1、Unit 1Communication Across CulturesWarm UpQuestions1. Why is it difficult to explain to a blind person what colors are?2. Do you sometimes find it hard to make yourself properly understood by others? If you do, whydo you think it is hard?It is very difficult for people to understand one another if t
2、hey do not share the sameexperiences. Of course, we all share the experience of being human, but there are many experienceswhich we do not share and which are different for all of us. It is these different experiences thatmake up what is called culture in the social sciences the habits of everyday l
3、ife, the cues towhich people respond, the automatic reactions they have to whatever they see and hear. These oftendiffer, and the differences may introduce misunderstandings where we seek understanding.Reading IIntercultural Communication：An IntroductionComprehension questions1. Is it still often th
4、e case that “everyones quick to blame the alien” in the contemporary world?This is still powerful in todays social and political rhetoric. For instance, it is not uncommon intodays society to hear people say that most, if not all, of the social and economic problems arecaused by minorities and immig
5、rants.2. Whats the difference between todays intercultural contact and that of any time in the past?Todays intercultural encounters are far more numerous and of greater importance than in anytime in history.3. What have made intercultural contact a very common phenomenon in our life today?6New techn
6、ology, in the form of transportation and communication systems, has acceleratedintercultural contact; innovative communication systems have encouraged and facilitated culturalinteraction; globalization of the economy has brought people together; changes in immigrationpatterns have also contributed t
7、o intercultural encounter.4. How do you understand the sentence “culture is everything and everywhere”?Culture supplies us with the answers to questions about what the world looks like and how welive and communicate within that world. Culture teaches us how to behave in our life from theinstant of b
8、irth. It is omnipresent.5. What are the major elements that directly influence our perception and communication?The three major socio-cultural elements that directly influence perception and communicationare cultural values, worldview (religion), and social organizations (family and state).6. What d
9、oes ones family teach him or her while he or she grows up in it?The family teaches the child what the world looks like and his or her place in that world.7. Why is it impossible to separate our use of language from our culture?Because language is not only a form of preserving culture but also a mean
10、s of sharing culture.Language is an organized, generally agreed-upon, learned symbol system that is used to representthe experiences within a cultural community.8. What are the nonverbal behaviors that people can attach meaning to?People can attach meaning to nonverbal behaviors such as gestures, po
11、stures, facial expressions,eye contact and gaze, touch, etc.9. How can a free, culturally diverse society exist?A free, culturally diverse society can exist only if diversity is permitted to flourish withoutprejudice and discrimination, both of which harm all members of the society.Discovering Probl
12、ems: Slim Is Beautiful?Questions for discussionWhich do you think is the mark of beauty, thin or fat? Why is it often said that beauty is in the eyeof beholder?One sociologist once said that with the greater influence of American culture across the world,the standard of a beauty is becoming more and
13、 more Hollywood-like, characterized by a chiseledchin and a tall, slim figure. One can see such beautiful images in almost any American movie. WeChinese also share the notion that the standard idea of beauty includes being tall, thin, and lightskinned. It seems that with the process of globalization
14、, eastern and western beauties look more andmore alike.7But we have to remember that the definition of beauty differs from culture to culture. Forexample, Hispanic standards of female beauty are to have big hips, a moderate tan, and a shortheight. As is described in the article, in southeastern Nige
15、ria, Coca-Cola-bottle voluptuousness iscelebrated and ample backsides and bosoms are considered ideals of female beauty.Whats more, the ideal standard of beauty varies from time to time. For instance, during timesof famine, the ideal standard of beauty for women is a much larger body size. Larger si
16、ze and morebody fat may reflect ones status; for it suggests that the person is well fed and healthy. Thinnessthen would reflect malnutrition. However, during times of plenty, plumpness is not a reflection ofstatus. People may easily associate fatness with hypertension, heart disease or other potent
17、ialdiseases. Likewise, during eras in which lower-class labors had to toil predominantly outside forhours a day, tanned skin was an indication of lower status, and therefore the ideal standard of femalebeauty was very pale skin; women during those times actually used a lot of white powderedcosmetics
18、 to exaggerate the paleness of their skin. Now, however, tan is a reflection of having moreleisure time spent on seashores instead of working in an office all the time, and therefore it maysuggest higher status, so women strive for darker skin tones.It is true that beauty is in the eye of the behold
19、er because people of different cultures and indifferent situations may have different ideas about what is beautiful and what is not.Group WorkFirst share with your group member whatever experiences you have had in communication eventsthat can be considered as intercultural. Then work together to dec
20、ide whether each of the followingcases of communication is possibly intercultural or not and, if it is, to what extent it is intercultural.Try to place all the cases along a continuum of interculturalness, from the most intercultural to theleast intercultural.All the cases may seem to be intercultur
21、al but they differ in the extent to which they areintercultural. However it may be very difficult for us to place all these cases along a continuum ofinterculturalness from the most intercultural to the least intercultural, for many other factors have tobe taken into consideration if we have to deci
22、de which is more intercultural than another. Forinstance, whether communication between a male manager and a female secretary is intercultural ornot and, if it is, how intercultural it may be, may depend on the cultural and social backgrounds ofthe two persons. If they are from drastically different
23、 cultures, communication between them issurely intercultural and may be very intercultural. If they are from the same culture, communicationbetween them may be little intercultural.The following is tentatively suggested for measuring the interculturalness of the cases ofcommunication, and the cases
24、are presented from the most intercultural to the least intercultural:Communication between a Chinese university student and an American professor;Communication between a Canadian girl and a South African boy;Communication between a first-generation Chinese American and third generation one;Communica
25、tion between a businessperson from Hong Kong and an artist from Xian;Communication between a teenager from Beijing and a teenager from Tibet;8Communication between a father who is a farmer all his life and his son who works as anengineer;Communication between a software technician and a fisherman;Co
26、mmunication between a male manager and a female secretary (supposing they are of thesimilar cultural and social backgrounds) .DebateThe class is to be divided into two groups and debate on the two different views mentioned in thefollowing on intercultural communication. State your point of view clea
27、rly and support yourargument with convincing and substantive evidence.Pro: People are people; more interactions would lead to greater understanding of each other.（Commonality precedes）Con: People are shaped by different environments they find themselves in, therefore, the differenceoverrides. (Diffe
28、rences precedes)Possible Arguments for Pro:1. Human beings tend to draw close to one another by their common nature. We all share thecommon basic needs.2. Rapid expansion of worldwide transportation and communication networks have made it fareasier than ever before for people throughout the world to
29、 contact with one another.3. The process of globalization may reduce the regional differences between people all over theworld. We are all members of the global village.4. Economic interdependence in todays world requires people of different countries to interact onan unprecedented scale, and more i
30、nteraction will result in more similarity among people.5. More and more people from various cultures have to work and live together and they will adaptto each other to such an extent that cultural differences between them may no longer matter.Possible Arguments for Con:1. People throughout the world
31、 may be similar in many aspects, but differences in habits andcustoms keep them apart.2. Though the basic human needs are universally the same, people all over the world satisfy theirbasic common human needs in different ways.3. As our society is becoming more and more diversified, differences betwe
32、en people tend to growlarger in some aspects.4. It is differences between people that underlie the necessity of communication, and it does notfollow that communication which may increase the possibility of understanding between peoplewill always reduce differences.5. People nowadays are more likely
33、to try to maintain their unique cultural identities when theyfind themselves living closely with people of other cultures.9From the two seemingly opposite viewpoints, we can learn something that we should keep inmind when we are involved in intercultural communication. First, all human beings share
34、somecommon heritages that link us to one another. To some extent, people throughout the world are prettymuch alike in many aspects, and that has formed the very basis on which it is possible for people ofvarious cultures to communicate. However, what we have to realize is that there are also vastdif
35、ferences between people from various cultural groups. To really understand a person whosecultural background is different from yours can be very difficult, for both you and that person maybe subconsciously influenced by each ones own cultural upbringing. In a sense, what we should doin intercultural
36、 communication is to treat people of other cultures both as the same with and asdifferent from us.Reading IIThe Challenge of GlobalizationComprehension questions1. Why does the author say that our understanding of the world has changed?Many things, such as political changes and technological advance
37、s, have changed the worldvery rapidly. In the past most human beings were born, lived, and died within a limited geographicalarea, never encountering people of other cultural backgrounds. Such an existence, however, nolonger prevails in the world. Thus, all people are faced with the challenge of und
38、erstanding thischanged and still fast changing world in which we live.2. What a “global village” is like?As our world shrinks and its inhabitants become interdependent, people from remote culturesincreasingly come into contact on a daily basis. In a global village, members of once isolatedgroups of
39、people have to communicate with members of other cultural groups. Those people maylive thousands of miles away or right next door to each other.3. What is considered as the major driving force of the post-1945 globalization?Technology, particularly telecommunications and computers are considered to
40、be the majordriving force.4. What does the author mean by saying that “the global may be more local than the local”?The increasing global mobility of people and the impact of new electronic media on humancommunications make the world seem smaller. We may communicate more with people of othercountrie
41、s than with our neighbors, and we may be more informed of the international events than ofthe local events. In this sense, the global may be more local than the local.5. Why is it important for businesspeople to know diverse cultures in the world?Effective communication may be the most important com
42、petitive advantage that firms have to10meet diverse customer needs on a global basis. Succeeding in the global market today requires theability to communicate sensitively with people from other cultures, a sensitivity that is based on anunderstanding of cross-cultural differences.6. What are the ser
43、ious problems that countries throughout the world are confronted with?Countries throughout the world are confronted with serious problems such as volatileinternational economy, shrinking resources, mounting environmental contamination, and epidemicsthat know no boundaries.7. What implications can we
44、 draw from the case of Michael Fay?This case shows that in a world of international interdependence, the ability to understand andcommunicate effectively with people from other cultures takes on extreme urgency. If we areunaware of the significant role culture plays in communication, we may place th
45、e blame forcommunication failure on people of other cultures.8. What attitudes are favored by the author towards globalization?Globalization, for better or for worse, has changed the world greatly. Whether we like it or not,globalization is all but unstoppable. It is already here to stay. It is both
46、 a fact and an opportunity. Thechallenges are not insurmountable. Solutions exist, and are waiting to be identified and implemented.From a globalistic point of view, there is hope and faith in humanity.WritingRead the following and then try to write a short essay on what one has to learn to get prep
47、ared forworking and living in a new cultural environment.There seems to be so much that one can do to get oneself well prepared for working and livingin a new cultural environment. Apart from what is mentioned in the passage, the following may bewhat a person in Annas situation should also try to do
48、:1. Learning the language that is used in the new cultural environment.2. Learning about the history and present social situation of the area or the country.3. Learning about the dominant religious belief and some important social customs.4. Learning about the cultural uses of nonverbal means includ
49、ing time and space forcommunication.5. Learning to look at things and people in new perspectives that are different from what oneis accustomed to.6. Developing a more tolerant attitude toward any unfamiliar phenomena.7. Becoming aware that problems and misunderstandings are inevitable in interculturalcommunication.8. Learning about how foreigners are usually perceived and treated by the local people.11Speech behavior China English-speaking countriesGreeting When greeting each other, theChinese often begin with Haveyou eaten?, Where are yougoing?, What are
