跨文化交际

跨文化交际---总复习Part 1: Definitions1. Cross-cultural communication: (also frequently referred to as intercultural communication) is a field of study that looks at how people from differing cultural backgrounds endeavor to communicate.•Intercultural communication involves communication between people from different cultural backgrounds. •Cross-cultural communication is usually concerned with the contrastive study of patterns of communication between speakers from two cultures.•International communication refers to communication between people from different nations.2. Enculturation:patterns of culture are acquired through the process of learning or interacting with the individual‟s environment. The process of cultural acquisition is called enculturation. The learning environment includes the family, neighbourhood, schools, social groupss, physical surroundings etc. if the environment is different, the culture that each individual learns or acquires will be different too.•Channel refers to the mode by which a message moves from the source of the message to the receiver of the message.•Feedback means the information generated by the receiver and made available to a source that allows the source to make qualitative judgments about the communication while it is taking place.•Encoding: the act of putting an idea or thought into a code; process through which messages are cast into a system of signals•Culture is a shared, learned, symbolic system of values, beliefs and attitudes that shapes and influences perception and behavior. It is everything that people have, think, and do as members of a society.•For the purposes of the Intercultural Studies Project, culture is defined as the shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization. These shared patterns identify the members of a culture group while also distinguishing those of another group.•Culture...consists in those patterns relative to behavior and the products of human action which may be inherited, that is, passed on from generation to generation independently of the biological genes" •"Culture has been defined in a number of ways, but most simply, as the learned and shared behavior of a community of interacting human beings"•Dominant culture: mainstream culture of a society.3. Worldview is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing natural philosophy; fundamental, existential, and normative postulates; or themes, values, emotions, and ethics. It is a concept fundamental to German philosophy and epistemology and refers to a wide world perception. Additionally, it refers to the framework of ideas and beliefs through which an individual interprets the world and interacts with it.4. Sub-culture or co-culture: It is often used for “ co-culture” because it implies that these groups are somewhat inferior or subjective to the dominant culture while the latter suggests that these groups are equal and co-existent with the dominant culture. A subculture is a group of people with a culture (whether distinct or hidden) which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong.•Cultural relativism: the idea that any part of a culture such as an idea, a thing, or a behavior pattern must be viewed from within its proper cultural context rather than from the view point of the observer‟s. with this idea all cultures are equally worthy of respect and that in studying another culture we need to suspend judgment•nonverbal communication means the communication that involves all nonverbal stimuli in a communication setting that are generated by both the source and his or her use of the environment and that have potential message value for the source or receiver。

Part 2: Answer the following questions briefly1) What does Confucianism mean?Literally, it means …the school of the scholars‟ or the teaching of Confucius‟. It is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system originally developed from the teachings of Confucius. It is a complex system of moral, social, political, and religious thought which has had tremendous influence on the history of Chinese civilization up to the 21st century.2) How do you interprete Relationships in Confucism?•Relationship is one theme central to Confucianism.•Relationship stresses the differing duties arising from the different status one held in relation to others. •Individuals are held to simultaneously stand in different degrees of relationship with different people, namely, as a junior in relation to their parents and elders, and as a senior in relation to their children, young siblings, students, and others.•Juniors are considered to owe strong duties of reverence and service to their seniors, and meanwhile seniors also have duties and benevolence and concern towards juniors.3) The Differences between Confucianism and Taoism•Confucianism as a traditional belief; while Taoism as a religion•Confucianism stresses repairing social order and social relationships.•Taoism is interested in the relationship of the individual with the natural universe.4) Features of communication•Communication is dynamic•Communication is interactive.•Communication is both verbal and non-verbal.•Communication can be either-intentional or unintentional.•Communication is rule-governed.•Communication depends on the use of symbols.•Communication is irreversible.•Communication takes place in both a physical and a social context.5) Cultural ethnocentrism and cultural relativism•Ethnocentrism is the view that one particular ethnic group is somehow superior to all others. The word ethnocentrism derives from the Greek word ethnos, meaning “nation” or “people,” and the English word center. A common idiom for ethnocentrism is “tunnel vision.” In this context, ethnocentrism is the view thata particular ethnic group‟s system of beliefs and values is morally superior to all others.•Cultural relativism is the view that individual beliefs and values systems are culturally relative. That is, no one ethnic group has the right to say that their particular system of beliefs and values, their worldview, is in any way superior to anyone else‟s system of beliefs and values. What‟s right for one culture might be wrong for another and that‟s alright. There is no absolute standard of right and wrong by which to compare and contrast morally contradictory cultural values.•Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism are mutually exclusive. They are two extremes on the opposite sides of a philosophical spectrum. Is there a biblical alternative to these two extremes? There is. There is a third extreme. Theocentrism is the view that God is superior to everyone else. The word theocentrism derives from the Greek word theos, meaning “God” or “gods,” and the English word center. In this co ntext, theocentrism refers to the view that God‟s system of beliefs and values is morally superior to all others. It is perfect. It‟s the absolute standard by which we are to judge everyone else‟s system of beliefs and values 6).Give some examples showing Subcultures' relationships with mainstream culture.•It may be difficult to identify certain subcultures because their style (particularly clothing and music) may be adopted by mass culture for commercial purposes. Businesses often seek to capitalize on the subversive allure of subcultures in search of Cool, which remains valuable in the selling of any product. This process of cultural appropriation may often result in the death or evolution of the subculture, as its members adopt new styles that appear alien to mainstream society. This process provides a constant stream of styles which may be commercially adopted.•Music-based subcultures are particularly vulnerable to this process, and so what may be considered a subculture at one stage in its history—such as jazz, goth, punk, hip hop and rave cultures—may represent mainstream taste within a short period of time. Some subcultures reject or modify the importance of style, stressing membership through the adoption of an ideology which may be much more resistant to commercial exploitation. The punk subculture's distinctive (and initially shocking) style of clothing was adopted by mass-market fashion companies once the subculture became a media interest. It is argued that the punk subculture shares the same "radical aesthetic practices" as Dada and surrealism:7). Some barriers to an effective intercultural communication.Interacting with people from diverse cultures is often difficult and more often than not frustrating , so much so that misunderstanding seems unavoidable. The reason behind is that many communicators naively take it for granted that all humans are alike and as a result, we can automatically communicate with people from different cultures effectively and successfully.However, there are some potential problems that lie in the process of intercultural communication.•the assuption of similarity: the biggest barrier in interculture communication•stereotypes: the generalizations about some groups of people•the tendency to evaluate and judge or to approve or disapprove. To different extent, we all have the tendency of consciously or unconciously interpreting, evaluationg, judging, approving or disapproving other‟s behavior by the standards or norms of our own culture.•automatic transfer: this refers to the automatic transfer of the norms and rules from one‟s own culture to the use of the target language . We are born and bred up in our own culture and the rules and norms of speaking and writing have become our unconscious behavior. For example, when thrown into a strange culture, the Chinese unconsciously adopt the Chinese cultural rules and norms in communication in the American or British context.•high uncertainty and anxiety. Uncertainty occurs because we are unable to predict other‟s behavior while anxiety or the feeling of being uneasy, tense, nervous, worried or even apprehensive may occur results from being afraid of failure in communication.•Misinterpretation of nonverbal behavior. A foreign language is one of the gurarantees for effective communication across cultures. However, nonverbal messages are also important in the mutual understanding in intercultural communication. Most nonverbal behavior is acquired throughout the socialization process and are therefore culture specific.8) Nonverbal communication and culture•Non-verbal communication is often regarded as extremely culture bound .•Culture variations can affect the way people communicate non-verbally. Actions that are not seen as offensive in your home country may be deemed so in foreign business ventures. Although there are many, the following five are the most important:9.) The Relationship Between Communication and Culture•The relationship between communication and culture is a very complex and intimate one. First, cultures are created through communication; that is, communication is the means of human interaction through which cultural characteristics—whether customs, roles, rules, rituals, laws, or other patterns—are created and shared. It is not so much that individuals set out to create a culture when they interact in relationships, groups, organizations, or societies, but rather that cultures are a natural by-product of social interaction. In a sense, cultures are the “residue” of social communication. Without communication and communication media, it would be impossible to preserve and pass along cultural characteristics from one place and time to another. One can say, therefore, that culture is created, shaped, transmitted, and learned through communication. The reverse is also the case; that is, communication practices are largely created, shaped, and transmitted by culture.•To understand the implications of this communication-culture relationship, it is necessary to think in terms of ongoing communication processes rather than a single communication event. For example, when a three-person group first meets, the members bring with them individual thought and behavioral patterns from previous communication experiences and from other cultures of which they are, or have been, a part.As individuals start to engage in communication with the other members of this new group, they begin tocreate a set of shared experiences and ways of talking about them. If the group continues to interact, a set of distinguishing history, patterns, customs, and rituals will evolve. Some of these cultural characteristics would be quite obvious and tangible, such that a new person joining the group would encounter ongoing cultural “rules” to which they would learn to conform through communication. New members would in turn influence the group culture in small, and sometimes large, ways as they become a part of it. In a reciprocal fashion, this reshaped culture shapes the communication practices of current and future group members.This is true with any culture; communication shapes culture, and culture shapes communication.10) Characteristics of Culture•Cultures are complex and multifaceted. As is apparent from the above discussions, cultures are complex “structures” that consist of a wide array of characteristics. The cultures of relationships or groups are relatively simple compared to those of organizations and, especially, societies. Edward Hall (1959, 1979) is one of the most significant contributors to the general understanding of the complexity of culture and the importance of communication to understanding and dealing with cultural differences at the societal level. •Cultures are subjective. There is a tendency to assume that the elements of one‟s own cultures are logical and make good sense. It follows that if other cultures—whether of relationships, groups, organizations, or societies—look different, those differences are often considered to be negative, illogical, and sometimes nonsensical. If, for example, an individual happens to be in a romantic relationship that is characterized by public displays of affection, that person might think that the behaviors of other people who have more reserved relational cultures may seem strange, even inappropriate. The person might wonder why a romantic couple would not be more open in displaying affection to one another in public. The individual might even be tempte d to conclude that the “reserved” relationship lacks depth and intensity. This phenomenon is true ina variety of situations. People who are used to informal meetings of a group might think that adherence toformal meeting rules is strange and stilted. Employees in an organization where suits are worn every day may react with cynicism and questioning when they enter an organization where casual attire is standard practice. Someone from a culture that permits one man to have only one wife may find it quite inappropriate that another culture allows one man to have multiple wives. With regard to culture, the tendency for many people is to equate “different” with “wrong,” even though all cultural elements come about through essentially identical communication processes.•Cultures change over time. In fact, cultures are ever changing—though the change is sometimes very slow and imperceptible. Many forces influence cultural change. As indicated above, cultures are created through communication, and it is also through communication between individuals that cultures change over time.Each person involved in a communication encounter brings the sum of his or her own experiences from other (past or present) culture memberships. In one sense, any encounter between individuals in new relationships, groups, organizations, or societies is an intercultural communication event, and these varying cultural encounters influence the individual and the cultures over time. Travel and communication technologies greatly accelerate the movement of messages from one cultural context to another, and in small and large ways, cultures come to influence one another through communication. Phrases such as “melting pot,” “world community,” and “global village” speak to the inevitability of inter cultural influence and change.•Cultures are largely invisible. Much of what characterizes cultures of relationships, groups, organizations, or societies is invisible to its members, much as the air is invisible to those who breathe it. Language, of course, is visible, as are greeting conventions, special symbols, places, and spaces. However, the special and defining meanings that these symbols, greetings, places, and spaces have for individuals in a culture are far less visible. For example, one can observe individuals kissing when they greet, but unless one has a good deal more cultural knowledge, it is difficult to determine what the behavior means in the context of the culture of their relationship, group, organization, or society. In other words, it is difficult to tell, without more cultural knowledge, if the kiss is a customary greeting among casual acquaintances or if such a greeting would be reserved for family members or lovers. As another example, beefsteak is thought of as an excellent food in some cultures. However, if one were a vegetarian or a member of a culture where the cow is sacred, that same steak would have an entirely different cultural meaning.。