人教初三culture_shock___a_personal_experience

A personal experience My friend Dr Dong had a wonderful chance to go to Seattle to present a paper at a professional meeting Having attended my course in Intercultural Communications he consulted me to review some of the cultural differences he might experience I also gave him the phone number of a friend of mine who lived in the area When he got back we met to review his experience Dr Dong told me that the course information had helped him He experienced the typical stages of culture shock He arrived expectant and happy and enjoyed his first days very much At the medical conference he felt quite confident in his area of research and was able to perform well in his presentation But after a few days he began to feel uncomfortable His medical English was fine but the social interaction skills were different and he was unsure of the cues and the communication style He worried more and more that he was misunderstanding simple English greetings and table talk conventions When someone greeted him with Hi how s it going he thought they had asked him where are you going and answered with the name of the conference hall only to get a quizzical stare from them At a western style dinner a colleague asked So how re you enjoyin the States he thought he heard how are you enjoying your steak and answered that he was eating chicken not beef That time they smiled and patiently repeated the question then both laughed at the error Such misunderstandings and miscommunications were minor But for Dr Dong they were the beginning of a sense of cultural confusion By the end of the meetings he felt a deep sense of cultural stress and was worn out from having to pay attention to so many new expressions and ways of dealing with things He felt his handshake was not as firm as Americans found that people reacted unusually when he modestly insisted his English was not good after they complimented him didn t know how to accept dinner invitations properly and therefore missed out on going to several lunches and so on Eventually he was so bewildered that he felt the full impact of culture shock What is culture shock and why does it occur The term was coined about 50 years ago by the Swedish scholar Kalvero Oberg His seminal article Culture Shock Adjustment to New Cultural Environments 1960 has been reprinted and revised for many textbooks and magazines He called it the occupational disease of people who have been suddenly transplanted abroad His use of the word disease is a pun because it implies that it is like an ailment with its own symptoms and cure but also that the root cause is also a feeling of dis ease or unsettled uneasiness Think back on your own experience Have you ever moved from one context to another Many students feel some of this adjustment shock when they change from one school to another or move from a small town to a big city The list of sensations one feels in new surroundings often includes Feeling like an outsider feeling unsure of oneself or even feeling stupid Sensing that one s language skills aren t good enough missing jokes colloquial phrases references to TV shows or pop songs or other cultural insider information Feeling uneasy and unsettled irritable and increasingly short tempered Feeling lonely and wanting to go home feeling more and more like a stranger or outcast Feeling overwhelmed overloaded daydreaming staring blankly at things or even staring at nothing Becoming more and more afraid of communicating and of making mistakes worried anxious These are all symptoms of initial culture shock With a new context comes new ways of doing things So being uninitiated and unsure of what to do this sense of displacement is often very strong at the beginning But the good news is that humans are very good at adapting Though everyone undergoes some degree of psychological stress in transition after a few weeks or months we learn how to read our new context We become aware of the new cues the new expectations the new ways of communicating With some trial and error and with a lot of patience with oneself most people succeed in overcoming culture shock and learn to enjoy their new context Dr Dong s visit to the US was only three weeks long but by the end of the 5 day medical conference he was already starting to feel more confident Sure he felt a little foolish about some of the mistakes he had made but he quickly learned to laugh at his errors and found his colleagues smiled with him This broke down the barriers to communication and helped him build some good professional relationships And after the conference he contacted the family I had referred him to and had a very nice time visiting them There were some new cultural surprises but he discovered he could better understand and adapt to them By the time he returned to China he was feeling quite positive about his American trip and was glad for the new experiences and new skills it had given him He had become successful in the initial transitions to a new culture Though he had gone through some embarrassing or trying culture stresses each had proven to be valuable learning experiences and in the end had helped him overcome culture shock 我的朋友董医生有幸获得了一次去西雅图在一个专业会议上做学术报告的 好机会 已经上过我的跨文化交际课程 他请我帮他温习一下他可能遇到的一 些文化差异 我也将我的一个在该地区居住的朋友的电话号码给了他 当他回 来后 我们聚到一起回顾了他的经历 董医生告诉我 课程所学派上了用场 他经历了文化冲击的典型阶段 他 满怀期待高高兴兴地到了美国 非常愉快地度过了最初几天 在医学会议上 他对自己的研究领域颇为自信 而且他所做的陈述也相当成功 但在过了几天 后 他开始感到有些不适应了 他的医学英语不错 可是社会交往技能却是另 一码事 他拿不准那些暗示及交际风格 他越来越担心他会误解简单的英文问候语以及餐桌交谈习俗 当有人用 嗨 一切都好吗 向他打招呼时 他以为是问他 你要去哪 因而答之以会议厅的 名字 结果招来了疑惑的目光 在一次西式的晚宴上 一位同事问他 你在美 国过得好吗 他听成了 你觉得牛排味道如何 因而回答他在吃鸡肉 不是牛 肉 那次 他们笑了 并耐心重复了那句问话 然后都对这个错误大笑一通 这类的误解和交流不畅还是次要的 但对于董医生来说 它们是 文化困惑 感的开始 在会议快要结束时 他深深地感到了 文化压力 而且因为还得注 意待人接物时这么多新的表达法和方式而感到精疲力竭 他感到自己握手不如 美国人那么有力 在人们称赞他后他谦虚地坚持说他的英语不好时 他发现他 们的反应异乎寻常 他搞不清如何适当地接受宴会邀请从而错过了几次午餐 如 此等等 不一而足 最终他被搞得不知所措 彻底感受了 文化冲击 什么是文化冲击 为什么会产生文化冲击 这一术语是瑞典学者卡尔维 罗 奥博格大约 50 年前造出来的 其拓荒之作 文化冲击 适应新的文化环境 1960 年 为许多教科书及杂志所再版和修订 他称之 quot 突然移居海外的 人所患的职业病 他用的 disease 这个词是个双关语 因为它暗示这如同一种 病 有其自身的症状和疗法 而且其根源也是一种 dis 不 ease 适或心神 不宁的感觉 回想一下你自己的经历 你曾从一个环境迁到另一个吗 很多学生 当他 们从一所学校转到另一所 或从一个小镇到一座大城市时 都会感到这种顺应 冲