Unit Nine Misunderstanding Means East-West Cultural Clash The Second Two Periods Designed by Sun Yanmin.

Unit Nine Misunderstanding Means East-West Cultural

Clash

The Second Two Periods

Designed by Sun Yanmin

Unit Nine Misunderstanding Means East-West Cultural Clash

Teaching procedures:

Lead in

Read in

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• Lead in :

I. Leading Questions

Example on the east-west cultural clash

Chinese people like to ask such following questions as “Where are you from?” “Where do you work?” “How much do you earn?”. While western people consider these questions be impolite.


Lead in

1. Culture Shock

2. Individualism & Collectivism

3. Topic-related Words and Phrases


Culture Shock

The term culture shock is used to describe emotional and physical discomfort a person suffers when moving to a completely new environment. Individuals often experience a lack of direction, a feeling of not knowing what to do or how to handle things, how to react and of not knowing what is inappropriate. Culture shock is a natural and human response to new cultural experiences. There are several typical stages of cultural adaptation that students go through when learning to adapt to a new culture. The length of each stage varies for the individual, and often people move back and forth among the first three stages.

unit9 Misunderstanding Means East-West Cultural Clash

Culture Shock

1. Initial Euphoria and Enthusiasm.This stage can be described by feelings of excitement and wonderment about the new culture. Everything about the culture is perceived to be great and wonderful by the individual.


2. Irritability and Hostility.

This stage is the period in which people experience culture shock. Everything is seen as different and at least weird if not bad. Things do not feel quite right. Symptoms of culture shock become evident. Symptoms can include: homesickness, boredom, withdrawal or spending time exclusively with people of your own nationality, excessive sleeping, stereotyping others, and physical maladies.


3.Gradual Adjustment.

This stage begins when we start to

perceive different ways of behaving or

thinking in order to feel more

comfortable in the host culture. 4.Adaptation.

This final stage occurs when the

individual can appreciate, value, and

live in both the home and the new

culture.


Individualism & Collectivism

Individualism and collectivism are conflicting views of the nature of humans, society and the relationship between them. Individualism holds that individual is the primary unit of reality and the ultimate standard of value. It sees society as a collection of individuals, not something over and above them. The individual is the unit of achievement.


Collectivism, on the other hand, holds that the group — the nation, the community, the proletariat, the race, etc. — is the primary unit of reality and the ultimate standard of value. One’s identity is determined by the groups one interacts with. One’s identity is constituted essentially of relationships with others.


Topic-related Words and Phrases

Counterculture: a way of life and a set of ideas that are completely different from those accepted by most of society, or the group of people who live this wayCustoms house:

The night view of Shanghai (The clock tower on the left is Shanghai Customs House.)


Topic-related Words and Phrases

Customs officer:

a person whose job is to look inside travelers’ bags to make certain they are not taking goods into a country without paying taxes

Duty-free:

Duty-free goods are luxury goods bought in special shops at an airport, on an international ship, etc., on which you do not pay government tax.


Topic-related Words and PhrasesPassport:

an official document containing personal information and usually a photograph which allows a person to travel to foreign countries and to prove who they areVisa:

an official endorsement in a passport authorizing the bearer to enter or leave, and travel in or through, a particular country or region


Text Study

1. Global Reading

2. Detailed Reading


Global Reading

1.Questions and Answers

2.Text Analysis


Questions and AnswersDirections: Skim the paragraphs for answers to the following questions.

Paragraphs 1 - 3

Question: Why did the young Chinese tourist leave the café unhappily?Answer:

He asked twice for more hot water and put the saucer on the cup to keep the tea warm. However, his request was misunderstood by the waiter.


Paragraphs 4—5

Question: What caused the unhappy tea incident?Answer:The misunderstanding of

different manners in different customs caused the unhappy incident.

Paragraph 6Question:Why do westerners often

complain that the Chinese are noisy and impolite?Answer:Because the Chinese like to ask some personal questions to start a conversation. Those questions often make westerners uncomfortable.


Paragraph 7

Question: Why did the author feel lonely during his stay in Europe?

Answer: Because he felt that the westerners were indifferent to each other.Question:What miracle did he pray for?

Answer:He wanted his classmates to ask him questions about his personal life so that he could narrow the distance between him and others.


Paragraph 8

Question: How did the author break the ice?Answer:He first let his audience know

his intention of building confidence and then he slowly challenged his audience with some personal questions.Paragraphs 9

—10Question: What is the feature of Chinese culture?Answer:Chinese culture is founded on

collectivism and personal questions are regarded


Paragraph 11

Question:What is the feature of Western culture?

Answer:It is founded on individualism and personal questions are considered to be impolite.

Paragraph 12

Question:What does the last paragraph tell us?

Answer:It tells us that asking questions or keeping silent could either be regarded as polite or impolite, depending on the circumstances.


Text Analysis

1-3

4-5

6

Para

Main Ideas

Instance of cultural clash: a young Chinese tourist’s unhappy experience of a tea service at a café in Paris.

Another instance of such cultural clash: westerns in China think frequent private questions

Cause of this clash: the Chinese tourist and the French waiter misunderstood the customs in the East and the West.


Text Analysis

7-8

9-10

11

12

Author’s experience with his Western students of Chinese.

Features of Chinese culture: it is based on collectivism and personal questions are a way of showing concern and friendliness. Feature of Western culture: it is founded on individualism and communication through personal question is considered impolite. Importance of circumstances: depending on circumstances, either intrusive questions or a perfunctory hello should be all right.


Detailed reading

1.clash v. 1) fight or argue 冲突e.g.• Students clashed with police after demonstrations at five universities.• The government and the opposition parties have clashed over the cuts in defense spending.


2. top up: add more liquid to a container that is partly full 添加，添满

e.g.

He motioned the waiter to top up his glass.


3. stingy adj. not generous, very mean 小气的

e.g. You may never get money from Tom. He is very stingy.

Related words:

miserly, generous, mean


4. displeasure n. displeased feeling; dissatisfaction; e.g.

• The girl’s rash behavior incurred the displeasure of the boss.

Extended words:

displease, pleasure, pleasant, unpleasant


5. reluctant adj. unwilling and therefore slow to co-operate, agree, etc.

不情愿的；勉强的e.g.

• The little boy was reluctant to leave

the toy store.

• The old lady was very reluctant to

agree to be operated on by a young

surgeon.

• She was very reluctant to admit the

truth.


6. steam v. give off steam when very hot; travel by steam power; cook by allowing steam to heat

放出蒸汽；冒水汽 e.g.

He got very steamed up about it.

Related words:let off steam （发泄过多的精力）；get up steam （开始启动）；under one’s/ its own steam （凭自己的努力）


7. misinterpret v. give wrong explanations

误释，误解

e.g.

• The driver misinterpreted the policeman’s signal and turned in the wrong direction. • The boy misinterpret the teacher’s meaning.Extended words:

interpretable, interpreter, interpretive


8. occur v. 1) (especially of accidents and other

unexpected events) happene.g. An accident involving over ten vehicles

has occurred in the eastbound lane.

e.g. If any of these symptoms occur while you are taking the medicine, consult your doctor immediately.


• suffer v. • 1) experience physical or mental pain 遭受，经历，忍受

e.g. I think he suffered quite a lot when his wife left him.

e.g. She’s been suffering from (= been ill with) cancer for two years.


2) experience or show the effects of something bad 遭受（磨难）e.g. The Democrats suffered a crushing

defeat in the last election.


Assignments 1.Read the new words and learn them

by heart, next time we’ll have a dictation.

2.Read the text n detail, try to find the difficulties of structures, sentences, or words, next time we may have a discussion about them.

3.Finish the rest exercises.


Unit Nine Misunderstanding Means East-West Cultural Clash The Second Two Periods Designed by Sun Yanmin.

Documents

eastwest cultural clash

new culture

cultural clash chinese

symptoms of culture

term culture shock

host culture

unit9 misunderstanding

new cultural experiences