简答+论述
1/2.Why would intercultural communication be more difficult than communication between people from the same culture?/Why is it hard to teach a culture?
(1) Assuming more cultural similarities between themselves and people of other cultures than there actually are can lead to misunderstanding. (2) Language differences are obviously often a source of misunderstanding.
(3) People of different cultures often misinterpret non-verbal communication such as body language and gesture.
(4) People often have stereotypes and preconceptions about foreigners which lead to misunderstanding.
(5) When people interact with foreigners, they often evaluate before really understand and jump to inaccurate conclusions. They have feelings of anxiety and stress, the source of which is sometimes culture shock.
(6) People assume everyone is similar.
(7) People tend to generalize or oversimplify. 3. characteristics of Chinese culture 1) Collectivism which emphasize on the doctrine of the golden mean(中庸之道)
2) There is a large power distance in hierarchy.
3)Hypocritical. Ingroupharmony and good relationships and avoidance of overt (公开的)conflict in interpersonal relations.
4)belief in the“naturalness, necessity, and inevitability of hierarchy.” 5)Inequality based on achievement, especially academic, moral, and financial achievement
5)Belief that “the judgment of wise people” is a better way to regulate life than rigid, artificial laws
6)People exist “in and through relationship with others”
7)Academic emphasis on memory, attention to detail, and lengthy homework
4. characteristics of Americaculture(individualism)
They believe in the dignity, indeed the sacredness of the individual. Their highest and noblest aspirations are not only for ourselves, but for those they care about for the society.
5/6.What virtues Chinese culture emphasizes most? America? 1. Formality(礼节) 2.Hierarchy 3.industriousness（勤奋）4.being filial （孝顺） 5.hard work6.modesty 7.frugality（节俭）
7.Never a borrower or a lender be.(individualism)
In individualist cultures, the main distinction people usually make is between “me” and “others” rather than “us” and “them”.Individualist westerners also treat outsides differently from members of their in-groups, the difference is generously not so great; for example, individualists generally won’t assist members of their in-groups as much as collectivists would, but they may offer more assistance to outsides than collectivists would.“Never a borrower or a lender be”, this sentence means that it is best to not lend money to otherpeople and to not borrow from other people. When we lend something we risk losing both the thing we lend and the friendship with that other person. To begin with, it is because westerners are in Individualist Cultures. Individualists feel less obligation to others, whether they are in-groups or out-groups.Secondly, because of their characteristics, their individualism, western people tend to be very independent and self-reliant. They will always solve their problems by themselves. So they don’t want others to rely on them, either.
8.What are many ways in which Western societies differ in how they view the issue of equality? hierarchy
定义后面加：While there are certain differences in rank and power in the West, on the whole, individualist Western Cultures tend to be relatively egalitarian. In other words, they try to minimize rank and power differences, and try to place limits on the power of people in authority.
Americans emphasizes on the equality of chances and opportunities. Europeans emphasizes on the equality of material wealth.
9/10.What can you do to manage culture fatigue?/A prescription for culture shock? 1. Accept the occurrence of culture shock as natural 2. Learn about the host culture
3. Find a logical reason for everything strange or bad about the host culture
4. Look for the positive things in the host culture
5. Avoid foreigners who are critical of the host country 6. Do not always say critical things about host culture 7. Keep a good sense of humor
8. Find another foreigner who knows the host culture 9. Make friends with people from the host culture 10. Think about that you won’t lose your own culture 11. Keep yourself busy and active
12. If you feel fatigued, take a little vacation
13. Prepare a presentation about your own culture
11.Why doesprojected cultural similarity cause intercultural communication problems？
From the aspect of PCS, people just assume people from other cultures view things the same way we do. What we think is right, we consider others will think it is right, too. However, it just doesn’t work out like that. Because of different cultural background, we have differentinterpretations of everything happened. we can not expect others to think or act the same as we do.We should be careful about checking assumptions so that many conflicts and misunderstandings can be avoided.
12.Do unto others what you would have them do unto you Projected cultural similarity
The sentence means that it’s better not to do things to others what you don’t want others do to you. This behavior shows the phenomenon “Projected cultural similarity”. In our cultural system, if you don’t like thing done to you, you just don’t impose on others. It’s a kind of virtue. But from the aspect of PCS, people just assume people from other cultures view things the same way we do. What we think is right, we consider others will think it is right, too. However, it just doesn’t work out like that. Because of different cultural background, we have differentinterpretations of everything happened. we can not expect others to think or act the same as we do.We should be careful about checking assumptions so that many conflicts and misunderstandings can be avoided.
13.Conformity in western culturesloose culture、tight culture One interesting aspect of culture is the degree to which its members expect everyone to conform, to all think and act in similar ways. Some scholars divide cultures into two broad categories, “loose” and
“tight”.“Loose ” cultures do not demand a high degree of conformity. In loose cultures, people have a relatively wide range of views as to what is considered normal behavior.“Tight”cultures, in contrast, expect a relatively high degree of conformity. There is a clear consensus as to what is and is not acceptable behavior, and there is more pressure on people to conform to the norms of the cultures.On many important social issues and ideas, Western societies have a lower degree of consensus than Chinese society do. Furthermore, while Westerners may disagree violently with each other over such issues, they tend to be relatively comfortable living in a society where there’s disagreement over these issues. This may cause some difficulty for Chinese may expect Westerners to be more uniform in theirbeliefs, values, and ideas than is in fact the case. Chinese culture is tight culture, and western cultures are loose cultures. So conformity in western cultures is less than it in Chinese culture.
14.What factors contribute to looseness or tightness in culture？loose culture、tight culture 1. The degree of change in the population-the more people move, the more loose and individualist a society tends to be
2. The density of the population-small dense societies tend to be collectivist, hence tighter. Large dense society tend to be more complex, hence not quite so tight--melting pot
3. The number of choices available in society-the more choices available, the more room there is for individualism
4.The degree of conformity of one country-the more conformity there is, the more tight and vice versa(反之亦然).
15.What are the similarity and difference between “Projected Cultural Similarity” and “Ethnocentrism”?
Projected Cultural Similarity、Ethnocentrism
The similarity:both of them can not be avoided or overcame in intercultural communication. These two phenomena will often happen in cultures.
They can be obstacles during the exchange of different cultures.
Difference:Ethnocentrism is taking one's own culture norms as the standard by which to judge people of other cultures. It is terrible and sometimes even does harm to people from other cultures. Projected cultural similarity is assuming that people of other cultures view things
the same way you do. People mean well and do not want to hurt anyone deliberately.
16.Why are in/out-groups a problem in intercultural communication? Ingroups、outgroups (1) We generally have more positive feelings toward members of our
ingroups than we do toward outsiders.
(2) We tend to have a stronger sense of obligation to insiders than to
outsiders.
(3) We tend to judge ingroups and out-groups by different standards. (4) We bear grudge against people from other culture because of
misunderstanding of the way they treat out-groups.
So the ties of goodwill and trust between ingroups and outgroups are often relatively weak, and they break easily when there is conflict or misunderstanding.
17.How do Chinese people treat in-group and out-group in line with culture back?Ingroups、outgroups The way Westerners treat in-group and out-group is not distinctly different but the way Chinese treatin-group and out-group is very clearly different. Chinese generally have a high sense of loyalty and obligation to their in-groups, and will often go to great lengths to help people they consider members of their in-groups; however, they feel lessobligation to outsiders.Chinese often view outsiders who come to china as guests, and give them much special treatment. In part, this is because Chinese view guests as a kind of in-group, and tends to treat in-group members very well.
18.Characteristics of war stories war stories
(1)Desire for sympathy: Often we tell war stories at least partly because we want to get sympathy, especially when we have had a difficult or painful encounter.
(2)Desire for reassurance:We tell war stories about intercultural encounters to get reassurance that our interpretations of encounters make sense.
(3)Desire to tell a good story:Stories are generally more interesting and effective if they have a clear point of view, and perhaps have a moral of some kind.