问答题
Culture Shock A) Because I’ve lived in China for a long time, locals often smile and give me the honorable title of being "an Old China-hand". I’m flattered by that, but I know that no matter how long I live here, I’ll still be a "lao-wai". But Chinese people are very hospitable, and in many situations I feel very much at home. But it wasn’t always that way. I must admit, it is not easy to adapt to a new environment. Perhaps by sharing the experiences of one of my friends’, readers will gain some insight into adjustments that they may face in the future. B) My friend Dr. Dong had a wonderful chance to go to Seattle to present a paper at a professional meeting. Having attended my course in Intercultural Communications, he consulted me to review some of the cultural differences he might experience. I also gave him the phone number of a friend of mine who lived in the area. When he got back, we met to review his experience. Dr. Dong told me that the course information had helped him. He experienced the typical stages of culture shock. He arrived expectant (期待的) and happy and enjoyed his first days very much. At the medical conference, he felt quite confident in his area of research and was able to perform well in his presentation. But after a few days, he began to feel uncomfortable. His medical English was fine, but the social interaction skills were different, and he was unsure of the cues and the communication style. C) He worried more and more that he was misunderstanding simple English greetings and table talk conventions. When someone greeted him with, "Hi, how’s it going" he thought they had asked him "where are you going" and answered with the name of the conference hall, only to get a quizzical (古怪的) stare from them. At a western style dinner, a colleague asked, "So how’re you enjoyin’ the States" he thought he heard, "how are you enjoying your steak" and answered that he was eating chicken, not beef. That time, they smiled, and patiently repeated the question, then both laughed at the error. D) Such misunderstandings and miscommunications were minor. But for Dr. Dong, they were the beginning of a sense of "cultural confusion." By the end of the meetings, he felt a deep sense of "cultural stress" and was worn out from having to pay attention to so many new expressions and ways of dealing with things. He felt his handshake was not as firm as Americans’, found that people reacted unusually when he modestly insisted his English was not good after they complimented him, didn’t know how to accept dinner invitations properly and therefore missed out on going to several lunches, and so on. Eventually, he was so bewildered that he felt the full impact of "culture shock" E) What is culture shock and why does it occur The term was coined about 50 years ago by the Swedish scholar, Kalvero Oberg. His seminal (有重大影响的) article, "Culture Shock: Adjustment to New Cultural Environments" (1960) has been reprinted and revised for many textbooks and magazines. He called it "the occupational disease of people who have been suddenly transplanted abroad." His use of the word "disease" is a pun, because it implies that it is like an "ailment (疾病 ), with its own symptoms and cure," but also that the root cause is also a feeling of "dis-"ease, or unsettled uneasiness. F) Think back on your own experience. Have you ever moved from one context to another Many students feel some of this adjustment shock when they change from one school to another, or move from a small town to a big city. The list of sensations one feels in new surroundings often includes: Feeling like an outsider, feeling unsure of oneself or even feeling stupid; sensing that one’s language skills aren’t good enough, missing jokes, colloquial (口语的) phrases, references to TV shows or pop songs or other cultural "insider" information; feeling lonely and wanting to go "home," feeling more and more like a stranger or outcast; feeling overwhelmed, overloaded, daydreaming, staring blankly at things or even staring at nothing; becoming more and more afraid of communicating and of making mistakes, worried, anxious. G) These are all symptoms of initial culture shock. With a new context comes new ways of doing things. So being uninitiated (不被接纳的) and unsure of what to do, this sense of displacement is often very strong at the beginning. But the good news is that humans are very good at adapting. Though everyone undergoes some degree of psychological stress in transition, after a few weeks or months, we learn how to "read" our new context. We become aware of the new cues, the new expectations, errors, and with a lot of patience with oneself, most people succeed in overcoming culture shock and learn to enjoy their new context. H) Dr. Dong’s visit to the US was only three weeks long, but by the end of the 5-day medical conference, he was already starting to feel more confident. Sure he felt a little foolish about some of the mistakes he had made, but he quickly learned to laugh at his errors and found his colleagues smiled with him. This broke down the barriers to communication and helped him build some good professional relationships. And after the conference, he contacted the family I had referred him to and had a very nice time visiting them. There were some new cultural surprises, but he discovered he could better understand and adapt to them. I) By the time he returned to China, he was feeling quite positive about his American trip, and was glad for the new experiences and new skills it had given him. He had become successful in the initial transitions to a new culture. Though he had gone through some embarrassing or trying culture stresses, each had proven to be valuable learning experiences, and in the end had helped him overcome culture shock. Of course, there were a hundred other adjustments. Some were the ones most difficult at first. Getting used to new things is a normal part of any transition—I wish you good luck in your future adjustments!When Dr. Dong was greeted with "Hi, how’s it going", he responded with the name of a conference hall.
