跨文化交际英语思考题目(11)

23

Part Nine Improving Intercultural Communication

一、 讨论题

Read the following cases and discuss the answer to the question below each one. A. Soon after Li Ying arrived in the states, an American friend invited him to a party. He got to the party on time, only to find that many people were late and dressed in a very casual way. There were only a few kinds of beverage and some simple food. Few people there knew him, and he at last found Mark, his friend, and began to talk with him. They talked about only yen minutes before Mark said that he had to talk with another friend and left, to Li‘s great disappointment. The host introduced him to a couple of people and then left too. Two hours later, Li found an excuse and returned home. He had to cook some noodles, as he was still hungry. He thought he would never participate in this kind of parties again. Why was he so disappointed?

B. One Japanese student in America said: ―On my way to my school, a girl whom I don‘t know smiled at me several times. I was a little surprised.‖ Why was he surprised?

C. A South Korean student in American wrote: ―We went to visit an American friend. When we saw him, he opened the window and said to us: ?I‘m sorry, I don‘t have time. I have to work at my studies.‘ Then he closed his window.‖ Why was this student confused?

D. An Arab student in America said: ―When I was walking on the campus the first day, many people smiled at me, which made me quite ashamed. I hurried to the bathroom to see if anything was wrong with my clothes. Now I‘m used to all the smiles.‖

Why did he first feel ashamed?

E. Xiao Yan got her Ph. D in American studies from Yale University. She was going to another university to teach when one of the authors met her in America. She said that, in spite of her Ph. D and other success in career, she had a lot of problems, which made her quite unhappy, sometimes even more so than when she was in Beijing. She wrote to her friends back in Beijing, but her friends couldn‘t believe her: How could you be unhappy? You were in the United States! Why didn‘t her friends understand her?

F. Mr. Bias is a director of a small private company. He is interviewing candidates for the position of assistant manager. He selects a bright and ambitious applicant. Later, he discovers that this applicant is from the country of Levadel (a fictitious nation). Since he thinks that all Levadelians are stupid and lazy, he decides to select someone else for the position. (Levire and And Adelman, 1982)

24

What do you think of Mr. Bias‘ decision? What mistake did he commit?

二、分析、解答题

I. Read the case story (from Zanger, 1985) and answer the questions below.

A. John, an American, was happy when his Saudi Arabian neighbor invited him to a party at his apartment, just down the hall in the same apartment building. After work, John made a special trip to the neighborhood liquor store to buy a bottle of his favorite white wine for the party.

When John got to the party, his host, Mazen, greeted him at the door in a friendly way. He put his arm around John‘s shoulders and said, ―Oh, John. I‘m so glad you could come.‖

John answered, ―How‘re you doing, Mazen? Looks like a great party. Here, I brought you some of my favorite wine.‖

Mazen took the wine but said nothing about it. Then he said, ―I‘d like you to meet my sister who came from Raid, my city, just two days ago.‖

John reached out to shake Mazen‘s sister‘s hand, but she just stood there, and stopped smiling. John decided that she was probably shy. So he tried to be especially friendly to her. They had a nice conversation until Mazen ended it.

John was saying to Mazen‘s sister, ―So, it looks like your brother is going to show you the town.‖ Because John was feeling very friendly to his host and his host‘s sister, her put one arm around each of them. Mazen suddenly looked very serious.

He stood up and took John by the arm and said, ―Come over here and try some of our food.‖

John enjoyed himself very much at the party that night. He couldn‘t believe how much food Mazen had prepared. As he was leaving, he realized that he had not seen his bottle of wine. He decided that in all the confusion, Mazen had probably forgotten to open it. Questions:

1. Why did John buy the wine? 2. Why didn‘t Mazen open it?

3. Why didn‘t Mazen say anything to John about the wine? 4. Why didn‘t Mazen‘s sister shake hands with John?

5. Why did John put his arm around Mazen and his sister?

6. Why did Mazen suddenly end John‘s conversation with his sister？

B. Read the following story (from Abraham & Mackey, 2000) and discuss with neighbor what culture shock is and how shock is and how much you know about it from the story.

Nguyen Chau Van Loc went to the United States in 1979 from Vietnam. His first impression of the US was very positive. He felt that this new environment offered him many exciting opportunities.

However, Loc quickly found himself unprepared to take advantage of these opportunities. He knew almost no English. Even when he knew what to say on a bus or in a store, no one understood him, and he had to repeat and repeat. In Vietnam, Loc was a technician, but in the US, he didn‘t have enough experience

25