2015年--河海大学研究生英语一-Unit-20---Culture-Shock

Unit 20 Culture Shock

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.

文化休克或许可以称为是突然移居国外的人的一种职业病。像大多数疾病一样，它有自己的征兆和治疗。

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.

文化休克是突发的由于失去所有我们熟悉的社会交往的标志和象征而导致的焦虑。这些标志或者准则，包括我们调整自己使得适应每天生活环境的许多方式：何时握手，遇到他人说些什么，何时以及如何给小费，如何购物，何时接受或拒绝邀请，何时严肃地做出评论，何时不用。这些准则，可能是语言、手势、面部表情、社会风俗或者规范准则，是在我们在成长的过程中获得的，就像我们所说的语言或接受的信仰一样，成为我们文化的一部分。我们都依靠思想的平和和许多准则的效率，其中大部分不在我们潜意识水平上。

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 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 discomfort. “The ways of the host country are bad because they made 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 foreigner 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.

当一个人进入到一个陌生的文化时，全部或者大部分这些熟悉的准则消失了。他或者她就像一条离开了水的鱼。不管你有多么的思想开放，抑或多么的友好善良，经历沮丧和焦虑之后，你心底的一系列支柱被敲击。人们对挫折的反应大致相同。首先，他们拒绝带给他不适的环境。“这个国家很坏，因为它让我感觉很坏”。当在一个陌生的地方的外国人，聚在一起抱怨这个国家和它的人民，你可以确信他们正遭受文化休克。文化休克的另一个时期是回归。家庭环境突然假定为具有巨大的重要性。对外国人来说，一切都变成非理性的美化。所有的困

难和问题被遗忘，只记得回家这个美好念头。通常需要回国一趟才能把他带回现实。

Some of the symptoms of culture shock are 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.

文化休克的一些症状是：过度的洗手。过度的关注饮用水、食物、床上用品；恐惧与服务员有身体接触；失神凝望；无助感以及渴望依赖在这里长期居住的同国籍的人；遇到小挫折就引发阵怒；对轻微的疼痛和皮疹太关注；最后一点，极度渴望重返家园。

Individuals differ greatly in the degree 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 language 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 shown the showplaces, will be pampered and petted, and in a press interview will speak glowingly about goodwill and international friendship.

个人遭受文化休克所带来的影响程度有着很大的不同。虽然不常见，确实有人无法再国外生活。然而，那些看到人们克服文化休克并处于满意的调整，可以将过程分解为几步。在最初的几周里，大部分人着迷于新鲜事物。他们住在旅馆里，和会讲他们语言、对待外国人礼貌而亲切的国民交流。这种蜜月期可能会持续短则几天或几周，多则六个月，视环境而定。如果是一个很重要的人物，他或她会被带到旅游景点，被纵容宽爱，在记者招待会上将热情洋溢地畅谈友好亲善和国际间的友谊。

But this mentality does not normally last if the foreign visitor 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.

但如果外国游客留在外国，认真应对真正的生活环境，这种心态通常不会持续。然后,第二阶段开始了，其特点是对东道国的敌对和攻击性的态度。这种敌意显然产生于游客在调整适应过程中经历的真正困难。有住房问题、交通问题、购物问题，还有事实上东道国的人们往往不会关心这些问题。他们会帮助，但他们不理解你对于这些困难关注。因此，他们肯定对你和你的忧虑表现出麻木与冷漠无情。结果，“我就是不喜欢他们。”你变得咄咄逼人,你与来自祖国的其他人团结起来，批评东道国，它的方式和它的人民。但这种批评不是一个客观的评价。你谈论所说就好像你遭遇的困难或多或少都是由东道国的人民给你带来的的特殊不舒适感，而不是试图解释产生它们的条件和历史环境。

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”dollar 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 leave before you reach the stage of a nervous breakdown.

你离开祖国来到其他国家的侨民地避难。祖国通常成为人们熟知固定框框的感情上指责标签的源头。以消极的方式将东道国及其人民化成讽刺漫画，这是一种独特的进攻性的速记法。“把握美国的美元”和“懒惰的拉丁美洲人”是固定框框的轻微形式的例子，文化休克的第二阶段在疾病中处于危机感。如果你挺过来了，你留下来；如果没有，在达到紧张崩溃阶段前，你得离开。

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.

如果游客成功地获得一些语言知识，并开始四处走走，他们就开始打开进入新文化环境之门。游客仍有困难，但他们持有一个“这是我的难题，我必须得去承受”的态度。通常在这个阶段，游客采取一个优越于东道国人民的的态度。他们开始发挥幽默感。不是批评，他们开人们的玩笑，甚至拿他们自己的困难讲笑话。他们现在正在康复中。

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 good, 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.

在第四阶段，你的调整基本上尽可能的完全了。游客现在接受了作为另外一种生活方式的该国风俗。你在新的环境活动而不感觉焦虑，虽然有瞬间的社会压力。只有一个完整的掌握所有的准则的社会交往中，这种压力才会消失。对一个人来说，要花上很长的时间，才会明白国民说的，但不总能确切知道国家的意思。当你完全调整适应了，你不仅接受了吃的、喝的、习惯和风俗，而且事实上开始享受它们。当你休假回国时，你甚至可能带点东西回去；如果你要永远离开，你通常会想念你已经适应了的这个国家和它的人民。