《新编跨文化交际英语教程》复习资料U9.docx
Unit 9 Intercultural Adaptation
Some Ideas Related to Culture Shock and Adaptation Strategies
1.Culture Shock
What is culture shock? Culture shock is a common experience of people who have been suddenly transplanted abroad. It refers to phenomena ranging from mild irritability to deep psychological panic and crisis. It is associated with feelings in the person of estrangement (being unfriendly or hostile to others; alienation), anger, hostility, indecision, frustration, unhappiness, sadness, loneliness, homesickness, and even physical illness. The person undergoing culture shock views his new world out of resentment, and alternates between being angry at others for not understanding him and being filled with self-pity.
Culture shock is caused by the anxiety that results from losing all our familiar signs and symbols or social contact. Those cues or sighs include various ways in which we adapt ourselves to the situation of daily life: When to shake hands and what to say when we meet people, when and how to give tips, how to buy things, when to accept and when to refuse invitations, when to take statements seriously and when not. These cues, which may be words, gestures, facial expressions, or customs, are acquired by all of us in the course of growing up and are as much a part of our culture as the language we speak or the beliefs we accept. All of us depend for our peace of mind and our efficiency on hundreds of these cues, most of which we do not carry on the level of conscious awareness.
Now when an individual enters a strange culture, all or most of these familiar cues are removed? He or she is like fish out of water. Edward Hall describes a hypothetical example of an American living abroad for the first time 一at first, things in the cities look pretty much alike. There are taxis, hotels with hot and cold running water, theatres, neon lights, even tall buildings with elevators and a few people who can speak English. But pretty soon the American discovers that underneath the familiar exterior there are vast differences. When someone says "yes" it often doesn't mean yes at all, and when people smile it doesn^t always mean they are pleased.
When the American visitor makes a helpful gesture he may be rebuffed; when he tries to be friendly nothing happens. People tell him that they will do things and dont The longer he stays, the more enigmatic (puzzling) the new country looks.
2.Possible signs of culture shock
The following sentences describe different stages of culture shock.
a.The person holds a hostile and aggressive attitude toward the host country.
b.The person begins to open the way into the new cultural environment.
c.The person now accepts the customs of the country as just another way of living.
d.The person is fascinated by the new environment.
3? Suggestions found to be helpful in fighting culture shock
1)Recognize that you are experiencing culture shock, and your reactions are not from some other source. Remember that many others have had the same experience,
and that it is normal. Understand that your feelings are part of a response to learning about the other culture and consider it a positive sign.
2)Give yourself permission to temporarily indulge the symptom: if you are sleepy, sleep.
3)Find other from your culture and spend time together talking about home, eating, sharing experiences.
4)Help someone from your home culture who has recently arrived. You will be surprised at how much you've learned.
5)Communicate with family and friends. Write letters or call Remember that those at home might not realize that culture shock is a normal experience. Let them know it is
a temporary phase of adjusting to life in a different culture.
6)Become an expert on some aspect of the other culture. Choose something you like, and learn more about people in the host culture.
7)Maintain your sense of hum0匚Laugh at the mistakes you make; they are usually not serious.
8)Keep busy. Get to know the area where you live by walking around and observing. Say hello to a neighbor in the place you live, and perhaps start a friendship.
9)Become friendly with classmates. Spend some out-of-school time togethe匚
10)Do something you enjoy. Contact a relative or acquaintance whose address you may have. Browse through department stores. Visit a museum. Walk through a new area of town. See a play or go to a movie.
11)Forget that your English is less than perfect, and feel free "to ask" people for information, guidance, or directions. Many people are friendly, and helpful. It is important not to dwell on negative incidents. Disappointments are simply a fact of life.
12)Be flexible. Make up your mind that you are going to enjoy your new adventure. 4e Two views of culture shock
Two views of culture shock
1)The disease view
The culture-shocked person experiences a breakdown in communication, is unable to cope, and feels isolated and lost. He develops a number of defensive attitudes and behaviors to protect the mind from the confusion of an entirely new situation. He is a helpless victim.
He can experience many emotional and mental difficulties. He may become extremely frustrated, angry, and rejecting of the new culture. He considers the host country bad, ridiculous, stupid, and hopeless.
He may start to glorify his home country. He fears physical contact with anyone or anything from the new culture. He may feel harmed, tricked, deceived, injured, or ignored? People can become physically ill from the stress of culture shock 一ulcers, headaches, stomach aches, back aches, the flu 一physical symptoms.
2)The self-awareness view
The educational experience provides a mirror in which one's own culture is reflected?Exposure to new cultures enables them to gain new insights into their own culture and society. Positive cross-cultural learning experiences typically involve change and
movement from one cultural frame of reference to another.
5.Four ways of adaptation
Assimilation （同化）
Separation （隔绝）
Marginalization （边缘化）
Integration （融合）
Reading I Adapting to a New Culture Comprehension questions
1.What are the terms that can he applied to the concept of ^culture shock”?
Terms that can be applied to the concept of—culture shock are culture stress, adaptation, transition shock, adjustment, socialization, and so on.
2.What are the symptoms of a person at his or her a honeynioon stage n in the process of adapting to a new culture?
In this stage, one feels a sense of excitement, pleasure, and self-satisfaction for making the decision to come to this beautiful place. In his or her view, nearly everything appears wonderful.
3.Does everybody experience the Stage Two? How to cope with the negative feelings one may have at this stage?
No, some people never experience this stage. In order to cope with the negative feelings one may have at this stage, one should not withdraw from all contact with the new culture and instead try to have more contact with the host nationals.
4.According to the author^ what is the best thing to do when one is experiencing culture shock?
The best thing to do when you are experiencing culture shock is to admit that you are experiencing culture shock, try to identify your stage of culture shock, and work toward becoming more familiar with the new culture.
5.What are the problems that people are confronted with when they return to the home culture from overseas?
Upon their first returning home, there is a sense of relief and excitement about being in familiar surroundings. However, a sense of depression and negative outlook follows the initial reentry cycle, for a person may find that the home culture is no longer the same. They may have difficulty readjusting to the home culture and the reentry process has often involved their suffering quietly with stress.
6.What are the improvements people usually make when they get into Stage Three?
When people get into Stage Three, they become more accustomed to the foods, sights, sounds, smells, and nonverbal behaviors of the new culture and have less physical problems and less confusion, uncertainty, and loneliness. Their normal contacts with host nationals are increasing and now they can accept themselves and others around them.
7.What do you think of the authors suggestion of using the native language to compliment people in the host culture?
It is very important for one to be able to use the native language if one hopes to survive successfully in a new cultural environment, for it can not only compliment the local people, but also greatly enhance mutual understanding.
8.Do you have any other suggestions for adapting successfully to a new culture?
Apart from those suggestions given by the author, one should also try to learn from those who have much experience in adapting to a new culture, which may be helpful in one's effort to overcome the difficulties in the process of cultural adaptation. Reading II
Overcoming Ethnocentrism in Communication Comprehension questions
1.Why do people involved in intercultural communication often evaluate the
other(s) negatively?
Because in intercultural communication we tend to use the categories of our own culture to judge and interpret the behaviors of the others who are culturally different from us.
2.What is the basic difference between American and Japanese communication styles?
The basic difference may be that Americans are much more direct while Japanese are very indirect.
3.What will happen when communicators engage in mutual negative evaluation in American?Japcinese interaction ?
When communicators engage in mutual negative evaluation, the communication event may deteriorate even further. The American, sensing Japanese reluctance to confront a problem, becomes even more personal and aggressive. The Japanese, reacting to an embarrassing social indiscretion, becomes even more formal and indirect.
4.What do you think the Nigerian communication style is like?
Nigerians are inclined to take the more contextual style in communication. They tend to provide as much context as they can before they get to the point.
5.Why does the Thai employee continue to use the formal title to address his American manager in their conversations?
Because the Thai people usually consider it quite disrespectable to address the manager by his first name, for in their culture, one should always be aware of one's place in the organization's hierarchy and behave accordingly..
6.Why does the author say that the case of American-British interaction deserves closer attention ?
Because the case of American-British interaction is more complicated. Americans and the British employ different cultural approaches in response to different occasions. The British, like other Europeans, tend to use a low-context approach to intellectual confrontation and a more high-context style in personal matters of feeling and relationship, whereas Americans usually treat a relationship in a low-context manner handle intellectual confrontation in a high-context manner.
7.What should we do to overcome the tendency to stereotype and negatively evaluate others who are culturally different from us?
We can overcome the tendency to stereotype and generate negative evaluations by approaching every cross-cultural situation as a kind of experiment. Using available generalizations about the other culture, we can formulate a hypothesis and then test it for accuracy. As more knowledge of relevant cultural differences is acquired, generalizations can become more specific, hypotheses more particular, and communication difficulties more predictable.
8.If we cannot help making generalizations^ how to use cultural generalizations effectively?
We can use generalizations to hypothesize likely areas of contrast and possible communication problems and then acquire specific cultural differences through intercultural practice.
Case Study
Case 33
The problems that Li Li has encountered during her stay in the United States are typically some of those that people will usually be faced with when they enter a new culture.
There are obviously distinct stages that Li Li has gone through in the process of her adaptation to the American cultural environment: honeymoon period (Letter 1), when she was fascinated and excited by almost everything in the United States and felt elated to be in the new culture; culture shock. (Letter 2), when she was immersed in many problems that she had not been prepared for and became extremely homesick; initial adjustment (Letter 3), when she learned more about American culture and cultural adaptation and began to feel much better then; mental isolation (Letter 4), when she felt frustrated and became even somewhat hostile towards Americans; and acceptance period (Letter 5), when she began to realize the positive and negative aspects of the country and have a more balanced perspective about her experiences there.
What she means by writing in her fifth letter that —I think I have finally arrived in America is that she has finally learned to accept the culture very different from her own and begun to integrate herself into it. She is no longer like a fish out of water, and does not feel alienated from the new environment any more.
Case 34
In this case, it seems that Kevin failed to understand that customs for such a social gathering would be culturally different and Blanca were not properly prepared for experiencing a culture shock like this when she came to work and live in a new cultural environment.
In Dominican culture, it is usually considered inappropriate for a young unmarried female to go to a social gathering alone without anyone else accompanying her. A chaperone is often required, and getting one's parents'pennission is also necessary. However, all this may be very strange to North Americans nowadays. Kevin could not quite understand why Blanca, already an adult supposed to be independent, had to bring her little sister along to the gathering so as to get her parents'permission.
Another thing at which they differ is that in Dominican culture, somewhat like our Chinese culture, people going out together to eat seldom pay separately. The elder
one(s) would pay for the younger one(s), and the male(s) would pay for the female(s). Because of having expected that Kevin would pay for their meals, Blanca didn't bring
much money with her when she was going to The Blue Hat. Therefore, when Kevin said —separate checks, pleasell to the waiter, as North American people usually do while going out together to eat, he didn't realize that he had put Blanca in a very embarrassing situation. That's why Blanca whispered to her sister, telling her that she didn't have much money with her then and just ordered something to drink when she said they were not hungry at all.
Case 35
The American's personal experience in Russia has taught us not to jump to a conclusion about any other culture. We may misinterpret the behavior and intention of people in other cultures, for we are easily influenced by some popular overgeneralizations about other cultures. We have to be aware that things in other cultures may not be what they appear to us foreigners. One of the difficulties we will experience in adjusting to a new culture is that we may have taken too much of our own—cultural baggage: misleading stereotypes and preconceptions about members of that culture. In intercultural communication 让is sometimes true that a little learning about other cultures can be a dangerous thing. Distorted or biased knowledge may be worse than no knowledge at all. Even if what we know about other cultures has been proved to be right and well grounded, we still have to remember that there will often be variation within any culture. We should always be prepared for exceptions when interacting with individuals from another culture.
Case 36
We all know that we are members of a particular culture and we share the same cultural identity with other members of the culture. However, much of our cultural identity may simply be outside of our awareness- Not until we find ourselves in situations where our sense of self 一- our values, beliefs, practices -一is called into question do we perceive the tacit dimensions of our cultural identity. In this incident, the German woman has found out that Americans treat their neighbors in a way that is different from the way Germans do. As her expectations were thwarted, she became aware of her own cultural identity, her cultural way of thinking, of interpreting the world. This could be a painful process, which many of us, as the German woman in this case, may not be prepared for. Therefore, it is important to raise people's awareness of their culturally shaped identity and acknowledge the likelihood of some emotional disturbance during the cultural adjustment.