Unit 1 Page 22
Unit 2 Page 60
Unit 3 Page 96
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Unit 4 Page 141
Unit 5 Page 175
Unit 6 Page 215
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Unit 7 Page 250
Case 2
A common cultural misunderstanding in classes involves conflicts between what is said to be direct communication style and indirect communication style. In American culture, people tend to say what is on their minds and to mean what they say. Therefore, students in class are expected to ask questions when they need clarification. Mexican culture shares this preference of style with American culture in some situations, and that‘s why the students from Mexico readily adopted the techniques of asking questions in class. However, Korean people generally prefer indirect communication style, and therefore they tend to not say what is on their minds and to rely more on implications and inference, so as to be polite and respectful and avoid losing face through any improper verbal behavior. As is mentioned in the case, to many Koreans, numerous questions would show a disrespect for the teacher, and would also reflect that the student has not studied hard enough.
Case 3
The conflict here is a difference in cultural values and beliefs. In the beginning, Mary didn’t realize that her Dominican sister saw her as a member of the family, literally. In the Dominican view, family possessions are shared by everyone of the family. Luz was acting as most Dominican sisters would do in borrowing without asking every time. Once Mary understood that there was a different way of looking at this, she would become more accepting. However, she might still experience the same frustration when this happened again. She had to find ways to cope with her own emotional cultural reaction as well as her practical problem (the batteries running out).
Case 6
When a speaker says something to a hearer, there are at least three kinds of
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meanings involved: utterance meaning, speaker’s meaning and hearer’s meaning. In the dialogue, when Litz said ‘How long is she going to stay?’ she meant to say that if she knew how long her mother-in-law was going to stay in Finland, she would be able to make proper arrangements for her, such as taking her out to do some sightseeing. However, her mother-in-law overheard the conversation, and took Litz’s question to mean “Litz does not want me to stay for long”. From the Chinese point of view, it seems to be inappropriate for Litz to ask such a question just two days after her mother-in-law’s arrival. If she feels she has to ask the question, it would be better to ask some time later and she should not let her mother-in-law hear it.
Case 7
Keiko insists on giving valuable gifts to her college friends, because in countries like Japan, exchanging gifts is a strongly rooted social tradition. Should you receive a gift, and don’t have one to offer in return, you will probably create a crisis. If not as serious as a crisis, one who doesn’t offer a gift in return may be considered rude or impolite. Therefore, in Japan, gifts are a symbolic way to show appreciation, respect, gratitude and further relationship.
Keiko obviously has taken those used items from Mary, Ed and Marion as gifts, for she probably doesn’t know that Americans frequently donate their used household items to church or to the community. Mary, Ed and Marion would never consider those used household items given to Keiko as gifts. No wonder they felt very uncomfortable when they received valuable gifts in return.
Case 10
In Japan, a company is often very much like a big family, in which the manger(s) will take good care of the employees and the employees are expected to devote themselves to the development of the company and, if it is necessary, to sacrifice their own individual interests for the interests of the company, from which, in the long run, the employees will benefit greatly. But for the French, a company is just a loosely- knit social organization wherein individuals are supposed to take care of themselves and their families. Moreover, the way the French make decisions in the family might also be different from the typical Japanese one, which may not often involve females and the power to decide usually lies with the dominating male. As there are such cultural differences between the Japanese and the French, Mr. Legrand’s decision made Mr. Tanaka feel dumbfounded.
Case 12
In this case, it seems that the Chinese expectations were not fulfilled. First, having two people sharing host responsibilities could be somewhat confusing to the hierarchically minded Chinese. Second, because age is often viewed as an indication of seniority, the Chinese might have considered the youth of their Canadian hosts as slight to their own status. Third, in China, it is traditional for the host to offer a welcome toast at the beginning of the meal, which is the reciprocated by the guests; by not doing so, the Canadian might be thought rude. The abrupt departure of the Chinese following the banquet was probably an indication that they were not pleased with the way they were treated. The Canadians’ lack of understanding of the Chinese culture and the Chinese ways of communication clearly cost them in their business dealings with the visiting delegation.
Case 17
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When these two men separate, they may leave each other with very different impressions.
Mr Richardson is very pleased to have made the acquaintance of Mr Chu and feels they have gotten off to a very good start. They have established their relationship on a first-name basis and Mr Chu’s smile seemed to indicate that he will be friendly and easy to do business with. Mr Richardson is particularly pleased that he had treated Mr Chu with respect for his Chinese background by calling him Hon-fai rather than using the western name, David, which seemed to him an unnecessary imposition of western culture.
In contrast, Mr Chu feels quite uncomfortable with Mr Richardson. He feels it will be difficult to work with him, and that Mr Richardson might be rather insensitive to cultural differences. He is particularly bothered that, instead of calling him David or Mr Chu, Mr Richardson used his given name, Hon-fai, the name rarely used by anyone, in fact. It was this embarrassment which caused 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 chose David for use in such situations.
Case 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 seems that Ron Kelly had to learn a different way of sending 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 China, such a message is serious 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 use objective facts, assuming, as with persuasion, that facts are neutral, instrumental, and impersonal. Indirectness is often the way members of high-context cultures choose to communicate about a problem.
Case 21
Sometimes our best intentions can lead to breakdowns (故障) in cross-cultural communication. For example, one of the very common manners of touching --- handshaking --- may result in conflict when performed with no consideration of cultural differences. Among middle-class North American men, it is customary to shake hands as a gesture of friendship. When wanting to communicate extra friendliness, a male in the United States may, while shaking hands, grasp with his left hand his friend’s right arm. However, to people of Middle Eastern countries, the left hand is profane (亵渎的) and touching someone with it is highly offensive. Therefore, in Vernon’s eyes, Kenneth was actually an extremely offensive message to him.
Case 22
In Puerto Rican culture, as in some other Latin American and Eastern cultures, it is not right for a child to keep an eye-contact with an adult who is accusing him or her, while in the United States, failing of meeting other person’s eye accusing him or her would be taken as a sign of guiltiness. As the principal knew little about this cultural difference in using eye-contact, he decided that the girl must be guilty. Generally
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speaking, avoiding eye-contact with the other(s) is often considered as an insult in some cultures, but may signify respect for authority and obedience in other cultures.
Case 25
For people from the American culture and western European cultures, one’s time should be scheduled into segments or compartments which are to be kept discrete from one another. They prefer to do one thing at a time. They will be annoyed when they have made an appointment with somebody, only to find a lot of other things going on at the same time. They don’t like to interrupt others and be interrupted by other while they are doing something. In contrast, people from many other cultures including the Chinese culture are more likely to operate with several people, ideas, or matters simultaneously. They are more easily distracted and subject to interruptions, which they would not usually mind very much. The miscommunication between Katherine and the director can be ascribed to their lack of knowledge about each other’s way of using time.
In this case, to the Chinese director as well as many other Chinese people, it is natural to handle the other things which needed to be dealt with immediately. He may have thought that, in this way, he utilized the time best. But to Katherine and most Westerners, it’s quite different. They tend to do things strictly according to their schedule and appointments with others, which is their concept of using time best.
高语境交流和低语境交流（由高到低排列） Japanese, Chinese, Korean, African American, Native American, Arab, Greek, Latin,Italian,English,Frech,Amercian,Scandinavian,German,German-Swiss
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