跨文化交际第五章

单击此处编辑母版标题样式,单击此处编辑母版文本样式,第二级,第三级,第四级,第五级,*,Chapter 5,Culture Shock in Intercultural Communication,Goals,:,1. to identify the 5 stages of culture shock,2. to identify the definitions of HC and LC,“,Culture Shock,”, first identified in 1958 by anthropologist,Kalvero,Oberg, is a long term,psychological stress,that all human beings experience when they move to a completely,new cultural environment,.,Culture shock usually sets in the first few weeks of moving to a new environment, though sometimes can take longer to surface.,Culture shock, like a disease, has causes, symptoms and cures.,1. Culture Shock,refers to the traumatic ,tr:mtik, experience that an individual may encounter when entering a different culture.,expresses the lack of direction, the feeling of not knowing what to do or how to do things in a new environment, and not knowing what is appropriate or inappropriate.,the physical and emotional discomfort one suffers when coming to live in another country or a place different from the place of origin, troublesome feelings such as depression, loneliness, confusion, inadequacy, hostility, frustration, and tension, caused by the loss of familiar cues from the home culture,2. Symptoms of culture shock,a. physical symptoms,over-concerned about cleanliness of food, bedding, and dishes, extreme stress on health and safety; fear of physical contact with anyone in the new country; great concern over minor pains and skin eruptions (,出疹,),; craving “home cooking”; use of alcohol and drugs; and a decline in work quality.,b.psychological symptoms,insomnia ,insmni, , fatigue, isolation and loneliness, disorientation, frustration, criticism of new country, depression, nervousness, self-doubt, irritability, anger, and emotional and intellectual withdrawal.,3. Causes of culture shock,Cultural stress,Social alienation,Social class and poverty-wealth extremes,Financial matters,Relationships and family considerations,a. Cultural Stress,Entering an unfamiliar culture is stressful; in fact, transitions of any type are both psychologically and physically stressful. Problems with housing, climate, services, or communication in another language bring additional stress.,b. Social Alienation,An aspect of culture shock that can have adverse effects upon the newcomers to a culture is social alienation and the feelings of loneliness that are associated with being isolated from friends and the home culture.,c. Social class and poverty-wealth extremes,Class distinctions do exist in many countries,but are so complicated and subtle that visitors,from other countries often miss the nuances,nju:ns, (,细微差别,),and even the existence,of a class structure.,d. Financial matters,Adapting to a new culture and reentering the home culture involve financial adjustments, such as cost and availability of housing, banking practices, use of credit cards and checks, and costs of schooling.,e. Relationships and family considerations,Problems related with relationships such as failure of the spouse and other family members to adapt to the new culture are a major factor in the early return of expatriates.,4. Stages of culture shock,The honeymoon stage,The hostility stage,The recovery stage,The adjustment stage,The,biculturality,stage,The first stage of initial contact, sometimes called the “honeymoon” stage or initial euphoria ,ju:f:ri, (,幸福愉快感,), is where everything is new and exciting.,- eager to please people around, cooperation, interest in listening to people,a. the “honeymoon” stage,E.g.,A European-based joint venture company has just hired Mr. Wang. With his fine university record, English proficiency and good work record, he successfully competed with many other applicants to win the entry-level position. The company has just built a state-of-the-art (,顶尖水准的,) factory in the outskirts of his hometown, which means that he can go ahead with his plans to marry without delay.,b.,the hostility stagethe crisis or disenchantment (,失望,),stage,The second stage is characterized by,frustration, anger, anxiety and sometimes,depression.,- tired of listening to and speaking another,language, difficult to work with, try,everyones patience,E.g.,A Westerner in China who suspects he is being cheated by a vendor may simply toss his bag of fruit back and walk away, or he might start yelling and accusing in whatever language he is able to manage.,c. the recovery stage (the reintegration stage),The third stage is characterized by gaining some understanding of the new culture.,-a new feeling of pleasure and sense of humor, a certain psychological balance, a feeling of direction,E.g.,The same Westerner who 6 month earlier walked away from the street vendor in anger, now confidently enters a Chinese hotel ready to bargain for a reduction in the foreigners room mate.,d. the adjustment stage,In the fourth stage, people realize the new culture has good and bad things to offer. This integration is accompanied by a more solid feeling of belonging. (double or triple integration),-feel good/at ease, successfully adjusted to the new culture,E.g.,Wu,Lian, studying in America now, has learned which of her classmates are worth spending time with and how to ask them the right questions to learn what she needs to know. She has made new friends,.,By this time she is able to accept both the similarities and the differences between his home culture and the new culture. She becomes more sensitive to local people and as a result, her relationship with them is becoming warmer and more personal. Life is becoming more comfortable.,e. the,biculturality,stage (the full adjustment stage),Biculturality,:,the healthy and even ideal stage of adaptation in which ones original cultural world view remains intact as alternative cultural frames are acquired.,In the final stage people become able to cope comfortably in both home and new cultures. However, full adjustment can take years.,At this stage the person has grown as a human being and has been replaced by a new one that functions at a higher level of human sensitivity and self-awareness.,5. Reverse culture shock,may occur upon returning to the home country if a person has adjusted exceptionally well to the host culture,.,return/reentry culture shock,returnees,There are usually two elements that characterize re-entry:,An idealized view of home,The expectation of total familiarity (that nothing at home has changed while you have been away), A problem arises when reality doesnt meet these expectations. Home may feel so foreign.,Reverse culture shock is usually described in four stages:,Disengagement,Initial euphoria,Irritability and hostility,Readjustment and adaptation,6. Stages of,reverse,culture shock,Stage 1,begins,before,you leave your host country. You begin thinking about re-entry and making your preparations for your return home. You also begin to realize that its time to say good-bye to your friends abroad and to the place youve come to call home. The hustle and bustle of finals, good-bye parties, and packing can intensify your feelings of sadness and frustration. You already miss the friends youve made, and you are reluctant to leave. Or, you may make your last few days fly by so fast that you dont have time to reflect on your emotions and experiences.,Stage 2,usually begins shortly before departure, and it is characterized by feelings of excitement and anticipation - even euphoria - about returning home. This is very similar to the initial feelings of fascination and excitement you may have when you first entered your host country. You may be very happy to see your family and friends again, and they are also happy to see you. The length of this stage varies, and often ends with the realization that most people are not as interested in your experiences abroad as you had hoped. They will politely listen to your stories for a while, but you may find that soon they are ready to move on to the next topic of conversation.,Stage 3,You may experience feelings of,frustration, anger, alienation,loneliness, disorientation, and helplessness and not understand exactly why. You might quickly become irritated or critical of others and of home culture. Depression, feeling like a stranger at home, and the longing to go back abroad are also not uncommon reactions. You may also feel less independent than you were while abroad.,Stage 4,a gradual readjustment to life at home. Things will start to seem a little more normal again, and you will probably fall back into some old routines, but things wont be exactly the same as how you left them. You have most likely developed new attitudes, beliefs, habits, as well as personal and professional goals, and you will see things differently now. The important thing is to try to incorporate the positive aspects of your international experience while abroad with the positive aspects of your life at home.,A. Defense mechanisms against culture shock,repression,regression,isolation,rejection,These methods are not helpful because they prevent us from making necessary adjustment to the new culture.,7. Strategies for managing culture shock,B. Alleviating culture shock,learning throughout your stay,get involved,aster simple tasks,try to understand,learn to live with ambiguity,be empathetic (,移情,),be flexible and resourceful (,机智的,),be humorous,In his book,Beyond Cultures,(,published in 1976 by Anchor Press/Doubleday, in New York ),Hall distinguishes among cultures on the basis of the role of context in communication and classify culture patterns into,high-context culture,and,low-context culture.,8. High-context Culture & Low-context Culture,Context,According to Hall, context refers to the stimuli, environment, ambience ,mbins, (,周围环境,),surrounding an event.,Hall arranged low-and high-context countries on a continuum as follows:,German,North American,French,Spanish,Greek,Chinese,German-Swiss,Scandinavian,English,Italian Mexican,Arab Japanese,LC cultures,HC cultures,高,日本人中国人韩国人非裔美国人美国土著人阿拉伯人希腊人拉丁美洲人意大利人英国人法国人美国人斯堪的纳维亚人瑞士人德国人,低,8-1 What is HC,Hall states:,“High context transactions feature,pre-programmed,information that is in the receiver and in the setting, with only minimal information in the transmitted message.,Low context transactions are the reverse. Most of the information must be in the transmitted message in order to make up for what is missing in the context.”,Low context culture,refers to groups of cultures that value individual orientation and overt communication codes and maintains a heterogeneous normative structure with low cultural demand characteristics.,High context culture,refers to groups of cultures that value group identity orientation and covert communication codes and maintains a homogeneous normative structure with high cultural demand characteristics.,In high-context cultures most of the information is in the,physical context,or is,internalized,in the people who are a part of the interaction. Very little information is actually coded in the verbal message.,In low-context cultures, most of the information is contained in,the verbal message, and very little is embedded in the context or within the participants,8-2 Some Features of HC & LC,High-context,establish social trust first,value personal relations and goodwill,agreement by relations and goodwill,negotiations slow,Low-context,get down to business first,value expertise and performance,agreement by specific, legalistic context,negotiations as efficient as possible,Low Context High Context,8-3 Comparing low-to high-context cultures,Tends to prefer direct verbal interaction,Tends to understand meaning at one level,Tends to prefer indirect verbal interaction,Tends to understand meaning at many socio-cultural levels,Is generally less proficient in reading nonverbal cues,Is generally more proficient in reading nonverbal cues,Value individualism,Value group membership,Relies more on logic,Relies more on context and feeling,Employ linear logic,Employ spiral logic,Says no directly,Talks around point; avoid saying,no,Communicates in highly structured (context) messages, provides details, stresses literal meanings, gives authority to written information,Communicates in simple, ambiguous, non-,contexted,messages; understands visual messages readily,Illustrations,Context and Chinese Language,by Edward Hall,1976,China, the possessor of a great and complex culture, is on the high-context end of the scale. One notices this particularly in the written language of China, which is 35 hundred years old and has changed very little in the past 3 thousand years. The need for context is experienced when looking up words in a Chinese dictionary. To use a Chinese dictionary, the reader must know the significance of 214 radicals (,偏旁,部首,) ( there are no counterparts for radicals in the Indo-European languages).,For example, to find the word for star one must know that it appears under the sun radical. To be literate in Chinese, one has to be conversant (,精通,) with Chinese history. Another interesting sidelight (,花絮新闻,;,趣闻,) on the Chinese orthography is that it is also an art form. To my knowledge, no low-context communication system has ever been an art form. Good art is always high-context; bad art, low-context.,Cultural differences at the airport,You will notice an interesting phenomenon at the arrival gates of international airports. Usually there is a group of family members or a host waiting to meet the Chinese, Japanese, and other Asians who are getting off the airplane. Often there is no one waiting to meet the Westerners who are arriving. They just collect their baggage and then take a taxi or a bus to their destination.,Apparently the Asians think that no one arriving in an unfamiliar place should be left to find their on their own. They need people at this time. Westerners are more likely to assume that certain predictable services will be available such as hotel booking counters and transportation services and that they can find these and the city and already learned a lot about the airport, hotels, tourist site, what people he will need to contact for particular purposes once he gets there, where to get a good dinner, and more.,Westerners, as low-context communicators, look for, trust and use impersonal sources of information while communicators from more high-context cultures prefer personal sources of information.,A cross-cultural dialogue,Foreign affair officer (FAO),:,Foreign teachers ask me for lots of information before they come to China.,Foreign teacher (FT),: What do you tell them?,FAO,: I tell them theyll find out everything that they need to know when they get here.,FT,: Oh.,FAO,: Yes, my office and the teaching departments arrange everything for them. Every foreign teacher has a contact person to help them with problems of teaching and daily life.,Westerners appreciate the personal help they receive when they come to China, but they also want low-context information to help them plan, act and adjust to a new situation.,High-context communicators need the low-context messages they receive, but without human helpers they experience their new cultural situation as cold and impersonal.,8-4 Comparing U.S. and Foreign Views,How U.S. Persons How Foreigners View,View Themselves U.S. Persons,Informal, friendly, casual Undisciplined, too personal,Egalitarian Insensitive to status,Direct, aggressive Blunt, rude, oppressive,Efficient Opportunistic, obsessed with time,Goal-/achievement-oriented Promise more than they deliver,Profit-oriented Materialistic,Resourceful, ingenious Deals more important than people,Individualistic, progressive Self-absorbed,Dynamic, identify with work Driven,Enthusiastic, prefer hard sell Deceptive, fearsome,Open Weak, untrustworthy,