1、跨文化交际英文案例docCase 1 Girl-nessAs a visiting professor in an American university, Zhang Hua was invited to give a lecture to a group of American students. He talked about university students in China. During the question-and-answer period after the lecture, one female student asked a question that surp
2、rised Zhang Hua. “When you talked about female students, you referred to them as girls. Why?”“Because they are girls. Thats what they are called,” Zhang Hua tried to answer, but he knew he did not really understand the intent of the question. “ I dont quite understand your question, Im afraid.” “In
3、the States, we call ourselves women if were old enough to go to the university. Calling us girls is insulting.” Do Chinese female college students prefer to be called women?Case 2Many years ago, a Chinese man showed a photo of his wife to some American visitors. Out of courtesy, they all said,” She
4、is very beautiful.” Also out of courtesy, the man replied with what he would have done in Chinese under the circumstance,” Where! Where!” Quite taken aback, nobody said anything for a moment, until the most ingenious one among the visitors, taking another look at the photo, said, “Oh, everywhere!”Wh
5、at did the Chinese intend to mean by replying with “ Where! Where!”?Case 1 Girl-nessAs a visiting professor in an American university, Zhang Hua was invited to give a lecture to a group of American students. He talked about university students in China. During the question-and-answer period after th
6、e lecture, one female student asked a question that surprised Zhang Hua. “When you talked about female students, you referred to them as girls. Why?”“Because they are girls. Thats what they are called,” Zhang Hua tried to answer, but he knew he did not really understand the intent of the question. “
7、 I dont quite understand your question, Im afraid.” “In the States, we call ourselves women if were old enough to go to the university. Calling us girls is insulting.” Do Chinese female college students prefer to be called women?Case 2Many years ago, a Chinese man showed a photo of his wife to some
8、American visitors. Out of courtesy, they all said,” She is very beautiful.” Also out of courtesy, the man replied with what he would have done in Chinese under the circumstance,” Where! Where!” Quite taken aback, nobody said anything for a moment, until the most ingenious one among the visitors, tak
9、ing another look at the photo, said, “Oh, everywhere!”What did the Chinese intend to mean by replying with “ Where! Where!”?Case 3 “I Just Wanted to Talk”. Wu tong was a graduate student in a Chinese university. Like many students these days, he was very keen on learning English. He would talk with
10、English speakers as often as he could. One day, he saw a new foreigner on campus, Leonard Ramsay, and overheard him speaking English. When Mr. Ramsay finished speaking with the other person, he turned to go, but Wu Tong stopped him. He went up and said, “ You speak English, is that right?”“Yes, why?
11、”“Id like to practise my English with you, if you dont mind.”Mr. Ramsay looked a little annoyed. “ I prefer not to, if you dont mind.”Case 4 An Unwanted Food Service During a lunch buffet at a conference in China, Wu Fa, the interpreter of the conference, sat with four foreign participants. They wer
12、e having a good time talking. When Wu Fa stood up for more food, she asked whether she could bring anything back for them.Everyone thanked her and said “no”. A while later, Wu Fa came back with a plate full of food, and asked whether the others would like to have something from her plate.Again, the
13、four others said , “No”.“ Oh, please take something, I cant eat this much food myself.”The foreigners shrugged and one or two of them even frowned a little.Case 5 Simple Can Be SpecialWen Hong had an American professor in her economics class in China. She had given the professor a lot of help during
14、 the course. At the end of the semester，the professor and his wife invited her to their home for dinner. They said they were going to cook her an American meal.Wen Hong felt very flattered and excited，since McDonald，KFC and Pizza Hut had been her only exposure to Western cooking. They had salad to s
15、tart with，then steak with potatoes，followed by ice cream. Wen Hong had expected more courses but the meal came to an end. She knew the professor and his wife were being kind to her，but somehow she was a little disappointed. She wondered whether Americans do eat like that at home.Case 6 Chinese Coffe
16、e Customs While studying in the United States, Lin Jun made a few American friends. One day he invited two of them to his apartment and cooked them a meal. When his friends said they would like some coffee, he started boiling some water. Without asking them any questions, he made three cups of 3-in-
17、1 coffee, the way he usually took it.Both friends tasted the coffee and frowned. One said she always took coffee black，the other said he preferred to have less sugar in his coffee. They also told him that the spoon is for stirring the coffee，not to drink from like he did. Lin Jun was embarrassed. He
18、 had thought that everyone drank coffee the same way as he did. Case 7 Noise from Noodles Jane and Peter were Chen Dongs landlord and landlady when he was in the States. They had become good friends by the end of his one-year stay. They kept in touch with each other after Chen Dong returned to China
19、. Jane and Peter decided to visit China soon after Chen Dong left the States. They made a special stop in Guangzhou where Chen Dong lives. Chen Dong had promised to show them around the city and let them try some authentic Cantonese food. One thing，in particular，he wanted them to try was noodles. He
20、 knew several restaurants that served good noodles and took the couple to one of them for lunch one day.Noodles typically come in soup in Cantonese cooking. Chen Dong started eating the noodles with chopsticks，while Jane and Peter exchanged a look at the noise that came with his eating. After a litt
21、le hesitation，they asked for forks. A waitress told them that they did not have forks，and Chen Dong explained that noodle restaurants do not usually keep forks because no one would think of using forks for noodles. In the next half an hour，Jane and Peter had a hard time trying to roll the long noodl
22、es onto their chopsticks. Chen Dong said，“thats not the way we eat noodles. You put the noodles directly to your mouth with your chopsticks.” “But thats not the way we eat noodles，” Jane and Peter said, frowning. Case 8 Dinner in a Chinese HomeBesides taking Peter and Jane to restaurants, Dong Chen
23、also invited them to his home for dinner once. Dong Chen s mother is a nice wife, and made eight courses for four of them.“Im sorry there isnt much for dinner, she said.”“God this is much more than enough food,” Jane said. Peter was too overwhelmed to even respond to Dong Chen motherDong Chen was a
24、little embarrassed. “This is what we usually say to guests，even though theres plenty of food” he explainedWhat bewildered Jane and Peter most was that though Dong Chens mother kept saying that the food was not good，she constantly served helpings to Jane and PeterPeter did not like two of the courses
25、 very much，and felt bad that his plate was full with whatever he would not be able to eat. At seeing Dong Chens mothers next move to serve him food，he said in a begging voice，“Please dont give me any more foodLet me do it myselfCase 9A Not-sociable Drink Martin was sent by an American company to wor
26、k in a special economic development zone in China for a year. He became very friendly with a few Chinese colleagues. Soon, he started to go out with them. He noticed that Chinese like to have something , such as peanuts, when they have beer, instead of just drinking beer without anything to eat as m
27、any North Americans do.One day he was invited to a dinner party to celebrate a colleagues birthday. They ordered alcoholic beverages and toasted the guest of honor frequently. Soon Martin realized that the plan was to get their friend drunk. Each colleague would offer a toast, concluding with a chee
28、ry “ gan bei!” and tried to get Martin to join in, even though he was unwilling to do it. Martin didnt think it a good idea, and tried to talk them out of the game. However, he was accused of not being a good friend for not co-operating. Martin remained an outsider during the rest of the dinner. He
29、was getting increasingly worried as he watched the poor guest become increasingly inebriated.Case 10 A Misunderstanding at a Dinner TableRoger was a student majoring in East Asia Studies in an American university. He started an e-mail correspondence with Zhang Li, a sociology major in China, who was
30、 introduced to him through a mutual friend.Upon graduation, Roger got a big gift from his grandfather. Grandpa would pay for a round-trip ticket to China. He told Zhang Li the good news, and the two decided to meet.Zhang Li decided to give Roger a very special welcome: she and the three women studen
31、ts in her dormitory would cook him an authentic Chinese meal, as Roger had told her that he loved Chinese food.However, when Roger was presented the dinner, he was almost terrified by some of the food: pork stomach soup, pig liver with ginger and spring onion, chicken with mushrooms in which the chi
32、cken had been cut to pieces with bones attached to the meal.Fortunately , there were courses like tofu, stirred fried beef, steamed fish and vegetables that Roger loved. He tried to stick to them but Zhang Li kept putting food he did not like on his plate. When she asked how he liked the liver, Roger said, “ Its very unusualand interesting. “ This seemed to make Zhang Li happy. And she gave him more liver. Roger tried to stop her, but she would not be stopped. Roger was so frustrated that he told her that he did not really li
