跨文化交际案例分析

Case 1: She Has Three Hands
In the following scenario, a Chinese doctor, a patient and a physiotherapist interact.
A female neurologist from Beijing was working on a research project in a Toronto hospital. She shared a small office with a young Canadian male from a large family, who loved peanut butter. He was so fond of peanut butter that he kept a jar in the office. One day he came into the office and exclaimed, “Who took my peanut butter?” But the Chinese woman immediately felt accused. After all, there were only two of them in the office.
She was deeply distressed, but true to her learned cultural behavior of never showing anger in public, she said nothing. Later that day she was working in a room where the physiotherapist was treating a patient who suffered paralysis of his legs and arms from a motorcycle accident. The physiotherapist moved one of the patient’s legs in a way that caused him pain.
“Ouch!” he cried.
“Oh, I didn’t do that,” said the physiotherapist. “It was that doctor over there,” and he pointed to the Chinese woman.
“How could she have done it since she’s on the other side of the room?” the patient pointed out.
“Ah, she has three hands.” the physiotherapist replied.
At these words the Chinese doctor became even more upset. She was so disturbed that she behaved in a way uncharacteristic of her culture. She waited until the patient had gone, and then said to the physiotherapist, “I’m very upset by what you said.” The physiotherapist was taken aback. “What had I said?”“You said I had three hands,” the Chinese doctor finally choked. “You think I took the peanut butter.”
Answer the following questions:
1.How do you understand the phrase “to have three hands”? (3分)
2.What caused their communication conflicts?（7分）
Case 1:
This case can reflect the different communication styles between Chinese and Canadians. In western cultures, communication is the means of transmitting ideas. Western people usually communicate directly with each other. That is why the Canadian in this case says what is in his mind directly in front of the Chinese woman without hiding anything. While Chinese culture stresses harmony and emphasizes the relationships between the communicators. Chinese people view communication as a process where all parties are searching to develop and maintain a social relationship. So the Chinese woman in this case tries not to argue with the Canadian face to face to keep the“harmonious relationship”between them.
Case 2: Left in the Cold
Katherine came to Beijing in 1998 and found a job as an English teacher in a foreign language institute. Soon after her classes began she found that her students showed no interest in her teaching style. Quite a few of them avoided attending her class. She was feeling quite upset and discouraged so she decided to ask the Director, Prof. Wang for help. Prof. Wang reviewed his timetable and suggested they meet at ten o’clock on Thursday morning. When Thursday came, Katherine arrived at Prof. Wang’s office at the exactly ten o’clock finding him talking with another teacher in Chinese. Seeing that she had come, Prof. Wang smiled and gestured her to sit down. Katherine sat down and the professor excused himself and continued to talk with the other teacher. After five minutes, he finished his conversation, and apologized to Katherine, and began to focus his attention on her situation. Prof. Wang showed great concern and asked her what the problem was. Just as she was discussing her problem, another Chinese teacher interrupted, with a form that required the Director’s signature. The Director smiled, apologized to Katherine again, and turned to talk with the Chinese teacher in Chinese. Katherine became impatient, and wondered why their discussion should be interrupted since she had made an appointment. Also, she was upset and frustrated that they continued to speak Chinese in front of her. Although their talk continued, she was apparently unhappy about what had happened.
Answer the following questions:
1.How would you explain the Director’s behavior toward Kathrine?
（5分）
2.How would you make the Director understand why Katherine felt frustrated and angry? （5分）
Case 2:
Comment
This is a typical cultural clash between Chinese and Westerners. There is a great difference in the concept of appointment and its behavior pattern in different cultures. To Americans, an appointment is a confirmation to meet at a precise time. If an appointment is scheduled, both parties should respect the appointment time. For example, if a professor makes an appointment with a student at a certain time, it should not be interrupted by other things or people. In addition, Westerners are good timekeepers; they adhere strictly to schedules. However, Chinese view appointments in a more flexible manner. They are more casual about commitments. This difference in attitudes toward appointment was the root of Katherine’s unhappiness. Since the Director made an ten a’clock appointment, he should have tried to avoid any interruption. However, when Katherine arrived on time, the Director was still talking with another teacher. When their meeting finally began, it was interrupted again. There is no wonder Katherine became frustrated and angry.
Case 3: Personal Space
Mark had recently moved from Denmark to Sydney to work as a salesperson for a large Australian company. After three weeks, he was invited to join a local club. During the first few weeks at the club, Mark would either stand in the corner talking with someone or sit on a sofa listening to other people talk and chat. As time went by, he came to know most of the club members and seemed to enjoy talking with them. One day, at an evening party one of the female members approached him. Mark immediately showed his interest by talking about the atmosphere of the party. At first, the conversation between them seemed to go quite smoothly, but as it progressed the lady seemed to step further and further away from Mark as he had been gradually moving closer to her. The lady obviously seemed uncomfortable. As Mark was about to ask her questions regarding Australian social customs, another man standing nearby directed a glance toward the lady. She excused herself and went to talk with that man, leaving Mark standing alone and wondering why their conversation had come to such a sudden stop.
Answer the following question
1. Why did that woman suddenly stop talking with Mark and turned to another man? （10分）
Case 3:
This is a typical case of misunderstanding caused by different perceptions abut body distance.
There is a lot of evidence to show that body distance varies with different people, different circumstances, and different cultures. In Denmark, at a formal event, the intimate space is usually between 20 to 30 centimeters; while in Australia such an occasion requires a body distance of 40 to 50 centimeters. Therefore when a Dane talks with an Australian, the problem arises: the Dane is accustomed to a close distance while the Australian is comfortable with a great distance.
In this case, Mark, by trying to establish his normal intimate space, infringed on the Australian lady’s space. Because of this, she felt somewhat threatened and lost her sense of comfort. At that moment, the nearby man offered her the opportunity to excuse herself from Mark. If Mark had had some knowledge about the expected personal space for Australians, the encounter might have been totally different.
Case 4
Li Ming, a male Chinese graduate student, studied in the United States. He shared a room with his American classmate Tony in a residence hall. At the very beginning, Li Ming found it easy and enjoyable to get along with Tony, for he was an open-minded person and sometimes he could give Li Ming quite a lot of helpful advice. But later,
Li Ming felt it really hard to do the real effective communication. For example:
One day Tony went into the bathroom and completely shaved his head. Li Ming easily discovered this fact when he himself visited the bathroom and saw the hair everywhere. He returned to his room and said to Tony, “You’ve shaved your head.” Tony replied, “Yeah, I did.”
Li Ming waited a while, then said, I discovered you’d shaved your head when I went into the bathroom and saw the hair. “Yeah.” Tony confirmed. Li Ming was at a loss. He believed he had communicated in the strongest possible language his wish that the American would clean up the mess he’d made in the bathroom. But Li Ming was very much disappointed at his roommate Tony!
Later he discussed the surprising episode with some Chinese friends who told him, “Listen, with Americans you actually have to say: Clean up the bathroom!” Li Ming believed his message had been very clear. However, he was relying on the context of the communication for the message to be understood: hair was all over the bathroom, and his roommate now was bare-headed.
Questions:
1. Why do you think the American student Tony failed to understand what his Chinese roommate Li Ming had wanted to say?
2. Suppose the main characters in the story are two Chinese students
or two American students, in what way will they deal with the matter?
Case 7 (P30)
Case analysis: Cultural differences decide the two students are going to communicate in different ways. 案例分析:文化差异决定这两个学生要沟通的方式不同。

The Chinese student wants the American student to understand the u nderlying means of his words, but the American student is used to the dire ct style of communication. This is decided by culture. In Chinese culture, people want to save face of both themselves and others, so they would not express their ideas directly. However, in the United States, unless you ex press yourself clearly and directly, the others cannot understand you.
Case 5
Bart Rapson had brought his family to the Philippines on a job assignment for a multinatioal corporation. While not particularly religious themselves, having largely abandoned the practice of Catholicism except for token appearances at Christmas and Easter, they still felt that their children might benefit from belonging to a church. Theky explained to friends that the church can give children a sense of belonging and can provide some moral and ethical guidance. Since the Philippines is largely Catholic, it was easy for Bart to place his 7-year-old daughter in a Sunday
school class that would prepare her for her First Communion. As the day approached, Bart planned for an after-church party, inviting colleagues and their families from work. One Filipino colleague, Manuel, to whom Bart felt especially close, kept putting offf an answer to Bart’s invitation, saying neither “yes” nor “no”. Finally, Bart said, “My wife needs to know how many people to cook for.” Still n ot giving a yes or no answer Manuel later called and said that he would be attending a different party that would be attended by other Filipinos. Manuel listed their names, mentioning that he regularly “partied” with them, but Bart did not recognize anyone from the list. Manuel said tha the would try to stop by sometime during Bart’s party.
Bart was quite upset. He complained, “if this is supposedly a Catholic country, why could they not place a value on this? Why would he turn down a once-in-a-lifetime g athering, my daughter’s First Communion, to go to a party with friends he admits to seeing all the time?” after the party, Bart was merely cordial to Manuel-there were no longer any indications of friendliness. Manuel was puzzled, and had no idea what the problem was. The director of the organization, a sensitive person picked up the cues and realized that there was a strained relationship.
Comments:
For Americans knowing how many people will attend a gathering is one of the key priorities, as it helps the host to prepare properly.
However, to Filipinos, the number of guests is not very important, they usually prepare more food than enough and would not mind if there were leftovers. As well, Filipinos prefer to be together with people they know well. In addition, in the Philippines, the first Communion is not as important as the party that follows. For that very reason, Manuel told Bart that he would drop by later. The main probl em in this case is Manuel’s ignorance of American customs. He did not realize that Americans pay great attention to important social gatherings, especially when their children are involve. For Bart, his 7-year-old daughter’s First Communion is very important. Inviting his colleagues to attend the gathering alongside his family members is very special.
Case 11: Making an Appointment
This case can reflect how culture affects its communication style. Each culture encourages aparticular communication style expected within it. This implies not only using correct symbols,but also applying the appropriate communication style for the occasion. Communication stylesinclude mannerisms, phrases, rituals, and communication customs appropriate for varioussituations in a culture. In this case, knowing the communication style of the Americans which ischaracterized by direct, exacting and instrumental, the exporter manager fulfills his jobsuccessfully.。