The American woman has been used to the Chinese way of show somebody out ”. In China,
when a guest calling at home or a cooperator visiting a company, it is polite to show the person out despite the visitor 's refusal. This is a way to show care and respect. But in the United States, as Time is money ” and the woman indeed knows her way out ”，the American man takes the woman ' words seriously and does not give it a second thought. The Americans are direct and the American culture is low-context, so this is the cause of misunderstanding. Case 52: Doubts
This case can reflect the problems one may encounter during intercultural adaptation. When an individual enters a new culture, he may first experience excitement. But later more serious problems may come to him. When facing these problems, one may fell anxious and not know how to deal with the present situation. In this case, although Wu Lian has a good command of English, she also faces a lot of learning difficulties due to cultural differences. And besides, she also meets many difficulties in daily life. All these make her feel uncomfortable and stressed. The only way out for her is to learn more knowledge and skills to conquer these hindrances and become successful in intercultural adaptation. Case 53: Practicing English
This case can reflect segregation, which occurs because the more politically and economically powerful culture does not want the intercultural contact. In this case, the Chinese girl wants to integrate with the two Western guys. However , the two guys, who may consider themselves as the mainstream culture which is more powerful, refuse to communicate friendly with the Chinese girl. So the Chinese girl is segregated. Case 54:
A Fish out of Water
This case reflects that the boy is experiencing culture shock, which may bring him some psychological symptoms. 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 well as its value systems. Culture shock happens when people have to deal with a huge amount of new perceptual stimuli that are difficult to understand and interpret because the cultural context has changed. In this case, when the American student feels that his familiar cues from his native culture is removed, he becomes to reject 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 culture, they experience another round of culture shock in their native culture and they must proceed through the four stages of the U-curve pattern once again. In this case, John, whose comes from Canada, has been living in China for quite a long time and he has got familiar with the Chinese culture. Therefore, when he returns to Canada, he cannot adapt well to his native culture. Case 55: Off to a Bad Start
This case reflects the importance of developing some strategies for avoiding culture shock and engaging in intercultural adaptation. If we want to overcome culture shock effectively and adapt well and appropriately to the new culture, we must acquire enough knowledge and develop as many skills as possible. In this case, David Hu, who comes from the Eastern culture, does not know that Westerners emphasize privacy, so his behaviors of curiosity just irritate his Western colleague. Therefore, we know that David needs to improve his knowledge of Western culture and develop some strategies for avoiding culture shock and engaging in intercultural
adaptation. Case 56:
Wow! The First Week in Canada
This case can reflect the initial period of intercultural adaptation, the honeymoon or initial euphoria stage. In this stage, people are usually fascinated with the new culture and by the excitement about all the new things they encounter in the host culture. Also people, during this stage, may not easily notice the cultural differences and the potential problems that arise from the cultural differences. In this case, Zhangli is just experiencing the honeymoon stage. Case 58
What 'the Matter with the Gift?
This case can reflect the relationship conflicts in intercultural communication. Intercultural communication competence is an integrated and complicated competence. In order to have intercultural communication competence, we need to pay attention to every element among it. Relationship conflict is one of them. Some relationship conflicts involve threats to an established relationship. In this case, the woman in Nukualofa became very angry and shouted the author out because of the rare gift the author sent to her , in fact, the woman 'extreme behavior is because the author s behavior of sending the gift has put herself into a position of superiority over the woman, which is a really threat to established relationship — the woman can be a good helper and teacher of the author . The change in established relationship made the woman quite angry. Case 60:
Demographic Analysis in USA.
Demographic analysis in this case can reflect that USA is a multicultural society with cultural diversity. Multicultural society refers to the society where there is ethnic diversity within it. And this tendency is more and more universal all over the world. The multicultural society requires a heightened emphasis on intercultural competence. Case 61:
Not Intended Humor
This case can reflect context plays a very important role in intercultural communication competence. Context refers to the actual setting when communication occurs. It can be very vital component in intercultural
communication competence. A person ' behavior can be proper in one context while the same behavior cannot be proper in another context, and it is quite common phenomenon. For example, in this case, certainly there is exaggeration in the joking sequence, but more important than that for some purposes is that many of the things that are either nonsensical or wrong and, therefore, seen as legitimately laughable are perfectly sensible and socially correct within the Whiteman ” culture being referenced. The example is the systems of sense surrounding the use of a person ' first name. In short, it is a joking conversation just because the communicator didn 'pay attention to some useful and important contextual components. Case 62: John ' Problem
This case can reflect that in order to have intercultural communication competence, we cannot just know the components among it but also know how the components work together
, that is, know
the dimensions of intercultural communication competence. We should know the knowledge dimension, the affective dimension, the psychomotor dimension and situational features dimension. In this case, John moved to another city to work, he faced different situational features, in order to conduct the work smoothly, he needed to have the new knowledge, affection and psychomotor , which are different from before. In this case, we can sense intercultural communication competence is also dynamic and we need to adapt to new environment with improved intercultural communication competence.
Case 63:
Improved Communication
This case can reflect we need some skills to improve intercultural competence. The skills include
1) Work to emphasize areas of similarity with others. 2) Try to accept differing opinions. 3) Make your verbal messages consistent with your nonverbal messages.4) Avoid dominating conversations.
5) Avoid being submissive in conversations and 6) Be an affirmer . In this case, the author and his friend had some misunderstanding on the Chinese man, but later , both the Chinese man and the author took some skills to modify their communication, and then the effective and satisfied intercultural communication was gained. Case 64:
Jane Martin ' Problem
This case can reflect intercultural competence is relatively complicated and integrated competence, we should take every element influencing intercultural communication into consideration in accentual communication. In this case, Jane Martin is good at training but is not familiar with new environment -he Korean culture, which is totally different from American culture. Her gender
age, lack of knowledge on the Korean language and culture can be barriers to her effective intercultural communication and good work performance. To Jane Martin, she never sensed it is an intercultural
communication and never aware of the future difficulties she will face. Without preparations, it ' hard to her to do intercultural communication. Therefore, we should take every element influencing intercultural communication into consideration in accentual communication. 咱们黑大的只考其中的十六个！ ！ ！
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大学英语跨文化交际所有CASE答案
