideals. For example, Denmark is a country with both collectivistic and individualistic tendencies. In Denmark, individual freedom is nurtured through a devotion to established traditions and customs. Regarding income and social rank, Danes are staunchly egalitarian. At the same time, however, Danes consider themselves free to be nonconformist and to stand out from the group. In this way, Danes may be at the theoretical midpoint of the individualism and collectivism cultural continuum.Case 44:When Shall We Meet For Dinner?Uncertainty avoidance orientation can be seen in this case. In the dialogue presented below,。
(完整word版)跨文化交际英文案例
Case 1 Girl-nessAs a visiting professor in an American university, Zhang Hua was invited togive a lecture to a group of American students. He talked about universitystudents in China. During the question-and-answer period after the lecture, onefemale student asked a question that surprised Zhang Hua.“ When you talked about female students, you referred to them as girls. Why?”“ Because they are girls. That’ s what they are called,” Zhang Hua tried to answer, but he knew he did not really understand the tentin of the question.“ Idon’ t quite understand your question, I’ m afraid.”“ In the States, we call ourselves‘ women’ if we’ re old enough to go to the university. Calling us‘ girls’ is insulting.”Do Chinese female college students prefer to be called women?Case 2Many years ago, a Chinese man showed a photo of his wife to some Americanvisitors. Out of courtesy, they all said,” She is very beautiful.” Also out of courtesy, the man replied with what he would have done in Chinese under the circumstance,” Where! Where! ” Quite taken aback, nobody said anything for amoment, until the most ingenious one among the visitors, taking another look atthe photo, said,“ Oh, everywhere!”What did the Chinese intend to mean by replying with“ Where! Where!”?Case 1 Girl-nessAs a visiting professor in an American university, Zhang Hua was invited to give alecture to a group of American students. He talked about university students in China.During the question-and-answer period after the lecture, one female student asked aquestion that surprised Zhang Hua.“ When you talked about female students, you referredto them as girls. Why?”“ Because they are girls. That’ s what they are called,”Zhang Hua tried to answer, but he knew he did not really understand the intent of the question.“I don’ t quite understand your question, I’ m afraid.”“ In the States, we call ourselves‘women’ if we’ reold enough to go to the university.Calling us‘ girls’ is insulting.”Do Chinese female college students prefer to be called women?Case 2Many years ago, a Chinese man showed a photo of his wife to some American visitors. Out ofcourtesy, they all said, ”She is very beautiful.” Alsoout of courtesy, the man replied withwhat he would have done in Chinese under the circumstance,” Where! Where!”Quite taken aback, nobody said anything for a moment, until the most ingenious one among the visitors,taking another look at the photo, said,“ Oh, everywhere!”What did the Chinese intend to mean by replying with“ Where! Where!”?Case 3“I Just Wanted to Talk” .Wu tong was a graduate student in a Chinese university. Like many students these days,he was very keen on learning English. He would talk with English speakers as often as hecould.One day, he saw a new foreigner on campus, Leonard Ramsay, and overheard himspeaking English. When Mr. Ramsay finished speaking with the other person, he turned togo, but Wu Tong stopped him. He went up and said,“ You speak English, is that right?”“ Yes, why?”“ I’ d like to practise my English withyou, if you don’ t mind.”Mr. Ramsay looked a little annoyed.“ I prefer not to, if you don’ t mind.”Case 4 An Unwanted Food ServiceDuring a lunch buffet at a conference in China, Wu Fa, the interpreter of the conference,sat with four foreign participants. They were having a good time talking. When Wu Fa stoodup for more food, she asked whether she could bring anything back for them.Everyone thanked her and said“ no” . A while later, Wu Fa came back with a plate full of food, and asked whether the others would like to have something from her plate.Again, the four others said ,“ No”.“Oh, please take something, I can’ t eat this much food myself.”The foreigners shrugged and one or two of them even frowned a little.Case 5 Simple Can Be SpecialWen Hong had an American professor in her economics class in China. She had given the professor a lot of help during the course. At the end of the semester ， the professor and hiswife invited her to their home for dinner. They said they were going to cook her an American meal.Wen Hong felt very flattered and excited，since McDonald， KFC and PizzaHut had been her only exposure to Western cooking.They had salad to start with，then steak with potatoes，followed by ice cream. Wen Hong had expected more courses but the meal came to an end. Sheknew the professor and his wife were being kind to her，but somehow shewas a little disappointed. She wondered whether Americans do eat like that at home. Case 6 Chinese Coffee CustomsWhile studying in the United States, Lin Jun made a few American friends.One day he invited two of them to his apartment and cooked them a meal.When his friends said they would like some coffee, he started boiling somewater. Without asking them any questions, he made three cups of 3-in-1 coffee,the way he usually took it.Both friends tasted the coffee and frowned. One said she always took coffeeblack， the other said he preferred to have less sugar in his coffee. They also toldhim that the spoon is for stirring the coffee， not to drink from like he did. LinJun was embarrassed. He had thought that everyone drank coffee the sameway as he did.Case 7 Noise from NoodlesJane and Peter were Chen Dong’ s landlord and landlady when he was in the States. They had become good friends by the end of his one-year stay. Theykept in touch with each other after Chen Dong returned to China. Jane and Peter decided to visit China soon after Chen Dong left the States.They made a special stop in Guangzhou where Chen Dong lives. Chen Donghad promised to show them around the city and let them try some authenticCantonese food. One thing，in particular ，he wanted them to try was noodles.He knew several restaurants that served good noodles and took the couple toone of them for lunch one day.Noodles typically come in soup in Cantonese cooking. Chen Dongstarted eating the noodles with chopsticks，while Jane and Peter exchanged a look at the noise that came with his eating. After a little hesitation，they asked for forks. A waitress told them that they did not have forks， and Chen Dong explained that noodle restaurants do not usually keep forks because no one would think ofusing forks for noodles.In the next half an hour， Jane and Peter had a hard time trying to roll thelong noodles onto their chopsticks. Chen Dong said，“ that ’ s not the way we eat noodles. You put the noodles directly tooury mouth with your chopsticks.”“ But that ’ s not the way we eat noodles，”Jane and Peter said, frowning. Case 8 Dinner in a Chinese HomeBesides taking Peter and Jane to restaurants, Dong Chen also invited themto his home for dinner once. Dong henC ‘ s mother is a nice wife, and madeeight courses for four of them.“ I'm sorry there isn’ t much for dinner, she said.”“ God this is much more than enough food,” Jane said. Peter was too overwhelmed to even respond to Dong Chen‘ motherDong Chen was a little embarrassed.“ This is whatusuallywe say to guests，even though there’ s plenty of foodheexplained”．What bewildered Jane and Peter most was that thoughDong Chen’ s motherkept saying that the food was not good，she constantly served helpings to Janeand Peter．Peter did not like two of the courses very much，and felt bad that hisplate was full with whatever he would not be able to eat. At seeing Dong Chen'smother’ s next move to serve him food，he said in a begging voice，“ Please don ’ tgive me any more food．Let me do it myself．Case 9A Not-sociable DrinkMartin was sent by an American company to work in a special economicdevelopment zone in China for a year. He became very friendly with a few Chinese colleagues. Soon, he started to go out with them. He noticed that Chinese like tohave something , such as peanuts, when they have beer, instead of just drinkingbeer without anything to eat as many North Americans do.One day he was invited to a dinner party to celebrate a colleague’ s birthday. They ordered alcoholic beverages and toasted the guest of honor frequently.Soon Martin realized that the plan was to get their friend drunk. Each colleaguewould offer a toast, concluding with a cheery“ gan bei!”and tried to get Martin to join in, even though he was unwilling to do it. Martin didn’ t think it a good idea, and tried to talk them out of the game. However, he was accused ofnot being a good friend for not co-operating.Martin remained an outsider during the rest of the dinner. He wasgetting increasingly worried as he watched the poor guest becomeincreasingly inebriated.Case 10 A Misunderstanding at a Dinner TableRoger was a student majoring in East Asia Studies in an Americanuniversity. He started an e-mail correspondence with Zhang Li, a sociologymajor in China, who was introduced to him through a mutual friend.Upon graduation, Roger got a big gift from his grandfather. Grandpa wouldpay for a round-trip ticket to China. He told Zhang Li the good news, and thetwo decided to meet.Zhang Li decided to give Roger a very special welcome: she and the threewomen students in her dormitory would cook him an authentic Chinese meal,as Roger had told her that he loved Chinese food.However, when Roger was presented the dinner, he was almost terrified by someof the food: pork stomach soup, pig liver with ginger and spring onion, chickenwith mushrooms in which the chicken had been cut to pieces with bonesattached to the meal.Fortunately , there were courses like tofu, stirred fried beef, steamed fish andvegetables that Roger loved. He tried to stick to them but Zhang Li kept puttingfood he did not like on his plate. When she asked how he liked the liver, Rogersaid, “ It ’ s very unusual⋯and interesting.“ This seemed to make Zhang Li happy. And she gave him more liver. Roger tried to stop her, but she would notbe stopped. Roger was so frustrated that he told her that he did not really like itthat much.“ But you said it was unusual and interesting!” Zhang Li said.“ Wethey both mean something less than positive,”Roger said carefully, trying not to hurt their feelings.Zhang Li and her friends became concerned at this.”“ So you don’ t like the food?” I ’ m not used to eating liver, that’ s all. But I do like the chicken, the beef, the tofu, and the vegetables. I have had more than enough to eat. I never makethis much food at home,” Roger was eager to let them know how much heappreciated their effort.“ Trust me, I’ m enjoying the food. I know what I like.Having said that, he found a piece of chicken that was less bony, held it inhis hand to eat it, and then licked his fingers. Zhang Li and her friends looked ateach other in shock.It was not a perfect first meeting for either Zhang Li or Roger.Case 11 Over-dressed TouristsAs a van stopped in front of Niagara Falls, a group of Chinese officials streamedout. They were dressed in suits and ties, wearing leather shoes. Manyof the men also had left the manufacture’ s tag on the sleeve of their suit jacket.As they wandered around Niagara Falls, some of them started to smoke. Theirattire drew the stares of North American tourists, some of whom quietly laughedwith their friends and pointed at the Chinese visitors. Others frowned atseeing the smoking and shook their heads in disapproval. Case 12 Tie CultureJane was a tourist and spent some time staying with a Chinese friend at herhome. They watched a children’ s porgram while having breakfast one morning.A young man, the host of the program, gave instructions of a game to afew children, and then joined them running in a circle.(圆满word版)跨文化交际英文案例“ My, he ’ s wearing a tie and running crazy with the children!”Jane exclaimed.The Chinese friend shrugged,” Is this very unusual?”Case 13 An American in ChinaProfessor Smith and his assistant， Chen Ming，were doing fieldwork in asmall city in China. It was hot and humid, and both were casually dressed. Oneevening as they were leaving for dinner， a local administrator told them that the mayor of the city, who was interested in the type of research they were doing,would like to say hello to Professor Smith. As luck would have，itthe Mayorwas dining in the same restaurant as Smith and Chen Ming.Professor Smith said he had to go back to his room to change.“ You look fine，Come on，the mayor is waiting，” the administrator said.“ No, I can’ t meet the mayor in my shorts”Case 14 The Generosity of a Chinese StudentMatt was invited to a Chinese university to give a few lectures. Duringhis short stay there, a graduate student volunteered to show him around thecity. Matt accepted the offer gratefully. It was summer and soon both Mattand the graduate student began to get quite hot. While Matt took somepictures, the graduate student went to buy some drinks.“ Thank you. How much do I owe you? ” Matt asked.“ Nothing. ” The student smiled.“ Are you sure? ”“ Yes. ”At lunchtime, Matt suggested they have a quick meal. They stopped bya McDonald. Again, the graduate student tried to pay for Matt.“ No, this is my treat. You’ re a student, I’ m a professor. You’ ve given me t time to show me around. You already paid for my drink. Ican’ t let you pay formy lunch again.”Case 15 A Gift from a Chinese StudentXie Dong did his graduate study in an American university. He cameback to China for summer vacation. When he went back to his program, hepaid his supervisor a visit and presented him a gift.The professor opened the gift. It was a ginseng with its many tiny rootsspreading out in a very artistic pattern. It clearly was an expensive gift.The professor ’ s eyes shone at the ginseng, but he then began to feel uneasy.“ Xie Dong, I appreciate your kindness, but I can’ t take this as a gift.”“ Why? Don’ t you like it?” It was Xie Dong’ s turn to be uneasy now.“ Oh, sure, I love it. But I can’ t accept it.”“ Why?”“ Because I didn’ t do anything to deserve such a gift.”Case 16 Telephone CourtesyKathy and David, a couple from the US, signed a one-year contract towork in China. Both were extroverted and soon made some Chinese friends.Before long, people started calling them at home. David was sometimesaway on business trips for a few days, and if someone looked for him, Kathyoften would find the conversation awkward.“ Where did he go?” The caller typically would ask.“ Can I pass on any message?” Kathy asked politely, trying to avoid thequestion.“ Is he out of town?”callerThe was usually very persistent.“ Yes, can I help you in any way?” Kathy tried to be polite, but she could not help feeling uncomfortable.Case 17 “ Not So Close, Please ”He Jia had lived in the United States for 7 years before she came back towork in China. She found that she had become accustomed to social habits inNorth America and that some Chinese behaviours now caused her somediscomfort. For example, one day, back in China, she was in a queue to use anATM. She had noticed that people were standing very close to each other. In fact,the person behind her could, if she or he wanted, to see her enter the PIN of herATM card. He Jia wanted to make people aware of the discomfort of the user bykeeping her distance from the person in front of her. However, the people behindher pushed her to move forward.Case 18 The Privacy of the PageSimon and Cheng Feng often studied together to prepare for exams. Oneday, in the middle of a study session, Simon said he wanted to get a coffee. Heasked Cheng Feng ifhe wanted any, but he said,“ No” . When he came back, he’ t say found Cheng Feng reading his notes. He was upset and, although he didnanything at the time, he never studied with Cheng Feng again. ChengFeng noticed the change and wondered what had happened.Case19The Privacy of PhotographsRose invited Lili to her home one day. While they were having coffee, Roseshowed Lili a few pictures of her boyfriend in a photo album. Lilicasually turned to other pages after that.Rose stopped her,“ I’ d rather you not look at other pictures.”Lili was embarrassed, and apologized,“ I’ m sorry.”Case 20 The Privacy of PriceAfter living in the States for some time, Ping Li observed that Americanslike to comment on each other ’ s looks and clothesn. sheSowhesaw a fellowgraduate student wearing a nice dress at a party, she complimented her bysaying.“ This is a very beautiful dress.” “ Oh thank you , I bought it last year before Christmas ,” the student very pleased.“ How much was it?”Ping Li asked.“ Well I don ’ t quite remember, ” the student seemed unprepared for thequestion, and answered a little hesitatingly.Case 21 The Privacy of the PersonZou Qing and Nancy became friends after they met in a course theyboth took．Nancy had had gray hair much earlier than people of the sameage，and had been dyeing her hair for several years.While they were having a break one day in between two classes, and ZouQing noticed that Nancy had some invisible gray hair on her. She told her so,but Nancy changed the topic right away.When everyone else left，Nancy said to Zou Qing，“ Please don ’ t mention my grayhair while there were men around.”Case 22 Unacceptable CuriosityMr and Mrs Peterson came to China with a tour group. One evening, theydecided to take a walk outside their hotel. They soon noticed that quite a fewpeople stared at them. One man even quickly walked past them and thenturned back to look at them several times. Both Mr and Mrs Peterson feltuncomfortable about the staring and went back to the hotel sooner than theyhad planned.Case 23 Confusion in Communicating LoveLe, a Chinese woman, and Bill, an American man, were very much in love. Their relationship started with their shared interest in photography. As time went on, however, Le became dependent on Bill whenever she wanted to take a picture,because she felt that Bill was a much better photographer than she was.Whenever she noticed a scene that would make a good image, she would askBill to take the picture for her.Bill was not very pleased but did not say anything for a while. However, Lesoon got to a point where she began to ask Bill to load and unload the film. Billdecided that it was too much for him to bear. He exploded,“ What’ s the matter with you? Don ’ t you know how to load and unload a film? Can’ t you take a picture any more?”Le was so shocked that she burst into tears.“ I ask you to do things only because’ s wrong with that?”you do it better than me. WhatCase24 Unwanted AttentionTeresa is a Chinese American teaching English temporarily at a Chineseuniversity. She is very easy going, and soon the students got to know herwell enough to invite her out regularly.Crossing the very busy and wide streets in the city was a scary experiencefor Teresa, and she complained of it repeatedly. As a result, the femalestudents began to try to help her by taking her hand or grasping her arm whilethe male students seemed to be shy about protecting her.Teresa was uncomfortable with her female students touching her, and toldthe women they did not need to do it. Her female students thought she was beingpolite and continued to take care of her the same way. Teresa became souncomfortable that she tried to move away from her female studentswhenever they had to cross the road.Case 25 Holding HandsChris was a visiting professor in China. On one day, one of his students,Sun Hui, showed him around the city. Sun Hui soon noticed that Chris wasinterested in taking pictures of men that were walking arm-in-arm or touchingeach other when they talked.“ I don’ t see anything special about those men,”Sun Hui said curiously.“ Well, we don’ t see much of that in men in the States,” Chris said,“Th gay, aren’ t they?”Case 26 Friendship MisunderstoodYan Hong was a Chinese painter who immigrated to the United States. Shemet Jenny, an American physician in a club one day. They soon became friends,and sometimes went out for coffee and lunch together.One day, Jenny gave Yan Hong a very beautiful vase. Yan Hong loved thevase very much, and felt she should give Jenny something in return. So shegave Jenny a painting she brought from China. Jenny was very pleased.A few days later, Jenny invited Yan Hong to her home for the first time.They made dinner together and enjoyed the meal a lot. Then they sat down towatch TV. When Jenny tentatively held Yan Hong ’ s hand, Yan Hong was notaware of anything unusual. However, when Jenny sat closer to her and kissedher, Yan Hong was terrified. She pushed Jenny away and cried,“I’ m not a lesbian!”Jenny was in shock, and asked accusingly,“ Then why didn’ t you tell me earlier?”Case 27 Learning about FlirtingChen Qing was a visiting scholar in an American university. He had madesome friends with professors and students there. One day he went to a partywhere the atmosphere became less and less inhibited. Chen Qing noticed thatmen and women touched each other a lot more than he was used to. At the endof the party, most people hugged each other good-bye. One woman came to hugChen Qing, but he stiffened as she attempted to give him a hug. He had neverhugged any women except his wife in his life. Other women noticed this, and noone else tried to hug him.However, Chen Qing felt left out when people hugged each other but nothim. He found himself in a very awkward situation: he didn’ t want to be hugged, neither did he want to be left out. He did not know what he wanted or how toresolve his conflicting emotions.Case28 Lost in LoveLi Ying fell in love with an American man in her second year in the UnitedStates. They spent a lot of time together. After they had been to all the places ofinterest in the city, they had to decide where to go or what to do for the next date.John typically would ask Li Ying,“ What do you want to do today?” , or“ Where shall we go?” Li Ying would sometimes tell what she wanted, but moreoften than not, she would say“ It’ s up to you” , or“ Whatever you want to do “ Wherever you want to go.”John frowned at such responses several times until one day when Li Ying said“ up to you” again.“ For God’ s sake, tell me what you want to do!”He cried o loud.Li Ying was shocked at his reaction.“Isn’ t it clear to you? I’ ll do what want to do.”“ No, it isn’ t clear at all. I want to know what you want to do!” John wa almost angry.“ Don’ t you realize that sometimes I want to do what you want todo, too? ”Case 29 Lovers Become StrangersXiao Xin and Peter are newly-weds. Though they spent a lot of time witheach other before getting married, they never really lived together. Notsurprisingly, their marriage was followed by a series of minor problems whilethey tried to adjust to each other’ s ways of life. One difficult issue came up abouttwo months after their new life, when Peter came home from worklooking unhappy.“ What happened?” Xiao Xin asked.“ Nothing much, I’ m just very tired,” Peter said.“ I can tell that it’ s more than that.”Peter gave Xiao Xin a quiet look, went into the bedroom, and threwhimself to bed.Xiao Xin followed him in.“ Don’ t you want to talk about it?”“ No, I don’ t.”“ Perhaps I can help?” Xiao Xin suggested.“ Xiao Xin, sometimes you just have to give me some space. All I need now issome privacy! ” Peter yelled.Xiao Xin was in shock.“ Don’ t you trust me?”“ Geez, it’ s not a matter of trust! Can’ t you accept the fact that talking to you” Peter was becoming frustratedisn ’ t the solution to every one of my problems?and impatient.Xiao Xin was in tears. Her husband seemed to have become a stranger to her.Case 30 A Gift of SelfZhang Ge and Simon were head over heels in love with each other. Theydecided to go away to spend a major holiday somewhere. It was winter time,so they flew south in search of sunshine and warm water.However, Simon developed diarrhea soon after they settled in a hotel. He feltweak and had to lie down for a rest. Zhang Ge was worried and stayed him inthe room. Outside the window, the sun was shining, and they could hear the surf.The sun and beach is what they had dreamed about for months during thewinter back home.“ Go and have some fun,” Simon said to Zhang Ge.“ How can I go and have fun while you’ re sick in bed?”“ Why not, it’ s not your fault that I’ m sick. Besides, there’ s nothing you can here.”“ Nonsense! I can keep your company, and you’ ll feel better with me aroundyou. ”“ Are you sure you want to do this instead of going out?”“ Yes, I’ m sure. I won’ t go without you.”“ Oh, you’ re so special. I love you so much!”Simon drew Zhang Ge near and kissed her.Case 31 A Close GirlfriendLiu Hong and Wu Xin have been good friends since they were young girls.Both eventually had the opportunity to study in the United States, although theyended up in two different cities. After their first year of hard work, they decided todo some traveling together. Liu Hong went to stay with Wu Xin for two daysbefore they set off. Then they visited three cities over the next 10 days.Liu Hong came back from the trip and told her American friends aboutthe trip. She casually mentioned that they had to share one bed in oneparticular motel.“ Oh, did you?” , said one of the friends in a tone that made Liu Hong feel uncomfortable.Case 32 Interpreting a Smile. Peter is the general manager of an American company in China. Recently,Chen Jun, one of the Chinese managers made a mistake at work that causedsome difficulties that required a lot of effort to fix. Chen Jun was very upsetabout what had happened, and came to Peter’ s office to make a formal apology.Chen Jun went into Peter’ s office after being told to, smiling before he spoke.“ Peter, I’ ve been feeling very upset about the trouble I’ ve caused for the company. I’ m here to apologize for the mistake. I’ m terribly sorry about it and I want you to know that it will never happen again.” Chen Jun said, looking atPeter with the smile he had been wearing since he walked into the office. Peterfound it hard to accept the apology. He looked at Chen Jun, and asked,“ are you sure?”“ Yes, I’ m very sorry and I promise this won’ t happen again,”Chen Jun said with a smile even broader than before.“ I ’ m sorry I just can’ t take your apology. You don’ t look sorry at all!”Pet angrily.Chen Jun’ s face turned very red. He did not in the least expect Peter to takeit negatively. He was desperate to make himself understood.“ Peter,” he managed to smile again,“ trust me, no one can feel any more sorry than I doabout it.”Peter was almost furious by now,“ if you’ re that sorry, how can you still smile? ”Case33 Interpreting a LaughHuihua, a Chinese student, and Mary , an American student studyingChinese in China, were on their way to a bookstore. As they got to the bookstore,they saw a young man walking down a flight of stairs. In his hurry, he missed thelast two steps, and fell on the ground. He struggled to get back to his feet whilepeople around him laughed. Fortunately, he seemed to be O.K.Mary was worried. She found Huihua smiling a little and was notcomfortable about it. Tell me, Huihua, how could people laugh when someonefell like that? Do they care at all? Shouldn’ t they go up and ask the young man whether he was hurt?”Huihua said,“ they knew he wasn’ t hurt too much.”“ But I still don ’ t understand. A fall is a fall. In my culture, peopledo wouldanything but laugh! ”Case 34 Different Lunch BoxesPeter was one of the American technicians who came to China to help set upa coffee plant. He was in China for six months．Before leaving for home，oneof his Chinese colleagues took him out to dinner. Peter decided to ask him aquestion that had puzzled him for as long as he worked in the plant．。
大学英语跨文化交际所有CASE答案汇编
大学英语跨文化交际所有CASE答案！！！是WORD格式不是PDF格式的！！！Case 1:An Interview in IndiaCase analysis: The case is about an interview between an American program host and anIndian interviewee. They talk about some aspects of Indian culture and the changes occurred these years. The case reflects some basic cultural elements people may find in all cultures: language, family pattern, marriage, wedding ceremony, food and the way to eat food, etc. From this case, guide the students in culture study and culture comparison. The students should realize that there are both similarities and differences in culture. Culture is in fact very dynamic and pervasive. Case 2:White DressCase analysis: The Indian women might think the wedding ceremony is a funeral if they seethe western bride in white gown. The case reflects the similes and metaphors in the text. Culture is like an iceberg: we can identify the color of the dress worn by women in different cultures, but we do not know the values underneath. Culture is like the water a fish swims in: people wear dress of different colors for different context but they usually take it for granted and never ask why.Case 3:The French in North AmericaCase analysis: The French were able to see Indian behavior only in the light of their own hierarchical social system, where it is natural for the few to command and the many to obey. Social systems that worked on other principles were literally unimaginable.Case 4:Coconut-skatingCase analysis: The case reflects the characteristics of culture. We can tell from the case that culture is pervasive and it’s learned. People may invent different ways for things even as simple as the issue of floor moping. The Philippine woman must have learned this way of mopping from her own culture.Case 5:A Black Girl’s IdentityCase analysis: Although we may say that identities are constituted by our communication, itis obvious from the case that we cannot simply choose at any moment what our identity will be regardless of the context. First, we often do not share the recipe for certain identities with others even if we belong to the same ethnicity, gender, or nationality. Understanding this can help us avoid some of the broad assumptions made about groups of people based on the reflective way of thinking. Second, as we learned in the very first chapter, all meaning in communication is to some extent situational. Thus, the context mediates what identities we can choose. Sometimes things one may have no control over, such as age or skin color, are seen as essential parts of how one communicates an identity.Case 6HippiesCase analysis: Hippies could be defined as a subgroup, as the hippies culture tends to be temporary. In modern American society, hippies culture could also find traits, but it has wide spread influence on American value system.Case 7Clean up the Bathroom!Case analysis: Cultural differences decide the two students are going to communicate indifferent ways. The Chinese student wants the American student to understand the underlying means of his words, but the American student is used to the direct style of communication. This is decided by culture. In Chinese culture, people want to save face of both themselves and others, so they would not express their ideas directly. However, in the United States, unless you express yourself clearly and directly, the others cannot understand you.Case 8:She Has Three HandsThis case can reflect the different communication styles between Chinese and Canadians. In western cultures, communication is the means of transmitting ideas. Western people usually communicate directly with each other. That is why the Canadian in this case says what is in his mind directly in front of the Chinese woman without hiding anything. While Chinese culture stresses harmony and emphasizes the relationships between the communicators. Chinese people view communication as a process where all parties are searching to develop and maintain a social relationship. So the Chinese woman in this case tries not to argue with the Canadian face to face to keep the “harmonious relationship” between them.Case 9:A Piece of CakeThis case wants us to recognize some components of communication. Sender/source refers tothe person who transmits a message. Receiver is any person who notices and gives some meaning to a message. Context refers to a setting or situation within which communication takes place. In this case, Marilyn and Richard are simultaneously the senders and receivers. And their room, where the communication event happens and which makes the couple feel comfortable and relaxed, is just the context.Case 10:The Place to Have LunchThis case reflects that communication is contextual, which means that communication doesnot happen in isolation and it must happen within a setting or context. Whether this context is quiet or noisy is important to the smoothness of communication. When the communication event is disturbed by noise, the communication can not go smoothly. In this case,Case 11:Making an AppointmentThis case can reflect how culture affects its communication style. Each culture encourages a particular communication style expected within it. This implies not only using correct symbols,but also applying the appropriate communication style for the occasion. Communication styles include mannerisms, phrases, rituals, and communication customs appropriate for various situations in a culture. In this case, knowing the communication style of the Americans which is characterized by direct, exacting and instrumental, the exporter manager fulfills his job successfully.Case 12:Why Don’t You Eat the Pizza?This case can reflect the problems appearing during intercultural communication and how ignoring cultural differences can affect communication. In Malaysia, where most people areMuslims, people think the left hand is used only for cleaning the body and thus it is dirty and cannot be used to pass food. Knowing nothing about the cultural difference, the American studentputs himself in an embarrassing situation.Case 13:We and They?This case reflects that in intercultural communication, people always regard themselves as thebest group in the world. This is actually inappropriate and should be avoided.Case 14:Perception of WarThis case can reflect different cultures can give different influences on human perception.People can have very different perceptions even on the same object or phenomenon because they have different cultures and are living in the different social realities. In this case, Jim and Olgahave very different attitudes and perceptions towards historical events because their nations’different experiences and histories.Case 15:Observations on a SoldierThis case can reflect the basic model of human perception. Human being is equipped to sensethe outside stimuli and perceive the outside world. And the perception follows a certainmodel—after being gained through the five basic senses, information is processed through selection, organization and interpretation. In this case, Sherlock Holmes and Mycroft did observations on the soldier according to the basic model of human perception. They selected some useful information which they gained from outside world through their five basic senses,organized it in a reasonable logic and then attached meanings to it.Case 16:Different Responses to NoiseThis case can reflect different culture can give different influences on human sensation. No two of people can assume that their sensations are the same, especially when they come from different cultures. Different social reality and living conditions can equip them with different way to sense the world. So it is very common for them to have totally different sensations even towards the same condition. In this case, the German professor and Japanese professor have very different response to the noise producedby the same motor for the heating system because of their cultures and living habits.Case 17:What Is Black?This case can reflect we have some barriers to accurate perception in intercultural communication. We have the ability to perceive the outside world, but we cannot always get the accurate perceptions, especially when we do the perception on other cultures, we often give the inaccurate and negative perceptions. In this case, on discussing the impersonal color “black”, wegive so many bad and negative meanings while black pupils can give some objective descriptionsand associations about the color. The barriers can include ignoring details, over-generalizing,holding on to preconceptions and stereotypes imposing consistency, preconnecting causes and effects, preferring simple explanations, ignoring circumstances, crediting irrelevant information and focusing on the negative.Case 18:Are Perceptions Always Right?This case can reflect our perceptions on outside world are not always right, especially whenwe do perceptions on other cultures. We usually perceive others according to our own culture.This can lead to ineffective intercultural communication. In this case Pat and Chris gaveinaccurate and negative perceptions on Akira and Michiko just because of theirIrresponsible judgment and they also gave completely positive perceptions on Marie just becauseof their simple expectations. In order to avoid the inaccurate perceptions, we need some skills, including increase your understanding of the perceptual process; increase your observational acuity; recognize the elements to which you attribute meaning; check your perceptions; increase your Awareness of perceptual inaccuracies and compensate for them ;increase your awareness of others’ perceptionsof you; and develop social decentering, empathy, and other-orientation.Case 20:Chinese Hospitality — OverdoneThis case reflects that sometimes people unconsciously assume that people from anotherculture may behave in a way which is similar to theirs. The Chinese usually attach a lot of importance to taking care of their guests. When it comes to a foreign visitor, Chinese hospitality is usually more than what can be understood by a Westerner, who is uncomfortable when he isalways surrounded by people attempting to be kind. Concerning this case, Hong tried to respecther traditions and her friend by doing more than she could really afford to do for Joe's visit, havingno idea that Joe ended up feeling frustrated.Case 21:A Danish Woman in New YorkThis case can reflect assuming similarity instead of difference. When communicating withpeople from another culture, one is likely to regard and treat other people as “his people” and to assume there must be only one way of doing things: that is “his way”. In this case, the Danish woman assumes that her behavior of leaving the baby alone, which is common in Denmark, is also appropriate in New York. Here, she assumes what is suitable in her own culture is alsoindisputable in another culture. That is why the small conflict happens.Case 22:Ambiguous TimeThis case can reflect ethnocentrism. Cultures train their members to use the categories oftheir own cultural experiences when judging the experiences of people from other cultures. Theywill believe that their culture is the center of the world and their standard should be the role modelfor the rest of the world. Concerning this case, somehow Chinese people have habitually referred12:00 a.m. as the time around lunchtime, making 12 : 00 p.m. midnight. Fortunately, the way theytell other times are the same as that used in the States, so there's usually no misunderstanding between people from the two cultures. However, there is this one difference and Fan learns it by paying a fine since she may hold that her culture is the center of the world.Case 23:Girl-nessThis case can reflect one of the translation problems: the lack of conceptual equivalence,which refers to abstract ideas that may not exist in the same fashion in different languages.Different cultures may attach different meanings to the same thing or person. Concerning this case,we should know what young females call themselves is very different in China from the States. In China, "girl" means someone who is young and single. In a way, it makes a female sound moredesirable to be called a girl rather than a woman. For most people, "woman" means someone who is married and who probably is not young. In fact, most single Chinese females, such as university students, would be insulted to be called "women". While in the West, in formal, public settings, itis customary to call any woman who is past puberty a woman, even though she may not be legally old enough to vote, marry, purchase alcoholic beverages, drive a car, or sign a contract. This terminology became widespread during the "women's liberation movement in the 1960s". The term "'girl" is sometimes interpreted to be demeaning or disrespectful.Case 24:An Unfair DecisionThis case reflects prejudice, which involves an unfair, biased, or intolerant attitudetowards another group of people. In this case, Mr. Bias decided to select someone else, instead of applicant from the country Levadel, for the position. That is just because he holds prejudice towards people from the country Levadel.Case 25:Success StoryOne of the sources of the frustration and misunderstandings that occurred in this case was different notions of what was verbally relevant. In this case, Mary was expecting a much more direct response to her question. Ms. Goshima, however, was uncomfortable with the question and felt her response should be very indirect and establish a proper sense of modesty before revealing the answer to the question. If Mary had been more patient, she would have eventually heard the answer to her question, but she was not really paying attention when it finally came because she felt that Ms. Goshima's comments weren't really relevant to her query.Case 26:Slogans and the Importance of LanguageThe intercultural encounters we experience are not only influenced by language and perceptual differences, and language choice based on restricted and elaborated social situations, but also on language and how it is translated for members of a culture. For many reasons linguistic interpretation and semantics provide the source of numerous misunderstandings. For instance, an insurance company discovered that fires inadvertently occurred because warehouse employees acted carelessly around "empty" barrels of gasoline, although they previously had exercised great caution around "full" drums of gasoline. The terms full and empty seem to mask the real danger in working with gasoline drums. Empty drums are extremely combustible, while full drums pose far less threat. The linguistic perception of the word empty in the general culture signified null or void, but in the work culture of volatile products like gasoline the semantic "interpretation" was disastrous. A story is told of a Christian Scientist who refused to take vitamins, since the recommender described them as "medicine." However, the same person gladly took the vitamins when he was told they were "food."Case 28:Two Different Communication StylesThe dialogue takes place between a young couple who have been dating for a short time. The man is a U.S. student, and the woman is from an Asian culture. Note the misunderstanding that results as a consequence of the use of direct and indirect modes of communication.In all likelihood, Jim is not going to get much of an answer from Michiko. She continues throughout the dialogue using rather general answers to Jim's very specific and direct questionsabout her feelings toward the United States. Michiko might believe that Jim is being far too direct and invading her privacy. Besides, the fact that she has traveled halfway around the world should lie indicative of her desire to be here, right? There must he something about the United States that attracted her. Michiko cannot possibly say something critical about the United States because she would lose face, as would Jim, as a native. She relies on imprecise and indefinite answers.Case 29:MisunderstandingIdioms are simply statements that are not strictly true, but their meaning is understood by a group of people. If you ask what happened to Martha and people say, "She kicked the bucket," it does not mean that she literally did this; it means she died. Just like in the case my student's friend did not literally mean that Shang should get out of the apartment. Idioms are common in all cultures, but when used in intercultural settings they can create a lot of confusion. One potential area of misunderstanding related to idioms is when to use them and with whom. For example, I would not use the "kick the bucket" idiom just any setting or with just any person. If I am talking with my grandmother and I am going to tell her about someone who has died, I may use what is often perceived as a gentler idiom and say the person has "passed away." Understanding the context of when an idiom is appropriate or sensible is part of intercultural knowledge.Case 31:Going Out to EatIn the interaction, Jim is a student at a local university. He was born and raised in the United States. Akira is an exchange student from Japan. Jim and Akira are eating dinner together in a local restaurant. They have known each other for only a short time. Not only is Jim's style of communication overtly personal, but he's also quite direct.Jim is trying to involve Akira in the conversation by relating to him his personal experiencesand preferences. Jim uses the first person "I" no fewer than eleven times and even refers to Akira as "Buddy." Akira never refers to himself in the first person; Akira generally defers to Jim and says little, even addressing Jim as "Mr. Jim." As a foreigner, Akira probably sees Jim as socially superior and uses a formal title. Moreover, rather than talking about his personal preferences, Akira mentions that Japanese people enjoy restaurants.Case 32:What Is Wrong with the Interaction?This case can reflect different nonverbal communication patterns exist in the actualintercultural communication. Nonverbal communication differs according to different cultures. People might have different opinions about the proper space, time, body language and paralanguage. If we don’t pay attention to intercultural nonverbal communication, we will have some misunderstanding and conflict. In this case, Jim (an American), Mitsuko and Akira (two Japanese) belong to totally different cultures; they have very different opinions about the space and body languages. Therefore, Mitsuko and Akira felt uncomfortable when Jim gave some exaggerated body language and kept close space distance in communication.Case 33:Are Americans Indifferent?This case can reflect different nonverbal communication patterns exist in the actualintercultural communication, especially facial expression differ according to different cultures. Compared to most Chinese, Americans like to smile a lot and to have causal and rich facial expressions in their daily lives, even though they have some misfortune. In this case, because of the different opinions about facial expressions in intercultural communication, the American lady talked about her father’s sickness and death in a smiling way to show she still has the optimistic way to treat the future life, which is misunderstood as being indifferent and selfish by the Chinese. Case 34:What Is Sue’ s Problem？This case can reflect nonverbal intercultural communication should be according to thedifferent context, too. Context refers to the actual setting when communication occurs and is also important in nonverbal communication. In this case, Sue knew how to wai and she knew that bowing was generally important in the Thai culture, but, as is so easy to do in a new environment, she forgot to consider the context. Relational hierarchy is very important in Thailand. Sue’s deferential actions may have appropriate in certain settings, but given her status of elder visitor such actions directed toward the children were extremely confusing and uncomfortable for the students and teachers alike.Case 35:A QuarrelThis case can reflect the different use and understanding of silence can influence the actual intercultural communication. Different culture might have different interpretations to the silence. The Eastern culture usually attaches more meanings to silence, while the most western cultures consider silence to be absence of communication and most rude communicative behavior. In this case, Li Hua wanted to provide the opportunity for them to calm down and think about the matters carefully and so she kept silence, while this silence was misunderstood by Smith as the absence of communication and he might think Li Hua looked down upon him and became angrier.Case 36:Don’t Put Your Hand on My ArmThis case can reflect different cultures have different opinions to spatial relations. Different cultures have very different opinions about an individual’s unconsciously structuring the microspace immediately surrounding the physical body. Some cultures can have relatively close distance when communicating while other cultures cannot. Some western cultures consider body touch between people of the same gender to be cultural taboo and a symbol of being homosexual. In this case, Sam is from western cultures and knows the social taboo of body touch very clearly, so he wouldn’t let others misunderstand Mark’s close body distance and touch with him, even though Mark from Chile doesn’t know the cultural taboo at all.Case 37:What’s wrong?This case can reflect different gestures can represent different meanings in different culturesand misuse of some gestures can lead to ineffective intercultural communication. For example, the common “OK” gesture means being good and friendly in some western countries such as USA, while in Latin America it represent something dirty and obscene. Therefore, in this case, the gesture of the American politician is really a disaster and it hurt the people in this Latin American country and also made himself to be unwelcome person.Case 38:An American Librarian’s PuzzleThis case can reflect the meanings shown by facial expressions and gestures differ accordingto different cultures in intercultural communication. For example, the smile in China can convey lots of meaning, such as being friendly and attentive and nodding one’s head in China is not always to say “yes”, sometimes it is just to say “I’m listening.” While in USA, nodding one’s head and smiling is usually to say “yes” and show agreement. Therefore, in this case, the American Librarian misunderstood the Chinese student Zhu Xiaohua’s facial expression and gesture–nodding and smiling and felt quite puzzled.Case 39:Marriage and Social StatusShaheed was disappointed, but he understood the problem and accepted the situation. However, in part because of different worldviews, this story really bothers .many Americans.How many differences in worldviews did you recognize in this experience? I count at leastfive. For example, an American would have felt that the hierarchical nature of the situation that helped to establish the concern in the first place was inherently wrong. Shaheed and thewoman would be seen as equals. In addition, if there were to be any differences betweenthe two, they should have been determined by achievement, not ascribed to the individualsby birth. Third, the decision to go with what is wanted by the families or groups involved is inline with a collectivistic approach rather than an individualistic approach, which would have encouraged each person to do what was best for him- or her-self. Fourth, Shaheed'smother's understanding of the meaning of being served bananas at tea depended entirely onlhe context rather than the verbal message. Many Americans who hear this story worry,about whether Shaheed's mother got the right message. Finally, Americans would tend towant to discuss the issue more, asking, "Why won't this work?" and trying to convincethe young woman's mother that it is okay. This orientation is grounded in using communication primarily as an information source rather than as a social lubricant, which Shaheed's mother did by not threatening the face of the other person or the status quo of the current relationship.Case 40:How Can We Lend Money to Her?It is not unusual for married couples to come into conflict over money or how they relate toin-laws, but in this case it is complicated because there are cultural differences in what is good and bad and what is morally appropriate in this situation. In Germany there are strong norms against borrowing unless you absolutely have to, and then you borrow from a bank and pay it back as quickly as you can. Except for very rare occasions in which a child must borrow from a parent, you would never borrow from family members, because they have enough problems of their own. In contrast, Lao borrowing norms indicate that borrowing is a natural and ongoing part of life. No one has everything they need, so everyone will need to borrow at some time. Buddha has said, "Do good and good will be done to you," so loaning is an honor. Finally, borrowing from an institution is frowned upon because you will not get a good deal and it will look like your family does not care about you.Case 41:Getting FrustratedJay was frustrated in large part because many of the norms he was used to didn't apply inSaudi Arabia, and many Saudi norms did not make sense to him. Much of the business done in Saudi Arabia depends on baksheesh, a type of kickback to a middleman (and it is a man), who facilitates contacts between potential business partners. The middleman is doing a service and expects to get paid for it. The more baksheesh the person gives, the more likely it is that the person will succeed, because the middleman will be sure to treat him very well. Giving baksheesh is a norm in the Saudi business community. In addition, Saudis believe that God gave us multifunctional hands and that the hand is our best tool for eating. However, they are also concerned with hygiene. They reserve the left hand for cleaning themselves and use the right hand for eating. Saudis have a number of norms related to restricting male and female interaction that, within the context of their religious beliefs, make perfect sense but would be very inappropriate to most Westerners.Case 42:Wrong Signal?Ning Tong was not observing the house rules for watching TV, which was probably why he eventually stopped saying anything in the argument. Usually, when a Chinese chooses not to say any more things in an argument, it would mean one or both of the following: the person feels that he/she is wrong; the person wants to stop the argument by not talking any more. The latter would often mean tolerance as one has to resist the impulse of reasoning with the other, especially when one feels he/she is right. When Ning Tong became quite, he was hoping that his silence could stop Tom since Tom would not have anything to respond to.Tom was clearly frustrated at not being able to relax and enjoy some programs connectedwith what is happening back home. Tom probably thought Ning Tong’s decision to stop arguing was “passive aggression”--- making the other person look bad by pretending to be mild-mannered or even not interested---yet not yielding in an argument.Case 43:The Improvement Does Not WorkFollowing their individualistic orientations, Mr. Patterson and Mr. Wyman were perfectly comfortable with the idea of creating team leaders within the individual sales groups. However, as Park Young Sam mentions, doing so upset the harmony of the groups, which in turn led to poor performance. In the United States, workers are often motivated by the opportunity for promotion and advancement as this serves the individualistic drive for individual achievement. In collectivistic cultures, however, workers may be motivated by being a part of a cohesive and productive team.Individualism and collectivism are terms that describe whole cultures. But cultures are notpure. Members of collectivist cultures may practice individualistic tendencies while members of individualist cultures may value collectivist ideals. For example, Denmark is a country with both collectivistic and individualistic tendencies. In Denmark, individual freedom is nurtured through a devotion to established traditions and customs. Regarding income and social rank, Danes are staunchly egalitarian. At the same time, however, Danes consider themselves free to be nonconformist and to stand out from the group. In this way, Danes may be at the theoretical midpoint of the individualism and collectivism cultural continuum.Case 44:When Shall We Meet For Dinner?Uncertainty avoidance orientation can be seen in this case. In the dialogue presented below,。
最新跨文化交际案例InterculturalCommunication—CaseStudies
最新跨文化交际案例InterculturalCommunication—CaseStudiesCourse: Intercultural Communication—Case StudiesTextbook: Self-compiled handoutsObjectives: This curricular module prompts students with the salient issues related to intercultural communication (1CC). Its main focus is on discussions of major problems arising from ICC. During the course the students are exposed to a large variety of cases, taken from up-to-date documents. The goal is not only to build up students' knowledge of ICC, but more importantly to increase their cross-cultural awareness. The course intends to be instructive, practical and enjoyable. At the end of this course, the students will be able to1. deepen their understanding of major ICC principles;2. become familiar with differences in Chinese and American cultures;3. experience conflicts and controversies in ICC;4. enhance their abilities to analyze ICC phenomena;5. improve their ICC competence.Topic Areas:Values: 1. Friendship 2. Ethics 3. Individualism & self-reliance4. Privacy5. Equality6. Attributes7. Time & space 8. Competition & cooperation 9. Volunterism & philanthropyDaily life: 1. Lifestyle 2. Family & marriage 3. Entertainment4. Holidays & travel5. Art & architecture6. Science & technologySocial life: I. Education 2. Religion 3. Political systems & law4. Minorities5. Prejudices &stereotyping6. Building bridgesAssessment:The students will have one assignment for this course. The assignment should center on one of the particular ICC issues covered in the course. They are supposed to address the topic on the basis of theoretical analysis applying the knowledge, principles, as well as strategies obtained during the course. The assignment should run approximately ten pages long, with an abstract, key words anda list of references in the APA format. It must be double-spaced, using Times New Roman (12).Reference:1. Larry A. Samovar. Communication Between Cultures Foreign Language Teaching andResearch Press, 20002. Dou, RQ, Qian DX, Li BX. Selected Readings in Intercultural Communication Xi‘an JiaotongUniversity Press, 20043. Jia Yuxin. Intercultural Communication Shanghai Foreign languages Education Press, 20034. Yao Baorong. Han Qi, Wang Tao. Chinese Society and Culture Shaanxi people‘s PublishingHouse, 20025. Hu Wenzhong. Aspects of Intercultural Communication Foreign Language Teaching andResearch Press, 20046. Mei Renyi. American Studies Reader Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press,20027. Robert M. Crunden. A Brief History of American Culture Paragon House, New York, 19948. Bradford ?J‘ Hall. Among Cultures—The Challenge of Communication Wadsworth, 2005Intercultural Communication------Case StudiesUnit 1 General IntroductionWe are now in a quite different world from before, which is sometimes referred to as ―global village‖. This globalization is mainly due to the amazingly rapid development of science and technology in the areas of transportation and communication systems. Today, trips once taking years, months, weeks, and then days are now measured in a matter of hours. And people in all corners of the world share information and ideas at the same time through sophisticated technology behind such communication means as television, telephone, fax, and the internet.It naturally follows that intercultural contact has become more frequent, more abundant and, therefore, more significant than ever before. China has become an active member of the world community, and her entry into the WTO is bound to bring us into more contact with the outside world.Now that we will conduct more and more intercultural communication, the problem we arefacing is how to do it, and how to do it well. A good knowledge of a foreign language, mainly English---- the most widely used language in the world today, is of courseindispensable. But language alone does not ensure successful communication, especially intercultural communication. Let‘s look at some of the communication cases between people from Chinese and English cultures:Case 1: One cold winter day in a Chinese city, Mr. Wang Lin, on his way to the library, met an American professor who knew very little about China. After greeting him, Mr. Wang said: ―It‘s rather cold. You‘d better put on more clothes.‖But the professor didn‘t appear happy hearing this. Why?(Chinese people like to show concerns, but American people like indepedence and privacy)Case 2: You are the only Chinese among some Americans. One of them is telling a joke.You feel good because you understand every word. All of a sudden, everyone is laughing. Everyone except you. Why?Case 3: There has been a very famous brand of battery in China: White Elephant. Suppose this product is to be exported to the UK or the USA. It‘s very likely to fail without changing its brand name. Why?In each of the above situations there is something ―wrong‖. But this ―something‖ has nothing to do with the langua ge, which is perfect. The problem lies within the culture in which the language is used. In the first case, for instance, Americans (and many Westerners too) don‘t like to be told what to do as they tend to be independent; while Chinese are in the habit of showing and accepting concerns. The second case tells us that sometimes connotations (implied meanings) of words are key to understanding. In the third case a white elephant, arousing beautiful association in the minds of Chinese, stands for something big but useless in the English culture. From thesesimple cases, it‘s not difficult to see what an important role culture plays in communication and why language alone doesn‘t guarantee successful intercultural communication.What we are going to explore in this course are such aspects as mentioned above, since they tend to affect intercultural communication. The aim of the course is to help you develop cultural awareness, and improve your intercultural communication competence through case studies. We know that it‘s impossible to expound all the details of a culture, as culture covers almost every aspect of a person‘s life. But armed with this awareness, you can design your own strategies for dealing with problems arising in intercultural communication situations.During the learning process you will see that all people exhibit culturally conditioned behaviors, approach the diversity of cultures, learn to appreciate similarities and respect differences between cultures, become aware of potential problems in intercultural communication and develop an ability to cope with them. Besides, you are going to have a better understanding of your own native culture—the Chinese culture, of which you may not be always aware just because you are in it.The above aim is to be achieved through a thought-provoking, task-based interactive learning approach. That is to say, in the process you are not just a listener or reader but also a participant in many activities, for instance, discussions about different cases. You are expected to discover a lot about culture for yourself.Unit 2 Communication and Intercultural CommunicationCommunication is symbolic in which people create shared meanings. Symbols are central tothe communication process because they represent theshared meanings that are communicated.Intercultural communication occurs when large and important cultural differences createdissimilar interpretations and expectations about how to communicate competently from two different cultures.(Lusting, M.W. and Koester, J. Intercultural Competence. New York: Addison WesleyLongman, 1999)Reading 1 CommunicationIt doesn‘t matter if this is your first communication course or not. You‘ve probably heard many different definitions of the word ―communication‖. In this chapter you will learn how that communication itself is a cultural element by studying different models of communication. You‘ll learn about the different ways communication and culture are studied and about the skills required to become more effective in intercultural communication.Because communication is an element of culture, it has often been said that communication and culture are inseparable. As Afred G. Smith (1966: Communication and Culture: Readings in the Codes of Human Interaction.New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston) wrote in his preface to Communication and Culture, culture is a code we learn and share, and learning and sharing require communication. Communication requires coding and symbols that must be learned and shared. Godwin C. Chu (1977: Radical Cha nge through Communication in Mao’s China. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii) observed that every cultural pattern and every single act of social behavior involves communication. T o be understood, the two must be studied together. Culture cannot be known with a stud of communication,and communication can only be understood with an understanding of the culture it supports.Components of CommunicationYou are better able to understand communication when you understand the components of the process. Ten components of communication are source, encoding, message, channel, noise, receiver, decoding, receiver response, feedback, and context.Source. The source is the person with an idea he or she desires to communicate. Examples are CBS, the White House, your instructor, and your mother.Encoding. In the television and movie version of ―Star Trek‖, you saw Mr. Spock touching alien beings for what was called ―mind meld‖. You assume Mr. Spock was able to access directly the thoughts of the alien creature. Unfortunately, we humans are not able to do that. Your communication is in the form of symbols representing the ideas you desire to communicate. Encoding is the process of putting ideas into symbolsThe symbols into which you encode your thoughts vary. You can encode thoughts into wordsand you can also encode thoughts into non-spoken symbols. The oils and colors in a painting as well as your gestures and other forms of nonverbal communication can be symbols.Traditionally, a clear distinction is made between symbols and the objects or thoughts theyrepresent. The symbol is not the thing, yet we often act as if it were. When you bite into a lemon, the juice causes your mouth to water as salivary glands under your tongue secrete digestive enzymes. But if you visualize a lemon and say the symbol ―lemon‖ to yourself several times your mouth waters asthe same salivary enzymes are produced not by the thing but by its symbols! The symbols ―glove‖and ―above‖probably don‘t cause reactions, but someone special saying ―I love you‖ can trigger several reactions in your body.Message. The term message identifies the encoded thought. Encoding is the process, the verb; the message is the resulting object.Channel. The term channel is used technically to refer to the means by which the encoded message is transmitted. Today, you might feel more comfortable using the word ―media‖. The channel of medium, then, may be print, electronic, or the light and sound waves of face-to-face communicationNoise. The term noise technically refers to anything that distorts the message the source encodes. Noise can be of many forms: External noise can be the sights, sounds, and other stimuli that draw your attention away from the message. Having a radio on while reading is external noise. Internal noise refers to your thoughts and feelings that can interfere with the message. Being tired or being hungry can be distractions from complete attention to the message. Finally, the phrase ―semantic noise‖ refers to how alternative meanings of the source‘s message symbols can be distracting. For example, a speaker‘s use of uncalled-for profanity can cause us to wonder why the speaker used profanity and draw attention away from message itself.Receiver. The receiver is the person who attends to the message. Receivers may be intentional; that is, they may be the people the source desired to communicate with, or they may be any person who comes upon and attends to the message.Decoding. Decoding is the opposite process of encoding and just as much an active process. The receiver is actively involvedin the communication process by assigning meaning to the symbols received.Receiver response. Receiver response refers to anything the receiver does after having attendedto and decoded the message. The response can range from doing nothing to taking some action or actions that may or may not be the action desired by the source.Feedback. Feedback refers to that portion of the receiver response of which the source has knowledge and to which the source attends and assigns meaning. A reader of this text may have many responses, but when the reader responds to a survey or writes a letter to the author does feedback occur. When a radio talk show host receives enthusiastic telephone calls and invites a guest back, feedback has occurred.Feedback makes communication a two-way or interactive process. Linear and interactive models seem to suggest that communication is an isolated single discrete act independent of events that preceded or might follow it.Context. The final component of communication is context. Generally, context can be defined asthe environment in which the communication process takes place and which helps to define the communication. If you know the physical context, you can predict with a high degree of accuracy much of the communication. For example, you have certain knowledge and expectations of the communication that occurs within churches, temples, and synagogues. At times, you intentionally want to place your romantic communications in a quiet, dimly light restaurant or on a secluded beach. The choice of the environment, the context, helps assign the desired meaning to the communicated worlds.In social relationships as well, the relationship between the source and receiver may help define much of the meaning of the communication. Again, if you know the context you can predict witha high degree of accuracy much of communication. For example, knowing that a person is being stopped by a police officer for speeding is enough to predict much of the communication. Certain things are likely to be said and done; other things are very unlikely.Culture is also context. Every culture has its own worldview, its own way of thinking of creativity, time, and human nature, its own way of perceiving self, and its own system of social organization. Knowing each of these helps you assign meaning to the symbols.The component of context helps you recognize that the extent to which the source and receiver have similar meanings for the communicated symbols and similar understandings of the culturein which the communication takes place is critical to the success of the communication.Reading 2 Intercultural CommunicationThe link between culture and communication is crucial to understanding intercultural communication because it is through the influence of culture that people learn to communicate. A Korean, an Egyptian, or an American learns to communicate like other Koreans, Egyptians, or Americans. Their behavior conveys meaning because it is learned and shared; it is cultural. People view their world through categories, concepts, and labels that are products of their culture.Cultural similarity in perception makes the sharing ofmeaning possible. The ways in which we communicate, the circumstances of our communication, the language and language style we use, and our nonverbal behavior are primarily all a response to and a function of our culture. And, as cultures differ from one another, the communication practices and behaviors of individuals rearedin those cultures will also be different.Our contention is that intercultural communication can best be understood as cultural diversity inthe perception of social objects and events. A central tenet of this position is that minor communication problems are often exaggerated by perceptual diversity. To understand others‘words and actions, we must try to understand their perceptual frames of reference: we must learnto understand how they perceive the world. In the ideal intercultural encounter, we would hope for many overlapping experiences and a commonality of perceptions. Cultural diversity, however, tends to introduce us to dissimilar experiences and, hence, to varied and frequently strange and unfamiliar perceptions of the external world.In all respects, everything so far said about communication and culture applies to intercultural communication. The functions and relationships between the components of communication obviously apply, but what especially characterizes intercultural communication is that sources and responders come from different cultures. This alone is sufficient to identify a unique form of communicative interaction that must take into account the role and function of culture in the communication process.Intercultural communication occurs whenever a message that must be understood is produced by a member of one culturefor consumption by a member of another culture. This circumstance can be problematic because, as we have already seen, culture forges and shapes the individual communicator. Culture is largely responsible for the construction of our individual social realitiesand for our individual repertories for communicative behaviors and meanings. The communication repertories people possess can vary significantly from culture to culture, which can lead to all sortsof difficulties. Through the study and understanding of intercultural communication, however, these difficulties at least can be reduced and at best nearly eliminated.Cultural influence on individuals and the problems inherent in the production and interpretation of messages between cultures are illustrated in Figure 2. Here, three cultures are represented by three distinct geometric shapes Cultures A and B are purposefully similar to one another and are represented by a square and an irregular octagon that resembles a square. Culture C is intended to be quite different from Cultures A and B. It is represented both by its circular shape and its physical distance from Cultures A and B. Within each represented culture is another form similarto the shape of the influencing parent culture. This form represents a person who has been molded by his or her culture. The shape representing the person, however, is somewhat different from thatof the parent culture. The difference suggests two things: first, there are other influences besides culture that affect and help mold the individual; and, second, although culture is the dominant shaping forces on an individual, people vary to someextent from each other within any culture.Message production, transmission, and interpretation across cultures are illustrated by the series of arrows connecting them. When a message leaves the culture in which it was encoded, it carries the content intended by its producer. This is represented by the arrows leaving a culture having the same pattern as that within the message producer. When a message reaches the culture where it is to be interpreted, it undergoes a transformation because the culture in which the message is decoded influences the message interpretation and hence its meaning. The content of the original message changes during that interpretation phase of intercultural communication because the cultural different repertories of social reality, communicative behaviors, and meanings possessedby the interpreter do not coincide with those possessed by the message producer.。
跨文化交际Unit 1 case study case2
case 2
What’s this case about
A situation where an American ESL teacher expected Mexican and Korean students to ask questions in class when they needed clarification.
•Thank you!
However, Korean people generally prefer indirect communication, and therefore they tend to not say what is on their minds and to rely more on implications and inference, so as to be polite and respectful and avoid losing face through any improper verbal behavior.
Mexican culture shares this direct communication with American culture in some situations, so, the students from Mexico readily adopted the techniques of asking ques tions in class.
What do you think of the Korean student’s behavior in class? If you were in the same situation, what would you do?
The students from Mexico readily adopted
跨文化交际实用教程unit2
8
Summary of addressing people
Chinese
Formal Relationship/ Situation Neutral Relationship/ Situation Close Relationship/ Informal Situation
English
Surname+Title
Hey. /Hi.
12
Chinese expressions
Where are you going?你上哪去？ Where have you been?你去哪里啦？
Have you had your meal?吃过了吗？
It’s none of your business.
13
3. Initiating Conversations and Conversation Topic What topics should be avoided in initiating conversation?
Unit 2
Daily Communication (I)
Objectives
Learn the differences of addressing
people and greeting between Chinese and western culture. Learn what are the topics at the beginning of the conversation. Learn how to visit someone and how to leave.
19
5. Partings
Question:
What are the differences in parting between Chinese and English cultures?
跨文化交际书上案例分析case
Case 11 In this case, there seemed to be problems in communicating with people of different cultures in spite of the efforts made to achieve understanding. We should know that in Egypt as in many cultures, the human relationship is valued so highly that it is not expressed in an objective and impersonal way. While Americans certainly value human relationships, they are more likely to speak of them in less personal, more objective terms. In this case, Richard‘s mistake might be that he chose to praise the food itself rather than the total evening,for which the food was simply the setting or excuse. For his host and hostess it was as if he had attended an art exhibit and complimented the ar tist by saying, ―What beautiful frames your pictures are in.‖2 In Japan the situation may be more complicated. Japanese people value order and harmony among persons in a group, and that the organization itself－be it a family or a vast corporation－is more valued than the characteristics of any particular member. In contrast, Americans stress individuality as a value and are apt to assert individual differences when they seem justifiably in conflict with the goals or values of the group. In this case: Richar d‘s mistake was in making great efforts todefend himself. Let the others assume that the errors were not intentional, but it is not right to defend yourself, even when your unstated intent is to assist the group by warning others of similar mistakes. A simple apology and acceptance of the blame would have been appropriate. But for poor Richard to have merely apologized would have seemed to him to be subservient, unmanly.3 When it comes to England, we expect fewer problems between Americans and Englishmen than between Americans and almost any other group. In this case we might look beyond the gesture of taking sugar or cream to the values expressed in this gesture: for Americans, ―Help yourself‖; forthe English counterpart, ―Be my guest.‖American and English people equally enjoy entertaining and being entertained but they differ somewhat in the value of the distinction. Typically, the ideal guest at an American party is one who ―makes himself at home,‖even to the point of answering the door or fixing his own drink. For persons in many other societies, including at least this hypothetical English host, such guest behavior is presumptuous or rude.Case 2A common cultural misunderstanding in classes involves conflicts between what is said to be direct communication style and indirect communication style. In American culture, people tend to say what is on their minds and to mean what they say. Therefore, students in class are expected to ask questions when they need clarification. Mexican culture shares this preference of style with American culture in some situations, and that‘s why the students from Mexico readily adopted the techniques of asking questions in class. However, Korean people generally prefer indirect communication style, and therefore they tend to not say what is on their minds and to rely more on implications and inference, so as to be polite and respectful and avoid losing face through any improper verbal behavior. As is mentioned in the case, to many Koreans, numerous questions would show a disrespect for the teacher, and would also reflect that the student has not studied hard enough.Case 3The conflict here is a difference in cultural values and beliefs. In the beginning, Mary didn‘t realize that her Dominican sister saw her as a member of the family, literally. In the Dominican view,family possessions are shared by everyone of the family. Luz was acting as most Dominican sisters would do in borrowing without asking every time. Once Mary understood that there was a different way of looking at this, she would become more accepting. However, she might still experience the same frustration when this happened again. She had to find ways to cope with her own emotional cultural reaction as well as her practical problem (the batteries running out).Case 4It might be simply a question of different rhythms. Americans have one rhythm in their personal and family relations, in their friendliness and their charities. People from other cultures have different rhythms. The American rhythm is fast. It is characterized by a rapid acceptance of others. However, it is seldom that Americans engage themselves entirely in a friendship. Their friendships are warm, but casual, and specialized. For example, you have a neighbor who drops by in the morning for coffee. You see her frequently, but you never invite her for dinner --- not because you don‘t think she could handle a fork and a knife, but because you have seen her that morning. Therefore, you reserve your more formal invitation todinner for someone who lives in a more distant part of the city and whom you would not see unless you extended an invitation for a special occasion. Now, if the first friend moves away and the second one moves nearby, you are likely to reverse this --- see the second friend in the mornings for informal coffee meetings, and the first one you will invite more formally to dinner. Americans are, in other words, guided very often by their own convenience. They tend to make friends easily, and they don‘t feel it necessary to go to a great amount of trouble to see friends often when it becomes inconvenient to do so, and usually no one is hurt. But in similar circumstances people from many other cultures would be hurt very deeply.Case 5In China, it is often not polite to accept a first offer and Heping was being modest, polite and well-behaved and had every intention of accepting the beer at the second or third offer. But he had not figured on North American rules which firmly say that you do not push alcoholic beverages on anyone. A person may not drink for religious reasons, he may be a reformed alcoholic, or he may be allergic. Whatever the reason behind the rule, you do not insist in offering alcohol. So unconsciousand so strong are their cultural rules that the Americans equally politely never made a second offer of beer to Heping who probably thought North Americans most uncouth. However, what we have to remember is that cultures are seldom a strict either-or in every instance for all people and there are always individual differences. Probably this young Chinese nurse was very different from Heping or, unlike Heping, she may have known something about the American cultural rules and was just trying to behave like an American when she was in an American family.Case 6When a speaker says something to a hearer, there are at least three kinds of meanings involved: utterance meaning, speaker‘s meaning and hearer‘s meaning. In th e dialogue, when Litz said ‗How long is she goi ng to stay?‘ she meant to say that if she knew how long her mother-in-law was going to stay in Finland, she would be able to make proper arrangements for her, such as taking her out to do some sightseeing. However, her mother-in-law overheard the conversat ion, and took Litz‘s question to mean ―Litz does not want me to stay for long‖. From the Chinese point of view, it seems to be inappropriate forLitz to ask such a question just two days after her mother-in-law‘s arrival. If she feels she has to ask the question, it would be better to ask some time later and she should not let her mother-in-law hear it.Case 7Keiko insists on giving valuable gifts to her college friends, because in countries like Japan, exchanging gifts is a strongly rooted social tradition. Should you rec eive a gift, and don‘t have one to offer in return, you will probably create a crisis. If not as serious as a crisis, one who doesn‘t offer a gift in return may be considered rude or impolite. Therefore, in Japan, gifts are a symbolic way to show appreciation, respect, gratitude and further relationship. Keiko obviously has taken those used items from Mary, Ed and Marion as gifts, for she probably doesn‘t know that Americans frequently donate their used household items to church or to the community. Mary, Ed and Marion would never consider those used household items given to29 Keiko as gifts. No wonder they felt very uncomfortable when they received valuable gifts in returCase 8As the Chinese girl Amy fell in love with an American boy at thattime, it seems that she preferred to celebrate Christmas in the American way, for she wanted very much to appear the same as other American girl. She did not like to see her boyfriend feel disappointed at the ―shabby‖Chinese Christmas. That‘s why she cried when she found out her parents had invited the minister ‘s family over for the Christmas Eve dinner. She thought the menu for the Christmas meal created by her mother a strange one because there were no roast turkey and sweet potatoes but only Chinese food. How could she notice then the foods chosen by her mother were all her favorites? From this case, we can find a lot of differences between the Chinese and Western cultures in what is appropriate food for a banquet, what are good table manners, and how one should behave to be hospitable. However, one should never feel shameful just because one‘s culture is different from others‘. As Amy‘s mother told her, you must be proud to be different, and your only shame is to have shame.Case 9Hierarchy is significant in the Japanese culture. This structure is reflected everywhere in Japanese life, at home, school, community, organizations, and traditional institutions such asmartial arts or flower arrangements. In this case, the young chairman must have had his own ideas about how to manage the company; however, when encountered with his grandfather‘s dissenting opinion s, he dared not to take a stand against him. This may manifest the rigid hierarchical structure in the Japanese society. In the Japanese society, how hierarchy is formed depends mainly on seniority, social roles, and gender. As a respectable senior member of the family and the former leader of the company, the grandfather obviously overpowered the inexperienced young chairman. In other words, the grandfather seemed to be an absolute authority for the young chairman. In Japanese culture, challenging or disagreeing with elders‘ opinions would be deemed as being disrespectful an d is often condemned. People in lower positions are expected to be loyal and obedient to authority. That‘s why the young chairman didn‘t say anything but just nodded a nd agreed with his grandfather. But Phil seemed to know little about the Japanese culture in this aspect. In many Western cultures, particularly American culture, seniority seldom matters very much in such situations, and young people are usually encouraged to challenge authority and voice their own opinions. Unfortunately, his outspoken protest could easily offend the grandfather andhe might be regarded as a rude and ill-bred person by other Japanese.Case 10In Japan, a company is often very much like a big family, in which the manger(s) will take good care of the employees and the employees are expected to devote themselves to the development of the company and, if it is necessary, to sacrifice their own individual interests for the interests of the 44 company, from which, in the long run, the employees will benefit greatly. But for the French, a company is just a loosely- knit social organization wherein individuals are supposed to take care of themselves and their families. Moreover, the way the French make decisions in the family might also be different from the typical Japanese one, which may not often involve females and the power to decide usually lies with the dominating male. As there are such cultural differences between the Japanese and the French, Mr. Legrand‘s decision made Mr. Tanaka feel dumbfounded.Case 11Incidents such as these can point to possible cultural differences in so-called ―polite‖behavior, and at the same time highlight the tendency for people to react emotionally to unexpected behavior. People in most cultures would probably agree that an apology is needed when an offence or violation of social norms has taken place. However, there may be differing opinions as to when we should apologize (what situations call for an apology) and how we should apologize. To many Westerners, Japanese apologize more frequently and an apology in Japanese does not necessarily mean that the person is acknowledging a fault. To many Japanese, Westerners may seem to be rude just because they do not apologize as often as the Japanese would do. In this case, for instance, the attitude of the Australian student‘s parents is shocking to the Japane se but will be acceptable in an English-speaking society, for the student is already an adult and can be responsible for her own deeds.Case 12In this case, it seems that the Chinese expectations were not fulfilled. First, having two people sharing host responsibilitiescould be somewhat confusing to the hierarchically minded Chinese. Second, because age is often viewed as an indication of seniority, the Chinese might have considered the youth of their Canadian hosts as slight to their own status. Third, in China, it is traditional for the host to offer a welcome toast at the beginning of the meal, which is the reciprocated by the guests; by not doing so, the Canadian might be thought rude. The abrupt departure of the Chinese following the banquet was probably an indication that they were not pleased with the way they were treated. The Canadians‘ lack of understanding of the Chinese culture and the Chinese ways of communication clearly cost them in their business dealings with the visiting delegation.。
跨文化交际实用教程unit 2
16
Business visiting:
arrange a time in advance some straight to the point
Social visiting:
more flexible
I’m coming to see you this afternoon.
17
Some suitable expressions:
28
8
Summary of addressing people
Chinese
Formal Relationship/ Situation Neutral Relationship/ Situation Close Relationship/ Informal Situation
English
Surname+Title
21
The differences:
Westerners: A couple of minutes’ small
talk
Well, it’s been lovely to see you again, but I must be going soon. I hope we’ll be able to get together again before long… Thank you for a lovely evening. I must not hold you any longer.
VIP Title + full name/ surname Ambassador大使 Doctor博士 Duke 公 Marquis or Marquess侯 Count or Earl伯 Viscount子 Baron男 Stranger Mr. Madam (only use the word Sir if he is much older than you or you don’t know his surname but he is a VIP) Young people Young man Young Lady Kid(s) Young Master(小王子)
跨文化交际案例case study 2
Chapter 2 Staying with a FamilyCase 1Erica: Hello! Thank for coming. Here, let me take your coat.Lin: Hello. Thanks. Here’s some wine for you.Erica: That’s lovely. You really shouldn’t have, Lin. Thank you. Let’s go in and meet the others.分析：无论东方还是西方，去做客总要带点儿礼物。
无论赴晚会还是晚宴，带甁葡萄酒总是适宜的。
有些西方人给女主人买些花儿，或是巧克力。
呈上礼物的时候，对你的礼物低调处理，就是说，不要太多地谈论你的礼物。
上面的范例是，受礼的主人倒要说上两句，以表谢意。
Case 2Erica: Lin, do have some more dessert.Lin: Thank you, but I’m afraid I’ve had enough. It’s wonderful.分析：同世界上其他国家的人一样，西方人也很好客。
他们也总是想让客人吃得多多的。
所有学会怎样在餐桌上婉言谢绝很有用处。
Case 3After the meal and after the table has been cleared. Liu is not sure what to do, but wants to help in some way. At least he wants to offer.Helen: Thanks for your help, Huang.Liu: Pleasure. What can I do now?Helen: Nothing. It’s fine. I’ll rinse these dishes then stack them. It’ll only take a minute.Liu: Does the family usually help?Helen: Well, at special times. Jack sometimes rinses the dishes but you can see he’s really tired tonight.Liu: Let me do it for you.Helen: No truly, it’s okay.Liu: Maybe I can wipe the table then.Helen: That would be helpful. Thanks. You’re really kind, Huang.分析：在西方人家中的就餐的时间里，大家都设法插手帮一下忙，即便是男士也不例外，不要一点不动着开饭。
跨文化CASE
大学英语跨文化交际所有CASE答案Case 2:White DressCase analysis: The Indian women might think the wedding ceremony is a funeral if they seethe western bride in white gown. The case reflects the similes and metaphors in the text. Culture is like an iceberg: we can identify the color of the dress worn by women in different cultures, but we do not know the values underneath. Culture is like the water a fish swims in: people wear dress of different colors for different context but they usually take it for granted and never ask why.案例2：白连衣裙案例分析：印度妇女可能会认为，如果他们看到了西方白色礼服的新娘在婚礼仪式的葬礼。
情况反映了明喻和隐喻在文本中。
文化就像一座冰山：我们可以找出不同文化背景的女性在穿着的礼服的颜色，但我们不知道下面的值。
文化就像是一条鱼游在水：人们穿的礼服不同的颜色，不同的背景，但他们通常把它视为理所当然，从来不问为什么。
Case 4:Coconut-skatingCase analysis: The case reflects the characteristics of culture. We can tell from the case that culture is pervasive and it’s learned. People may invent different ways for things even as simple as the issue of floor moping. The Philippine woman must have learned this way of mopping from her own culture.案例4：椰子-滑冰（用椰油保养地板的方法）案例分析：情况反映了文化的特点。
跨文化交际案例分析
Case 1: She Has Three HandsIn the following scenario, a Chinese doctor, a patient and a physiotherapist interact.A female neurologist from Beijing was working on a research project in a Toronto hospital. She shared a small office with a young Canadian male from a large family, who loved peanut butter. He was so fond of peanut butter that he kept a jar in the office. One day he came into the office and exclaimed, “Who took my peanut butter?” But the Chinese woman immediately felt accused. After all, there were only two of them in the office.She was deeply distressed, but true to her learned cultural behavior of never showing anger in public, she said nothing. Later that day she was working in a room where the physiotherapist was treating a patient who suffered paralysis of his legs and arms from a motorcycle accident. The physiotherapist moved one of the patient’s legs in a way that caused him pain.“Ouch!” he cried.“Oh, I didn’t do that,” said the physiotherapist. “It was that doctor over there,” and he pointed to the Chinese woman.“How could she have done it since she’s on the other side of the room?” the patient pointed out.“Ah, she has three hands.” the physiotherapist replied.At these words the Chinese doctor became even more upset. She was so disturbed that she behaved in a way uncharacteristic of her culture. She waited until the patient had gone, and then said to the physiotherapist, “I’m very upset by what you said.” The physiotherapist was taken aback. “What had I said?”“You said I had three hands,” the Chinese doctor finally choked. “You think I took the peanut butter.”Answer the following questions:1.How do you understand the phrase “to have three hands”? (3分)2.What caused their communication conflicts?（7分）Case 1:This case can reflect the different communication styles between Chinese and Canadians. In western cultures, communication is the means of transmitting ideas. Western people usually communicate directly with each other. That is why the Canadian in this case says what is in his mind directly in front of the Chinese woman without hiding anything. While Chinese culture stresses harmony and emphasizes the relationships between the communicators. Chinese people view communication as a process where all parties are searching to develop and maintain a social relationship. So the Chinese woman in this case tries not to argue with the Canadian face to face to keep the“harmonious relationship”between them.Case 2: Left in the ColdKatherine came to Beijing in 1998 and found a job as an English teacher in a foreign language institute. Soon after her classes began she found that her students showed no interest in her teaching style. Quite a few of them avoided attending her class. She was feeling quite upset and discouraged so she decided to ask the Director, Prof. Wang for help. Prof. Wang reviewed his timetable and suggested they meet at ten o’clock on Thursday morning. When Thursday came, Katherine arrived at Prof. Wang’s office at the exactly ten o’clock finding him talking with another teacher in Chinese. Seeing that she had come, Prof. Wang smiled and gestured her to sit down. Katherine sat down and the professor excused himself and continued to talk with the other teacher. After five minutes, he finished his conversation, and apologized to Katherine, and began to focus his attention on her situation. Prof. Wang showed great concern and asked her what the problem was. Just as she was discussing her problem, another Chinese teacher interrupted, with a form that required the Director’s signature. The Director smiled, apologized to Katherine again, and turned to talk with the Chinese teacher in Chinese. Katherine became impatient, and wondered why their discussion should be interrupted since she had made an appointment. Also, she was upset and frustrated that they continued to speak Chinese in front of her. Although their talk continued, she was apparently unhappy about what had happened.Answer the following questions:1.How would you explain the Director’s behavior toward Kathrine?（5分）2.How would you make the Director understand why Katherine felt frustrated and angry? （5分）Case 2:CommentThis is a typical cultural clash between Chinese and Westerners. There is a great difference in the concept of appointment and its behavior pattern in different cultures. To Americans, an appointment is a confirmation to meet at a precise time. If an appointment is scheduled, both parties should respect the appointment time. For example, if a professor makes an appointment with a student at a certain time, it should not be interrupted by other things or people. In addition, Westerners are good timekeepers; they adhere strictly to schedules. However, Chinese view appointments in a more flexible manner. They are more casual about commitments. This difference in attitudes toward appointment was the root of Katherine’s unhappiness. Since the Director made an ten a’clock appointment, he should have tried to avoid any interruption. However, when Katherine arrived on time, the Director was still talking with another teacher. When their meeting finally began, it was interrupted again. There is no wonder Katherine became frustrated and angry.Case 3: Personal SpaceMark had recently moved from Denmark to Sydney to work as a salesperson for a large Australian company. After three weeks, he was invited to join a local club. During the first few weeks at the club, Mark would either stand in the corner talking with someone or sit on a sofa listening to other people talk and chat. As time went by, he came to know most of the club members and seemed to enjoy talking with them. One day, at an evening party one of the female members approached him. Mark immediately showed his interest by talking about the atmosphere of the party. At first, the conversation between them seemed to go quite smoothly, but as it progressed the lady seemed to step further and further away from Mark as he had been gradually moving closer to her. The lady obviously seemed uncomfortable. As Mark was about to ask her questions regarding Australian social customs, another man standing nearby directed a glance toward the lady. She excused herself and went to talk with that man, leaving Mark standing alone and wondering why their conversation had come to such a sudden stop.Answer the following question1. Why did that woman suddenly stop talking with Mark and turned to another man? （10分）Case 3:This is a typical case of misunderstanding caused by different perceptions abut body distance.There is a lot of evidence to show that body distance varies with different people, different circumstances, and different cultures. In Denmark, at a formal event, the intimate space is usually between 20 to 30 centimeters; while in Australia such an occasion requires a body distance of 40 to 50 centimeters. Therefore when a Dane talks with an Australian, the problem arises: the Dane is accustomed to a close distance while the Australian is comfortable with a great distance.In this case, Mark, by trying to establish his normal intimate space, infringed on the Australian lady’s space. Because of this, she felt somewhat threatened and lost her sense of comfort. At that moment, the nearby man offered her the opportunity to excuse herself from Mark. If Mark had had some knowledge about the expected personal space for Australians, the encounter might have been totally different.Case 4Li Ming, a male Chinese graduate student, studied in the United States. He shared a room with his American classmate Tony in a residence hall. At the very beginning, Li Ming found it easy and enjoyable to get along with Tony, for he was an open-minded person and sometimes he could give Li Ming quite a lot of helpful advice. But later,Li Ming felt it really hard to do the real effective communication. For example:One day Tony went into the bathroom and completely shaved his head. Li Ming easily discovered this fact when he himself visited the bathroom and saw the hair everywhere. He returned to his room and said to Tony, “You’ve shaved your head.” Tony replied, “Yeah, I did.”Li Ming waited a while, then said, I discovered you’d shaved your head when I went into the bathroom and saw the hair. “Yeah.” Tony confirmed. Li Ming was at a loss. He believed he had communicated in the strongest possible language his wish that the American would clean up the mess he’d made in the bathroom. But Li Ming was very much disappointed at his roommate Tony!Later he discussed the surprising episode with some Chinese friends who told him, “Listen, with Americans you actually have to say: Clean up the bathroom!” Li Ming believed his message had been very clear. However, he was relying on the context of the communication for the message to be understood: hair was all over the bathroom, and his roommate now was bare-headed.Questions:1. Why do you think the American student Tony failed to understand what his Chinese roommate Li Ming had wanted to say?2. Suppose the main characters in the story are two Chinese studentsor two American students, in what way will they deal with the matter?Case 7 (P30)Case analysis: Cultural differences decide the two students are going to communicate in different ways. 案例分析:文化差异决定这两个学生要沟通的方式不同。
新编跨文化交际英语教程cases参考答案 中英文版
新编跨文化交际英语教程Intercultural Communication in EnglishCase study 参考答案Case 1 【page 23】In this case, there seemed to be problems in communicating with people of different cultures in spite of the efforts made to achieve understanding.在这种情况下，尽管人们努力去理解，但在与不同文化背景的人交流时似乎出现了问题。
We should know that in Egypt as in many cultures, the human relationship is valued so highly that it is not expressed in an objective and impersonal way. While Americans certainly value human relationships, they are more likely to speak of them in less personal, more objective terms.我们应该知道，在埃及，就像在许多文化中一样，人际关系被看得如此重要，以至于无法以客观和非个人的方式表达出来。
虽然美国人的确重视人际关系，但他们更倾向于用不那么个人化、更客观的方式来谈论人际关系。
In this case, Richard‘s mistake might be that he chose to praise the food itself rather than the total evening, for which the food was simply the setting or excuse. For his host and hostess it was as if he had attended an art exhibit and complimented the artist by saying, ―What beautiful frames your pictures are in.在这种情况下，理查德的错误可能是他选择赞美食物本身，而不是整个晚上，因为食物只是设置或借口。
跨文化交际试题附答案
跨文化交际试题附答案Paper 1 Communication AnalysisThe following are three different cases of cross-cultural communication. In each of the cases there is something to be improved upon. Write an analysis on what is to be desired for more successful communication or cultural understanding.Question 1Case 1:Chen Bing, a Chinese tour guide, is talking to a Canadian tourist, Luke Baines, who has no knowledge of Chinese at all. They are having dinner in a restaurant. Chen: This is Beijing duck, one of China's most famous dishes. You'll love itLuke: No, thanks. I don't like duck. I prefer chicken.Question 2Case 2:Feng Li and Tom have been working on a scientific experiment at a British university for some months. It has not been totally successful. They arediscussing the situation in the laboratory.Feng Li: I don't know where it went wrongTom, Don't feel so bad. Cheer up, you've done your job.Feng Li: But our experiment has turned out to be a failure.Tom: Relax for a couple of days. I'll face the music.Feng Li: Tom, we are not playing children's games here. This is a scientific experiment.Tom, I've never taken the experiment as child’ s play, and I'm playing the game.Feng Li: You say you're playing the game It's a rather important experiment Feng Li walks out of the Laboratory angrily. Tom is puzzled.Question 3Case 3:This is a more complex situation where there are several things that require more informed cultural analysis. Find the cultural problems and explain the cultural differences. Jim and Li Zhen were students together at LeedsUniversity in Britain. A year later, after graduating, Jim went to Shanghai as a visiting scholar on a year’s exchange.Jim had never been to China before. Li Zhen took him to a classical piano concert performed by a famous Chinese pianist. During the performance people were talking and at one stage someone ran up onto the stage and presented the pianist with a bunch of flowers during the playing of a particular musical item. This happened several times during the evening. It also happened when two singers were on stage singing some songs that he was playing. Jim thought all these things quite strange. At the end of the performance the audience applauded the pianist and he applauded them. The audience began to leave while the pianist remained on the stage.Paper 2 VocabularyChoose one word or expression from those in the box below to fill the gap in each of the sentences. Write the correct words in the spaces provided in your answer sheet. Do not change the forms of the words.4. After twenty five years working in the bank she decided on a different .5. Finally, after arguing about the meal for five minutes it was decided he would .6. Despite the circumstances of the accident there were still some that needed explanation.7. There are many different used when talking about people's relationships in China.8. "Mike Meet Jane, the ."9. "Ok, the argument is over. Let's forget it, you know."10. People in English speaking countries also avoid losing face or hurting other people by telling .11. It is difficult for foreigners to understand British pub culture,especially the system of which all members of the group are expected to join in.12. It was a crushing blow to her, a hit when she received the news that her husband had left her for another woman.13. In China there is a real sense of in social situations.Paper 3 TranslationTranslate the following passage from English into Chinese. Please write your translation on the answer sheet.What do we mean by "Intercultural Communications" or "IC" This is not a description of the popular trend toward talking about international things or going overseas. IC is actually an academic and applied discipline that has developed internationally since the 1950s. Sometimes called "cross-cultural communications" or "comparative culture" , scholars most often use the prefix "inter" with the word "cultural" to describe the interaction between cultures. On one level, IC is represented by culture studies, where we examine the political, economic and lifestyle systems ofother countries. On another level, it is applied linguistics, where we seek to understand the relationship between language and culture. Many Chinese English teachers and professors have been interested in this aspect since the 1980s - How to teach English in ways that help students also learn the basic communication practices of Britain, the US or other English speaking countries.But the discipline of Intercultural Communications is actually a broad and well-developed field of study. IC is an interdisciplinary application of fields like cultural anthropology, sociology, psychology and social psychology, communication studies, applied linguistics and educational pedagogy. IC is a comprehensive attempt to understand all aspects of human cultures and how they interact with each other.To understand Intercultural Communications, we seek to understand tradition and modernization, consistency and change. As we understand some of the ongoing national characteristics of a people, we can examine how this culture is seen from the outside, how it interacts with other cultures and how it is changing. In the last thirty odd years, scholars have developed both theoretical framework for comparing cultures and some practical dimensions for considering the similarity and differences between them. Onelevel of intercultural comparison is Cultural Identity. Another level of comparison is Verbal Communication. Another area receiving much attention is Nonverbal Communication.Paper 4 ReadingPassage 1 Questions 15-20In recent years criticisms have been voiced concerning sexist bias in the English language. It has been argued that some of the vocabulary and grammar we use reflects and reinforces a traditional view of the world as one in which men are dominant and women play a secondary role. Take the word 'chairman' for example. While this can in fact apply to people of both sexes, it appears to some people to be male-oriented as it ends in 'man'. In the past people taking the role of chairman were exclusively male and the word was obviously originally a compound of 'chair' and 'man'. Many English speakers, however, have ceased to view this word as a compound and no more feel it to be composed of these two units, than they perceive cupboard to be a composite of ' cup' and ' board'. In addition the continued use of chairman might be defended on the grounds that the final syllable is pronounced /m'n/ rather than /mn/, just like the final syllable of woman.Despite such considerations other speakers take a contrary view and are sensitive to the components of which it is made up. They clearly perceive it as a title that perpetuates traditional ideas about the place of women in society. For this reason they seek to replace it with neutral terms such as 'chairperson' or 'chair', so that it is now possible to ask questions such as; 'Who is chair of the committee'Other changes advocated include the replacement of words such as 'postman', 'fireman' and 'policeman' with more clearly neutral terms such as 'postal worker', fire-fighter' and 'police officer’. There is, however, continuing controversy about how far such language changes should go. Should changes be considered for traditional idioms as 'man in the street' and titles such as 'Peking Man' What about those words where the male meaning of 'man' is no longer dominant, such as 'manhandle'To the extent that changes have taken place, they have done so more in the written language and formal pronouncements than in everyday speech. You would be quite likely to read in the paper that 'Postal workers are to receive a pay increase.' But 'Has the postman been' would be most likely to be heard in informal conversation. Here 'post man’ remains firmly entrenched in popular usage.The extent to which language reflects and shapes attitudes and behaviors is a matter of conjecture. Chinese, Japanese, Persian and Turkish do not make the kinds of sex distinctions English makes through its system of pronouns, but it would be difficult to maintain that males who speak these languages are less sexist than males who speak EnglishAnswer the following questions according to the above text:15. The general use of the word 'man' added to English words indicates .A. sexual feelingsB. sexual freedomC. sexist ideasD. sexist bias .16. Generally where language and sex are concerned in Britain .A. all people agree change is neededB. some people agree change is neededC. people can't make up their minds on the issueD. people think the issue is unimportant and not serious17. What example does the author give to support a defense of the word 'chairman'18. What does the author argue for when the example 'manhandle' is given19. What does the author have to say about the impact of language changes20. What is the author's argument in the final paragraphPassage 2 Questions 21-27Can Computers Do a Better Job Rating StocksSince May, Charles Schwab has been providing stock ratings to clients using a computerized system that it says tries to remove human bias.In particular, Schwab says, its system is meant to avoid the conflicts of interest that have plagued traditional brokerage firms, whose research analysts have often acted as cheerleaders for companies being courted by their investment bankers."We believe that our single biggest advantage is our objectivity," said Jerry Chafkin, Schwab's executive vice president for investment advice and products. " While the development of the methodology is human, the analysis is being performed systematically and automatically.Though Schwab is perhaps the most prominent financial services company to use a computer-driven rating system, several others, including Value Line and Zacks Investment Research, pick stocks in a similar way.The various systems produce very different ratings of individual stocks, and their ability to outperform a market index fund over time has not been proved conclusively. The verdict is still out as to whether computers do it better than people. What is clear, though, is that the major computerized systems hand out fewer positive stock ratings than do Wall Street analysts, who seem to give them out very generously.People who run computerized selection systems criticize traditional Wall Street analysis as having institutional conflicts of interest, as well as individual bias. "I am very suspicious about opinions and judgments and emotions by humans in individual stock selection," said Samuel Eisenstadt, Value Line's research director.However, the computer-driven stock-picking systems must rely on the selection criteria of their creators. All try to isolate factors that their developers believe have the greatest ability to predict share prices. Most models compare a company9s historical earnings growth with that of other companies. And many track the extent to which earnings have surprised analysts.Many firms use their computer-based stock-rating systems as marketing tools.The designers of these systems say they should be judged on how a group of stocks performs over time. But all the systems assume, as do stock analysts on Wall Street, that superior research, by humans, and analysis can select a group of stocks that will outperform the market averages over the long run.Market analysts say it is too soon to assess the fledgling Schwab system or new models, like Microsoft's year-old Stock-ScouterMark the following statements True T / False F / Not Given NG according to the information provided in the text.Write T, or F or NG on your answer sheet in the spaces provided for questions.21. Charles Schwab is a computer company.22. The method of operation by Schwab is done automatically.23. 'Value Line' and 'Zacks' have similar operating methods to Schwab.24. There is no conclusive proof that computers perform better than humans.25. Wall Street analysts are generous in rating stocks.26. Human beings make value judgments according to the research director of 'Value Line'.27. Analysts are surprised at the growth rate of share prices.答案及评分标准Paper 1: Communication Analysis●The following points should be covered in the analysis.●Award one point for each of the points covered underlined.Paper 2: Vocabulary●One point for each item.●Answers must be the same as the key.4. vocation5. foot the bill6. grey areas7. kin terms8. trouble and strife 9. live and let live10. white lies 11. buying a round12. below the belt 13. communityPaper 3: Translation14.“跨文化交际”或“IC”是指什么呢这并不是对于谈论国际事务或出国大潮的描述;“IC”实际上是自20世纪50年代以来在世界范围内发展起业的一门学术及应用学科;有时称为“跨文化交际”或“比较文化”,学者们大多使用“inter”这一前缀加上“文化”这个词来表述文化间的相互作用;在一个层面上,IC体现在文化研究上,研究其它国家的政治,经济和生活方式制度等;在另一个层面上,它是应用语言学,力求了解语言与文化的关系;20世纪80年代以来,许多中国英语教师和教授对此产生了浓厚兴趣一如何在英语教学中帮助学生同时了解英国,美国或其他英语国家基本的交际行为;但跨文化交际这门学科实际上是一门广泛且日益完善的研究领域;IC是涵盖如文化人类学、社会学、心理学及社会心理学、交际研究、应用语言学和教育学的跨学科应用;IC是了解人类文化以及它们间是如何相互影响的综合尝试;要了解跨文化交际,我们力图探究传统与现代,一致与变化;由于我们了解了某一民族现存的某些民族特色,我们便可以探究如何从外部审视这一文化,它是如何与其它文化相互影响的,又是如何变化的;在过去的30多年,学者们发展了用于比较文化的理论框架以及若干用于思考它们异同的实践领域;跨文化比较的一个层面是文化特性,另一层面是口头语言交际;还有一倍受关注的领域是非语言交际;Paper 4: ReadingPassage 115. D16. C17. The pronunciation of the final syllable of 'chairman' is /m'n/ as in the pronunciation of 'woman'.18. The author argues that the male meaning of 'man' is no longer dominant. OR: The author argues that the male meaning of 'man' is no longer 'dominant.19. The impact is more in formal and/or written language areas e. g. the media. Ordinary people still tend to use words ending in ' man'. Therefore In Informal language use there has been little or no impact.20. Regardless of language structure in any society, non-sexist language use does not mean change will occur if people's attitudes and behaviors do not change.Passage 2● Award one point for each item.● Answers must be the same as the key.21. F 22. F 23. T 24. T 25. T26. T 27. F。
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2). Dashan worked hard, and he was always going to the extra mile, and he set a number of work-related goals. But all he did is for his family and his group ultimately.
Dashan’s success mainly depended on Guanxi. He came from a fairly influential family . In the Chinese business environment Guanxi was very important.
Question1:Is Charles correct to interpret Dashan’s behavior as individualistic?
3). Dashan invited Charles, his relatives and friends for dinner, so as to solidify and expand his social networks.
4). He bought a car for his parents because of filial piety.It's kind of duty for chinese.
3.What can you tell Charles to help him correct his understanding of Chinese cuypical collective country, and the Chinese cultural values is collectivism. Chinese pay more attention to “guanxi”, and they may succeed by “guanxi”. 2). Dashan worked hard, and he was always going to the extra mile, and he set a number of work-related goals. But all he did is for his family and his group ultimately. 3). Friends should keep touch with each other in collectivism, Dashan invited you for dinner, which aims to keep your friendship and your social relationship.
2.In what ways is Dashan’s behavior consistent with his culture’s values?
1). Dashan came from a fairly influential family , and it is one of the most important reasons that he can succeed.
nuclear family
extended family
Different views
Success in American 's eyes --- Charles Success in Chinese 's eyes---Dashan
Dashan’s success on business depended on himself. Because Dashan always worked hard , did extra miles and set lots of work-related goals . It seemed to Charles that Dashan was quite “individualistic”
No , it isn’t. Dashan’s behavior belongs to collectivism. Reasons: 1). Individualist’s success lies in their own abilities , but Dashan’s fairly influential family, which brings more success chances(“guanxi”) to Dashan, and this is one of the reasons that he can succeed. 2). In fact, what Dashan did is profitable for his family and his group ultimately. It's not his interest.
Thanks you!
Summary
Charles got a chance about his promotion and transfer to China. Because of this, Charles had learned several concepts about Chinese business environment, individualism and collectivism. Charles worked closely with his Chinese counterpart ------Dashan. He learned Dashan came from an influential family, and he also found Dashan worked hard, and Dashan’s business was doing very well. What’s more, Dashan’s house was quite nice, and he even bought a car for his parents. It seemed to Charles that Dashan was doing quite a good job of being individualistic. But Charles had overlooked the most important point-----guanxi. Key words: individualism and collectivism
Important points
Individualism Collectivism
Individual autonomy
Self-oriented Personal goals Unique and independence
Group unity and harmony
Grou-oriented Group goals Conforming and interdependent