跨文化交际上课内容unit2

?Homework of Unit 1: What are stumbling blocks in intercultural communication? How to overcome these blocks?

Unit Two Culture and Communication

I.Warm Up

Please read the story on page 38, then answer the questions:

1.Why was Tom considered a rude host by his visitors?

2.How can you explain the fact that Tom is misunderstood when he

actually wants to be kind and friendly to the visitors?

II.Reading

1.Read the article of “What Is Culture”. What can you learn about culture

from it? Please answer the questions followed?

Supplement:

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory (p41)

What is culture?

Origins of culture in English and Chinese

(1)“Culture” is a loan word from Latin meaning “cultivating or tilling种田

the land”. It was originally associated with physical activities and production of food. Later, its meaning was extended to include mental, moral, aesthetic美学, educational and intellectual activities. In contemporary English its original meaning is still retained保留.

(2)“文化” is a native word本族词in Chinese. “文” and “化” were used

together in the Warring States战国. “人文” in “观乎人文，以化成天下”refers to the interwoven互相编织relationships between the monarch君主and his subjects, fathers and sons, husbands and wives, brothers and friends, and “化”means “changing and/or cultivating”.

When used together, “文”and “化”mean “以文教化”. They were combined into one word in Han Dynasty, with its meaning contrasted with “nature” on one hand and “primitiveness”原始and “savage”未开化，野蛮on the other hand. So “文化” was originally associated with mental activities.

1.Definition

The term “culture”does not correspond 一致perfectly with “文化”. For examples:他没有文化(He is illiterate.)

“What really binds 捆绑men together is their culture--- the ideas and the standards they have in common.”

— R. Benedict

According to The Concise Oxford Dictionary,culture is “the arts and other manifestations 表现of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively”.

Defining Culture from the Anthropological Perspective人类学观点:?“Culture consists of patterns, explicit明确and implicit含蓄, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting 组成the distinctive有特色的achievement of human groups, including their embodiments 体现in artifacts史前古器物; the essential core of culture consists of traditional ideas and especially their attached values”.

-----Kroeber and Kluckhohn Defining Culture from the Psychological Perspective

?culture is "the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one category 种类of people from another".

----Geert Hofstede

Defining Culture from the Sociological Perspective

?“Culture is defined as a pattern of learned, group-related perception—including both verbal口头and nonverbal language attitudes, values, belief system信念系统, disbelief systems, and behavior”.

Defining Culture from the Intercultural Perspective

“Culture is a system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviours and artifacts that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning.”

----[Bates and Plog]

There are altogether no less than 250 definitions of culture by scholars from several different fields. Despite so, almost all scholars agree that culture has two senses: the broad sense 广义and the narrow sense.

A. Culture in its broad sense

Culture is the attribute特质of man, or, whatever distinguishes man from the rest part of the world is culture. Based on this, Prof. Lin Dajin provides a Chinese counterpart副本definition: 文化是人类区别于动物的综合特征. It may include the following components:

①Materials man has got to satisfy his needs, including science and technology, such as space shuttles航天飞机, airplanes, and cars;

②Social institutions社会制度and organizations man has established, including socioeconomic社会经济学的institutions体系, politico-legal institutions, and religious organizations宗教组织;

③Knowledge about nature and man himself and artistic development艺术发展, including various subjects such as mathematics数学and education, and artistic forms such as literature, painting, music and dance;

④Language and other communication systems such as gestures and facial expressions;

⑤Customs, habits and behavioral patterns;

⑥Value systems, world views, national traits名族性, aesthetic standards 审美标准and thinking patterns.

Culture in this sense is also called “large C culture”or academic culture or culture with a big C(大写字母的文化). It’s culture in general, culture of all nationalities and ethnic groups族群. But we know there are specific cultures such as Chinese, American and British. According to this sense, specific culture can be defined (by Prof. Lin Dajin) as the comprehensive features that distinguish one group (be it a nation, a race or any section of people) of people from another (一个民族区别于另一个民族的综合特征).

﹡Dominant culture and subculture亚文化群/co-culture共同培养?Culture is subdivided 被再分成into dominant culture, mainstream culture, and subculture(s), which coexist 共存within each culture.

? A subculture resembles似a culture in that it usually encompasses 包含围绕a relatively large number of people and represents the accumulation积累of generations of human striving努力奋斗.

However, subcultures have some important differences: they exist within dominant cultures and are often based on economic or social class, ethnicity种族划分, race, or geographic region.

Today the tendency is to say ‘co-culture’ and sub-groups to avoid prejudice.

B. Culture in its narrow sense

It's called “small c culture” or anthropological culture or culture with a small c (小写字母的文化). It can be defined as life way of a population, Culture in this sense emphasizes what characterizes the way of life of a people, including components ②, ③, ④, ⑤ and ⑥, with components ②, ④, ⑤ and ⑥ as the central part.

Some scholars are interested in “large C culture” while others in “small c culture”, depending on the purpose of investigation. We shall focus on culture in its narrow sense.

﹡Cultural Identity文化身份文化认同

Cultural identity refers to one’s sense of belonging to a particular culture or ethnic group. People consciously 有意识地，自觉地identify themselves with a group that has a shared system of symbols and meanings as well as norms for conduct.

2.Properties 内容of culture

(1)I t is human specific.

(2)I t is a social phenomenon (contrast between society and nature). It is the

embodiment体现of human knowledge, skill and cooperative labor.

(3)I t is a national phenomenon for each nature has its own culture.

(4)I t is a historical phenomenon. Each culture has some history and each

generation contributes to it. But culture won’t necessarily remain the same.

A. Overt Culture

B. Covert Culture

(公开文化层)

Exposed Material Culture,

Visible and Easily Described

(隐蔽文化层)

Hidden in the material culture,

Soft or Spiritual culture

(5) I t is general and abstract.

2. Culture can be viewed as an iceberg. Nine-tenths of an iceberg is out of sight. The part of the cultural iceberg that is above the water is easy to be noticed. The other part that is hidden below the water and is outside of conscious awareness. It is sometimes called “deep culture ”. But what are the things in a culture that can be said to be above or below the water – within or out of our awareness?

The Structure of Culture

3.Read the article on page 45-48:

From this article, we can learn there are three characteristics of culture –coherent, learned, the view of a group of people; and there are three things culture does – culture ranks what is important (or cultures teach values or priorities), culture furnishes attitudes, and culture dictates how to behave.

4.Decide whether the following are examples of communications or not?

Why?

1)You complain to your instructor about your course credits through telephone.

2) Two blind people exchange ideas in Braille盲文.

3) A German businessman negotiates, through an interpreter口译, with his Chinese counterpart.

4) A farmer gives instructions to his ploughing 耕种cow.

5) A programmer issues commands to a computer.

6) Tom talks to himself while flourishing his toy gun.

7) You send an e-mail message to an American friend.

8) Jane lies in bed reading a novel.

The Basics of Communication:

Communication occurs if:1. two or more people;2. contact;3. a shared language;4. an exchange of information.

5.Read the article of “Elements of Communication”. What are the

elements of communication?

Context: four aspects (the physical setting, historical aspect, psychological aspect, culture aspect)

Participants: three variables (relationship, gender, culture)

Messages: meanings, symbols, encoding and decoding.

Channels: the method used to deliver a message (sound, sight, smell, taste, touch, or any combination of these)

Noise (干扰): a term used for factors that interfere with the exchange of messages, including external noise, internal noiseand semantic noise. Noise is inevitable.

Feedback: t he response of a receiver to a sender’s message

Please answer the questions followed.

Supplement:

What Is Communication?

There are altogether 126 definitions of communication. Among them the most accepted one defined by L. A. Samovar, et al.

Definition:

?“Communication may be defined as that which happens whenever someone responds to the behavior or the residue剩余of the behavior of another person.”

---- L. A. Samovar, et al A few key points about this definition:

The behavior includes verbal behavior语言行为and non-verbal behavior. For example, you meet an acquaintance in the street. You smile and nod to each other without uttering发出a word. Then your behavior is non-verbal, and your communication is also non-verbal. So according to this, communication can be divided into verbal communication and non-verbal communication.

②As to the meaning of “behavior residue", here is an example. You leave

a note before you go out, and your roommate sees it when coming back and will make certain response. Then this note is your behavior residue. In this case, whether your roommate does something about or just ignores the note, as long as he receives the note, communication happens, but it is non-simultaneous非同时发生的. Therefore, communication can also be divided into simultaneous communication同时通信and non-simultaneous communication.

③A behavior, whether intentional故意的or unintentional, conscious or unconscious, once is received, communication occurs. For example, when you are giving a speech, you may blush (unintentional) or repeat the same movement (unconscious), which gives your audience a message that you are nervous.

④Feedback is not a prerequisite必要条件of communication. So there may be one-way communication. Hu Wenzhong of BeijingForeignStudiesUniversity once said translation is in fact a kind of