黑龙江大学跨文化案例分析Cases

Case 2:White DressCase analysis: The Indian women might think the wedding ceremony is a funeral if they see the western brid e in white gown. The case reflects the similes and metaphors in the text. Culture is like an iceberg: we can ide ntify the color of the dress worn by women in different cultures, but we do not know the values underneath. C ulture is like the water a fish swims in: people wear dress of different colors for different context but they usu ally take it for granted and never ask why.Case 4:Coconut-skating（用椰油保养地板的方法）The case reflects the characteristics of culture. We can tell from the case that culture is pervasive and it’s lear ned. People may invent different ways for things even as simple as the issue of floor moping. The Philippine w oman must have learned this way of mopping from her own culture.Case 12: Why Don’t You Eat the Pizza?This case can reflect the problems appearing during intercultural communication and how ignoring cultural diff erences can affect communication. In Malaysia, where most people are Muslims, people think the left hand i s used only for cleaning the body and thus it is dirty and can not be used to pass food. Knowing nothing abou t the cultural difference, the American student puts himself in an embarrassing situation. Chapter 3 Culture’s I nfluence on PerceptionCase 16: Different Responses to NoiseThis case can reflect different culture can give different influences on human sensation. No two of people ca n assume that their sensations are the same, especially when they come from different cultures. Different soci al reality and living conditions can equip them with different way to sense the world. So it is very common fo r them to have totally different sensations even towards the same condition. In this case, the German profess or and Japanese professor have very different response to the noise produced by the same motor for the heat ing system because of their cultures and living habits.Case 21: A Danish Woman in New YorkThis case can reflect assuming similarity instead of difference. When communicating with people from anothe r culture, one is likely to regard and treat other people as “his people”and to assume there must be only on e way of doing things: that is “his way”. In this case, the Danish woman assumes that her behavior of leavin g the baby alone, which is common in Denmark, is also appropriate in New York. Here, she assumes what is s uitable in her own culture is also indisputable in another culture. That is why the small conflict happens.Case 23:Girl-nessThis case can reflect one of the translation problems: the lack of conceptual equivalence, which refers to abstr act ideas that may not exist in the same fashion in different languages. Different cultures may attach differen t meanings to the same thing or person. Concerning this case, we should know what young females call them selves is very different in China from the States. In China, "girl" means someone who is young and single. In a way, it makes a female sound more desirable to be called a girl rather than a woman. For most people, "w oman" means someone who is married and who probably is not young. In fact, most single Chinese female s, such as university students, would be insulted to be called "women". While in the West, in formal, public settings, it is customary to call any woman who is past puberty a woman, even though she may not be legally ol d enough to vote, marry, purchase alcoholic beverages, drive a car, or sign a contract. This terminology beca me widespread during the "women's liberation movement in the 1960s". The term "'girl" is sometimes interpre ted to be demeaning or disrespectful.Case 24:An Unfair DecisionThis case reflects prejudice, which involves an unfair, biased, or intolerant attitude towards another group of p eople. In this case, Mr. Bias decided to select someone else, instead of applicant from the country Levadel, fo r the position. That is just because he holds prejudice towards people from the country Levadel.Case 25:Success StoryOne of the sources of the frustration and misunderstandings that occurred in this case was different notions o f what was verbally relevant. In this case, Mary was expecting a much more direct response to her questio n. Ms. Goshima, however, was uncomfortable with the question and felt her response should be very indirec t and establish a proper sense of modesty before revealing the answer to the question. If Mary had been mor e patient, she would have eventually heard the answer to her question, but she was not really paying attentio n when it finally came because she felt that Ms. Goshima's comments weren't really relevant to her query.Case 33:Are Americans Indifferent?This case can reflect different nonverbal communication patterns exist in the actual intercultural communicatio n, especially facial expression differ according to different pared to most Chinese, Americans lik e to smile a lot and to have causal and rich facial expressions in their daily lives, even though they have som e misfortune. In this case, because of the different opinions about facial expressions in intercultural communic ation, the American lady talked about her father’s sickness and death in a smiling way to show she still has th e optimistic way to treat the future life, which is misunderstood as being indifferent and selfish by the Chines e.Case 36:Don’t Put Your Hand on My ArmThis case can reflect different cultures have different opinions to spatial relations. Different cultures have ver y different opinions about an individual’s unconsciously structuring the microspace immediately surrounding th e physical body. Some cultures can have relatively close distance when communicating while other cultures ca nnot. Some western cultures consider body touch between people of the same gender to be cultural taboo an d a symbol of being homosexual.In this case, Sam is from western cultures and knows the social taboo of bod y touch very clearly,so he wouldn’t let others misunderstand Mark’s close body distance and touch with hi m, even though Mark from Chile doesn’t know the cultural taboo at all.Case 41: Getting FrustratedJay was frustrated in large part because many of the norms he was used to didn't apply in Saudi Arabia, and many Saudi norms did not make sense to him. Much of the business done in Saudi Arabia depends on baksh eesh, a type of kickback to a middleman (and it is a man), who facilitates contacts between potential busines s partners. The middleman is doing a service and expects to get paid for it. The more baksheesh the person gi ves, the more likely it is that the person will succeed, because the middleman will be sure to treat him very w ell. Giving baksheesh is a norm in the Saudi business community. In addition, Saudis believe that God gave us multifunctional hands and that the hand is our best tool for eating. However, they are also concerned with h ygiene. They reserve the left hand for cleaning themselves and use the right hand for eating. Saudis have a n umber of norms related to restricting male and female interaction that, within the context of their religious bel iefs, make perfect sense but would be very inappropriate to most Westerners.Case 43: The Improvement Does Not WorkFollowing their individualistic orientations, Mr. Patterson and Mr. Wyman were perfectly comfortable with the i dea of creating team leaders within the individual sales groups. However, as Park Young Sam mentions, doin g so upset the harmony of the groups, which in turn led to poor performance. In the United States, workers a re often motivated by the opportunity for promotion and advancement as this serves the individualistic drive f or individual achievement. In collectivistic cultures, however, workers may be motivated by being a part of a c ohesive and productive team. Individualism and collectivism are terms that describe whole cultures. But cultur es are not pure. Members of collectivist cultures may practice individualistic tendencies while members of indi vidualist cultures may value collectivist ideals. For example, Denmark is a country with both collectivistic and i ndividualistic tendencies. In Denmark, individual freedom is nurtured through a devotion to established traditi ons and customs. Regarding income and social rank, Danes are staunchly egalitarian. At the same time, howe ver, Danes consider themselves free to be nonconformist and to stand out from the group. In this way, Dane s may be at the theoretical midpoint of the individualism and collectivism cultural continuum.Case 44:When Shall We Meet For Dinner?Uncertainty avoidance orientation can be seen in this case. In the dialogue presented below,Kelly and Keiko ar e interacting about a dinner invitation. Kelly, from the United States, possesses a relatively low uncertainty av oidance index, while Keiko, from Japan, comes from a culture with a relatively high uncertainty avoidance ind ex.In the dialogue above, Keiko is confused by Kelly’s easygoing attitude toward the evening’s plans. Comin g from a high uncertainty-avoidant culture, Keiko would prefer to plan ahead to avoid uncertainty and prepar e her script for the evening. Kelly, on the other hand, is perfectly comfortable making plans based on how th e evening progresses. Without a plan, how will Keiko know how to act?Case 48:Gift from a ChineseChinese people love giving gifts. Usually, the value of the gift is an indication of how important the receiver i s in the sender’s eyes. Most people giving gifts are concerned about whether the gift will be seen as valuabl e enough. An inexpensive gift means a loss of face.Dongxie may have a practical reason in giving the ginsen g to his manager, but most Chinese will take it as something usual for a subordinate to do this to a manager o ut of a sign of respect.North American companies do occasionally receive gifts out of appreciation for the frien dship and assistance the manager may provide. Such gifts are treasured; however, the value usually is fairly s mall, a bottle of wine, a music CD, a small book, or other tokens.Case 50:Refuse to Be Treated?In the case just described, the U.S. American medical team system for making sense of the situation demande d that people be seen in order of the seriousness of their injuries or illness. Each person was considered as wo rthwhile as the next, and so seriousness of injury appeared to be a natural way to determine who was seen fir st. However, the cultural system working for those on the Virgin Islands demanded that elders be seen and tr eated first. Their position, age, and wisdom demanded respect. For younger members of the community to go ahead of them in a time of crisis was seen as extremely disrespectful.The conflict centered on efforts by eac h side to do what they perceived as good and morally responsible. Because the U.S. Americans were in a bett er position to adapt than an entire community that had just suffered great loss and were under extreme stres s, it was good that they were willing to do so. Sadly, this is not always the case.Case 54: A Fish out of WaterThis case reflects that the boy is experiencing culture shock, which may bring him some psychological sympto ms. Culture shock is virtually a communication problem which involves the depressed feelings accompanying a lack of understanding of the verbal and nonverbal communication of the host culture, its customs, as wel l as its value systems. Culture shock happens when people have to deal with a huge amount of new perceptu al stimuli that are difficult to understand and interpret because the cultural context has changed. In this cas e, when the American student feels that his familiar cues from his native culture is removed, he becomes to re ject the new environment and he displays some psychological symptoms due to culture shock.Case 55:Missing China!This case can reflect reverse culture shock. When people return home after an extended stay in a foreign cult ure, they experience another round of culture shock in their native culture and they must proceed through th e four stages of the U-curve pattern once again. In this case, John, whose comes from Canada, has been livin g in China for quite a long time and he has got familiar with the Chinese culture. Therefore, when he returns t o Canada, he cannot adapt well to his native culture.。