[英语学习]Intercultural communication skills.doc

encounters with westerners: improving skills in english and intercultural communication by don snow(原文)unit 1encounter: the taxilee is a chinese student who has just arrived in the us to do graduate studies (lee is her english name.) after a long and tiring flight from china, she goes through customs at the airport .then, with all her luggage, she waits in line for a taxi.after a long annoying wait, she finally gets a taxi. however, the taxi driver seems friendly enough, and the taxi is comfortable, so she is able to relax a little during the long drive to her school. when she gets to the school, the taxis meter reads $ 32.5, so she starts getting the money out of her wallet. but when the taxi stops the driver turns around, smiles at lee, and says that she should give him $50!intercultural communication reading: intercultural communication and understanding westernersthere are three kinds of things you need to learn if you want to be able to communicate effectively with westerns. first, you need to learn a foreign language, usually english. second, you should learn as much as possible about western cultures. however, studying english language and western culture is not enough. you should also learn something about what happens when people from different cultures try to communicate with each other in other words, intercultural communication.to illustrate this point, consider this brief story:pete is an american graduate student who has just arrived in china to study for a year. he has studies chinese in the us for two years, so he can speak some chinese, but his conversation skills arent very good.the day after petes arrival, he meets several chinese students in a park. they speak to pete in chinese, so he is excited that he has a chance to practice with real chinese people, and maybe also to make some friends. at first the chinese students ask pete easy questions such as where he is from, how long he has been in china and so forth. but soon they start asking more difficult questions that he finds harder to answer, and they sometimes laugh when he had trouble answering in chinese. so pete begins wondering if they are just making fun of him. then one of the students says to pete, women zuo pengyou ba (lets be friends). pete finds this a rather strange thing to say. he isnt quite sure what the student means by this, but feels the student is being pushy. since pete is getting more and more uncomfortable, he says he needs to go back to his school, and leaves rather abruptly. later, pete tells his american classmate about his day in the park with the chinese students. he says they were rather rude to him, laughing at his chinese mistakes. he also says they were pushy, and that he hopes he doesnt meet them again.in the story above, what went wrong? why did pete draw such negative conclusions about the chinese students? part of the problem was that petes chinese wasnt very good, so it was hard for him to communicate. also, it seems likely that pete didnt understand chinese culture very well, and this made it harder for him to understand why the students acted as they did. but another part of the answer lies in the way pete handled this intercultural communication situation. when the chinese students did or said things that seemed strange to him, he tended to jump to conclusions. for example, when he didnt understand why the students laughed when he spoke chinese, he decided they were being rude. when he didnt understand why one student said lets be friend. he decided the student was being too pushy. even though he didnt really understand what was happening, he jumped to negative conclusions instead of considering other possible explanations for the chinese students behavior.this book has three main purposes: 1) one is to help you improve your english, especially your ability to discuss and explain ideas, and your ability to talk about culture in english.2) a second purpose is to help you learn more about the cultures of western nations. we will pay special attention to the culture of the united states , not only because it is the largest english speaking country , but also because his culture is different from chinas in a number of especially interesting ways .3) however, the third -and most import - purpose of this book is to help you become a better intercultural communicator. you will learn this partly by studying this process of intercultural communication and also about the factors that affect that process. however , even more important , you will develop new skills and thinking habits that will help you make sense of foreign cultures and their people , especially of things westerns do which may seem strange , puzzling , of even bad .when you study english, you are not just learning a foreign language. you are learning how to reach across barriers of culture and language. peace and good relations between nations, people and cultures need to be based on mutual understanding. as you study english (or any other foreign language),you are learning how to be an ambassador who can serve as a bridge between china and the world , a translator who can help people of china and other countries better understand each other . the more you understand about intercultural communication, the more effective you will be as an ambassador for your own culture and as a bridge between your culture and others.letter to fran: not eatingdear fran, last night i invited my western friend nancy home for dinner. my family prepared a big meal in honor of our guest, with lots of local chinese specialties. however, soon after the meal began, we all noticed that nancy wasnt eating very much, so we encouraged her to eat more. each time we urged her to eat more, she would comment on how wonderful the food was, and would eat a little bit more, but she still didnt eat very much.we have trouble understanding why nancy was so reluctant to eat anything. was the problem that westerners dont like chinese food. sincerely, nancy frans response : not eatingdear linda,many westerners love chinese food, and eat a lot of it when they get the chance, but sometimes westerners maybe reluctant to eat chinese food, especially at chinese banquets. of course , since i wasnt there , i dont really know why nancy ate so little , but i can think of quite a few possibilities .one possibility, as you suggest, is that nancy isnt accustomed to chinese food or doesnt like it very much. even though chinese food is quite popular in most western countries, some westerners dont have much experience with chinese food before coming to china, and it may take them some time to get used to it. i remember that when i first came to china almost everything on the dinner table looked unfamiliar to me, and it took a while before i came to like these new foods instead of being afraid of them. westerners are especially likely to find the kinds of local delicacies often served at chinese banquet odd, at least at first.another possibility is that nancy wasnt feeling well and didnt feel like eating much. (perhaps she didnt say anything because she didnt want to seem impolite). when people arrive in a new country, it is not unusual for them to have some difficult adjusting to the new environment, climate, and food, and while they are going though this adjustment process they are relatively likely to develop stomach problems. when they dont feel well, they may also prefer to eat familiar foods rather than strange ones. (chinese who go to west often have trouble adjusting west food and wind up cooking chinese food for themselves.)there are a few more possibilities that are less likely but worth considering. one is that nancy maybe on some kind of diet. westerners, especially women, often diet in order to lose weight, and the food served at chinese banquet is usually just the kind of rich food that people on diet are supposed to avoid. she might also have been on some kind of diet because of medical reasons such as high cholesterol or food allergies.finally, some westerners cant or wont eat some kind of foods because of religious or moral reasons. for example, westerners who are jewish or muslim dont eat pork, and they can find eating in china somewhat difficult because pork is used so much in chinese cooking. also , a small but significant number of westerners vegetarians ,and they wont eat dishes that contain meat .(exactly what western vegetarians often find eating in china difficult not only because so many chinese dishes contain at least some meat ,but also because it is hard for westerners to tell whether a particular chinese dish has meat in it or not . this may cause a western vegetarian to be reluctant to eat very much at a chinese banquet. sincerely, fran culture deference reading:individualist and collectivist culturesas we discuss culture in this book, our goal is not to say that one culture is better or worse than another. instead, our goal is to describe differences between cultures, and try to come to a better understanding of western and chinese culture. before one can evaluate a culture, one must understand it.many differences between chinese and western culture are related to one basic difference, the difference between individualist and collectivist cultures.an individualist culture is one in which people tend to view themselves as individuals and to emphasize the needs of individuals. in general, western culture tends to be individualist.a collectivist culture is one in which people tend to view themselves as members of groups (families, work units, tribes, nations), and usually consider the needs of the group to be more important than the needs of individuals. most asian cultures, including chinas, tend to be collectivist.let us look at two examples of this basic cultural difference:schools: one illustration of the difference between collectivist and individualist culture can be found in the way schools are organized. for example, in chinese secondary schools and even universities, students generally function as a group . they are organized into class groups (ban), and all students in the same class group have the same courses together. in contrast, american high school and university students are expected to function as individuals. they generally choose at least some courses according to their own interests, and as a result they generally have different classmates in different courses. they have no class group quite like a chinese ban.parties serve as anther illustration of this collectivist -individualist difference. for example, chinese parties often have a group focus, either a shared meal or a set of performances that everyone watches and in which many participate. in contrast, one very typical kind of party in american is a cocktail party in which people chat together in pairs or small groups, changing conversation partners many times during the course of the evening.here are a few more specific differences between individualist western cultures and collectivist cultures:1) westerners tend to believe that people should rely on themselves as much as possible -and they usually expect other people to do the same. for example, while westerners often offer to help family members and friends during emergency situations, they may not assume they are obligated to this. instead, they may view such assistance as voluntary. in contrast, people in collectivist cultures generally feel they have a right to expect help from other members of their groups (family, classmates, and so forth), and they also tend to feel they have an obligation to help other members of their groups.2) westerners generally feel that the rights of individuals should not be subordinated to the needs of a larger group, or at least that individuals should have the right to decide for themselves whether to sacrifice their personal benefit for the sake of the group. for example, most westerners feel that the individuals right to privacy is very important , so governments should not be allowed to keep detailed files of personal information about people in collectivist cultures are generally more willing to accept the idea that individuals should sacrifice for the benefit of the group l3) westerners tend to believe that individuals should make decisions for themselves, and that individuals should take credit and responsibility for what they have personally done. they are usually not very willing to accept responsibility for something another member of their group has done, even if that other person is a close family member. for example, if one westerner commits a crime, other family members and friends would not necessarily feel they had any responsibility for that persons actions. likewise, if one person in a family becomes very successful, others in the family would not necessarily expect to benefit from that persons success. in contrast, people in collectivist cultures tend to feel more that they are representatives of their groups, and to accept more responsibility for what other members of their groups do.4) a final difference lies in the way people in different cultures view the idea of individualism. westerners tend to view individualism as a good thing . in english, the word individualism has no negative connotation; in fact, its connotation is somewhat positive. in contrast, the chinese term for individualism geren zhuyi, often has a somewhat negative connotation, and is sometimes used as a synonym for selfishness.before concluding, there are two more very important things we need to note about this difference between individualist and collectivist cultures:1) first, saying that western culture is individualist does not mean that all westerners are always individualist. rather, it means that westerners are more likely to think and act in individualist ways than people in collectivist cultures are. the difference between individualist and collectivist cultures is a relative one, not an absolute one.2) second, not all western countries are equally individualist -some western countries tend to be more individualist than others. for example, the cultures of england and the united states are generally considered to be more individualist than the cultures of the scandinavian countries l likewise, while the cultures of east asia all tend to be more or less collectivist, they also differ from each other in many important ways. however, it is safe to generalize that western cultures tend to be more individualist than the culture of china (and of other asian countries). this difference between individualism and collectivism affects many aspects of western and chinese culture, and we will see other examples of it later in this book.unit 2encounter : the gift frank is a student in china who has just been granted a special scholarship to study at a university in the west. his english teacher, ms.kelsen, wrote a recommendation letter that was instrumental in his getting the scholarship. frank feels very grateful to ms.kelsen, so he decides to buy her an expensive gift, a landscape painting, as a way of thanking her.one day after class has ended the other students have left, frank presents the gift to ms.kelsen. looking surprised, ms.kelsen says thank you, but says that she cant accept his gift. frank offers the gift several more times but ms.kelsen insists on refusing. intercultural communication reading: interpreting what foreigners mean a very important aspect of intercultural communication is interpretation, the process of deciding what foreigners words and actions means and why they do what they do. for example, when frank tries to understand why ms.kelsen refused his gift, he is interpreting her behavior.interpretation is a part of all communication-including communication between people from the same culture. imagine a western friend greeting you by saying how are you? even though her question seems very simple and easy to understand, you still need to interpret what she means:perhaps how are you? is just a polite greeting, the same as hello. or perhaps she really wants to know how you are (and expects you to stop and chat with her).or perhaps her question means she is worried about your health (maybe because she has heard that you were sick).in and of themselves , the words how are you ? only convey part of the meaning of your friend s message , so you need to use other evidence - the setting , the expression on her face ,the tone of her voice , your knowledge of western culture , and so forth -to help you interpret what she means and decide how to respond .when you interact with other chinese people, especially chinese people you know well, you can often understand their intentions quite accurately even if you interpret quickly without thinking about it very much. in fact, the interpretation process is often so automatic that you are not aware that you have interpreted anything at all. because it would be impossible for you to think carefully about everything other people say or do, you have to interpret very quickly.at least most of the time.it is more difficult, however, when you try to interpret what foreigners mean, especially foreigners you dont know well. your natural habit will be to interpret the words and actions of foreigners almost as quickly and automatically as you interpret the words and actions of chinese people. however, when you interpret the behavior of foreigners, you dont have so much cultural background information to help you understand their behavior, so you have to guess and use you imagination much more. if you interpret their behavior quickly, without thinking caref