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.
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.
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.
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.
新编跨文化交际英语教程 参考答案Unit 3
