新编跨文化交际案例分析

Unit 5Culture and Verbal CommunicationCase 17When these two men separate, they may leave each other with very different impressions.Mr Richardson is very pleased to have made the acquaintance of Mr Chu and feels they have gotten off to a very good start. They have established their relationship on a first-name basis and Mr Chu‘s smile seemed to indicate that he will be friendly and easy to do business with. Mr Richardsonis particularly pleased that he had treated Mr Chu with respect for his Chinese background by calling him Hon-fai rather than using the western name, David, which seemed to him an unnecessary imposition of western culture.In contrast, Mr Chu feels quite uncomfortable with Mr Richardson. He feels it will be difficultto work with him, and that Mr Richardson might be rather insensitive to cultural differences. He is particularly bothered that, instead of calling him David or Mr Chu, Mr Richardson used his given name, Hon-fai, the name rarely used by anyone, in fact. It was this embarrassment which caused himto smile. He would feel more comfortable if they called each other Mr Chu and Mr Richardson. Nevertheless, when he was away at school in North America he learned that Americans feel uncomfortable calling people Mr for any extended period of time. His solution was to adopt awestern name. He chose David for use in such situations.Case 18Even if the American knew Urdu, the language spoken in Pakistan, he would also have to understand the culture of communication in that country to respond appropriately. In this case, hehad to say ―No at least three times.In some countries, for instance, the Ukraine, it may happen that a guest is pressed as many as seven or eight times to take more food, whereas in the UK it would be unusual to do so more than twice. For a Ukrainian, to do it the British way would suggest the person is not actually generous. Indeed, British recipients of such hospitality sometimes feel that their host is behaving impolitelyby forcing them into a bind, since they run out of polite refusal strategies long before the Ukrainian host has exhausted his/her repertoire of polite insistence strategies.Case 19Talking about what‘s wrong is not easy for people in any culture, but people in high-context countries like China put high priority on keeping harmony, preventing anyone from losing face, and nurturing the relationship. It seems that Ron Kelly had to learn a different way of sending message when he was in China. At home in Canada he would have gone directly to the point. But in China, going directly to the problem with someone may suggest that he or she has failed to live up to his or her responsibility and the honor of his or her organization is in question. In high-context cultures like China, such a message is serious and damaging. In low-context cultures, however, the tendency isjust to ―spit it out, to get it into words and worry about the result later. Senders of unwelcome messages use objective facts, assuming, as with persuasion, that facts are neutral, instrumental, and impersonal. Indirectness is often the way members of high-context cultures choose to communicate about a problem.Case 20It seems that the letters of request written in English as well as in Chinese by Chinese peopleare likely to preface the request with extended face-work. To Chinese people, the normal and polite way to form a request requires providing reasons that are usually placed before the requests. Of course, this is just the inverse of English conventions in which requests are fronted without much face-work. In the view of the English-speaking people, the opening lines of Chinese requests and some other speech acts do not usually provide a thesis or topic statement which will orient the listener to the overall direction of the communication. Worst of all, the lack of precision and the failure to address the point directly may lead to suspicions that the Chinese speakers are beating around the bush. To them, the presence of a clear and concise statement of what is to be talked about will make the speech more precise, more dramatic, and more eloquent.However, the Chinese learning and using English in communication may find it difficult tocome to terms with the common English tendency to begin with a topic statement. In the Chinese culture, stating one‘s request or main point at the beginning would make the person seem immodest,pushy, and inconsiderate for wanting things. If your speech gives others the impression that you are demanding something, you would lose face for acting aggressively and not considering the others.Thus you‘d be hurting people by claiming something for yourself.In such a situation, it is usually considered a smart strategy if you carefully delineate the justifications that will naturally lead to your request or argument. Therefore, instead of stating their proposition somewhere in the beginning and then proceeding to build their case, Chinese people often first establish a shared context with which to judge their requests or arguments. Only after carefully prefacing them with an avalanche of relevant details, as if to nullify any opposition, will they present the requests or arguments.Unit 6Culture and Nonverbal CommunicationCase 21Sometimes our best intentions can lead to breakdowns in cross-cultural communication. For example, one of the very common manners of touching --- handshaking --- may result in conflictwhen performed with no consideration of cultural differences. Among middle-class North American men, it is customary to shake hands as a gesture of friendship. When wanting to communicate extra friendliness, a male in the United States may, while shaking hands, grasp with his left hand hisfriend‘s right arm. However, to people of Middle Eastern countries, the left hand is profane and touching someone with it is highly offensive. Therefore, in Vernon‘s eyes, Kenneth was actually an extremely offensive message to him.Case 22In Puerto Rican culture, as in some other Latin American and Eastern cultures, it is not right fora child to keep an eye-contact with an adult who is accusing him or her, while in the United States, failing of meeting other person‘s eye accusing him or her would be taken as a sign of guiltiness. Asthe principal knew little about this cultural difference in using eye-contact, he decided that the girl must be guilty. Generally speaking, avoiding eye-contact with the other(s) is often considered as an insult in some cultures, but may signify respect for authority and obedience in other cultures.Case 23Just like smile, laughing does not always serve the same function in different cultures. Interestingly, for us Chinese, laughing often has a special function on some tense social occasions. People may laugh to release the tension or embarrassment, to express their concern about you, their intention to put you at ease or to help you come out of the embarrassment. In this case, the people there were actually wishing to laugh with the American rather than laugh at her. Their laughing seemed to convey a number of mess ages: don‘t take it so seriously; laugh it off, it‘s nothing; such things can happen to any of us, etc. Unfortunately the American was unaware of this. She thoughtthey were laughing at her, which made her feel more badly and angry, for in her culture laughing on such an occasion would be interpreted as an insulting response, humiliating and negative.Case 24It is obvious that there exists some difference between the British and Germans in their use oftouch. The lack of touch that seems to be natural in Britain may be considered strange by Germans. What is required (in this case, shaking hands with each other) in one country could be taken as unnecessary in another.The appropriateness of contact between people varies from country to country. Figures from a study offer some interesting insight into this matter. Pairs of individuals sitting and chatting incollege shops in different countries were observed for at least one hour each. The number of timesthat either one touched the other in that one hour was recorded, as follows: in London, 0; in Florida, 2; in Paris, 10; in Puerto Rico, 180. These figures indicate that touch is used very differently indifferent cultures.。