跨文化商務交際課程情景案例分析

1、Lan guage and Culture in Communi cati onTheory Communi cati on is somethi ng we do every day. It takes place so n aturally that we simply fail to no tice it un til it hiccups or breaks dow n. Though it is com mon place, it is no exaggeratio n to say that com muni cati on is life and life is com muni

2、 cati on.1. Whe n you join a social gatheri ng, you must be aware of rules and procedures that gover n the way things are going to proceed. There is a tech ni cal term for such rules and procedure schema.2. Face and polite ness are two other areas which are extremely valuse nsitive. One of the disti

3、nctive features of Chinese politeness is self denigration and other elevati on.Case 1: Litz is a professor of cross cultural com muni cati on in a uni versity in Finland. She in vited her Chin ese stude nts home for an eve ning party.The schema from Litz?s point of view in cludes the followi ng:1. G

4、iving in vitati on: by phone / by mail2. Prepare everyth ing before the arrival of guests3. Receiving guests: open the door / express welcome / take their overcoats / in troduce guests / offer them drinks / make them comfortable4. Servi ng food: set the table / soup first / main course / desert5. Po

5、st dinner activities: chat / play music / offer more drinks6. Seeing guests off: tha nk them for coming / good ni ghtLitz?s evening party was not very successful, becauseshe was upset by one of her guests. Here was the in itial conv ersatio n betwee n Litz and Lin:Litz: (ope ns the doo) Oh, Lin, how

6、 nice you could come!Lin: lt?s not difficult to find your house.Litz: Come on in.Lin: (comes ir)Litz: Can I take your coat?Lin: No, tha nks.Litz: Ok, this way please.Lin: (take off her coat and hangs i)Analysis: Litz was hurt because Lin did not let her hang her coat. Litz? s offering to hang Lin?s

7、coat is one of Litz?s ways (it?s on Litz?s schema). On Lin?s side, she thought that Litz was her supervisor and that it was in appropriate to let her supervisor hang her coat. Here we have an in sta nee of one acti on attached with differe nt cultural values.Case 2Finding an In terested BuyerGeorage

8、 Hall was in Beiji ng atte nding a trade fair and look ing for an opport unity to do bus in ess in China. He had bee n very successful in his bus in ess deali ngs in the US and prided himself on his ability “teget things moving. ”His first day was going well .He looked around at the displays of spor

9、ting equipment to get some idea of whom he might approach. He was sure that his products, tennis rackets with an unu sual new desig n, would arouse some in terests. On the sec ond day he approached the compa ny which he felt would be most resp on sive to his products. He in troduced himself to the g

10、en eral, a Mr. Li. Since he had read that Chin ese find gett ing dow n to bus in ess immediately too abrupt and rude, he bega n a casual conv ersati on, eve ntually leadi ng up to the topic of his products and suggesti ng how Mr. Li?s compa ny might ben efit from using them. George the n suggested t

11、hat he could arrange to get together with Mr. Li and provide more specifics and docume ntati on on his products.Mr. Li responded in fairly good English,” That would be interesting.”Knowing that he had on ly a few days left in Beiji ng, George wan ted to n ail dow n a time, ” When can we meet? ” aske

12、d George.“Ah. This week is very busy, eplied Mr.rLi.“It sure is, ” said George, ” How about 10 o?clock? Meet you here. “Tomorrow at 10 o?clock? ” asked Mr. Li thoughtfully.“ Right, ” said George, “ l?ll see you then?”“ Hmm, yes; why don?t you come by tomorrow, ” was the reply.“ OK,” resp on ded Geor

13、ge, ” It was nice meet ing you. ”The next day at 10 o?clock he approached Mr. Li?s company?sexhibit only to find that Mr. Li had some importa nt bus in ess and was not able to meet with George. He called back later in the day and was told that Mr. Li was not available.先生不僅沒有準時接見預約的客戶，甚至放了他鴿子”。An aly

14、sis:英美人士做事情講究守時。而中國人不太重視這方面。本案列中，李Case3 Professor Lia ng has writte n a book on Chin ese culture in Chin ese. His book is put on display in Beiji ng Intern atio nal Book Fair? 96. Professor Lia ng would like to have his book translated into English and submitted to Thompson Publishers. Professor Lia

15、 ng has asked Li Yan, whom he meets regularly in the En glish Corner, to help him to talk to Peter Allright, a Thomps on represe ntative.Prof. Lia ng:奧萊特先生，這是鄙人的拙作。Li Tan: Mr. Allright, this a clumsy book writte n by your humble serva nt.Mr Allright: No, no, no, you're not my humble serva nt. We

16、 do not publish books in Chin ese.Li Yan (to Professor Lia ng):不，不，不，你不是我的仆人，我們不出中文書。 Professor Lia ng:我要請李艷翻譯成英文。Li Yan (to Mr. Allright): Professor Lia ng will ask me to tran slate it into En glish.Mr. Allright: Mm that?s in terest in g.An alysis: Chin ese authors almost always belittle their work

17、s by describ ing them as clumsy writ in gs, and they use the same descripti on whe n they prese nt them to Chin ese publishers. But this will be coun terproductive in En glish. In stead, authors should point out the merits of their works rather tha n“ clums in ess ”.Unit 2 Culture ShockTheory: 1. Cu

18、lture shock can be described as the feeling of confusion and disorientation that one experiences when faced with a large number of new and un familiar people and situatio ns.2. There is a desire for in depe ndence and separate ness, found in foreig ners'n eeds for their own privacy and aut onomy

19、3. Hospitality means the cordial and generous reception of or disposition toward guests.4. Polite ness refers to the con siderati on for others, tact, and observa nee of accepted social usage.5. Privacy could be un derstood as the right of an in dividual to self-determ in atio n as to the degree to

20、which the in dividual is willi ng to share with others in formati on about himself.Case 1: Jane, an America n teacher in the US, had just started teach ing En glish to a group of Japa nese stude nts. She wan ted to get to know the stude nts more formally, so she invited them to her house for party.

21、The students all arrived together at exactly 8:00 p.m. They seemed to enjoy the party: they dan ced, sang, and ate most of the food. At about 10:00 p.m, one of the stude nts said to the teachre“I think it?s time for me toleave. Thank you very much for the party.” Then all the other students got up t

22、o go,and all left at the same time. Jane decided she would n ever in vite them aga in!An alysis:在日本以及其他很多的亞洲國家里，年輕人通常成群結隊的一起去參 加一些社交聚會，然后一道離去。在他們看來這是很正常不過的事。然后Jane認為這是一種侮辱，因為他們在同一時間里一下子全部離開了。在美國以及其他一些英語國家，晚上10點離開一個聚會相對來說是比較早的。Case 2Four Secretaries and Their JobsFour classmatesfrom a top Chinese uni

23、versity all took jobs as secretariesafter graduati on. Five years later the four former classmates had a reunion and discussed their jobs.Che n Qi and Dai Yun both work as bili ngual secretaries for a Finn ish compa ny inBeiji ng. Che n Qi is secretary to the Fi nn gen eral man ger, and Dai Yun is s

24、ecretary to the Chin ese local man ger, a positi on only slightly lower tha n that of the Finn man ger.Zhang Yi ng is from a politically prominent family and was hired as the secretary to the leader of a small gover nment bureau in the capital city of her home provin ce. Lu Yan works for a state run

25、 enterprise in the same city where she was hired as the secretary to the new manager for international marketing. The company has never marketed its products abroad before so this office and Lu Yan?s positi on are new to the compa ny.Five years later Che n Qi is satisfied with her job with the Finn

26、ish compa ny but Dai Yun is not. The Finn manager receives orders from the company?shome office in Finland, and he gives orders to those below him in China, including his secretary Chen Qi. He tells her how he wants his time scheduled and she then makes appo in tme nts for him accordi ng to his in s

27、truct ions. She tran slates memos and other docume nts and in terprets from Chin ese to En glish to Chin ese. If the man ager does not thi nk Chen Qi has done her work well, he tells her right away. He is very dema nding, but Chen Qi feels that she knows what her duties are and knows what her man ag

28、er expects. She is con fide nt that she is doing a good job.Dai Yun ofte n does not have as much work to do as Chen Qi does, because her boss schedules his own appo in tme nts and does a lot of the office paperwork himself. Whe n he is out of tow n she has time to study for the graduate entrance exa

29、m. However, she is not sure whether or not she is doing a good job. Her man ager tells her what she is expected to do, but he does this day by day. Whe n people call or come to the office to see her boss, she greets them in En glish or Chin ese as n ecessary. She receives their memos and other messa

30、ges as well as their questi ons and requests and passes them on to her man ager. Dai Yun thinks of her job as doing what her man ager wants her to do. She pays close atte nti on to his moods and behavior, and sometimes she is able to an ticipate what he would like without him telli ng her.Analysis：許

31、多中國人在外企工作，不同國家的外企領導有不同的工作作風和標 準。本案列中，戴云給不同的外國上司做秘書，在工作中出現(xiàn)由于不同的文化沖 突而引起的各種工作以及溝通中的問題就很常見了。Case 3: One cold win ter day in a Chin ese city, Wang Lin on his way to the library met an American professor who knew very little about China. After greeting him, Wang said: “l(fā)t?sather cold. You?d better put on

32、 more clothes. But the professor did n?t appear happy on heari ng this.An alysis:美國人以及大部分西方國家的人們不喜歡被告知要怎么做怎么做，他 們比較喜歡獨立，然而中國人則習慣關心別人，這個案例中王林的建議表達的就 是一種對他人的關心，可是美國教授卻不習慣這樣的表達。Case 4: In a good restaura nt, fourtee n people are gathered to say goodbye to their professor, who is movi ng to ano ther uni

33、 versity.Steven: May I have your attention please? I?d like to call upon Ben to say a few words.Ben: Thank you, Steve n. Professor Shore, colleagues:Tonight is one of those paradoxes - it?s a sad time and yet it?s a happy time. Sad, because.We are losing one of our best professors; happy becausewe a

34、re pleased to see Professor Shore gain the recog niti on that he richly deserves .I?m not sure who will be able to con trol us and keep us in lin e. I thi nk the new professor will have a difficult time. And surely no one will be able to tell jokes in the same way as you, Professor. Seriously, we al

35、l know that you will be difficult to replace. Your scholarly approach and your dedicati on will always be remembered. I would therefore like to propose a toast. Colleagues, pelase charge your glasses. Professor Shore, mayyour future be filled will great success, and may you always remember us. We kn

36、ow we will n ever forget you.To Professor Shore!All: (Standing up) To Professor Shore! (Everyone drinks. Professor Shore remains seated and smiles at them all.)Analysis：就餐時總是要在各種緣由下向人敬酒：可以是非正式的，向朋友或同 事敬酒；也可以是正式的，向全體聚會的人敬酒。與中國式的敬酒大不相同的是， 在西方正式的敬酒時，受敬的人是不能喝酒的，而是正襟危坐，兩眼睜睜看別人 喝酒。另一個不同是：無論正式還是非正式，敬酒的人不必走

37、過去敬酒，而是在 自己的座位處站起來敬酒。敬酒時開始的語言永遠是：向”而其他隨敬酒的人重復敬酒人的第一句話(即向”，然后喝一口酒。敬酒時如果舉了杯，說了敬詞，而實際上沒有喝酒，就會被看做十分不恭的行為，在很久以前甚至于 被認為是一種侮辱，是不想加入敬酒的儀式。Case 5 An America n went to Chin ese home. He was offered some tea. Just whe n the first cup was about to fini sh, more tea was added. The visitor drank the sec ond cup.T

38、hen the cup was filled the third time. Then he drank it, the nun til the visitor wasquite full. Why?An alysis:在中國的傳統(tǒng)文化習俗里，主任通常會不斷給客人倒水倒茶，或者不 斷地給客人的盤子里加食物以表示他的熱情好客。面對的這樣的情況，中國客人知道如何處理，在他們覺得吃飽喝足之后，就會隨它放在桌上。而美國客人就不 懂了，在美國，在自己的盤子里剩下食物是不禮貌的，于是他出于遵循美國文化理念可能會在這樣的招待中吃的過多。Case 6Dinner with Frie ndJanice is a

39、 young America n engin eer work ing for a manu facturi ng joint ven ture n ear Nanj ing. She and her husba nd George, who is teachi ng En glish at a uni versity, are learning Chinese and enjoying their new life .They have been eager to get to know Chinese people better so they were pleased when Liu

40、Lingling , Janice?syoung co-worker in vited them to her home for dinner.When Janice and George arrived， Lingling introduced them to her husband Yang Feng , asked them to sit dow n at a table containing 8 plates of various cold dishes, served them tea and the n disappeared with her husba nd into the

41、kitche n. After a few mi nutes Li ngli ng came back and added water to their tea. Janice offered to help in the kitche n but Lin gli ng said she did n?t n eed help. She in vited the couple to look at their new CD player and their colorful TV and the n disappeared aga in.A half-hour later she came ba

42、ck and sat dow n and the three bega n to eat. Yang Feng came in from time to time to put dish after hot dish on the table. Most of the food was won derful but n either George nor Janice could eat the fatty pork in pepper sauce or the ea cucumbers, and there was much more tha n they could eat. They k

43、ept wish ing Yang Feng would sit dow n so they could talk to him .Fin ally he did sit dow n to eat a bit ,but quickly tur ned on the TV to show them all its high tech ing features. Soon itwas time to go home.George and Janice felt slightly depressed by this experienee, but returned the in vitatio n

44、two weeks later. They decided to make a nice America n meal and felt lucky to find olives, tomato juice, crackers and as appetizers. For the main course they prepared spaghetti and a salad with dress ing made from oil, vin egar, and some spices they found in the market.Whe n Liu Lin gli ng and Yang

45、Feng arrived they were impressed by the apartme nt and asked the price of the TV, video player, vacuum cleaner and other things. Janice politely refused to an swer their questi ons. They took small tastes of the appetizers and seemed surprised whe n both George and Janice sat dow n with them. They a

46、te only a little spaghetti and did not finish the salad on their plates. George urged them to eat more but they refused and looked around expecta ntly. Junice and George talked about their families and jobs and asked the table and served coffee and pastries. Yang Feng and Lin gli ng each put four sp

47、o ons of sugars into their coffee but did not drink much of it and ate only a bite or two of pastry.After they left, George said that at least they had a chanee to talk, but Janice was upset. “ We left their place so full that we could n?t walk and they?re going to have to eat aga in whe n they get

48、home. What went wrong?Analysis：中西方飲食習慣大大的不同。中國人邀請客人會準備一大桌子的菜， 并在就餐過程中使勁勸說客人多吃點，吃完之后，還有剩菜，就表明主人的盛情款待。而西方人一不勸吃，二就餐完畢后，盤子最好是空的。本案列中的兩對 中外夫婦不明這個文化差異，發(fā)生誤解就是自然而然的事了。Case 7 After the meal and after the table has bee n cleared. Liu is not sure what to do, but wan ts to help in some way. At least he wants to

49、 offer.Hele n: Thanks for your help, Hua ng.Liu: Pleasure. What can I do now?Helen: Nothing. It?s fine. I?ll rinse these dishes then stack them. It?ll only take a mi nute.Liu: Does the family usually help?Hele n: Well, at special times. Jack sometimes rin ses the dishes but you can see he?s really t

50、ired toni ght.Liu: Let me do it for you.Hele n: No truly, it?s okay.Liu: Maybe I can wipe the table the n.Hele n: That would be helpful. Than ks. You?re really kind, Hua ng.Analysis：在西方人家中的就餐的時間里，大家都設法插手幫一下忙，即便是男 士也不例外，不要一點不動著開飯。所有家住者要能幫者擺擺餐具，或餐后收拾 洗碗，把餐具放進洗碗機，倒垃圾，站在一邊幫著擦干洗好的餐具。雖然都是小 忙，卻表明你對別人的操勞非常在

51、意，是個用心的人。Case 8 Two stra ngers have bee n chatt ing.A: So you?re bee n here for a year?B: Yes. One more year to go, the n l?ll go back to ciha.A: What will you do back home?B: lt?s hard to know. There?s a lot cha nge at the mome nt.A: Yeah. Everythi ng is cha nging, everywhere. Sometimes it?s diffic

52、ult to keep up.B: That?s true. Maybe I?ll (A?s mobile phone rin gs.)A: Excuse me, I?d better an swer this. It?s probably work.B: Sure. Take your time.Analysis：有時在與人交談中，難免要有什么原因要離開一會兒，或是去接一個 電話，或要去洗手間。禮貌再此被提出來。出于禮貌起見，要記住做一些恰當解 釋再離開。不管理由是什么，即便是要接一個手機電話，在打開電話回話前，向 對方說聲對不起。如果只離開幾分鐘，沒有必要找一個理由。你說了對不起，就表明你

53、確實是有事 要離開一會兒。Case 9 Liu Huang is calli ng his frie nd Steve n at his home.Pers on: Hello. Joh n is speak ing.Liu:Hello? I?m look ing for Steve n.Pers on: Sorry, there?s no one here called Steve n.Liu:Is that 6577 8868?Pers on: No. I thi nk you?ve got the wrong number. This is 6578 8868.Liu:Oh, I?m s

54、orry.Pers on: No problem. Good luck.Liu:Than ks.Analysis：失手撥錯號碼是常有的事。如果在國外，即便有語言障礙，害怕說英 語，也還是要先與對方核對是不是撥錯了，然后再道歉。如果發(fā)現(xiàn)撥錯了號碼就馬上掛電話，是不禮貌的行為。Case 10 Lin: Thank you so much for a won derful ni ght. I?ve had a great time. Erica: It?s bee n a pleasure hav ing you. We hope you can come aga in, soon.Lin: l?d

55、 like that. You both know how to make me feel at home. Thanks for everyth ing.Analysis：在動身離去的時候，找到主人，當面說一聲謝謝，是有禮貌的行為。Case 11Off to a Bad StartDavid Hu had just started work ing for the foreig n owned compa ny. He was sitt ing at his workstati on but had not bee n give n any assig nment that he shoul

56、d be doing at this mome nt. He was relax ing and wait ing and the n thought he would take the opport un ity to have a look around. He poked his head into several offices just to see what there was to be see n.Sudde nly Mr. Parker came up to him and an grily asked him what he was doing. David Hu was

57、embarrassed. He laughed and quickly started to move back toward his workstatio n. This did not seem to satisfy Mr. Parker who started to talk rapidly and an grily. Hopi ng to calm him dow n, Mr.Hu smiled and apologized, tryi ng to expla in that he was tryi ng to lear n more about the departme nt. Ho

58、wever, Mr. Parker got eve n an grier. Fin ally, ano ther worker came by and calmed him dow n, but Mr. Parker left, he still looked an gry. Mr.Hu sighed; he knew he had made a bad start but still did n?t un dersta nd why.Analysis：外國人很講究隱私權，一般不允許自己的私人空間受到打擾。而中國 人比較喜歡看熱鬧，想知道別人在做什么。所以在本案列中，吳先生未經(jīng)允許就 在公司四

59、處走動，引起其他員工的強烈不滿。Case 12Shari ng the WealthAnna Bilow had been working for a Chinese-owned and operated company in Nanji ng for about six mon ths. The divisio n she was worki ng in had a small collectio n of Chin ese-E nglish dict ion aries, En glish Ian guage refere nee books, and some videos in En glish in cludi