Unit 5
Culture and Verbal Communication
Ca 17
When the two men parate, they may leave each other with very different impressions.
Mr Richardson is very plead to have made the acquaintance of Mr Chu and feels they have东西寺塔
gotten off to a very good start. They have established their relationship on a first-name basis and Mr
Chu‘s smile emed to indicate that he will be friendly and easy to do business with. Mr Richardson
is particularly plead that he had treated Mr Chu with respect for his Chine background by calling
him Hon-fai rather than using the western name, David, which emed to him an unnecessary
imposition of western culture.
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In contrast, Mr Chu feels quite uncomfortable with Mr Richardson. He feels it will be difficult友情诗句
to work with him, and that Mr Richardson might be rather innsitive to cultural differences. He is
particularly bothered that, instead of calling him David or Mr Chu, Mr Richardson ud his given
name, Hon-fai, the name rarely ud by anyone, in fact. It was this embarrassment which caud him
to smile. He would feel more comfortable if they called each other Mr Chu and Mr Richardson.
Nevertheless, when he was away at school in North America he learned that Americans feel
uncomfortable calling people Mr for any extended period of time. His solution was to adopt a
western name. He cho David for u in such situations.
Ca 18
Even if the American knew Urdu, the language spoken in Pakistan, he would also have to
understand the culture of communication in that country to respond appropriately. In this ca, he
had to say ―No at least three times.
In some countries, for instance, the Ukraine, it may happen that a guest is presd as many as
ven or eight times to take more food, whereas in the UK it would be unusual to do so more than
twice. For a Ukrainian, to do it the British way would suggest the person is not actually generous.
Indeed, British recipients of such hospitality sometimes feel that their host is behaving impolitely
by forcing them into a bind, since they run out of polite refusal strategies long before the Ukrainian
host has exhausted his/her repertoire of polite insistence strategies.
Ca 19
Talking about what‘s wrong is not easy for people in any culture, but people in high-context
countries like China put high priority on keeping harmony, preventing anyone from losing face, and
nurturing the relationship. It ems that Ron Kelly had to learn a different way of nding message
when he was in China. At home in Canada he would have gone directly to the point. But in China,
going directly to the problem with someone may suggest that he or she has failed to live up to his or
her responsibility and the honor of his or her organization is in question. In high-context cultures like怎么可以怀孩子
China, such a message is rious and damaging. In low-context cultures, however, the tendency is
just to ―spit it out, to get it into words and worry about the result later. Senders of unwelcome
messages u objective facts, assuming, as with persuasion, that facts are neutral, instrumental, and
impersonal. Indirectness is often the way members of high-context cultures choo to communicate
about a problem.
Ca 20
It ems that the letters of request written in English as well as in Chine by Chine people四季童谣
are likely to preface the request with extended face-work. To Chine people, the normal and polite way to form a request requires providing reasons that are usually placed befor
e the requests. Of cour, this is just the inver of English conventions in which requests are fronted without much face-work. In the view of the English-speaking people, the opening lines of Chine requests and some other speech acts do not usually provide a thesis or topic statement which will orient the listener to the overall direction of the communication. Worst of all, the lack of precision and the韩国三级电影排名 failure to address the point directly may lead to suspicions that the Chine speakers are beating around the bush. To them, the prence of a clear and conci statement of what is to be talked about will make the speech more preci, more dramatic, and more eloquent.
However, the Chine learning and using English in communication may find it difficult to
好看的手表come to terms with the common English tendency to begin with a topic statement. In the Chine
culture, stating one‘s request or main point at the beginning would make the person em immodest, pushy, and inconsiderate for wanting things. If your speech gives others the im
pression that you are demanding something, you would lo face for acting aggressively and not considering the others. Thus you‘d be hurting people by claiming something for yourlf.
In such a situation, it is usually considered a smart strategy if you carefully delineate the
自然科学类justifications that will naturally lead to your request or argument. Therefore, instead of stating their proposition somewhere in the beginning and then proceeding to build their ca, Chine people often first establish a shared context with which to judge their requests or arguments. Only after carefully prefacing them with an avalanche of relevant details, as if to nullify any opposition, will they prent the requests or arguments.
