发布时间 : 星期日 文章跨文化交际英语思考题目更新完毕开始阅读
Part One Defining Culture
一． 讨论题
1. How do you think culture and communication are related?
2. What are the barriers you experienced in intercultural communication? And how did you
handle them?
3. Work in groups to decide which of the following belong to overt culture and which to covert:
A. What and how people eat B. How to keep healthy C. How to raise children D. How to do business E. How to use time
F. How to introduce people
G. How to participate in ceremonies
H. Rules for facial expressions and eye contact I. Rituals J. Etiquette K. Work speed
L. What is right or wrong, beautiful or ugly, clean or dirty, good or bad, etc. M. Theories of disease, sin, death, god or gods, sanity, self, etc.
4. Can you add more to the above list? Which of them do you think are more likely to cause problems in intercultural communication? And why do you think they are?
二、分析、解答题
Please read the following example (taken from Scollon & Scollon, 2000) and study how communication is affected by culture.
Two men meet on a plane from Tokyo to Hong Kong. Chu Hon-fei is a Hong Kong exporter who is returning from a business trip to Japan. Andrew Richardson is an American buyer on his first business trip to Hong Kong. It Is a convenient meeting for them because Mr. Chu‘s company sells some of the products Mr. Richardson has some to Hong Kong to buy. After a bit of conversation they introduce themselves to each other.
Mr. Richardson: By the way, I‘m Andrew Richardson. My friends call me Andy. This is my business card.
Mr. Chu: I‘m David Chu. Pleased to meet you, Mr. Richardson. This is my card. Mr. Richardson: No, no. Call me Andy. I think we‘ll be doing a lot of business together.
Mr. Chu: Yes, I hope so.
Mr. Richardson (reading Mr. Chu‘s card ) : Chu, Hon-fei. Hon-fei, I‘ll give you a call tomorrow as soon as I get settled at my hotel.
Mr Chu (smiling): Yes, I‘ll expect your call.
When these two men separate, they leave each other with very different impressions of the situation. Mr. Richardson is very pleased to have made the
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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 seems to indicate that he will be friendly and easy to do business with. Mr. Richardson is very particularly pleased that he has treated Mr. Chu with respect for his Chinese background by calling him Hon-fei rather than using the western name, David, which seems 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 Mr. Richardson used his given name, Hon-fei, instead of either David or Mr. Chu.
How do you account for their different impressions? Does culture play a role in the communication between these two men?
三、思考题：
1. We have learned some characteristics of culture. For example, culture is learned. Culture can be learned through diverse ways, proverbs being one of them. Now study the following proverbs and decide what value(s) they represent, which of them are still strong in the American culture and the Chinese culture respectively, and which don‘t apply any longer. Proverbs
1. Blood is thicker than water.
2. Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. 3. Too many cooks spoil the broth. 4. The early bird catches the worm.
5. God helps those who help themselves. 6. Haste makes waste. 7. Time is money.
8. A man‘s home is his castle.
9. Think three times before you take action.
10. Modesty makes you progress; conceitedness makes you lag behind.
2. Read the following and think about the questions:
Some years ago, several international businessmen were on a conference cruise when the ship began to sink. ―Go tell those fellows to put on life jackets and jump overboard,‖ the captain directed his first mate.
A few minutes later the first mate returned. ―Those guys won‘t jump,‖ he reported.
―Take over,‖ the captain ordered, ―And I‘ll see what I can do.‖ Returning moments later, he announced, ―They‘re gone.‖ ―How‘d you do it?‖ asked the first mate.
―I told different things to different people. I told the Englishman it was the sporting thing to do, and he jumped. I told the Frenchman it was _____; the German that it was a command; the Italian that it was ______; the Russian that it was _____; so they jumped overboard.‖
―And how did you get the American to jump?‖
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―No problem,‖ said the captain, ―I told him he was ______!‖ Questions:
1) Can you decide to whom each of the following words was actually used by the captain?
Revolutionary forbidden chic insured
2) If there had been a Chinese businessman on board, what should the captain say in order to make him jump overboard?
3) What do you think of the story? Does it tell you something that is true of people of those different nations?
Part Two Communication and Culture
一、讨论题
1. Study the following two versions of the same spoken discourse presented in a business meeting between a Hong Kong Chinese and an Anglo—North American businessman. Decide in small groups, which one might be given by a Chinese and which by an American. Why？
A. Because most of our production is done in China now, and it‘s not really certain how Hong Kong will be like after 1997, and since I think a certain amount of caution in committing to TV advertisement is necessary because of the expense. So, I suggest that we delay making our decision until after Legco makes its decision.(Scollon & Scollon, 2000)
B. I suggest that we delay making our decision until after Legco makes its decision. That‘s because I think a certain amount of caution in committing to TV advertisement is necessary because of the expense. In addition to that, most of our production is done in China now, and it‘s not really certain how Hong Kong will be like after 1997.( Scollon & Scollon, 2000)
2. Can you find some cases in which ―是‖ in Chinese does not mean ―yes‖ in English?
3. How would you put the following into Chinese?
a) Do you like the new school?
Yes, I will.
b) Please don‘t say that. --- Yes, I will.
c) I know what he wants. --- Yes? ---Money! d) Waiter! --- Yes, sir.
e) Yes? --- I‘d like two tickets, please. f) Everything will be all right soon, yes?
Saying ―no‖ seems to be more complicated. Sometimes ―no‖ may mean ―maybe‖ given the right time and circumstances. This is quite important in interpersonal relations and in politics. Look at the following sex-biased joke: What‘s the difference between a lady and a diplomat? When a diplomat says ―yes‖, he means maybe. When a diplomat says ―maybe‖, he means no.
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When a diplomat says ―no‖, he‘s no diplomat. When a lady says ―no‖, she means ―maybe‖. When a lady says ―maybe‖, she means ―yes‖. When a lady says ―yes‖, she‘s no lady all!
4. What are you going to do if you are in the following situations? Why or why not? A. When you are offered a drink the taste of which you find very unpleasant. B. When your friends ask if you will go to a picnic with them and you do not feel
like going.
C. When you are asked about the meaning of an English word that you do not
know.
D. When you are asked whether you agree with a professor‘s idea about learning
English that you do not quite appreciate
E. When you find yourself in class unable to answer the question the teacher asks
you.
F. When someone asks for your finished homework to copy and you do not like to
comply.
G. When you are asked by your parents about your problems in your studies and
you do not really like to.
5. Why do people in countries like Japan and China often refuse to say ―no‖ directly? 6. What problems may arise in intercultural communication because of such indirect ways of saying ―no‖?
二、思考题
1. The following are two letters, one in Chinese and the other in English. Compare them to see if there is similarity in their discourse patterns.
尊敬的节目主持人：
我作为贵台英语教学节目和《你喜欢的歌》节目的忠实听众已有好几年的历史了。我认为贵台的这两个节目办得非常好。
请让我做个自我介绍：我是一名中学生，今年十八岁，我的家乡是一个边疆小城，文化活动办得也不错。由于我是喜欢学习英语，所这方面的电台节目比较注意，但是因为中央人民广播电台的英语节目比较深奥，不适合我学习，所以我一直从贵台的英语节目里得到听力、会话能力训练。这种训练使我受益匪浅。随着课程难度一步步的提高，我深感没有一本教材，学习回遇到很多困难。因为这个原因，我抽出时间给贵台写这封信，希望能得到一本贵台英语节目的教材。教材的费用请来信告知。
另外，我希望得到贵台印制的年历，并祝您们的节目办得更加有趣。
Dear Professor X,
How are you? Please pardon me for bothering you while you are so busy. But there is one thing on which I need your help.
I am a lover of English, but for a long time I have not been able to study English systemically. Now I am staying at home on sick leave and it occurred to me that I should take it up seriously. I went to the Foreign Language Book Store in our provincial capital and had a look. I found the English textbook, which you edited, suits my level. But the store had no tapes. Could you please tell me where I can get
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