跨文化交际,精品课程,内容充实完备,体系科学合理

Chapter 5:

Becoming Intercultural Competent I. Main Points

1. The assumption of similarity

2. Stereotypes

3. The tendency to evaluate and judge or to approve or disapprove

4. Automatic transfer

5. High uncertainty and anxiety

6. Misinterpretation of nonverbal behavior

7. Benefits of becoming intercultural

II. Teaching Objectives

1.to identify stereotypes

2.to identify some automatic transfers

3.to cultivate students to be able to recognize benefits of becoming intercultural

III. Teaching Course

1. Present the Cultural Phenomena to Students

(1) Present some cases involving different cultural contacts between persons from different countries or different parts of the same country

(2) Then lead to the concept of globalization

2. Warm-up Questions

1) Do you want to go abroad? What s your aim?

2) Do you find whether it s easy or not to get along with foreign friends?

3. The Assumption of Similarity

The assumption of similarity is one of the biggest barriers in intercultural communication. The hazard assumption that we are all alike instead of being different seriously hinders effective communication across cultures. Barna (Barna 1997) points out that the notion “People are people” is as dangerous as it is sentimental. In fact the major similarities are biological ones, which equip humans with adaptive mechanism of bodies for their survival in an alien environment especially for early humans. As a matter of fact, each member of a society is unconsciously socialized into his or her society, influenced unconsciously by his or her own cultural values, world views and norms. Each member of a society is culture bound and culture specific. We behave the way we do, we think the way we do, we feel the way we do, because our culture has programmed us so and we just can t do otherwise. We must accept the fact that as cultures differ, we are unlike, and being unlike, we seldom know how people of different cultures behave, think, and feel. As we naively assume that people of other cultures are like us, we tend to automatically use the norms or rules underlying our thinking, behaving and feeling as standard to judge, evaluate and interpret the behavior or message, both verbal and nonverbal, of people of different cultures and in doing so, misunderstanding is inevitable.

Numerous examples illustrate the fact that even the same behavior can be interpreted differently. If we do not understand this fact, misunderstanding will occur. Even a smile, the