跨文化案例分析参考

Case StudyCase 1In this case, there seemed to be problems in communicating with people of different cultures in spite of the efforts made to achieve understanding.We should know that in Egypt as in many cultures, the human relationship is valued so highly that it is not expressed in an objective and impersonal way. While Americans certainly value human relationships, they are more likely to speak of them in less personal, more objective terms. In this case, Richard‘s mistake mi ght be that he chose to praise the food itself rather than the total evening, for which the food was simply the setting or excuse. For his host and hostess it was as if he had attended an art exhibit and complimented the artist by saying, ―What beautiful frames your pictures are in.‖In Japan the situation may be more complicated. Japanese people value order and harmony among persons in a group, and that the organization itself－be it a family or a vast corporation－is more valued than the characteristics of any particular member. In contrast, Americans stress individuality as a value and are apt to assert individual differences when they seem justifiably in conflict with the goals or values of the group. In this case: Richard‘s mistake was in making great efforts to defend himself. Let the others assume that the errors were not intentional, but it is not right to defend yourself, even when your unstated intent is to assist the group by warning others of similar mistakes. A simple apology and acceptance of the blame would have been appropriate. But for poor Richard to have merely apologized would have seemed to him to be subservient, unmanly.When it comes to England, we expect fewer problems between Americans and Englishmen than between Americans and almost any other group. In this case we might look beyond the gesture of taking sugar or cream to the values expressed in this gesture: for Americans, ―Help yourself‖; for the English counterpart, ―Be my guest.‖ American and English people equally enjoy entertaining and being entertained but they differ somewhat in the value of the distinction. Typically, the ideal guest at an American party is one who ―makes himself at home,‖ even to the point of answering the door or fixing his own drink. For persons in many other societies, including at least this hypothetical English host, such guest behavior is presumptuous or rude.Case 2A common cultural misunderstanding in classes involves conflicts between what is said to be direct communication style and indirect communication style. In American culture, people tend to say what is on their minds and to mean what they say. Therefore, students in class are expected to ask questions when they need clarification. Mexican culture shares this preference of style with American culture in some situations, and that‘s why the students from Mexico readily adopted the techniques of asking questions in class. However, Korean people generally prefer indirect communication style, and therefore they tend to not say what is on their minds and to rely more on implications and inference, so as to be polite and respectful and avoid losing face through any improper verbal behavior. As is mentioned in the case, to many Koreans, numerous questions would show a disrespect for the teacher, and would also reflect that the student has not studied hard enough.Case 3The conflict here is a difference in cultural values and beliefs. In the beginning, Mary didn‘trealize that her Dominican sister saw her as a member of the family, literally. In theDominican view, family possessions are shared by everyone of the family. Luz was acting as most Dominican sisters would do in borrowing without asking every time. Once Mary understood that there was a different way of looking at this, she would become more accepting. However, she might still experience the same frustration when this happened again. She had to find ways to cope with her own emotional cultural reaction as well as her practical problem (the batteries running out).Case 4It might be simply a question of different rhythms. Americans have one rhythm in their persona land family relations, in their friendliness and their charities. People from other cultures have different rhythms. The American rhythm is fast. It is characterized by a rapid acceptance of others. However, it is seldom that Americans engage themselves entirely in a friendship. Their friendships are warm, but casual, and specialized. For example, you have a neighbor who drops by in the morning for coffee. You see her frequently, but you never invite her for dinner --- not because you don‘t think she could handle a fork and a knife, but because you have seen her that morning. Therefore, you reserve your more formal invitation to dinner for someone who lives in a more distant part of the city and whom you would not see unless you extended an invitation for a special occasion. Now, if the first friend moves away and the second one moves nearby, you are likely to reverse this --- see the second friend in the mornings for informal coffee meetings, and the first one you will invite more formally to dinner.Americans are, in other words, guided very often by their own convenience. They tend to make friends easily, and they don‘t feel it necessary to go to a great a mount of trouble to see friends often when it becomes inconvenient to do so, and usually no one is hurt. But in similar circumstance speople from many other cultures would be hurt very deeply.Case 5In China, it is often not polite to accept a first offer and Heping was being modest, polite and well-behaved and had every intention of accepting the beer at the second or third offer. But he had not figured on North American rules which firmly say that you do not push alcoholic beverages on anyone. A person may not drink for religious reasons, he may be a reformed alcoholic, or he may be allergic. Whatever the reason behind the rule, you do not insist in offering alcohol. So unconscious and so strong are their cultural rules that the Americans equally politely never made a second offer of beer to Heping who probably thought North Americans most uncouth. However, what we have to remember is that cultures are seldom a strict either-or in every instance for all people and there are always individual differences. Probably this young Chinese nurse was very different from Heping or, unlike Heping, she may have known something about the American cultural rules and was just trying to behave like an American when she was in an American family.Case 6When a speaker says something to a hearer, there are at least three kinds of meanings involved: ut terance meaning, speaker‘s meaning and hearer‘s meaning. In the dialogue, when Litz said ‗How long is she going to stay?‘ she meant to say that if she knew how long her mother-in-law was going to stay in Finland, she would be able to make proper arrangements for her, such as taking her out to do some sightseeing. However, her mother-in-law overheard the conversation, and took Litz‘s question to mean ―Litz does not want me to stay for long‖. From the Chinese point of view, it seems to be inappropriate for Litz to ask such a question just two days after hermother-in-law‘s arrival. If she feels she has to ask the question, it would be better to ask some time later and she should not let her mother-in-law hear it.Case 7Keiko insists on giving valuable gifts to her college friends, because in countries like Japan, exchanging gifts is a strongly rooted social tradition. Should you receive a gift, and don‘t have one to offer in return, you will probably create a crisis. If not as serious as a crisis, one who doesn‘t offer a gift in return may be considered rude or impolite. Therefore, in Japan, gifts are a symbolic way to show appreciation, respect, gratitude and further relationship.Keiko obviously has taken those used items from Mary, Ed and Marion as gifts, for she probably doesn‘t know that Americans frequently donate their used household items to church or to the community. Mary, Ed and Marion would never consider those used household items given to Keiko as gifts. No wonder they felt very uncomfortable when they received valuable gifts in return.Case 8As the Chinese girl Amy fell in love with an American boy at that time, it seems that she preferred to celebrate Christmas in the American way, for she wanted very much to appear the same as other American girl. She did not like to see her boyfriend feel disappointed at the ―shabby Chinese Christmas. That‘s why she cried when she found out her parents had invited the minister ‘s family over for the Christmas Eve dinner. She thought the menu for the Christmas meal created by her mother a strange one because there were no roast turkey and sweet potatoes but only Chinese food. How could she notice then the foods chosen by her mother were all her favorites?From this case, we can find a lot of differences between the Chinese and Western cultures in what is appropriate food for a banquet, what are good table manners, and how one should behave to be hospitable. However, one should never feel shameful just because one‘s culture is different from o thers‘. As Amy‘s mother told her, you must be proud to be different, and your only shame is to have shame.Case 9Hierarchy is significant in the Japanese culture. This structure is reflected everywhere in Japanese life, at home, school, community, organizations, and traditional institutions such as martial arts or flower arrangements.In this case, the young chairman must have had his own ideas about how to manage the company; however, when encountered with his grandfather‘s dissenting opinions, he dared not to take a stand against him. This may manifest the rigid hierarchical structure in the Japanese society. In the Japanese society, how hierarchy is formed depends mainly on seniority, social roles, and gender. As a respectable senior member of the family and the former leader of the company, the grandfather obviously overpowered the inexperienced young chairman. In other words, the grandfather seemed to be an absolute authority for the young chairman. In Japanese culture, challenging or disagreeing with elders‘ opinions would be deemed as being disrespectful and is often condemned. People in lower positions are expected to be loyal and obedient to authority. That‘s why the young chairm an didn‘t say anything but just nodded and agreed with his grandfather.But Phil seemed to know little about the Japanese culture in this aspect. In many Western cultures, particularly American culture, seniority seldom matters very much in such situations, and youngpeople are usually encouraged to challenge authority and voice their own opinions. Unfortunately, his outspoken protest could easily offend the grandfather and he might be regarded as a rude and ill-bred person by other Japanese.Case 10In Japan, a company is often very much like a big family, in which the manger(s) will take good care of the employees and the employees are expected to devote themselves to the development of the company and, if it is necessary, to sacrifice their own individual interests for the interests of the company, from which, in the long run, the employees will benefit greatly. But for the French, a company is just a loosely- knit social organization wherein individuals are supposed to take care of themselves and their families. Moreover, the way the French make decisions in the family might also be different from the typical Japanese one, which may not often involve females and the power to decide usually lies with the dominating male. As there are such cultural differences between the Japanese and the French, Mr. Legrand‘s decision made Mr. Tanaka feel dumbfounded.Case 11Incidents such as these can point to possible cultural differences in so-called ―polite‖ behavior, and at the same time highlight the tendency for people to react emotionally to unexpected behavior. People in most cultures would probably agree that an apology is needed when an offence or violation of social norms has taken place. However, there may be differing opinions as to when we should apologize (what situations call for an apology) and how we should apologize. To many Westerners, Japanese apologize more frequently and an apology in Japanese does not necessarily mean that the person is acknowledging a fault. To many Japanese, Westerners may seem to be rude just because they do not apologize as often as the Japanese would do. In this case, for instance, the attitude of the Australian student‘s parents is shocking to the Japanese but will be acceptable in an English-speaking society, for the student is already an adult and can be responsible for her own deeds.Case 12In this case, it seems that the Chinese expectations were not fulfilled. First, having two people sharing host responsibilities could be somewhat confusing to the hierarchically minded Chinese. Second, because age is often viewed as an indication of seniority, the Chinese might have considered the youth of their Canadian hosts as slight to their own status. Third, in China, it is traditional for the host to offer a welcome toast at the beginning of the meal, which is the reciprocated by the guests; by not doing so, the Canadian might be thought rude. The abrupt departure of the Chinese following the banquet was probably an indication that they were not pleased with the way they were treated. The Canadians‘ lack of understanding of the Chinese culture and the Chinese ways of communication clearly cost them in their business dealings with the visiting delegation.Case 13This example vividly illustrates that failures in intercultural translation may probably lead to very serious consequence, or even disasters to human beings. Definitely, translation is not such a simple process as rendering a word, a sentence or a text literally, but rather a far more complex one than most people assumed.For example, once a Chinese cosmetic manufacturer化妆品制造商wanted to promote theirproducts into the international market. The slogan 标语of the advertisement was: ―sweet as Jade‖, since in Chinese ―jad e玉was always employed to compliment恭维woman‘s beauty; but unfortunately, it was not an appropriate word to describe the beauty of a lady in Western cultures. In English, ―jade‖ in its use of referring a woman had the connotations内涵such as vulgar庸俗, rude, immoral, or skittish. Undoubtedly, the sales in European countries were not satisfying.The seeming equivalents等价物between languages may have very different connotations in different cultures, thus the translator should be cautious in the process of doing the translation so as to avoid misunderstandings.Case 14Case 15The translation seems to be faithful to the original, but it may not be really good for the purpose of intercultural communication. Foreign readers of the translation may find it strange and inappropriate.The following is what a friendly American journalist has commented on the translation:My first reaction was unfortunately laughter because it is so full of mistakes. It omits some necessary information about the Dragon-Boat Festival, including its historical origins and when it actually takes place. These things are important… The copy seems to try to ―snow‖ the reader with fanciful, overblown assertions about how terrific it all is, but in unintentionally hilarious language that leaves the re ader laughing out uninformed… The brochure also suffers from lack of background material, the taking-if-for-granted that the reader already is familiar with many aspects of Chinese history and culture…It doesn‘t tell you where to go, how to get there, whe n things are open and closed, how much they cost, and so forth. All these are things people visiting an area want to know.Why is it that many Chinese travel guides read basically the same, no matter what region is being written about, and are so packed with indiscriminate hyperbole? Less exaggeration would actually be more convincing.Case 16Case 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 Richardson is 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 difficult to 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 causedhim to 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 a western 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, he had 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 impolitely by forcing t em 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 no t 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 is just 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 bout a problem.Case 20It seems that the letters of request written in English as well as in Chinese by Chinese people are 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 to come 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.Case 21Sometimes our best intentions can lead to breakdowns故障in cross-cultural communication. For example, one of the very common manners of touching --- handshaking --- may result in conflict when 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 his friend‘s right arm. However, to people of Middle Eastern countries, the left hand is profane亵渎and touching someone with it is highly offensive. Therefore, in V ernon‘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 for a 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. As the 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 messages: 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 thought they 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 of touch. 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 astudy offer some interesting insight into this matter. Pairs of individuals sitting and chatting in college shops in different countries were observed for at least one hour each. The number of times that 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 in different cultures.Case 25For people from t he American culture and western European cultures, one‘s time should be scheduled into segments or compartments which are to be kept discrete from one another. They prefer to do one thing at a time. They will be annoyed when they have made an appointment with somebody, only to find a lot of other things going on at the same time. They don‘t like to interrupt others and be interrupted by other while they are doing something. In contrast, people from many other cultures including the Chinese culture are more likely to operate with several people, ideas, or matters simultaneously. They are more easily distracted and subject to interruptions, which theywould not usually mind very much. The miscommunication between Katherine and the director can be ascribed t o their lack of knowledge about each other‘s way of using time.In this case, to the Chinese director as well as many other Chinese people, it is natural to handle the other things which needed to be dealt with immediately. He may have thought that, in this way, he utilized the time best. But to Katherine and most Westerners, it‘s quite different. They tend to do things strictly according to their schedule and appointments with others, which is their concept of using time best.Case 26Jack felt his privacy violated when he saw Magid standing at the door. It was absolutely a big‗surprise‘ for Jack---a surprise deviated偏离from the giver‘s real intention, and jack immediately showed his emotion as a conditioned reflex ,which wrote on the look ,saying ― I am completely not happy to see you ‖. A few seconds later, he smiled and said,‖ Hi, Magid, come on in.‖ This obvious change on his face was certainly noticed by Magid. Then, during the whole afternoon, they had coffee and chatted. It seemed they had a nice time together. However, it turned out that they both felt a little uncomfortable. I guess. Jack, out of politeness, had to pretend he was very happy to see Magid, but from the bottom of his heart, he was so displeased with this dear old friend for not having phoned to say he was coming that he might have expressed his unhappiness from time to time through nonverbal messages, such as facial expressions, hand movements and body postures. These messages might contradict his words. Magid could more or less perceive this subtle awkwardness that he might be perplexed about. Here‘s one thing I don‘t understand. As Magid was aware of the embarrassment between Jack and him, why did he choose to stay such a long time at Jack‘s instead of leaving earlie r ?Next time, Magid should call his friend first to make sure it‘s a right time to pay a visit when he wants to see Jack.Case 27We Chinese people usually attach great importance to taking good care of our guests. We often go out of our way to make a guest feel comfortable, and our kindness often knows no bound when it comes to a foreign visitor. But westerners including North Americans are trained to spend timealone and to do things for themselves from the time they are still very young. Therefore, they may feel uncomfortable when they are always surrounded by people attempting to be kind to them. Hospitality itself may be something universal, but the form and amount of hospitality differ greatly from culture to culture.Case 28The most striking feature of the Japanese house was lack of privacy; the lack of individual, inviolable space. In winter, when the fusuma were kept closed, any sound above a whisper was clearly audible on the other side, and of course in summer they were usually removed altogether. It is impossible to live under such conditions for very long without a common household identity emerging which naturally takes precedence over individual wishes.Although it has become a standard practice in modern Japan for children to have their own rooms, many middle-aged and nearly all older Japanese still live in this way. They regard themselves as ―one flesh‖, their property as common to all; the uchi(household, home) is constituted according to a principle of indivisibility. The system of moveable screen means that the rooms could be used by all the family and for all purposes: walls are built round the uchi, not inside it.Case 29From their experiences of sending some young people to be educated at the colleges run by the white people, the Indians concluded that it was no good doing so, for those young people who had been taught in the colleges returned home obviously incapable of making a living in the woods where the Indians lived. Just as their speaker said, ―different nations have different conceptions of things‖, what is good education for one may not be good for another.In this case, both the white people (the Virginia Government) and the Indians were ethnocentric. However the white people, by offering a fund for educating Indian youth, were more ethnocentric than the Indians, as they seemed to believe that their learning and sciences were without doubt superior to the Indians‘ learning. They didn‘t expect that what they considered as good for the Indian youth would be taken as ―totally good for nothing‖ by the Indians, to whom, the white people‘s learning and sciences could be inapplicable in their living environment and irrelevant to the way they preferred to live. On the other hand, the Indians were also somewhat ethnocentric when they implied that their education was better by asking the white people to send their sons to be educated by the Indians and promising that they would be able to ―make men of them‖ through instructing them in all the Indians knew. Besides, the Indians, because of their limited scope of knowledge and experience, didn‘t realize that they could also learn something use ful from the white people..Case 30It is said that the event which really marked a dividing point in Western images of China was the visit of U. S. President Richard Nixon to China in February 1972. ―A week that changed the world‖ was Nixon‘s charact erization of his own trip and his view was shared by many Americans, because it symbolized that the U. S. no longer regarded China as a major enemy, perhaps even not as an enemy at all. Images of contemporary China were changed drastically in the process. That was the time when color television came into widespread use in the Western world, and when television achieved an undoubted lead over every other medium as a formation of popular images. Much of Nixon‘s visit to China was telecast as it w as happening. Journalists and China specialists。