新编跨文化交际英语教程——案例分析(主编:许力生)Word 打印版

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新编跨文化交际英语教程(许力生)课后翻译-参考模板

新编跨文化交际英语教程(许力生)课后翻译-参考模板

1.纵观历史,我们可以清楚地看到,各民族与文化由于彼此所处地域、意识形态、容貌服饰和行为举止上存在的差异,而长久无法互相理解,无法和睦相处。

在这种情况下,跨文化交际作为一个特定的研究领域得以形成和发展。

值得注意的是,人类文明在发展过程中所遭受的许多挫折,既是个人的,又是全球性的;人类历史进程总是充满了个人间的直接冲突和民族间的误解--从骂骂咧咧到孤立主义甚至到武装冲突,大大小小争端不绝。

很显然,文化间以及亚文化间的交往日益增多,这迫切要求我们共同努力,去理解与我们有着天壤之别信仰和文化背景的人们,并与之和睦相处。

通过加深认识和理解,我们能够与生活方式、价值观念不同的人们和平共处;这不但有益于我们周遭环境的安定,也是维护世界和平的决定性因素。

2.文化有时候被称为我们的心智程序,也即我们“头脑的软件”。

但是,我们可以进一步引申这个用电脑所做的类比,把文化看作是支持软件运行的操作环境。

文化就像电脑使用的DOS或者Unix或者“视窗”(Windows)等操作系统一样,使我们能在各种各样的实际应用中处理信息。

用“视窗”这个比喻来描述文化似乎也很有吸引力。

文化就是我们心灵的视窗,透过它我们可以审视生活的方方面面。

一个社会中不同个体的视窗是大不一样的,但都有着一些重要的共同特征。

文化就好像是鱼畅游于其中的水一般,人们想当然地把文化看成是客观存在的事实,从而很少去研究它。

文化存在于我们所呼吸的空气之中,文化对我们了解自我是必不可少的,就正如生命离不开空气一样。

文化是特定群体的共有财产,而不单是个体的特征。

社会按照文化设定的程序来运作,这种程序来自于相似的生活体验以及对这种生活体验之涵义的相似性阐释。

如果文化是一种心智程序,那么它也是现实的心灵地图。

从我们很小的时候开始,文化就告诉我们应该看重什么、偏好什么、规避什么以及做些什么。

文化还告诉我们事物应该是什么样的。

文化为我们提供超越个体经验的理想典范,帮助我们决定应该优先考虑什么。

新编跨文化交际案例分析

新编跨文化交际案例分析

新编跨文化交际案例分析Unit 5Culture and Verbal CommunicationCase 17When these two men separate, they may leave each other with very different impressions.Mr Richardson is very pleased to have made the acquaintance of Mr Chu and feels they havegotten off to a very good start. They have established their relationship on a first-name basis and MrChu‘s smile seemed to indicate that he will be friendly and easy to do business with. Mr Richardsonis particularly pleased that he had treated Mr Chu with respect for his Chinese background by callinghim Hon-fai rather than using the western name, David, which seemed to him an unnecessaryimposition of western culture.In contrast, Mr Chu feels quite uncomfortable with Mr Richardson. He feels it will be difficultto work with him, and that Mr Richardson might be rather insensitive to cultural differences. He isparticularly bothered that, instead of calling him David or Mr Chu, Mr Richardson used his givenname, Hon-fai, the name rarely used by anyone, in fact. It was this embarrassment which caused himto smile. He would feel more comfortable if they called each other Mr Chu and Mr Richardson.Nevertheless, when he was away at school in North America he learned that Americans feeluncomfortable calling people Mr for any extended period of time. His solution was to adopt awestern name. He chose David for use in such situations.Case 18Even if the American knew Urdu, the language spoken in Pakistan, he would also have tounderstand the culture of communication in that country to respond appropriately. In this case, hehad to say ―No at least three times.In some countries, for instance, the Ukraine, it may happen that a guest is pressed as many asseven or eight times to take more food, whereas in the UK it would be unusual to do so more thantwice. For a Ukrainian, to do it the British way would suggest the person is not actually generous.Indeed, British recipients of such hospitality sometimes feel that their host is behaving impolitelyby forcing them into a bind, since they run out of polite refusal strategies long before the Ukrainianhost has exhausted his/her repertoire of polite insistence strategies.Case 19Talking about what‘s wrong is not easy for people in any culture, but people in high-contextcountries like China put high priority on keeping harmony, preventing anyone from losing face, andnurturing the relationship. It seems that Ron Kelly had to learn a different way of sending messagewhen he was in China. At home in Canada he would have gone directly to the point. But in China,going directly to the problem with someone may suggest that he or she has failed to live up to his orher responsibility and the honor of his or her organization is in question. In high-context cultures likeChina, such a message is serious and damaging. In low-context cultures, however, the tendency isjust to ―spit it out, to get it into words and worry about the result later. Senders of unwelcomemessages use objective facts, assuming, as with persuasion, that facts are neutral, instrumental, andimpersonal. Indirectness is often the way members of high-context cultures choose to communicateabout a problem.Case 20It seems that the letters of request written in English as well as in Chinese by Chinese peopleare likely to preface the request with extended face-work. To Chinese people, the normal andpolite way to form a request requires providing reasons that are usually placed before the requests.Of course, this is just the inverse of English conventions in which requests are fronted withoutmuch face-work. In the view of the English-speaking people, the opening lines of Chinese requests and some other speech acts do not usually provide a thesis or topic statement which willorient the listener to the overall direction of the communication. Worst of all, the lack of precisionand the failure to address the point directly may lead to suspicions that the Chinese speakers arebeating around the bush. To them, the presence of a clear and concise statement of what is to betalked about will make the speech more precise, more dramatic, and more eloquent.However, the Chinese learning and using English in communication may find it difficult tocome to terms with the common English tendency to begin with a topic statement. In the Chinese culture, stating one‘s request or main point at the beginning would make the person seemimmodest, pushy, and inconsiderate for wanting things. If yourspeech gives others the impressionthat you are demanding something, you would lose face for acting aggressively and notconsidering the others. Thus you‘d be hurting people by claiming something for yourself.In such a situation, it is usually considered a smart strategy ifyou carefully delineate the justifications that will naturally lead to your request or argument. Therefore, instead of statingtheir proposition somewhere in the beginning and then proceeding to build their case, Chinesepeople often first establish a shared context with which to judgetheir requests or arguments. Onlyafter carefully prefacing them with an avalanche of relevant details, as if to nullify any opposition,will they present the requests or arguments.Unit 6Culture and Nonverbal CommunicationCase 21Sometimes our best intentions can lead to breakdowns in cross-cultural communication. For example, one of the very common manners of touching --- handshaking --- may result in conflict when performed with no consideration of cultural differences. Among middle-class North American men, it is customary to shake hands as a gesture of friendship. When wanting to communicate extra friendliness, a male in the United States may, while shaking hands, grasp with his left hand his friend‘s right arm. However, to people of Middle Eastern countries, the left hand is profane and touching someone with it is highly offensive. Therefore,in Vernon‘s eyes, Kenneth was actually an extremely offensive messageto him.Case 22In Puerto Rican culture, as in some other Latin American and Eastern cultures, it is not right for a child to keep an eye-contact with an adult who is accusing him or her, while in the United States, failing of meeting other person‘s eye accusing him or her would be taken as a sign of guiltiness. As the principal knew little about this culturaldifference in using eye-contact, he decided that the girl must be guilty. Generally speaking, avoiding eye-contact with the other(s) is often considered as an insult in some cultures, but may signify respect for authority and obedience in other cultures.Case 23Just like smile, laughing does not always serve the same function in different cultures. Interestingly, for us Chinese, laughing often has aspecial function on some tense social occasions. People may laugh to release the tension or embarrassment, to express their concern about you, their intention to put you at ease or to help you come out of the embarrassment. In this case, the people there were actually wishing to laugh with the American rather than laugh at her. Their laughing seemed to convey a number of messages: don‘t take it so seriously; laugh it off, it‘s nothing; such things can happen to any of us, etc. Unfortunately the American was unaware of this. She thought they were laughing at her, which made her feel more badly and angry, for in her culture laughing on such an occasion would be interpreted as aninsulting response, humiliating and negative.Case 24It is obvious that there exists some difference between the British and Germans in their use oftouch. The lack of touch that seems to be natural in Britain may be considered strange by Germans.What is required (in this case, shaking hands with each other) inone country could be taken asunnecessary in another.The appropriateness of contact between people varies from country to country. Figures from a study offer some interesting insight into this matter. Pairs of individuals sitting and chatting in college shops in different countries were observed for at least one hour each. The number of times that either one touched the other in that one hour was recorded,as follows: in London, 0; in Florida, 2; in Paris, 10; in Puerto Rico, 180. These figures indicate that touch is used very differently in different cultures.。

跨文化交际案例分析(英文)

跨文化交际案例分析(英文)

跨文化交际教程案例分析(英文)cross-cultural communication一.CaseAnalysisIn India, a white Sari(纱丽服,一种女性服装) symbolizes widowhood, while in the west, a white dress symbolizes purity.Answer the following questions:(1) What might these Indian women think about the Western custom of a bride in white?(2) What cultural phenomenon can be revealed in this case?Answer:1.Some Indian women who are more knowledgeable and well educated would have no difficulty in understanding the western brides in white, because they have seen the movies or plays from those English speaking countries or have read books about the western style of marriage routines. However, for some Indian women who hardly knew anything about the foreign culture or language, probably they would think the ladies in white are widows.2. In different cultures the same thing means differently to different people. This case particularly shows us that we are living in a world composed of nothing but cultures. The culture of one nation kind of defines their life and perceptions. It is hard to change your life not because you cannot change yourself but because you can’t change something invisible but powerful there, and that is culture.二.BOb中午下班的时候拿了本trade magazine准备出去吃中饭在大厅走廊里看到同事们在一起聊天其中几个跟他打招呼他心里不太高兴因为他们没有邀请他来吃中饭可他不知道的是他们之前讨论的就是他Bob不主动加入他们吃午饭每次都一个人先跑出去了他们觉得他被什么困难整天缠身他们很担心他This is a typical communication problems. Bob is not so active that his colleagues think he is always likes stay alone, which leads to a result that they do not ask Bob to have meal together. Actually, they all worry about him and think there must be something wrong with Bob.To avoid this situation they should have more communication to each other .As Bob i think he should spent more time with his collegues which is necessary to develop their relationship. As for the collegues, they should take more care about each other.。

新编跨文化交际英语教程(许力生) 课后翻译

新编跨文化交际英语教程(许力生) 课后翻译

1.纵观历史,我们可以清楚地看到,各民族与文化由于彼此所处地域、意识形态、容貌服饰和行为举止上存在的差异,而长久无法互相理解,无法和睦相处。

在这种情况下,跨文化交际作为一个特定的研究领域得以形成和发展。

值得注意的是,人类文明在发展过程中所遭受的许多挫折,既是个人的,又是全球性的;人类历史进程总是充满了个人间的直接冲突和民族间的误解--从骂骂咧咧到孤立主义甚至到武装冲突,大大小小争端不绝。

很显然,文化间以及亚文化间的交往日益增多,这迫切要求我们共同努力,去理解与我们有着天壤之别信仰和文化背景的人们,并与之和睦相处。

通过加深认识和理解,我们能够与生活方式、价值观念不同的人们和平共处;这不但有益于我们周遭环境的安定,也是维护世界和平的决定性因素。

2.文化有时候被称为我们的心智程序,也即我们“头脑的软件”。

但是,我们可以进一步引申这个用电脑所做的类比,把文化看作是支持软件运行的操作环境。

文化就像电脑使用的DOS或者Unix或者“视窗”(Windows)等操作系统一样,使我们能在各种各样的实际应用中处理信息。

用“视窗”这个比喻来描述文化似乎也很有吸引力。

文化就是我们心灵的视窗,透过它我们可以审视生活的方方面面。

一个社会中不同个体的视窗是大不一样的,但都有着一些重要的共同特征。

文化就好像是鱼畅游于其中的水一般,人们想当然地把文化看成是客观存在的事实,从而很少去研究它。

文化存在于我们所呼吸的空气之中,文化对我们了解自我是必不可少的,就正如生命离不开空气一样。

文化是特定群体的共有财产,而不单是个体的特征。

社会按照文化设定的程序来运作,这种程序来自于相似的生活体验以及对这种生活体验之涵义的相似性阐释。

如果文化是一种心智程序,那么它也是现实的心灵地图。

从我们很小的时候开始,文化就告诉我们应该看重什么、偏好什么、规避什么以及做些什么。

文化还告诉我们事物应该是什么样的。

文化为我们提供超越个体经验的理想典范,帮助我们决定应该优先考虑什么。

(完整word版)跨文化交际英文案例

(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 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.。

(完整版)跨文化交际许力生研究生英语cases

(完整版)跨文化交际许力生研究生英语cases

Case 1: P17The shipping agent is serving the customers in the way that is considered efficient in Venezuelan culture. To the Canadian, however, this is unfocused activity that is not nearly as efficient as it would be —particularly from her point of view —if the agent simply dealt exclusively with her scheduled appointment. In Canada, businesspeople typically write appointments and activities into the day’s agenda every day. They then work sequentially through the agenda until they have completed each task or the day is over. In other words, Canadians prefer to do one thing at a time, while the South Americans, including Venezuelans, tend to do a few things simultaneously.Case 2:As a Westerner, the American visiting professor does not quite understand the collective ownership of information in some other cultural environments. What made her annoyed is a different attitude toward information about people. In the United States, it is generally assumed that personal matters are private. Teachers go through elaborate procedures to assure that students do not have access to each other’s grades. In business it is the same. Evaluations are confidential.Case 3:As a matter of fact, the American woman was not being disrespectful. However, it is clear that her way of showing respect and welcome was different from the ancient tradition of keeping physical distance from superiors, which is still widely observed, especially when royalty is involved.Paul Keating, the Australian prime minister, may have intended to suggest by his gesture that Australia would no longer accept the queen as head of state but just as one of their honored guests. Obviously, the British would not like it at all.Sometimes, such seemingly trivial things can influence relations between countries. That’s why protocol is taken seriously and people who are be given detailed and careful instructions.Case 4: P37We Chinese are known for our hospitality. For example, when a Chinese family has a house guest, especially a close relative or a friend from far away, like a foreigner, the guest automatically becomes the focus of the whole family’s attention. The hosts treat their guest to the best food they can afford and tailor the family menu to their guest’s taste. Sometimes either the host or hostess asks for leave from work to take their guest sightseeing.Americans, however, welcome their guests by taking them in as one of themselves, part of the family, without giving them any special attention. Westerners may feel at home with this, but Asians are not used to it and may misinterpret it as neglect.Case 5:Cultural difference necessarily implies different assumptions about natural and obvious ways to be polite.To the American, politeness requires talk between strangers forced to share a booth in acafeteria, if only a fleeting “Do you mind if I sit down?” or a conventional “Is anyone sitting here?” even if it’s obvious no one is. The omission of such talk seemed to her like dreadful rudeness. The American couldn’t see that another system of politeness was at work. (She could see nothing but red.) By not acknowledging her presence, the British couple freed her from the obligation to acknowledge theirs. The American expected a show of involvement; the British were being polite by not imposing.Case 6:The Chinese traditional value placed upon modesty, humility, and reserve can often be misunderstood by Westerners, whose cultures are very different. One of the most serious difficulties for people involved in intercultural communication is that they are not only prone to misinterpret the intentions of those from other cultural backgrounds, but, as in this case, their own behavior is also open to serious misinterpretation. The result is that they not only take offense, but frequently give it quite unintentionally. This sort of embarrassment and misunderstanding may often occur in interactions between members of different cultures if they are not fully aware of such differences in the way they behave verbally and non-verbally.Case 7: P63When the Canadian young man said, "Who took my peanut butter?" what he really meant was "Where is my peanut butter? I can’t find it. "The Chinese doctor felt accused and upset because in Chinese culture questions like this, especially expressed in the way the young Canadian man did, often imply that someone is to blame. Chinese culture prohibits direct accusation unless a person has been targeted for shame. However, true to her learned cultural behavior of never showing anger in public, the Chinese doctor didn’t say anything, though she was deeply distressed.Later, the physiotherapist was making a joke when she said the Chinese doctor had "three hands". She wasn’t serious, of course, and expected the patient to be amused by her fanciful explanation for his pain: that the doctor on the other side of the room could have reached an imaginary third hand out to touch him. She didn’t know that in Chinese a "third-handed person" is slang for a thief.Case 8:In American culture, people’s personal goals take priority over their allegiance to groups like the family or the employer. The loyalty of individuals to a given group is usually weak. Americans are apt to change their relationship if it suits their individual needs, and they are not likely to be emotionally dependent on organizations and institutions.In Japanese society, the relationship between an employee and the firm is much more interdependent, somewhat similar to a child-mother relationship where the mother (firm) is obliged to take care of her children (employees) and children (employees) have to obey and follow the commands of their mother (firm).It is not surprising for an American to try to find another job before he or she leaves his or her present employer if he or she considers it necessary for him- or herself. However, this action was regarded by the Japanese firm as disloyal, undermining the trust between the twoparties. In spite of this, the manager of the firm did not like the parting to be understood as Brent being fired, because the appearance of harmony and agreement within the group (the firm in this case) is important in Japanese society.Case 9:When they were being scolded by the trainers for being repeatedly late for afternoon sessions, the Chinese trainees felt bewildered because they thought it inappropriate for the Canadian trainers to become so angry about it. In their opinion, one should not let him- or herself behave as emotionally like this. The appropriate way to deal with such a person would be to become cooler toward and more distant from the person who behaved so irresponsibly. It was understandable that one would feel angry in this situation but it was not appropriate to show anger, for the other person would certainly lose face if anger were directed toward him or her, and the angry person would look foolish and childish and therefore would also lose face.Canadians see such situations in a very different way. They tend to explicitly express how they feel and openly criticize the person who they think has been wrong or irresponsible. It seems to them that this has little to do with face.Case 10: P85The conflict here is a different in culture values and beliefs. In the beginning, Mary didn’t realize that her Dominican sister saw her as a member of the family. In the Dominican view, family possessions are shared by everyone in 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 11:Some people may argue that the people the saleswoman deals with are in the United States and therefore should adapt to American practices. However, with that attitude, the woman would not reach her customers, who are from East Asian countries. As a result, her business success would be limited. Her ability to communicate in East Asian languages and at the same time understand the cultural background of her clients makes her successful. For instance, by entering into long-term relationships with those Asian people, she has more business opportunities.Case 12:Just as a saying goes, "One man’s meat is another man’s poison." What we Chinese love to eat, such as sea cucumbers and some animal parts, may be regarded as awful by Americans, and what Americans prefer to have, for instance, spaghetti or baked beans, may not be appreciated by Chinese at all. It is possible that both Chinese and Americans may enjoy the same food, but how to cook and eat it will still be very different.When we Chinese people invite guests for dinner, we would usually do an elaborate meat,with as many as eight or ten courses, making sure there will be more than enough food on the table. Often the courses will be brought to the table one after another. So the host and hostess may have to be busy cooking when the dinner has already started. In contrast, a very typical American meal will begin with drinks and some small items of food known as appetizers. It usually features large amounts of a small number of dishes, served all at the same time. Americans prefer to get everything ready before the guests arrive. By our Chinese standards, an American meal often appears to be too casual and simple to entertain one’s guests.Case 13: P116In this case, the old Chinese man found it unnecessary to put into words anything about his tiredness, because the situation —the meeting in an airport at night, his long journey, his age —communicated the obvious.However, for Americans, this has to be put into words to be communicated to others.Case 14:The Turkish student was relying on the context of the communication for the message to be understood. But the American student did not attribute any such meaning to his words, for, in American culture, such meaning has to be explicitly expressed rather than implied by the context.Case 15:In this case, Judith thought that memos would provide an accurate record of information for her client in China, but was unaware that in Chinese culture memos are impersonal and could be interpreted as a means distancing the personal relationship. Her failure to understand a different culture led her to be misunderstood and distrusted by her Chinese client.Case 16: P141What went wrong in this case? Contrary to general American perception, it is considered proper behavior for Japanese to be silent. It is a discreet way to show respect if he listens to others speak rather than speaking out. So the Japanese delegates did what they considered proper, i.e., listen quietly to what the Americans had to say. Silence often means that they are seriously thinking about the subject at issue. But many Americans will interpret silence in a conversation to mean disapproval, disagreement, or even arrogance. This is an example that illustrates the problem of the so-called "perception-gap". Participants in communication perceive each other’s behavior in very different ways, which often results in misunderstanding or conflict.Case 17:It is customary in China and many other Asian countries for hosts to ask their guests again and again to take more. Tom didn’t have to eat extra food if he didn’t want any more.In the U.S., a host will offer more food usually only once. And the Americans will take a "no" to mean "no", whether, it is the first, second, or third time. However, in many other parts of the world it is considered good manners for guests not to accept an offer at first.Sometimes one mustn’t accept food the second time it is offered. Therefore hosts will try to repeat an offer until they are sure that their guests really want to decline.Case 18:Ted Washington, the marketing manager, rejected the sale proposals of both the American, Dale Peters, and the Japanese, Hideo Takahashi, without considering who made the proposal. While the direct and outright rejection is O.K. with Peters, for he and the manager are from the same culture, to Hideo, it means something beyond the rejection of a proposal itself. Therefore the two people responded to the rejection in quite different ways.In this case, the American believes the root of the conflict lay in different goals and objectives, therefore, Peters entered into a heated discussion with Ted, trying to get his proposal accepted by producing facts, figures, and graphs to illustrate his case. But the Japanese believes the conflict was not in the rejection of the proposal but rather in the way it was communicated, so he thinks of it as a personal attack or a sign of mistrust. In short, Americans tend to be more task-oriented while the Japanese are more likely to focus on interpersonal relationship.Case 19: P166Addressing is just one of those seemingly small things in which cultures differ greatly. There are significant differences in how people of different cultures view titles. Americans, in contrast not only to Asians but to many Europeans, tend to regard titles as trivial unless they give a clear idea of the kind of work a person does and what his responsibilities are. But Asian people always seem expected to let you know what they are, for example, "senior engineer". For Americans it is what you actually do that counts, not where you are in organizational hierarchy. The Americans treat titles like "vice president for marketing" and "sales manager" as meaningful. But they will not use them to address a person, even reduced to "manager" or "vice president".Besides, Americans don’t like excessive formality, and to some Americans any formality at all can seem excessive. Young employees are free to call older, even much older, co-workers by their first names. This may sound intimate to non-Americans, but it is so commonplace in the US that it connotes nothing at all about their relations.In this case, there might be an ironic conclusion: the Thai may eventually agree unwillingly to call the supervisor by his first name, but it will still be a confirmation of the higher-status person’s right to demand compliance. The misunderstanding will go underground.Case 20:Rogelio Diaz-Guerrero, a Mexican psychologist, offers his explanation of this Mexican behavior pattern. According to him, there are two kinds of "realities" which must be distinguished, objective and interpersonal. Some cultures tend to treat everything in terms of the objective sort of reality: this is characteristic of the United States. Other cultures tend to treat things in terms of interpersonal relations, and this is true of Mexico.Viewed from the Mexican perspective, a visitor asks somebody for information which that person doesn’t know. But wanting to make the visitor happy and to enjoy a few pleasantmoments together, the Mexican who was asked does his best to say something so that for a short while the visitor is made happy. Perhaps in all cultures the truth is sometimes altered slightly to soften the impact of a harsh truth or to show deference to one’s superior. It is the range of situations in which this occurs in Mexico and the relatively sharper contrast of "truth-telling" standards in U.S. Mexican encounters that is so notable.Case 21:This is one of the more well-known cases of difference between the intended meaning and the assumed meaning that has led to serious misunderstanding in human history.We tend to think that the words and texts in one language can be accurately translated into another as long as we have a good bilingual dictionary at hand. We may not be fully aware of the fact that word-for-word correspondences do not exist and what appear to be synonyms may not be equivalent.Case 22: P191People from different cultures may consider their own communication style to be natural and normal, and therefore tend to evaluate other style negatively. In this case, both people are unaware of the American preference for a direct and explicit style in contrast to the more contextual African style. Both these communicators are likely to leave the situation less inclined to ask or answer questions of each other again.Case 23:In France it is required that all calls begin with an apology for disturbing the answerer. They are also expected to begin the call by checking that they have reached the right number, identifying themselves, and then chatting with whoever has answered the phone, if this person is known to them. Only after some conversation may callers indicate their wish to speak with the person they have actually called to speak to.In contrast, callers in the U.S.A. apologize only when they feel they have called at an inappropriate time; they often ask for the person they want without identifying themselves or conversing with the answerer, even when that person is known to them; and they behave, in general, as though the person who has answered the phone is just an extension of the instrument itself.Case 24:The Japanese have a strong dislike of entering into direct confrontations and placing others in an embarrassing position. It is very difficult for a Japanese to respond to any suggestion or request with a definite "no". What the Japanese will often do instead is resort to a vague sort of reply to the effect that the matter needs further study and consideration. They do this to save face for the person who has made the suggestion or request, but Americans may not properly understand it and may completely misinterpret the vagueness as compliance and assume that the proposition has been accepted. But this was apparently never made clear to Nixon. That is why he concluded that he had been double-crossed. The misunderstanding had serious adverse consequences for Japanese-U.S. relations.Case 25: P213Nonverbal behaviors such as smiles seem to cut across cultural lines. But in reality, they are often found to be not universal. To most Americans, a smile is the most common nonverbal behavior to bridge gaps that may exist between strangers (including foreigners) and themselves. It is natural for them to be smiling and friendly when they come across strangers. But in eastern Asian countries like Japan, smiles are used differently. Japanese do not readily show emotion, especially to strangers. They are conditioned to use the face to conceal rather than reveal their feelings. In Japan, people do not usually smile at a stranger. If you do, you might be considered impolite.Case 26:Chinese people seldom hug each other, particularly in public places. If people do, a romantic message is usually conveyed. Go to any airport or train station in China, and you will see scenes of greeting and good-bye with all the feelings expressed in the eyes and the face and in the practical things family members and relatives and friends do for each other, but it is unlikely people will hug, with only younger ones as an exception.In contrast, people of Latin American cultures touch each other in communication much more than people of some other cultures, especially Eastern Asian cultures. At a time of meeting a friend or upon departing, hugging each other is very natural for Latin American people. On such occasions, hugging has no sexual connotation: it is just like a handshake in China, but warmer and more enthusiastic. Women tend to hug each other more than men hug women, but both are common. One’s discomfort at hugging in such situations may be interpreted by Latin American people as unfriendliness.Case 27:As with smiling, laughing does not always serve the same function in different cultures. Interestingly, for as Chinese, laughing often has a special function during tense social occasions. People may laugh to release the tension or embarrassment, to express their concern for you, their intention to put you at ease or to help you shrug off embarrassment. In this case, the people there actually wished to laugh with the American rather than at him. Their laughing seemed to convey a number of messages: don’t take it so seriously; laugh it off, it is nothing; such things can happen to any of us, etc. Unfortunately the American was unaware of this. He thought they were laughing at him, which made him feel more embarrassed and angry, for in his culture laughing on such an occasion would be interpreted as an insulting response, humiliating and negative.Case 28: P238For people from American and western European cultures, time should be scheduled into segments or compartments which are to be kept discrete from one another. They prefer to do one thing at a time. They get annoyed when they have made an appointment with somebody, only to find a lot of other things going on at the same time. They don’t like to interrupt others or be interrupted by others while they are doing something. In contrast, people from many other cultures, including the Chinese culture, are more likely to operate with several people, ideas, or matters simultaneously. They are more easily distracted and subject to interruptions, which they don’t usually mind very much.Case 29:We Chinese people usually attach great importance to taking good care of our guests. We often go out of our way to make a guest feel comfortable, and our kindness often knows no bounds when it comes to a foreign visitor. But Westerners, including North Americans, are trained to spend time alone and to do things by themselves from the time they are still very young. Therefore, they may feel uncomfortable when they are always surrounded by people attempting to be kind to them. Hospitality itself may be something universal, but the form and amount of hospitality differ greatly from culture to culture.Case 30:This case illustrates a cross-cultural misunderstanding of a very subtle aspect of culture. How close an individual can get to another while talking is, to a large extent, dictated by one’s culture? It is said that most middle-class North Americans choose a normal conversational distance of no closer than twenty-two inches from each other’s mouth. However, for people of certain South American and Caribbean cultures, the distance is approximately fifteen inches, while still other cultures (in the Middle East) maintain a distance of nine to ten inches.The problem that occurred between the Latin American and the New Y ork City policeman was that their respective cultures had different ideas about spatial distancing. The Latin American was attempting to establish what for him was a comfortable conversational distance. Unfortunately, the policeman felt threatened because his personal space, as defined by his culture, was being violated. Had either of them understood this cultural behavior difference, the breakdown in communication and the arrest could have been avoided.Case 37 P310:The U.S. salesman in this case was acting according to ideas about dress that seemed appropriate to him in his culture. He may have considered the informality of his dress as signaling a willingness to put aside rigid rules of behavior and be friendly. He may have been cold and enjoyed the warmth of a large sweater. He may have spent the previous 20 hours on plane and, without a chance to change his clothes, may have gone straight to the trade show, because, to him, being there was more important than being dressed a certain way. But in the Japanese culture, this kind of dress is considered very inappropriate for such a formal business occasion.Case 38:In a country where there are very strict cultural taboos on nudity, such packaging would be considered a form of obscenity. The U.S. firm had to pay a high price for not understanding the culture of their customers.Religion usually plays an important role in influencing customs, people’s attitudes towards life, what and how to buy and so on. More seriously, people may even refuse to buy certain products or services for religious reasons. So it is no wonder that a common and well-received product in one culture may meet its waterloo in another culture.According to the Geert Hofstede analysis of Saudi Arabia, the Muslim faith plays asignificant role in people’s lives. For example, Saudi Arabians should never show bare shoulders, stomach, calves or thighs. Despite the heat, most of the body must always remain covered. Men should wear long pants and a shirt, preferably long-sleeved, buttoned up to the collar. Women should always wear modest clothing in public. Therefore, how could it be possible for Saudi customs officials to accept a package with a picture of a male modeling briefs and allow it to be displayed in plain sight of Saudi women and children? If the U.S. knitwear firm had been aware of the Muslim faith before their packaging, they would not have suffered a loss of thousands of dollars. This case demonstrates to us that moral standards vary from country to country. Thus when doing international trade, one should never take his own religion and moral standards for granted but should always bear those differences in mind.Case 39:In this case, what is at issue is the correct translation for terms, as well as the accepted use of terms in the chicken trade. Oliver Holmes, a famous judge in the United States, said that "the making of a contract depends not on the agreement of two minds of one intension, but on the agreement of two sets of external signs-----not on the parties` having meant the same thing but on their having said the same thing."The meaning of chicken in Swiss culture is different from that in America. In this case, the failure was caused by the misunderstanding of the different meanings of chicken in each other’s culture. In Swiss, chicken has a specific meaning, while in America this term is used for any type of chicken.As the case went to trial in the U.S., it was judged according to the American culture, which seems unfair. However, unawareness of these cultural differences will definitely result in problems in intercultural communication.Case 40: P333Japanese people value order and harmony among people in a group, and the organization itself—be it a family or a corporation—is more valued than the characteristics of any particular member. 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, Richard’s mistake was in making great efforts to defend 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 warming others of similar mistakes. A simple apology and acceptance of the blame would have been appropriate. In contrast, for Richard, to have merely apologized would have seemed to him to be subservient, unmanly. His culture had taught him to despise such behavior.Case 41:Corporations operating abroad can experience serious problems if they ignore the cultural realities of their local workers.Multinational corporations develop geographically diverse networks of operations in search of increased profit and corporate value via the process of internalization of costlytransactions. Cultural distance between the headquarters and various units of the network has a profound impact on the success of failure of this value-seeking process.As mentioned in the case, a tea break in England can take a half-hour per man, which seems time-consuming for Americans. In search of profit, the managers of the U.S manufacturing firm tried to speed up the break to ten minutes, and the pint sized container was replaced by a five-ounce cup. Nevertheless, what they believed was a morale-building message imploring greater dedication to the job and loyalty to the company seemed to be a violation of human rights for workers in the machine factory. Workers boycotted the company and the factory never did get back into production, even though the tea-brewing machine was hauled out. Due to the cultural distance between two countries and lack of communication between the managers and workers, the U.S. company finally closed down.Case 42:The story of Lincoln Electric is a cautionary tale of how the chairman and executives painfully learned the lessons of culture they needed to know to operate overseas. Culture plays an important role in doing business. The underlying reason for Hastings` failure was a poor understanding of cultural differences. We can see this point from the following aspects.First, the bonus system meant little to European workers, while bonuses made up half the U.S employees` annual salary. Second, it is difficult to penetrate a country’s market where people are loyal to domestically produced goods. Third, lower level people are looked down on in Europe. Fourth, European workers have a month of vacation in the summer, during which production gears down. Last but not least, no one in the company had personal experience in Europe.The five aspects analyzed above are key points in doing business across countries, which Hastings hadn’t realized. Only by taking cultural differences into consideration could Hastings be successful in doing business.。

跨文化交际案例分析(英文版)

跨文化交际案例分析(英文版)

跨文化交际案例分析(英文版)UNIT 2. CASE STUDYAs we all know ,Chinese are very hospitable, for example ,when a Chinese family has a house guest ,the family automatically take care of the gues and give them much special attention .Americans,however, welcome their guests by taking them in as one of themselves.All in all they show their hospitality in a totally different way.The Americans are casual hospitable,but the Chinese has a obvious enthusiasm.In wang's letter about his experience during a Christmas vacation with the Americans, there is such a story:A Thai girl complained that she was neglected by a Washington family.Why she feel unhappy about her Christmas vacation? Because the host family did not give priority to with the guest.The family did whatever they had planned instead of accompaning her to go to the museum.May be the Oriental are very hospitable to entertain their guests with the best food ,and go sightseeing with their guests even if they do not like it but but out of politeness.However,Westerners prefer to like to stay in their own home when they go to someone home.The Thai girl evaluated Westerners hospitaliy by useing Oriental psyche and may misinterpret it as neglect. She did not understand the culture of Westernets. SO she feel unhappy.Hall had classified world cultures into two categories:low and high context .A high-context communication is something that most of the information is unavailable in the explicit verbal utterance.A low context communication is something that most of the information is in the explicit code.The Thai girl form HCcultures and the Washington family form LC cultures.They are two completely opposite cultural patterns.People form HC cultures often use HC or implicit messages that are nearly impossible for an outside to understand.Besides ,they often use nonverbal cues to articulate meanings that is unavailable in the explicit verbal utterance.However,people form HC cultures say something directly.You can make clear what you like or dislike.The Thai girl form HC cultures,so she Very implicitly expressed where she want to go and dislike to do ice skating in Thailand.But,the American host family belong to LC cultures,they often give casual hospitally,and LC messages must be elaborated ,clearly communicated.Unlike personal relationshops. The host family without giving the Thai girl any special attention instead of trusting her with their house.The host family can not understand the people form HC cutures.Why the people form Oriental like use nonverbal or verbal cues instead of use the explicit code? This is the cultural differences between the HC and LC.。

(完整版)跨文化交际许力生研究生英语cases

(完整版)跨文化交际许力生研究生英语cases

Case 1: P17The shipping agent is serving the customers in the way that is considered efficient in Venezuelan culture. To the Canadian, however, this is unfocused activity that is not nearly as efficient as it would be —particularly from her point of view —if the agent simply dealt exclusively with her scheduled appointment. In Canada, businesspeople typically write appointments and activities into the day’s agenda every day. They then work sequentially through the agenda until they have completed each task or the day is over. In other words, Canadians prefer to do one thing at a time, while the South Americans, including Venezuelans, tend to do a few things simultaneously.Case 2:As a Westerner, the American visiting professor does not quite understand the collective ownership of information in some other cultural environments. What made her annoyed is a different attitude toward information about people. In the United States, it is generally assumed that personal matters are private. Teachers go through elaborate procedures to assure that students do not have access to each other’s grades. In business it is the same. Evaluations are confidential.Case 3:As a matter of fact, the American woman was not being disrespectful. However, it is clearthat her way of showing respect and welcome was different from the ancient tradition of keeping physical distance from superiors, which is still widely observed, especially when royalty is involved.Paul Keating, the Australian prime minister, may have intended to suggest by his gesturethat Australia would no longer accept the queen as head of state but just as one of their honored guests. Obviously, the British would not like it at all.Sometimes, such seemingly trivial things can influence relations between countries. That’s why protocol is taken seriously and people who are be given detailed and careful instructions.Case 4: P37We Chinese are known for our hospitality. For example, when a Chinese family has a house guest, especially a close relative or a friend from far away, like a foreigner, the guest automatically becomes the focus of the whole family’s attention. The hosts treat their guestto the best food they can afford and tailor the family menu to their guest’s taste. Sometimes either the host or hostess asks for leave from work to take their guest sightseeing.Americans, however, welcome their guests by taking them in as one of themselves, part ofthe family, without giving them any special attention. Westerners may feel at home with this,but Asians are not used to it and may misinterpret it as neglect.Case 5:Cultural difference necessarily implies different assumptions about natural and obviousways to be polite.To the American, politeness requires talk between strangers forced to share a booth in acafeteria, if only a fleeting “Do you mind if I sit down?” or a conventional “Is anyone sittinge ven if it’s obvious no one is. The omission of such talk seemed to her like dreadful here?”rudeness. The American couldn’t see that another system of politeness was at work. (She could see nothing but red.) By not acknowledging her presence, the British couple freed herfrom the obligation to acknowledge theirs. The American expected a show of involvement;the British were being polite by not imposing.Case 6:The Chinese traditional value placed upon modesty, humility, and reserve can often be misunderstood by Westerners, whose cultures are very different. One of the most serious difficulties for people involved in intercultural communication is that they are not only prone to misinterpret the intentions of those from other cultural backgrounds, but, as in thiscase, their own behavior is also open to serious misinterpretation. The result is that they notonly take offense, but frequently give it quite unintentionally. This sort of embarrassment and misunderstanding may often occur in interactions between members of different cultures if they are not fully aware of such differences in the way they behave verbally andnon-verbally.Case 7: P63When the Canadian young man said, "Who took my peanut butter?" what he reallyfind it. "The Chinese doctor felt accused meant was "Where is my peanut butter? I can’tand upset because in Chinese culture questions like this, especially expressed in the way theyoung Canadian man did, often imply that someone is to blame. Chinese culture prohibitsdirect accusation unless a person has been targeted for shame. However, true to her learnedsay anything, cultural behavior of never showing anger in public, the Chinese doctor didn’tthough she was deeply distressed.Later, the physiotherapist was making a joke when she said the Chinese doctor hadserious, of course, and expected the patient to be amused by her "three hands". She wasn’tfanciful explanation for his pain: that the doctor on the other side of the room could havereached an imaginary third hand out to touch him. She didn’tknow that in Chinese a "third-handed person" is slang for a thief.Case 8:personal goals take priority over their allegiance to groups In American culture, people’slike the family or the employer. The loyalty of individuals to a given group is usually weak. Americans are apt to change their relationship if it suits their individual needs, and they arenot likely to be emotionally dependent on organizations and institutions.In Japanese society, the relationship between an employee and the firm is much more interdependent, somewhat similar to a child-mother relationship where the mother (firm) isobliged to take care of her children (employees) and children (employees) have to obey andfollow the commands of their mother (firm).It is not surprising for an American to try to find another job before he or she leaves hisor her present employer if he or she considers it necessary for him- or herself. However, thisaction was regarded by the Japanese firm as disloyal, undermining the trust between the twoparties. In spite of this, the manager of the firm did not like the parting to be understood asBrent being fired, because the appearance of harmony and agreement within the group (thefirm in this case) is important in Japanese society.Case 9:When they were being scolded by the trainers for being repeatedly late for afternoon sessions, the Chinese trainees felt bewildered because they thought it inappropriate for the Canadian trainers to become so angry about it. In their opinion, one should not let him- orherself behave as emotionally like this. The appropriate way to deal with such a person would be to become cooler toward and more distant from the person who behaved so irresponsibly. It was understandable that one would feel angry in this situation but it was not appropriate to show anger, for the other person would certainly lose face if anger were directed toward him or her, and the angry person would look foolish and childish and therefore would also lose face.Canadians see such situations in a very different way. They tend to explicitly express howthey feel and openly criticize the person who they think has been wrong or irresponsible. Itseems to them that this has little to do with face.Case 10: P85The conflict here is a different in culture values and beliefs. In the beginning, Mary realize that her Dominican sister saw her as a member of the family. In the Dominicandidn’tview, family possessions are shared by everyone in the family. Luz was acting as most Dominican sisters would do in borrowing without asking every time. Once Mary understoodthat 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 findways to cope with her own emotional cultural reaction as well as her practical problem (thebatteries running out).Case 11:Some people may argue that the people the saleswoman deals with are in the United States and therefore should adapt to American practices. However, with that attitude, the woman would not reach her customers, who are from East Asian countries. As a result, her business success would be limited. Her ability to communicate in East Asian languages andat the same time understand the cultural background of her clients makes her successful. For instance, by entering into long-term relationships with those Asian people, she has more business opportunities.Case 12:Just as a saying goes, "One man’smeat is another man’spoison." What we Chinese loveto eat, such as sea cucumbers and some animal parts, may be regarded as awful by Americans, and what Americans prefer to have, for instance, spaghetti or baked beans, maynot be appreciated by Chinese at all. It is possible that both Chinese and Americans may enjoy the same food, but how to cook and eat it will still be very different.When we Chinese people invite guests for dinner, we would usually do an elaborate meat,with as many as eight or ten courses, making sure there will be more than enough food onthe table. Often the courses will be brought to the table one after another. So the host andhostess may have to be busy cooking when the dinner has already started. In contrast, a very typical American meal will begin with drinks and some small items of food known as appetizers. It usually features large amounts of a small number of dishes, served all at thesame time. Americans prefer to get everything ready before the guests arrive. By our Chinese standards, an American meal often appears to be too casual and simple to entertain guests.one’sCase 13: P116In this case, the old Chinese man found it unnecessary to put into words anything abouthis tiredness, because the situation —the meeting in an airport at night, his long journey,his age —communicated the obvious.However, for Americans, this has to be put into words to be communicated to others.Case 14:The Turkish student was relying on the context of the communication for the message tobe understood. But the American student did not attribute any such meaning to his words,for, in American culture, such meaning has to be explicitly expressed rather than implied bythe context.Case 15:In this case, Judith thought that memos would provide an accurate record of informationfor her client in China, but was unaware that in Chinese culture memos are impersonal andcould be interpreted as a means distancing the personal relationship. Her failure to understand a different culture led her to be misunderstood and distrusted by her Chineseclient.Case 16: P141What went wrong in this case? Contrary to general American perception, it is consideredproper behavior for Japanese to be silent. It is a discreet way to show respect if he listens toothers speak rather than speaking out. So the Japanese delegates did what they considered proper, i.e., listen quietly to what the Americans had to say. Silence often means that they are seriously thinking about the subject at issue. But many Americans will interpret silence in a conversation to mean disapproval, disagreement, or even arrogance. This is an example that illustrates the problem of the so-called "perception-gap". Participants in communication perceive each other’sbehavior in very different ways, which often results in misunderstanding or conflict.Case 17:It is customary in China and many other Asian countries for hosts to ask their guestswant any more. again and again to take more. Tom didn’thave to eat extra food if he didn’tIn the U.S., a host will offer more food usually only once. And the Americans will take a"no" to mean "no", whether, it is the first, second, or third time. However, in many otherparts of the world it is considered good manners for guests not to accept an offer at first.Sometimes one mustn’taccept food the second time it is offered. Therefore hosts will try torepeat an offer until they are sure that their guests really want to decline.Case 18:Ted Washington, the marketing manager, rejected the sale proposals of both the American, Dale Peters, and the Japanese, Hideo Takahashi, without considering who madethe proposal. While the direct and outright rejection is O.K. with Peters, for he and the manager are from the same culture, to Hideo, it means something beyond the rejection of a proposal itself. Therefore the two people responded to the rejection in quite different ways.In this case, the American believes the root of the conflict lay in different goals and objectives, therefore, Peters entered into a heated discussion with Ted, trying to get his proposal accepted by producing facts, figures, and graphs to illustrate his case. But the Japanese believes the conflict was not in the rejection of the proposal but rather in the way itwas communicated, so he thinks of it as a personal attack or a sign of mistrust. In short, Americans tend to be more task-oriented while the Japanese are more likely to focus on interpersonal relationship.Case 19: P166Addressing is just one of those seemingly small things in which cultures differ greatly. There are significant differences in how people of different cultures view titles. Americans, in contrast not only to Asians but to many Europeans, tend to regard titles as trivial unless theygive a clear idea of the kind of work a person does and what his responsibilities are. But Asian people always seem expected to let you know what they are, for example, "senior engineer". For Americans it is what you actually do that counts, not where you are in organizational hierarchy. The Americans treat titles like "vice president for marketing" and"sales manager" as meaningful. But they will not use them to address a person, even reduced to "manager" or "vice president".Besides, Americans don’t like excessive formality, and to some Americans any formalityat all can seem excessive. Young employees are free to call older, even much older, co-workers by their first names. This may sound intimate to non-Americans, but it is so commonplace in the US that it connotes nothing at all about their relations.In this case, there might be an ironic conclusion: the Thai may eventually agree unwillingly to call the supervisor by his first name, but it will still be a confirmation of thes right to demand compliance. The misunderstanding will go higher-status person’underground.Case 20:Rogelio Diaz-Guerrero, a Mexican psychologist, offers his explanation of this Mexican behavior pattern. According to him, there are two kinds of "realities" which must be distinguished, objective and interpersonal. Some cultures tend to treat everything in terms ofthe objective sort of reality: this is characteristic of the United States. Other cultures tend totreat things in terms of interpersonal relations, and this is true of Mexico.Viewed from the Mexican perspective, a visitor asks somebody for information which know. But wanting to make the visitor happy and to enjoy a few pleasantthat person doesn’tmoments together, the Mexican who was asked does his best to say something so that for ashort while the visitor is made happy. Perhaps in all cultures the truth is sometimes alteredsuperior. It is the slightly to soften the impact of a harsh truth or to show deference to one’srange of situations in which this occurs in Mexico and the relatively sharper contrast of "truth-telling" standards in U.S. Mexican encounters that is so notable.Case 21:This is one of the more well-known cases of difference between the intended meaning andthe assumed meaning that has led to serious misunderstanding in human history.We tend to think that the words and texts in one language can be accurately translatedinto another as long as we have a good bilingual dictionary at hand. We may not be fullyaware of the fact that word-for-word correspondences do not exist and what appear to be synonyms may not be equivalent.Case 22: P191People from different cultures may consider their own communication style to be naturaland normal, and therefore tend to evaluate other style negatively. In this case, both peopleare unaware of the American preference for a direct and explicit style in contrast to the more contextual African style. Both these communicators are likely to leave the situation less inclined to ask or answer questions of each other again.Case 23:In France it is required that all calls begin with an apology for disturbing the answerer.They are also expected to begin the call by checking that they have reached the right number, identifying themselves, and then chatting with whoever has answered the phone, if this person is known to them. Only after some conversation may callers indicate their wish to speak with the person they have actually called to speak to.In contrast, callers in the U.S.A. apologize only when they feel they have called at an inappropriate time; they often ask for the person they want without identifying themselvesor conversing with the answerer, even when that person is known to them; and they behave,in general, as though the person who has answered the phone is just an extension of the instrument itself.Case 24:The Japanese have a strong dislike of entering into direct confrontations and placing others in an embarrassing position. It is very difficult for a Japanese to respond to any suggestion or request with a definite "no". What the Japanese will often do instead is resortto a vague sort of reply to the effect that the matter needs further study and consideration.They do this to save face for the person who has made the suggestion or request, but Americans may not properly understand it and may completely misinterpret the vaguenessas compliance and assume that the proposition has been accepted. But this was apparentlynever made clear to Nixon. That is why he concluded that he had been double-crossed. The misunderstanding had serious adverse consequences for Japanese-U.S. relations.Case 25: P213Nonverbal behaviors such as smiles seem to cut across cultural lines. But in reality, theyare often found to be not universal. To most Americans, a smile is the most common nonverbal behavior to bridge gaps that may exist between strangers (including foreigners)and themselves. It is natural for them to be smiling and friendly when they come across strangers. But in eastern Asian countries like Japan, smiles are used differently. Japanese donot readily show emotion, especially to strangers. They are conditioned to use the face to conceal rather than reveal their feelings. In Japan, people do not usually smile at a stranger.If you do, you might be considered impolite.Case 26:Chinese people seldom hug each other, particularly in public places. If people do, a romantic message is usually conveyed. Go to any airport or train station in China, and youwill see scenes of greeting and good-bye with all the feelings expressed in the eyes and theface and in the practical things family members and relatives and friends do for each other,but it is unlikely people will hug, with only younger ones as an exception.In contrast, people of Latin American cultures touch each other in communication muchmore than people of some other cultures, especially Eastern Asian cultures. At a time of meeting a friend or upon departing, hugging each other is very natural for Latin Americanpeople. On such occasions, hugging has no sexual connotation: it is just like a handshake in China, but warmer and more enthusiastic. Women tend to hug each other more than menhug women, but both are common. One’sdiscomfort at hugging in such situations may be interpreted by Latin American people as unfriendliness.Case 27:As with smiling, laughing does not always serve the same function in different cultures. Interestingly, for as Chinese, laughing often has a special function during tense social occasions. People may laugh to release the tension or embarrassment, to express their concern for you, their intention to put you at ease or to help you shrug off embarrassment.In this case, the people there actually wished to laugh with the American rather than at him.take it so seriously; laugh it Their laughing seemed to convey a number of messages: don’toff, it is nothing; such things can happen to any of us, etc. Unfortunately the American wasunaware of this. He thought they were laughing at him, which made him feel more embarrassed and angry, for in his culture laughing on such an occasion would be interpretedas an insulting response, humiliating and negative.Case 28: P238For people from American and western European cultures, time should be scheduled into segments or compartments which are to be kept discrete from one another. They prefer to doone thing at a time. They get annoyed when they have made an appointment with somebody,only to find a lot of other things going on at the same time. They don’tlike to interrupt others or be interrupted by others while they are doing something. In contrast, people frommany other cultures, including the Chinese culture, are more likely to operate with severalpeople, ideas, or matters simultaneously. They are more easily distracted and subject tousually mind very much.interruptions, which they don’tCase 29:We Chinese people usually attach great importance to taking good care of our guests. Weoften go out of our way to make a guest feel comfortable, and our kindness often knows nobounds when it comes to a foreign visitor. But Westerners, including North Americans, aretrained to spend time alone and to do things by themselves from the time they are still veryyoung. Therefore, they may feel uncomfortable when they are always surrounded by people attempting to be kind to them. Hospitality itself may be something universal, but the formand amount of hospitality differ greatly from culture to culture.Case 30:This case illustrates a cross-cultural misunderstanding of a very subtle aspect of culture.How close an individual can get to another while talking is, to a large extent, dictated by one’sculture? It is said that most middle-class North Americans choose a normalm outh. conversational distance of no closer than twenty-two inches from each other’sHowever, for people of certain South American and Caribbean cultures, the distance is approximately fifteen inches, while still other cultures (in the Middle East) maintain a distance of nine to ten inches.The problem that occurred between the Latin American and the New York City policeman was that their respective cultures had different ideas about spatial distancing. TheLatin American was attempting to establish what for him was a comfortable conversational distance. Unfortunately, the policeman felt threatened because his personal space, as definedby his culture, was being violated. Had either of them understood this cultural behavior difference, the breakdown in communication and the arrest could have been avoided.Case 37 P310:The U.S. salesman in this case was acting according to ideas about dress that seemed appropriate to him in his culture. He may have considered the informality of his dress as signaling a willingness to put aside rigid rules of behavior and be friendly. He may have beencold and enjoyed the warmth of a large sweater. He may have spent the previous 20 hours onplane and, without a chance to change his clothes, may have gone straight to the trade show, because, to him, being there was more important than being dressed a certain way. But inthe Japanese culture, this kind of dress is considered very inappropriate for such a formalbusiness occasion.Case 38:In a country where there are very strict cultural taboos on nudity, such packaging wouldbe considered a form of obscenity. The U.S. firm had to pay a high price for not understanding the culture of their customers.attitudes Religion usually plays an important role in influencing customs, people’stowards life, what and how to buy and so on. More seriously, people may even refuse to buycertain products or services for religious reasons. So it is no wonder that a common and well-received product in one culture may meet its waterloo in another culture.According to the Geert Hofstede analysis of Saudi Arabia, the Muslim faith plays asignificant role in people’sl ives. For example, Saudi Arabians should never show bare shoulders, stomach, calves or thighs. Despite the heat, most of the body must always remain covered. Men should wear long pants and a shirt, preferably long-sleeved, buttoned up to the collar. Women should always wear modest clothing in public. Therefore, how could it be possible for Saudi customs officials to accept a package with a picture of a male modelingbriefs and allow it to be displayed in plain sight of Saudi women and children? If the U.S.knitwear firm had been aware of the Muslim faith before their packaging, they would nothave suffered a loss of thousands of dollars. This case demonstrates to us that moral standards vary from country to country. Thus when doing international trade, one shouldnever take his own religion and moral standards for granted but should always bear those differences in mind.Case 39:In this case, what is at issue is the correct translation for terms, as well as the accepteduse of terms in the chicken trade. Oliver Holmes, a famous judge in the United States, saidthat "the making of a contract depends not on the agreement of two minds of one intension,but on the agreement of two sets of external signs-----not on the parties` having meant thesame thing but on their having said the same thing."The meaning of chicken in Swiss culture is different from that in America. In this case,the failure was caused by the misunderstanding of the different meanings of chicken in each s culture. In Swiss, chicken has a specific meaning, while in America this term is used other’for any type of chicken.As the case went to trial in the U.S., it was judged according to the American culture,which seems unfair. However, unawareness of these cultural differences will definitely resultin problems in intercultural communication.Case 40: P333Japanese people value order and harmony among people in a group, and the organization itself—be it a family or a corporation—is more valued than the characteristicsof any particular member. 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 thegroup.m istake was in making great efforts to defend himself. Let the In this case, Richard’sothers assume that the errors were not intentional, but it is not right to defend yourself, evenwhen your unstated intent is to assist the group by warming others of similar mistakes. Asimple apology and acceptance of the blame would have been appropriate. In contrast, for Richard, to have merely apologized would have seemed to him to be subservient, unmanly.His culture had taught him to despise such behavior.Case 41:Corporations operating abroad can experience serious problems if they ignore the cultural realities of their local workers.Multinational corporations develop geographically diverse networks of operations in search of increased profit and corporate value via the process of internalization of costly。

大学英语跨文化交际教程案例分析双语答案

大学英语跨文化交际教程案例分析双语答案

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 undern eath. Culture is like the water a fish swims in: people wear dress of differe nt colors for differe nt con text but they usually take it for gran ted and n ever ask why.白色的裙子案例分析:印度女人可能认为婚礼是一个葬礼,如果他们看到西方新娘白色礼服。

案例反映了明喻和隐喻的文本。

文化就像一座冰山:我们可以识别妇女所穿的衣服的颜色在不同的文化,但是我们不知道下面的值。

文化就像水中的鱼游:人们穿着不同颜色的不同的背景,但他们通常是理所当然,从不问为什么。

Case 4:Coconut-skatingCase an alysis: The case reflects the characteristics of culture. We can tell from the case thatculture is pervasive and it ' s learned. People may invent different ways for things even as simple asthe issue of floor moping. The Philipp ine woma n must have lear ned this way of mopp ing from her own culture.Coconut-skating案例分析:这一事件反映岀文化的特点。

新编跨文化交际英语教程案例分析

新编跨文化交际英语教程案例分析

新编跨文化交际英语教程案例分析1. 引言跨文化交际是现代社会中一个重要的主题,在全球化的进程中,人们越来越频繁地进行国际交流和合作。

而英语作为一种普遍使用的全球语言,在跨文化交际中起到了重要的桥梁作用。

本文将以新编跨文化交际英语教程为案例,对其教学内容和教学方法进行分析。

2. 教材内容分析新编跨文化交际英语教程采用了系统化的教学内容,涵盖了跨文化交际的各个方面。

教材内容主要包括以下几个方面:2.1 跨文化意识教材首先介绍了跨文化交际的基本概念和重要性,帮助学生增强对不同文化间的差异性的认识和理解。

通过介绍各国的文化习惯、价值观念等内容,培养学生的跨文化意识。

2.2 社交礼仪在跨文化交际中,不同国家的社交礼仪有许多差异。

教材通过实例分析了各国的社交礼仪规范,包括问候礼仪、就餐礼仪等。

通过学习这些内容,学生可以在跨文化交际中更加得体地行为。

2.3 语言交际策略不同文化之间的语言表达方式也存在差异。

教材通过案例分析了不同文化背景下的语言交际策略,例如面子文化、直接与间接沟通等。

学生通过学习这些策略,可以更好地进行跨文化交流。

2.4 文化背景了解对方的文化背景对于跨文化交际至关重要。

教材通过讲解各国的历史、地理、宗教等背景知识,帮助学生理解不同文化的形成和发展,加深对其他国家和地区的了解。

3. 教学方法分析新编跨文化交际英语教程的教学方法多样,注重培养学生的实践能力和跨文化交际能力。

3.1 案例分析教材采用了案例分析的教学方法,通过真实的跨文化交际案例来引导学生思考和讨论。

这种方法可以帮助学生将所学的知识应用到实际情境中,提高他们的实践能力。

3.2 分组讨论教材中安排了一些跨文化交际话题,要求学生进行分组讨论。

通过小组合作,学生可以在团队中相互交流和学习,培养他们的合作能力和跨文化交际能力。

3.3 角色扮演为了提高学生的语言交际能力和应对跨文化情境的能力,教材中设置了一些角色扮演的活动。

学生可以扮演不同国家的人物,通过模拟真实情境来学习和实践跨文化交际技巧。

跨文化交际---英语案例分析

跨文化交际---英语案例分析

Case 1 A CanadianThe shipping agent is serving the customers in the way that is considered efficient in Venezuelan culture. To the Canadian, however, this is unfocused activity that is not nearly as efficient as it would be —particularly from her point of view —if the agent simply dealt exclusively with her scheduled appointment./ In Canada, businesspeople typically write appointments and activities into the day’s agenda every day. They then work sequentially through the agenda until they have completed each task or the day is over. In other words, Canadians prefer to do one thing at a time, while the South Americans, including Venezuelans, tend to do a few things simultaneously.Case 2 A dozenAs a Westerner, the American visiting professor does not quite understand the collective ownership of information in some other cultural environments. What made her annoyed is a different attitude toward information about people. In the United States, it is generally assumed that personal matters are private. Teachers go through elaborate procedures to assure that students do not have access to each other’s grades. In business it is the same. Evaluations are confidential.Case 3 WhenAs a matter of fact, the American woman was not being disrespectful. However, it is clear that her way of showing respect and welcome was different from the ancient tradition of keeping physical distance from superiors, which is still widely observed, especially when royalty is involved.Paul Keating, the Australian prime minister, may have intended to suggest by his gesture that Australia would no longer accept the queen as head of state but just as one of their honored guests. Obviously, the British would not like it at all. Sometimes, such seemingly trivial things can influence relations between countries. That’s why protocol is taken seriously and people who are to hold diplomatic posts will be given detailed and careful instructions. Case 22 An AmericanPeople from different cultures mayconsider their own communicationstyle to be natural and normal, andtherefore tend to evaluate otherstyles negatively. In this case, bothpeople are unaware of the Americanpreference for a direct and explicitstyle in contrast to the morecontextual African style. Both thesecommunicators are likely to leavethe situation less inclined to ask oranswer questions of each other again.Case 23 A FrenchIn France it is required that all callsbegin with an apology for disturbingthe answer. They are also expected tobegin the call by checking that theyhave reached the right number,identifying themselves, and thenchatting with whoever has answeredthe phone, if this person is known tothem. Only after some conversationmay callers indicate their wish tospeak with the person they haveactually called to speak to.In contrast, callers in the U. S. A.apologize only when they feel theyhave called at an inappropriate time;they often ask for the person theywant without identifying themselvesor conversing with the answer, evenwhen that person is known to them;and they behave, in general, asthough the person who has answeredthe phone is just an extension of theinstrument itself.Case 24 At a 1970The Japanese have a strong dislike ofentering into direct confrontationsand placing others in anembarrassing position. It is verydifficult for a Japanese to respond toany suggestion or request with adefinite “no”. What the Japanese willoften do instead is resort to a vaguesort of reply to the effect that thematter needs further study andconsideration. They do this to saveface for the person who has made thesuggestion or request, but Americansmay not properly understand it andmay completely misinterpret thevagueness as compliance and assumethat the proposition has beenaccepted. But this was apparentlynever made clear to Nixon. That iswhy he included that he had beendouble-crossed. Themisunderstanding had seriousadverse consequences for Japanese U.S. relations.Case 9 In a cross-culturalWhen they are being scolded by thetrainers for being repeatedly late forafternoon sessions, the Chinesetrainees felt bewildered because theythought it is inappropriate for theCanadian trainers to become soangry about it. In their opinion, oneshould not let him- or herself behaveas emotionally like this. Theappropriate way to deal with such aperson would be to become coolertoward and more distant from theperson who behaved so irresponsibly.It was understandable that one wouldfeel angry in this situation but it wasnot appropriate to show anger, forthe other person would certainly loseface if anger were directed towardhim or her, and the angry personwould look foolish and childish andtherefore also lose face.Canadians see such situations in avery different way. They tend toexplicitly express how they feel andopenly criticize the person who theythink has been wrong orirresponsible. It seems to them thatthis has little to do with face.Case 18 Ted WashingtonTed Washington, the marketingmanager, rejected the sale proposalsof both the American, Dale Petersand the Japanese, Hideo Takahashi,without considering who made theproposal. While the direct andoutright rejection is O.K. with Peters,for he and the manager are from thesame culture, to Hideo, it meanssomething beyond the rejection of aproposal itself. Therefore, the twopeople responded to the rejection inquite different ways.In this case, the American believesthe root of the conflict lay indifferent goals and objectives,therefore, Peters entered into aheated discussion with Ted, trying toget his proposal accepted byproducing facts, figures, and graphsto illustrate his case. But theJapanese believes the conflict wasnot in the rejection of the proposalbut rather in the way it wascommunicated, so he thinks of it as apersonal attack or a sign of mistrust.In short, Americans tend to be moretask-oriented while the Japanese aremore likely to focus on interpersonalrelationships.Case 7 A femaleWhen the Canadian young man said, “Who took my peanut butter?”, what he really meant was “Where is my peanut butter? I can’t find it.”The Chinese doctor felt upset because in Chinese culture questions like this, especially expressed in the way the young Canadian man did, often imply that someone is to blame. Chinese culture prohibits direct accusing unless a person has been targeted for shame. However, true to her learned cultural behavior of never showing anger in public, the Chinese doctor didn’t say anything, though she was deeply distressed. Later, the physiotherapist was making a joke when she said the Chinese doctor had “three hands”. She wasn’t serious, of course, and expected the patient to be amused by her explanation for his pain: that the doctor on the other side of the room could have reached an imaginary hand out to touch him. She didn’t know that in Chinese a “three-handed person” is a slang for a thief.Case 17 TomIt is customary in China and many other Asian countries for hosts to ask their guests again and again to take more. Tom didn’t have to eat extra food if he didn’t want any more.In the U.S., a host will offer more food usually only once. And the Americans will take a “no” to mean “no”, whether it is the first, second or third time. However, in many other parts of the world it is considered good manners for guests not to accept an offer at first. Sometimes one mustn’t accept food the second time it is offered. Therefore, hosts try to repeat an offer until they are sure that their guests really want to decline.Case 25 A JapaneseNonverbal behaviors such as smiles seem to cut across cultural lines. But in reality, they are often found to be not universal. To most Americans, a smile is the most common nonverbal behavior to bridge gaps that may exist between strangers (including foreigners) and themselves. It is natural for them to be smiling and friendly when they come across strangers. But in eastern Asian countries like Japan, smiles are used differently. Japanese do not readily show their feelings. In Japan, people do not usually smile at a stranger. Ifyou do, you might be consideredimpolite.Case 8 Brent WeberIn American culture, people’spersonal goals take priority overtheir allegiance to groups like thefamily or the employer. The loyaltyof individuals to a group is usuallyweak. Americans are apt to changetheir relationship if it suits theirindividual needs, and they are notlikely to be emotionally dependenton organizations and institutions.In Japanese society, the relationshipbetween an employee and the firm ismuch more interdependent,somewhat similar to a child-motherrelationship where the mother (firm)is obliged to take care of her children(employees) and children(employees) have to obey and followthe commands of their mother (firm).It is not surprising for an Americanto try to find another job before he orshe leaves his or her presentemployer if he or she consider itnecessary for him- or herself.However, this action was regardedby the Japanese firm as disloyal,undermining the trust between thetwo parties. In spite of this, themanager of the firm did not like theparting to be understood as Brentbeing fired, because the appearanceof harmony and agreement withinthe group (the firm in this case) isimportant in Japanese society.Case 16 A missionWhat went wrong in this case?Contrary to general Americanperception, it is considered properbehavior for Japanese to be silent. Itis a discreet way to show respect ifhe listens to others speak rather thanspeaking out. So the Japanesedelegates did what they consideredproper, i.e., listen quietly to what theAmericans had to say. Silence oftenmeans that they are seriouslythinking about the subject at issue.But many Americans will interpretsilence in a conversation to meandisapproval, disagreement, or evenarrogance. This is an example thatillustrates the problem of theso-called “perception-gap”.Participants in communicationperceive each other’s behavior invery different ways, which oftenresults in misunderstanding orconflict.Case 26 Wang PingChinese people seldom hug eachother, particularly in public places. Ifpeople do, a romantic message isusually conveyed. Go to any airportor train station in China, and you willsee scenes of greeting and good-byewith all the feeling expressed in theeyes and the face and in the practicalthings family members and relativesand friends do for each other, but it isunlikely people will hug, with onlyyounger ones as an exception.In contrast, people of Latin Americancultures touch each other incommunication much more thanpeople of some other cultures,especially Eastern Asian cultures. Ata time of meeting a friend or upondeparting, hugging each other is verynatural for Latin American people.On such occasions, hugging has nosexual connotation; it is just like ahandshake in China, but warmer andmore enthusiastic. Women tend tohug each other more than men hugwomen, but both are common. One’sdiscomfort at hugging in suchsituations may be interpreted byLatin American people asunfriendliness.Case 27 The otherAs with smiling, laughing does notalways serve the same function indifferent cultures. Interestingly, forus Chinese, laughing often has aspecial function during tense socialoccasions. People may laugh torelease the tension or embarrassment,to express their concern for you,their intention to put you at ease or tohelp you shrug off theembarrassment. In this case, thepeople there actually wished to laughwith the American rather than at him.Their laughing seemed to convey anumber of messages: don’t take it soseriously; laugh it off, it’s nothing;such things can happen to any of us,etc. unfortunately, the America wasunaware of this. He thought theywere laughing at him, which madehim feel more embarrassed andangry, for in his culture laughing onsuch an occasion would beinterpreted as an insulting response,humiliating and negative.。

(完整word版)跨文化交际英文案例

(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.。

新编跨文化交际英语教程答案详解

新编跨文化交际英语教程答案详解

-导言"新编跨文化交际英语教程·教师用书”主要是为使用"新编跨文化交际英语教程”教师配套的教学指南。

"新编跨文化交际英语教程”是在原有"跨文化交际英语教程”的基础上经过全面、系统修订而成,我们对全书做了较大的更新和完善,调整和增补了许多材料,力求使其更具时代性,更适合教学实际和学生需求。

为了进一步推进跨文化交际教学,在多年从事跨文化交际教学和研究的基础上,我们又特地编写了这本"新编跨文化交际英语教程·教师用书”,希望能对使用本教材进行教学的广大教师们,尤其是初次使用这本教材的教师们提供一些必要的引导和实质性的帮助。

为此,我们尽可能地为各单元中几乎所有的部分和项目都提供了参考提示。

除此之外,还补充了一些取自跨文化交际学重要著作的选段,供教师进一步了解相关背景知识和理论基础,以拓宽视野,有利于更好地进行教学。

同时我们还在书后附上了推荐的中文阅读书目(英文阅读书目可参看**外语教育的"跨文化交际丛书”系列)和有关跨文化交际的部分电影资料简介。

"新编跨文化交际英语教程”主要适用于高等学校英语专业教学中的跨文化交际课程,旨在通过课堂教学及相关活动使学生认识跨文化交际对当代世界所具有的重要意义和作用,了解文化对人类生活各个方面、尤其是交际活动的制约和影响,理解并把握交际活动的重要性、丰富性、复杂性,熟悉跨文化交际的基本构成以及所涉及的各种因素,培养跨文化意识,形成和发展对文化差异的敏感和宽容、以及处理文化差异问题的灵活性,提高使用英语进行跨文化交际的技能,为最终获得与不同文化背景人们进行深入交流的能力奠定基础。

通过使用本教材,教师也可从中获得更多有关文化(包括我们自己文化和外族文化)和跨文化交际的知识。

这本教材共分为10个单元,涉及全球化时代的交际问题、文化与交际、各类文化差异、语言与文化、跨文化言语交际、跨文化非言语交际、时间与空间使用上的文化、跨文化感知、跨文化适应、跨文化能力等,包括了跨文化交际的各个方面,对其中一些重要问题都有相对深入的介绍与探讨。

新编跨文化交际案例分析答案

新编跨文化交际案例分析答案

新编跨文化交际案例分析答案Unit 1Communication Across CulturesCase 1 (Page 23)This case took place in 3 cultures. There seemed to be problems in communicatingwith 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 morelikely 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 ifthe error is notintentiona. A simple apology and acceptance of the blame would have been appropriate3) 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, butthey differ in the value of the distinction. Typically, the ideal guest at an American party is obe who “makeshimself at home”. For theEnglish 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 mentionedin 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.1Case 3 (Page 24)The conflict here is a difference in cultural values and beliefs. In the beginning, Mary didn’t realize that her Do minican 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 become 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).Case 4 (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. You see her frequently, but you never invite her fordinner------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 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 2Culture and CommunicationThe 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 heis obeying the Chinese rules for communication. We Chinese are modest, polite and well-behaved. Maybe the guide is waiting for a second orthird offer of beer, but he doesn’t know the reasons behind the rule in American2culture that you do not push alcoholic beverages on anyone. A person may not drink for religious reasons, he may be a reformed alcoholic, orhe 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 meaningand 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 doe s not want me to saty for long”. From the Chinese point of view,it seems inappropriate forLitz to ask such a question just two days after her mother-in-law’s arrival. If she has to ask thequestion, it would be better to ask some time later and she shouldnot 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 tooffer 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 a nd further friendship. Keiko’s collegefriends wouldrather 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 beproud to be different, and your only shame is to have shame.3Unit 3Cultural DiversityCase 7 (Page 76), Between friends there is inevitably a kind of equality of give-and-take. Butin different cultures, people view this differently. In Chinese culture,friendships develop slowly because they are built to last. We Chinese preferthe saying “A friend indeed is a friend in need.” And we never refuse theasking for help from a friend. We never forget the timely help by a friendwhen we are on the rocks. But In American culture, they view this in adifferent way. Once helped, they offer their help only once. Tha t’s whyJackson said that Mr. Zhao was asking too much. In their view, friendshipsare 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: Yeah, me too. I remember just a month ago they weren’tsharing their toys.Carmen: Now it looks like they’re enjoying each other.Judy: Finally! Maybe we could get together at each other’s h ouses 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 AnalysisJudy 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 specif ic (exact) time, that means a real offer.2 Family Structure (P83), Chinese Family, Filipinos Family4, Vietnamese Family, Japanese Family (See Case 9 and Case 10), Latin American FamilyCase 9 (Page 96)Traditional Japanese respect their elders and feel a deep sense of duty toward them. The elders in traditional Japanese families aretypically 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 saidnothing 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 aweek 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 thecompany and, if it is necessary, to sacrifice their own interestsfor 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 bydominant 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 meanthat the person is acknowledging a fault. To many Japanese, Westenersmay seem to be rude just because they do not apologize as often as the Japanese would do. In this case, the atitude of the Australianstudent’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 notfulfilled. 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.Unit 4Language and Culture5Case 13This example vividly illustrates that failures in intercultural translation may probably lead to very serious consequence, or even disasters to human beings. Definitely, translation is not such a simple process as rendering a word, a sentence or a text literally, but rathera far more complex one than most people assumed.For example, once a Chinese cosmetic manufacturer wanted to promote their products into the international market. The slogan of the advertisement was: ―sweet as Jade‖, since in Chinese ―jade‖ was always employed to compliment woman‘s beauty; but unfortunately, it was not an appropriate word to describe the beauty of a lady in Western cultures. In Engl ish, ―jade‖ in its use of referring a woman had the connotations such as vulgar, rude, immoral, or skittish. Undoubtedly, the sales in European countries were not satisfying.The seeming equivalents between languages may have very different connotations in different cultures, thus the translator should be cautious in the process of doing the translation so as to avoid misunderstandings.Case 14“杨” refers to Yang Kaihui w h o w a s Mao Zedong‘s deceased wife and ―柳‖ refers to Liu zhixun who was Li shuyi‘s deceased husband. They can be translated in different ways, but it seems to be very difficult, if not impossible, to achieve equivalence in translating from Chinese into English.Adopting the literal translation strategy, version 1 appears to be faithful to the original but may easily confuse the readers in thetarget language. Version 2 employs the liberal translation strategy with an attempt to convey the original meaning as precisely as possible. However, the original poetic flavor is lost as the rhetoric device —pun — is not reproduced.Case 15The translation seems to be faithful to the original, but it may not be really good for the purpose of intercultural communication. Foreign readers of the translation may find it strange and inappropriate.The following is what a friendly American journalist has commented on the translation:My first reaction was unfortunately laughter because it is so full of mistakes. It omitssomenecessary information about the Dragon-Boat Festival, including its historical origins and whenit actually takes place. These things are important… The copy seems to try to ―snow‖ the readerwith fanciful, overblown assertions about how terrific it all is, but in unintentionally hilariouslanguage that leaves the reader la ughing out uninformed… The brochure also suffers from lackof background material, the taking-if-for-granted that the reader already is familiar with manyaspects of Chinese history and culture… It doesn‘t tell you where to go, how to get there, whenthings are open and closed, how much they cost, and so forth. All these are things peoplevisiting an area want to know.Why is it that many Chinese travel guides read basically the same, no matter what regionis being written about, and are so packed with indiscriminate hyperbole? Less exaggerationwould actually be more convincing.Case 16Comparing the two English versions, we can see that in Yang‘s version more culturally-loaded meanings are conveyed from the original while Hawkes‘ version may be ea sier for English-speaking readers to comprehend.Look at some of the differences between the two versions of this extract:贾母The Lady Dowager / Grandmother Jia老祖宗 Old Ancestress / Granny dear凤辣子 Fiery Phoenix / Peppercorn Feng二舅母王氏 Lady Wang, her s econd uncle‘s wife / her Uncle Zheng‘s wife, Lady Wang学名叫做王熙凤 the school-room name His-feng / the somewhat boyish-sounding name of Wang Xi-feng黛玉忙赔笑见礼,以“嫂”呼之 Tai-yu lost no time in greeting her with a smile as ―cousin.‖/6Dai-yu accordingly smiled and curt-eyed, greeting her by her correct name as she did so.竟不象老祖宗的外孙女儿She doesn‘t take after her father, son-in-law of our Old Ancestress / She doesn‘t take after your side of the family, Ganny.怨不得老祖宗天天嘴里心里放不下 No wonder our Old Ancestresscouldn‘t p ut you out of her mind and was for ever talking and thinking about you. / I don‘t blame you for having gone on so about her during the past few days现吃什么药, What medicine are you taking? / Not translatedAnd there are some culturally-loaded expressions in the text that seem to defy translation:琏二嫂子内侄女以“嫂”呼之外孙女儿嫡亲的孙女儿妹妹By comparing different translations of the same text, we can achieve a better understanding of cultural gaps and differences and then learn to employ proper strategies to bridge those gaps in translating across languages for intercultural communication.Unit 5Culture and Verbal CommunicationCase 17When these two men separate, they may leave each other with very different impressions.Mr Richardson is very pleased to have made the acquaintance of MrChu and feels they have gotten off to a very good start. They have established their relationship on a first-name basis and Mr Chu‘s smile seemed to indicate that he will be friendly and easy to do business with. Mr Richardson is particularly pleased that he had treated Mr Chu with respect for his Chinese background by calling him Hon-fai rather than using the western name, David, which seemed to him an unnecessary imposition of western culture.In contrast, Mr Chu feels quite uncomfortable with Mr Richardson. He feels it will be difficult to work with him, and that Mr Richardsonmight be rather insensitive to cultural differences. He is particularly bothered that, instead of calling him David or Mr Chu, Mr Richardson used his given name, Hon-fai, the name rarely used by anyone, in fact.It was this embarrassment which caused him to smile. He would feel more comfortable if they called each other Mr Chu and Mr Richardson. Nevertheless, when he was away at school in North America he learnedthat Americans feel uncomfortable calling people Mr for any extended period of time. His solution was to adopt a western name. He chose David for use in such situations.Case 18Even if the American knew Urdu, the language spoken in Pakistan, he would also have to understand the culture of communication in thatcountry to respond appropriately. In this case, he had to say ―No at least three times.In some countries, for instance, the Ukraine, it may happen that a guest is pressed as many as seven or eight times to take more food, whereas in the UK it would be unusual to do so more than twice. For a Ukrainian, to do it the British way would suggest the person is not actually generous. Indeed, British recipients of such hospitality sometimes feel that their host is behaving impolitely by forcing them into a bind, since they run out of polite refusal strategies long before the Ukrainian host has exhausted his/her repertoire of polite insistence strategies.Case 19Talking about what‘s wrong is not easy for people in any culture, but people in high-context countries like China put high priority on keeping harmony, preventing anyone from losing face, and nurturing the relationship. It seems that Ron Kelly had to learn a different way of sending message7when he was in China. At home in Canada he would have gone directly to the point. But in China,going directly to the problem with someone may suggest that he orshe has failed to live up to his orher responsibility and the honor of his or her organization is in question. In high-context cultures likeChina, such a message is serious and damaging. In low-context cultures, however, the tendency isjust to ―spit it out, to get it into words and worry about theresult later. Senders of unwelcomemessages use objective facts, assuming, as with persuasion, thatfacts are neutral, instrumental, andimpersonal. Indirectness is often the way members of high-context cultures choose to communicateabout a problem.Case 20It seems that the letters of request written in English as well asin Chinese by Chinese peopleare likely to preface the request with extended face-work. ToChinese people, the normal and polite way to form a request requires providing reasons that are usually placed before the requests. Of course, this is just the inverse of English conventions in which requests are fronted without much face-work. In the view of the English-speaking people, the opening lines of Chinese requests and some other speech acts do not usually provide a thesis or topic statement which will orient the listener to the overall direction of the communication. Worst of all,the lack of precision and the failure to address the point directly may lead to suspicions that the Chinese speakers are beating around the bush. To them, the presence of a clear and concise statement of what is to betalked about will make the speech more precise, more dramatic, and more eloquent.However, the Chinese learning and using English in communication may find it difficult tocome to terms with the common English tendency to begin with a topic statement. In the Chineseculture, stating one‘s request or main point at the beginning would make the person seemimmodest, pushy, and inconsiderate for wanting things. If your speech gives others the impression that you are demanding something, you would lose face for acting aggressively and not considering the others. Thus you‘d be hurting people by claiming something for yourself.In such a situation, it is usually considered a smart strategy ifyou carefully delineate thejustifications that will naturally lead to your request or argument. Therefore, instead of stating their proposition somewhere in the beginning and then proceeding to build their case, Chinese people often first establish a shared context with which to judge their requests or arguments. Only after carefully prefacing them with an avalanche of relevant details, as if to nullify any opposition, will they present the requests or arguments.Unit 6Culture and Nonverbal CommunicationCase 21Sometimes our best intentions can lead to breakdowns in cross-cultural communication. Forexample, one of the very common manners of touching --- handshaking --- may result in conflictwhen performed with no consideration of cultural differences. Among middle-class North Americanmen, it is customary to shake hands as a gesture of friendship. When wanting to communicate extrafriendliness, a male in the United States may, while shaking hands, grasp with his left hand hisfriend‘s r ight arm. However, to people of Middle Eastern countries, the left hand is profane andtouching someone with it is highly offensive. Therefore, inVernon‘s eyes, Kenneth was actually anextremely offensive message to him.Case 22In Puerto Rican culture, as in some other Latin American and Eastern cultures, it is not right fora child to keep an eye-contact with an adult who is accusing him or her, while in the United States,failing of meeting other person‘s eye accusing him or her would be taken as a sign of guiltiness. Asthe principal knew little about this cultural difference in using eye-contact, he decided that the girlmust be guilty. Generally speaking, avoiding eye-contact with the other(s) is often considered as aninsult in some cultures, but may signify respect for authority and obedience in other cultures.8Case 23Just like smile, laughing does not always serve the same function in different cultures. Interestingly, for us Chinese, laughing often has a special function on some tense social occasions. People may laugh to release the tension or embarrassment, to express their concern about you, their intention to put you at ease or to help you come out of the embarrassment. In this case, the people there were actually wishing to laugh with the American rather than laugh at her. Their laughing seemed to convey a number of messages: don‘t take it so seriously; laugh it off, it‘s nothing; such things can happen to any of us, etc. Unfortunately the American was unaware of this. She thought they were laughing at her, which made her feel more badly and angry, for in her culture laughing on such an occasion would be interpreted as aninsulting response, humiliating and negative.Case 24It is obvious that there exists some difference between the British and Germans in their use oftouch. The lack of touch that seems to be natural in Britain may be considered strange by Germans.What is required (in this case, shaking hands with each other) inone country could be taken asunnecessary in another.The appropriateness of contact between people varies from country to country. Figures from a study offer some interesting insight into this matter. Pairs of individuals sitting and chatting in college shops in different countries were observed for at least one hour each. The number of times that either one touched the other in that one hour was recorded, as follows: in London, 0; in Florida, 2; in Paris, 10; in Puerto Rico, 180. These figures indicate that touch is used very differently in different cultures.Unit 7Time and Space Across CulturesCase 25For people from the American culture and western European cultures, one‘s time should be scheduled into segments or compartments which are to be kept discrete from one another. They prefer to do one thing at a time. They will be annoyed when they have made an appointment with somebody, only to find a lot of other things going on at the same time. They don‘t like to interrupt others and be interrupted by other while they are doing something. In contrast, people from many other cultures including the Chinese culture are more likely to operate with several people, ideas, or matters simultaneously. They are more easilydistracted and subject to interruptions, which they would not usuallymind very much. The miscommunication between Katherine and the director can be ascribed to their lack of knowledge about each other‘s way of using time.In this case, to the Chinese director as well as many other Chinese people, it is natural to handle the other things which needed to be dealt with immediately. He may have thought that, in this way, he utilized the time best. But to Katherine and most Westerners, it‘s quite different. They tend to do things strictly according to their schedule and appointments with others, which is their concept of using time best.Case 26Jack felt his privacy violated when he saw Magid standing at the door. It was absolutely a big ?surprise‘ for Jack---a surprise deviated from the giver‘s real intention, and jack immediately showed h is emotion as a conditioned reflex ,which wrote on the look ,saying ― I am completely not happy to see you . A few seconds later, he smiled and said,Hi, Magid, come on in. This obvious change on his face wascertainly noticed by Magid. Then, during the whole afternoon, they had coffee and chatted. It seemed they had a nice time together. However, it turned out that they both felt a little uncomfortable. I guess. Jack, out of politeness, had to pretend he was very happy to see Magid, but from the bottom of his heart, he was so displeased with this dear old friend for not having phoned to say he was coming that he might have expressed his unhappiness from time to time through nonverbal messages,。

大学英语跨文化交际教程案例分析双语答案

大学英语跨文化交际教程案例分析双语答案

大学英语跨文化交际教程案例分析双语答案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. 白色的裙子案例分析:印度女人可能认为婚礼是一个葬礼,如果他们看到西方新娘白色礼服。

案例反映了明喻和隐喻的文本。

文化就像一座冰山:我们可以识别妇女所穿的衣服的颜色在不同的文化,但是我们不知道下面的值。

文化就像水中的鱼游:人们穿着不同颜色的不同的背景,但他们通常是理所当然,从不问为什么。

Case 4:Coconut-skating Case 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.Coconut-skating案例分析:这一事件反映出文化的特点。

新编跨文化交际案例分析

新编跨文化交际案例分析

新编跨文化交际案例分析新编跨文化交际案例分析Unit 5Culture and Verbal CommunicationCase 17When these two men separate, they may leave each other with very different impressions.Mr Richardson is very pleased to have made the acquaintance of Mr Chu and feels they havegotten off to a very good start. They have established their relationship on a first-name basis and MrChu‘s smile seemed to indicate that he will be friendly and easy to do business with. Mr Richardsonis particularly pleased that he had treated Mr Chu with respect for his Chinese background by callinghim Hon-fai rather than using the western name, David, which seemed to him an unnecessaryimposition of western culture.In contrast, Mr Chu feels quite uncomfortable with Mr Richardson. He feels it will be difficultto work with him, and that Mr Richardson might be rather insensitive to cultural differences. He isparticularly bothered that, instead of calling him David or Mr Chu, Mr Richardson used his givenname, Hon-fai, the name rarely used by anyone, in fact. It was this embarrassment which caused himto smile. He would feel more comfortable if they called each other Mr Chu and Mr Richardson.Nevertheless, when he was away at school in North Americahe learned that Americans feeluncomfortable calling people Mr for any extended period of time. His solution was to adopt awestern name. He chose David for use in such situations.Case 18Even if the American knew Urdu, the language spoken in Pakistan, he would also have tounderstand the culture of communication in that country to respond appropriately. In this case, hehad to say ―No at least three times.In some countries, for instance, the Ukraine, it may happen that a guest is pressed as many asseven or eight times to take more food, whereas in the UK it would be unusual to do so more thantwice. For a Ukrainian, to do it the British way would suggest the person is not actually generous.Indeed, British recipients of such hospitality sometimes feel that their host is behaving impolitelyby forcing them into a bind, since they run out of polite refusal strategies long before the Ukrainianhost has exhausted his/her repertoire of polite insistence strategies.Case 19Talking about what‘s wro ng is not easy for people in any culture, but people in high-contextcountries like China put high priority on keeping harmony, preventing anyone from losing face, andnurturing the relationship. It seems that Ron Kelly had to learn a different way of sending messagewhen he was in China. At home in Canada he would havegone directly to the point. But in China,going directly to the problem with someone may suggest that he or she has failed to live up to his orher responsibility and the honor of his or her organization is in question. In high-context cultures likeChina, such a message is serious and damaging. In low-context cultures, however, the tendency isjust to ―spit it out, to get it into words and worry about the result later. Senders of unwelcomemessages use objective facts, assuming, as with persuasion, that facts are neutral, instrumental, andimpersonal. Indirectness is often the way members of high-context cultures choose to communicateabout a problem.Case 20It seems that the letters of request written in English as well as in Chinese by Chinese peopleare likely to preface the request with extended face-work. To Chinese people, the normal andpolite way to form a request requires providing reasons that are usually placed before the requests.Of course, this is just the inverse of English conventions in which requests are fronted withoutmuch face-work. In the view of the English-speaking people, the opening lines of Chinese requests and some other speech acts do not usually provide a thesis or topic statement which will orient the listener to the overall direction of the communication. Worst of all, the lack of precisionand the failure to address the point directly may lead to suspicions that the Chinese speakers arebeating around the bush. To them, the presence of a clear and concise statement of what is to betalked about will make the speech more precise, more dramatic, and more eloquent.However, the Chinese learning and using English in communication may find it difficult tocome to terms with the common English tendency to begin with a topic statement. In the Chinese culture, stating one‘s request or main point at the beginning would make the person seemimmodest, pushy, and inconsiderate for wanting things. If yourspeech gives others the impressionthat you are demanding something, you would lose face for acting aggressively and notconsidering the others. Thus you‘d be hurting people by claiming something for yourself.In such a situation, it is usually considered a smart strategy if you carefully delineate the justifications that will naturally lead to your request or argument. Therefore, instead of stating their proposition somewhere in the beginning and then proceeding to build their case, Chinesepeople often first establish a shared context with which to judgetheir requests or arguments. Onlyafter carefully prefacing them with an avalanche of relevant details, as if to nullify any opposition,will they present the requests or arguments.Unit 6Culture and Nonverbal CommunicationCase 21Sometimes our best intentions can lead to breakdowns in cross-cultural communication. For example, one of the very common manners of touching --- handshaking --- may result in conflict when performed with no consideration of cultural differences. Among middle-class North American men, it is customary to shake hands as a gesture of friendship. When wanting to communicate extra friendliness, a male in the United States may, while shaking hands, grasp with his left hand his friend‘s right arm. However,to people of Middle Eastern countries, the left hand is profane and touching someone with it is highly offensive. Therefore,in Vernon‘s eyes, Kenneth was actually an extremely offensive messageto him.Case 22In Puerto Rican culture, as in some other Latin American and Eastern cultures, it is not right for a child to keep an eye-contact with an adult who is accusing him or her, while in the United States, failing of meeting other person‘s eye accusing him or her would be taken as a sign of guiltiness. As the principal knew little about this culturaldifference in using eye-contact, he decided that the girl must be guilty. Generally speaking, avoiding eye-contact with the other(s) is often considered as an insult in some cultures, but may signify respect for authority and obedience in other cultures.Case 23Just like smile, laughing does not always serve the same function in different cultures. Interestingly, for us Chinese,laughing often has aspecial function on some tense social occasions. People may laugh to release the tension or embarrassment, to express their concern about you, their intention to put you at ease or to help you come out of the embarrassment. In this case, the people there were actually wishing to laugh with the American rather than laugh at her. Their laughing seemed to convey a number of messages: don‘t take it so seriously; laugh it off, it‘s nothing; such things can happen to any of us, etc. Unfortunately the American was unaware of this. She thought they were laughing at her, which made her feel more badly and angry, for in her culture laughing on such an occasion would be interpreted as an insulting response, humiliating and negative.Case 24It is obvious that there exists some difference between the British and Germans in their use oftouch. The lack of touch that seems to be natural in Britain may be considered strange by Germans.What is required (in this case, shaking hands with each other) inone country could be taken asunnecessary in another.The appropriateness of contact between people varies from country to country. Figures from a study offer some interesting insight into this matter. Pairs of individuals sitting and chatting in college shops in different countries were observed for at least one hour each. The number of times that either one touched the other in that one hour was recorded,as follows: in London, 0; in Florida, 2; in Paris, 10; in Puerto Rico, 180. These figures indicate that touch is used verydifferently in different cultures.。

新编跨文化交际英语教程——案例分析(主编:许力生)Word打印版

新编跨文化交际英语教程——案例分析(主编:许力生)Word打印版

Unit 1Communication Across CulturesCase 1 (Page 23)This case took place in 3 cultures. There seemed to be problems in communicatingwith 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 compliment ed 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 appropriate3) 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.Case 3 (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 mostDominican sisters woould 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 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 4 (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. 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 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 the y 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 2Culture and CommunicationThe 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 donot 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 uncomfortableCase 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 hospi table. 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 3Cultural DiversityCase 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 theasking for help from a friend. We never forget the timely help by a friendwhen we are on the rocks. But In American culture, they view this in adifferent way. Once helped, they offer their help only once. That’s whyJackson said that Mr. Zhao was asking too much. In their view, friendshipsare 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: Yeah, me too. I remember just a month ago they weren’tsharing their toys.Carmen: Now it looks like they’re enjoying each other.Judy: Finally! Maybe we could get together at each other’s ho usessometime. 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 AnalysisJudy and Carme n 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 invit ation. If they’d like to set a specific (exact) time, that means a real offer.2 Family Structure (P83)●Chinese Family●Filipinos Family●Vietnamese Family●Japanese Family (See Case 9 and Case 10)●Latin American FamilyCase 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 Japanesecompany’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 C hinese culture would be a problem in their dealing with the visiting delegation.。

[实用参考]大学英语跨文化交际教程案例分析双语答案.doc

[实用参考]大学英语跨文化交际教程案例分析双语答案.doc

Case2:WhiteDressCaseanalPsis:TheIndianwomenmightthinktheweddingceremonPisafuneralifthePseethewestern brideinwhitegown.ThecasereflectsthesimilesandmetaphorsintheteGt.Cultureislikeaniceberg:wecani dentifPthecolorofthedresswornbPwomenindifferentcultures,butwedonotknowthevaluesunderneath. Cultureislikethewaterafishswimsin:peopleweardressofdifferentcolorsfordifferentconteGtbutthePus uallPtakeitforgrantedandneveraskwhP.白色的裙子案例分析:印度女人可能认为婚礼是一个葬礼,如果他们看到西方新娘白色礼服。

案例反映了明喻和隐喻的文本。

文化就像一座冰山:我们可以识别妇女所穿的衣服的颜色在不同的文化,但是我们不知道下面的值。

文化就像水中的鱼游:人们穿着不同颜色的不同的背景,但他们通常是理所当然,从不问为什么。

Case4:Coconut-skatingCaseanalPsis:Thecasereflectsthecharacteristicsofculture.Wecantellfromthecasethatcultureispe rvasiveand it’s learned.PeoplemaPinventdifferentwaPsforthingsevenassimpleastheissueoffloormopi ng.ThePhilippinewomanmusthavelearnedthiswaPofmoppingfromherownculture.Coconut-skating案例分析:这一事件反映出文化的特点。

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Unit 1Communication Across CulturesCase 1 (Page 23)This case took place in 3 cultures. There seemed to be problems in communicatingwith 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 compliment ed 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 appropriate3) 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.Case 3 (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 mostDominican sisters woould 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 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 4 (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. 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 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 the y 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 2Culture and CommunicationThe 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 donot 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 uncomfortableCase 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 hospi table. 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 3Cultural DiversityCase 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 theasking for help from a friend. We never forget the timely help by a friendwhen we are on the rocks. But In American culture, they view this in adifferent way. Once helped, they offer their help only once. That’s whyJackson said that Mr. Zhao was asking too much. In their view, friendshipsare 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: Yeah, me too. I remember just a month ago they weren’tsharing their toys.Carmen: Now it looks like they’re enjoying each other.Judy: Finally! Maybe we could get together at each other’s ho usessometime. 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 AnalysisJudy and Carme n 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 invit ation. If they’d like to set a specific (exact) time, that means a real offer.2 Family Structure (P83)●Chinese Family●Filipinos Family●Vietnamese Family●Japanese Family (See Case 9 and Case 10)●Latin American FamilyCase 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 Japanesecompany’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 C hinese culture would be a problem in their dealing with the visiting delegation.。

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