Unit 20 Culture Shock 文化冲击

Unit 20 Culture Shock

Kalvero Oberg

1 Culture shock might be called an occupational disease of people who have been suddenly transplanted abroad. Like most ailments, it has its own symptoms and cure.

文化冲击又叫人们移居国外的职业病。像大多数小病一样，它也有自己的症状和治疗方法。

2 Culture shock is precipitated by the anxiety that results from losing all our familiar signs and symbols of social intercourse. Those signs or cues include the thousand and one ways in which we orient 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 make purchases, 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, customs, or norms, 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.

文化冲击是焦虑产生的，这种焦虑是由于丧失了指导我们进行社交的熟悉的信号和符号。这些信号和暗示包含了许许多多使我们适应日常生活情况的方法：何时握手，当我们见到人时说什么，何时怎样给小费，怎样购物，何时接受何时拒绝邀请，何时把别人的话当真，何时不。这些暗示也许是词语，手势，面部表情，风俗习惯或者规范，这些都是我们在成长过程中学习得来的，它们跟我们所讲的语言，所接受的信条一样，是我们文化的一部分。我们所有人都依靠这些暗示来获得平静的心情以及高效的生活，而这些暗示的大多数并不是有意识地记住的。

3 Now when an individual enters a strange culture, all or most of these familiar cues are removed. He or she is like a fish out of water. No matter how broad- minded or full of goodwill you may be, a series of props have been knocked from under you, followed by a feeling of frustration and anxiety. People react to the frustration in much the same way. First they reject the environment which causes the dis comfort. “The ways of the host country are bad because they make us feel bad." When foreigners in a strange land get together to grouse about the host country and its people, you can be sure they are suffering from culture shock. Another phase of culture shock is regression. The home environment suddenly assumes a tremendous importance. To the fore18ner everything becomes irrationally glorified. All the difficulties and problems are

forgotten and only the good things back home are remembered. It usually takes a trip home to bring one back to reality.

当一个人进入一个陌生的文化，所有或大多数的暗示消失了。他或她像是离开水的鱼。不管你是多么心胸开阔或者充满友善，你的一系列精神支柱从你身下被抽走，随之而来的是挫败感和焦虑。人们对焦虑的反应大都是相同的方式。首先，他们抵制引起不适的环境。“东道国的习俗不好，因为他们让我感到很糟糕。”当生活在异国他乡的外国人聚到一起抱怨东道国和它的子民时，你可以确定他们正在遭受文化冲击带来的痛苦。另一个文化冲击的阶段是回归。家庭环境突然变得极为重要。对外国人来说，家中的一切都被不合逻辑的美化了。所有的困难和问题都将被遗忘，只记得家中美好的事情。这通常需要回家一趟，才能把他们带回现实中来。

4 Some of the symptoms of culture shock arc excessive washing of the hands, excessive concern over drinking water, food dishes, and bedding; fear of physical contact with attendants, the absent-minded stare; a feeling of helplessness and a desire for dependence on long term residents of one's own nationality; fits of anger over minor frustrations; great concern over minor pains and eruptions of the skin; and finally, that terrible longing to be back home.

文化冲击的一些症状是过多的洗手，过多担心饮用水，食物，和床具；害怕亲自与服务员接触，心不在焉的眼神；无助的感觉和渴望依靠来自本国的长期居住者；因为一点点挫折大动肝火；对轻微疼痛和皮疹的担心；最后，极为渴望回家。

5 Individuals differ greatly in the degrees in which culture shock affects them. Although not common, there are individuals who cannot live in foreign countries. However; those who have seen people go through culture shock and on to a satisfactory adjustment can discern steps in the process. During the first few weeks most individuals are fascinated by the new. They stay in hotels and associate with nationals who speak their 1anguage and are polite and gracious to foreigners. This honeymoon stage may last from a few days or weeks to six months, depending on circumstances. If one is very important, he or she will be shown the show places, will be pampcred and petted, and in a press interview will speak glowingly about goodwill and international friendship.

个人受文化冲击的程度大不相同。尽管这样的现象不普遍，但确实有人不能生活在国外。然而，那些看过人们经历文化冲击到令人满意的适应过程的人，却能辨认出该过程的各个阶段。在最初的几个星期，大多数人都被新鲜感感到着迷。他们待在酒店里，与讲自己国家语言的人交往，并且对外国人礼貌和善。这个蜜月期将持续几天或者几个星期到6个月，依情况而定。如果这个人是重要人物，他将会被安排游览胜地，受到纵容和宠爱，在新闻采访中，他会热情洋溢地谈论友善和国际友谊。

6 But this mentality does not normally last if the foreign visitors remains abroad and has seriously to cope with real conditions of life. It is then that the second stage begins, characterized by a hostile and aggressive attitude toward

the host country. This hostility evidently grows out of the genuine difficulty which the visitor experiences in the process of adjustment. There are house troubles, transportation troubles, shopping troubles, and the fact that people in the host country are largely indifferent to all these troubles. .They help, but they don't understand your great concern over these difficulties. Therefore, they must be insensitive and unsympathetic to you and your worries. The result, “I just don't like them.”You become aggressive, you band together with others from your country and criticize the host country, its ways, and its people. But this criticism is not an objective appraisal. Instead of trying to account for the conditions and the historical circumstances which have created them, you talk as if the difficulties you experience are more or less created by the people of the host country for your special discomfort.

但是这种精神状态不会持续，如果外国造访者仍然留在国外，并且开始认真地对待真实的生活状况。在那时，第二个阶段开始了，以对东道国敌对的，攻击挑衅的态度为特征。这种敌对明显源自在调整过程中遭遇的真正的困难。有房子困难，交通困难，购物困难，以及东道国人对这些困难的漠不关心的事实。他们帮忙，但是他们不能理解你对这些困难的极度担忧。因此，他们对于你和你的困难一定很冷淡，不同情。结果是，“我就是不喜欢他们。”你变得有攻击性，你和来自本国的同伴联系起来，一起评判东道国，他的方式，他的人民。但是这些批评并不是客观的评价。你没有尽力找出造成这些现象的环境因素和历史原因。却认为似乎你经历的这些困难多多少少是东道国的人民为了让你不舒服而特别设置的。

7 You take refuge in the colony of others from your country which often becomes the fountainhead of emotionally charged labels known as stereotypes. This is a peculiar kind of offensive shorthand which caricatures the host country and its people in a negative manner. The “do ll ar grasping American”and the "indolent Latin Americans" are samples of mild forms of stereotypes. The second stage of culture shock is in a sense a crisis in the disease. If you come out of it, you stay; if not, you 1eave before you reach the stage of a nervous breakdown.

你到本国的侨民聚居地寻求庇护，那里通常是那些充满情绪化色彩的绰号的源头，而这些绰号也已成为公式化的名称被人们广为熟知了。这些特殊的带有攻击性色彩的速写，非常夸张地从负面行为上描述了东道国及其人民。“贪财的美国人”，“懒散的拉美人”都是公式化名称中比较温和的例子。文化冲击的第二阶段在某种意义上是疾病的危险期。如果你能摆脱它，你就留下；如果不能，那么在你到达神经衰弱之前赶紧离开吧。

8 If visitors succeed in getting some knowledge of the language and begin to get around by themselves, they are beginning to open the way into the new cultural environment. Visitors still have difficulties but they take a “this is my problem and I have to bear it”attitude. Usually in this stage visitors take a superior attitude to people of the host country. Their sense of humor begins to exert itself. Instead of criticizing, they joke about the people and even crack

jokes about their own difficulties. They are now on the way to recovery.

如果造访者能成功的获得语言方面的知识，并且能独立解决一些困难，那么他们开始打开通往新文化环境的路。造访者仍然会有困难，但是他们采取“这是我的问题，我必须接受它”的态度。通常在这个阶段造访者对东道国的人采取更加友好的态度。他们开始发挥幽默感。不是批评，而是拿周围的人甚至自己遇到的困难开玩笑。他们在恢复的路上。

9 In the fourth stage, your adjustment is about as complete as it can be. The visitor now accepts the customs of the country as just another way of living. You operate within the new surroundings without a feeling of anxiety, although there are moments of social strain. Only with a complete grasp of all the cues of social intercourse will this strain disappear. For a long time the individual will understand what the national is saying but is not always sure what the national means. With a complete adjustment you not only accept the food, drinks, habits, and customs, but actually begin to enjoy them: When you go home on leave, you may even take things back with you; and if you leave for good, you generally miss the country and the people to whom you became accustomed.

第四阶段，适应达到完善的状态。来访者已经把这个国家的习俗当作一种生活方式接受了。在新环境下你应对自如，没有忧虑感，尽管仍然有些社会压力感。只有在你完全掌握社会交往中的所有准则，这些压力才会消失。很长一段时间个人可以知道当地人在说些什么，但是不确定他们具体指什么。在完全适应之后，你不仅接受了他们的食物，饮料，习俗，习惯，而且开始享受其中。当你请假回家时，你甚至会带些东西回去；如果你永远地离开时，你通常会想念这个国家和你已经熟悉的人们。

New Words

1.1 ailment n．轻微的病，小病

1.2，symptom n．症状，病症

2.1．precipitate [pri‵sipiteit] vt.突然陷入，引起

2.2．intercourse n．交际，往来

2.3．cue [kju:]n．提示，暗示，现象

2.4．orient vt.使……适应，调整

2.5．norm n．标准，规范一

3.1．prop n．支柱，支撑物

3.2．frustration n．挫折，失意

3.3．grouse [graus]vi．发牢骚，抱怨

4.1．eruption n．疹子

5.1．gracious adj.和蔼可亲的

5.2．pamper vt.纵容，使……满足

6.1．mentality n．精神，智力

6.2．hostile adj.敌视的，对……不友好的

6.3．aggressive adj.过分的，攻击的‘

6.4．appraisal n．估价，评价

7.1．stereotype n．陈规老套，陈词滥调

7.2．caricature vt.使……变得滑稽，歪曲

7.3．indolent adj.懒惰的，不积极的

Phrases

1.1．thousand and one许许多多的，很多的

6.1．indifferent to对……漠不关心，无所谓

7.1．take refuge避难，躲避

Notes

1．press interview记者采访，新闻采访 2．for good永久，永远