Warm Up
Questions
1. Why did Jackson say that Mr. Zhao was asking too much?
2. What do you think of the relationship between Mr. Qian and Mr. Zhao? Are they really good friends?
To many Chinese, Mr. Qian and Mr. Zhao are really good friends, for they have helped each other from time to time. Since Mr. Zhao lent Mr. Qian a large sum of money to help his business get over the difficulty, Mr. Qian was greatly indebted to Mr. Zhao. In Chinese culture, friendship means a willingness to be indebted and to repay the debt more than owed. However, many Americans, like Jackson, would say that Mr. Zhao was asking too much, for what they value more are individual achievement and independence rather than relationship with one another, and they do not like to put themselves in others‘ debt, especially in those matters where Mr. Zhao asked Mr. Qian to help. Of course, Americans will be willing to help their friends. But most of the time, things for which they will lend a helping hand to their friends should be very small, such as driving a friend to an important event when his or her own arrangements for transportation fails. For them, it may be uncomfortable, even very strange, to ask for so much assistance from or provide it to a friend.
Unit 3
Cultural Diversity
Reading I
Different Lands, Different Friendships
Comprehension questions
1. Why is it comparatively easy to make friends in the United States?
Because few Americans stay put for a lifetime. With each move, forming new friendship becomes a necessity and part of their new life.
2. Do people from different countries usually have different expectations about what constitutes
friendship and how it comes into being?
Yes. The difficulty when strangers from two countries meet is their different expectations about what constitutes friendship and how it comes into being.
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3. How is friendship in America different from friendship in West Europe?
In West Europe, friendship is quite sharply distinguished from other, more casual relationships, is usually more particularized and carries a heavier burden of commitment, while in America the word ―friend‖ can be applied to a wide range of relationship and a friendship may be superficial, casual, situational or deep and enduring.
4. In what country does friendship have much to do with one?s family? And in what country does it
not?
In Germany, friendship has much to do with one‘s family as friends are usually brought into the family, while in France it doesn‘t as, for instance, two men may have been friends for a long time without knowing each other‘s personal life.
5. What is friendship like when it is compartmentalized?
For instance, a man may play chess with a friend for thirty years without knowing his political opinions, or he may talk politics with him for as long a time without knowing about his personal life. Different friends fill different niches in each person‘s life.
6. What are friendships usually based on in England?
English friendships are based on shared activity. Activities at different stages of life may be of very different kinds. In the midst of the activity, whatever it may be, people fall into steps and find that they participate in the activity with the same easy anticipation of what each will do day by day or in some critical situation.
7. Do you think friendship shares some common elements in different cultures? If you do, what are
they?
Yes. There is the recognition that friendship, in contrast with kinship, invokes freedom of
choice. A friend is someone who chooses and is chosen. Related to this is the sense each friend gives the other of being a special individual, on whatever grounds this recognition is based. And between friends there is inevitably a kind of equality of give-and-take.
8. What do you think is the typical Chinese concept of friendship? Is it similar to or different from
any of the Western friendships?
It seems that the typical Chinese concept of friendship lays great emphasis on personal loyalty and also has much to do with family. It may be similar to Germany friendship to some extent and quite different from other Western friendships.
Cultural Information: American Friendship
Exploration
When making friends with Americans, should we do it the American way or the Chinese way? What tips would you like to give to the Americans who want to make friends with us Chinese or other
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non-Americans?
We are expected to know what ―friend‖ or ―friendship‖ means in the American culture before we make friends with Americans. ―Friend‖ is often used in a much wider sense in the American culture than in the Chinese culture. The term may be used for both casual acquaintances and close companions. American friends may not share with one another as much as Chinese friends usually do, for no matter how close the two persons are to each other, Americans would still prefer to
consider themselves first as autonomous freely operating individuals. While getting along with our American friends, sometimes we have to be prepared for unexpected estrangement that may occur in certain circumstances, for Americans seldom go out of their way to maintain a friendship if they find it very inconvenient for them to do so. However, it does not mean that we don‘t need to be sincere when making friends with Americans. Just let it be.
Here are just a few tips for Americans to make friends with the Chinese:
1. Be willing to spend time with those people whom you would like to make friends with. 2. Try to know about friends as much as possible. Remember their names, their likes and
dislikes, ask questions (though some may be rather personal) about them, and be interested in things that are typically Chinese.
3. Try your best to start talking with people, even though they may appear unwilling to talk
with strangers, and be a good listener as much as you can when they are talking with you. 4. Be ready to lend a hand to others without being asked to, even in what seem to be very
trivial matters.
Survey
Design a similar questionnaire and conduct a survey among your fellow Chinese students, asking them what they think the important qualities of true friendship. Then try to compare the results of your survey with those of the Australian one and see if there are any significant differences. Then write a report based on your study.
Identifying Difference: Family Structure
Questions for discussion
What is your family like? In what aspects is it the same as or different from the traditional? What problems may arise when people from different family backgrounds communicate with one another? As we all know, many cultural differences exist in family structures and values. In some
cultures, the family is the center of life and the main frame of reference for decisions; while in others, the individual, not the family, is primary.
Many Chinese families are still quite traditional. They are often extended families, with three or even four generations living under the same roof. In such families, people may care a lot about
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families‘ welfare, reputation and honor. No matter what they do, they tend to put the interest of the whole family as the top priority. For them, the family as a whole always comes first, and its individual members are second.
However, there are also many Chinese families now in which individual needs are given more stress than ever before and the relationship between parents and children are more egalitarian than hierarchical.
Therefore, communication between people from different family backgrounds may be
intercultural to some extent. What one considers as appropriate may be regarded as improper by the other, and sometimes it would be very difficult for them to understand each other in the way each of them prefers to be understood.
Reading II
Comparing and Contrasting Cultures
Comprehension questions
1. How is the mainstream American culture different from the Japanese culture?
Americans believe that human nature is basically good and man is the master of nature. They are future-oriented and ―being‖-oriented. Their social orientation is toward the importance of the individual and the equality of all people. However, the Japanese believe that human nature is a mixture of good and evil. Man is in harmony with nature. They are both past-oriented and future-oriented. And they are both ―growing-‖ and ―doing-‖oriented. They give emphasis to authorities and the group.
2. Can you find examples to support the author?s view of traditional cultures in different value orientations?
For example, the traditional Indian culture believes that man is subjugated by nature and it is being-oriented (which can be exemplified by its caste system). Also, traditional Chinese culture is past-oriented, for emphasis has long been given to learning from the old and past.
3. Why do Americans tend to equate “change” with “improvement” and regard rapid change as normal?
Concerning orientation toward time, Americans are dominated by a belief in progress. They are future-oriented. They believe that ―time is money‖ and have an optimistic faith in the future and
what the future will bring. So they tend to equate ―change‖ with ―improvement‖ and consider a rapid rate of change as normal.
4. What does “Electric Englishman” mean when it is used to describe the American?
As for activity, Americans are so action-oriented that they tend to be hyperactive. That‘s why that they have been described as ―Electric Englishmen‖, who always keep themselves busy.
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5. How would you explain the fact that contradictory values may exist in the same culture?
As time changes faster and faster and there is more contact between cultures, it is more likely to find contradictory values existing in the same culture. This is especially the case in a society that is being transformed from a traditional one into a modern one. For example, in the Japanese culture, some people may still be very past-oriented and some are rather future-oriented, and even the same people may be sometimes past-oriented in certain situations and sometime future-oriented in other situations.
6. What can we get from models of this kind about cultural differences?
Models of this kind are quite useful in giving rough pictures of striking contrasts and
differences of different cultures. However, such a model only compares cultures on some basic
orientations. It does not tell us everything about every conceivable culture. We have to recognize that models of this kind are over-simplifications and can only give approximations of reality.
7. Do cultural values change as time changes?
Yes, the values may be in the process of marked change due to rapid modernization and
globalization. However, they have a way of persisting in spite of change. The evolution of values is a slow process, since they are rooted in survival needs and passed on from generation to generation. 8. How is communication influenced by differing cultural values?
Putting people from one culture into another culture with radically different value orientations could cause stress, disorientation, and breakdowns in communication.
Interview
Interview at least three people who are different in age, family or educational background, asking them to fill in the following chart to place the contemporary Chinese culture in the five dimensions. Then report the results of your interview to the class.
Then compare your results with what your classmates have got from their interviews, and see how the Chinese value orientations differ from those of other cultures.
Since China is a very large country and has been changing rapidly in the past few decades, it may not be easy for us to identify the dominating value orientation in contemporary China in each of the five dimensions. It is also possible for us to find that conflicting value orientations exist side by side in some dimensions and we can hardly tell which of them is really the dominating one today. All this indicates that there is now greater diversity within our society and communication between one Chinese and another will probably be somewhat intercultural, too.
Group Work
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跨文化交际英语教程答案-新编跨文化交际英语教程
