Unit4 cultural encounters

Unit 4

Audiovisual supplement

Cultural information

Watch the video and answer the following questions. 1. Is there anything different about the wedding?

The wedding is not like the traditional American wedding. The bridegroom is from a different culture.2. What are the big problems for people from different cultures when they live together? When people from different cultures live together, the big problems for them may be the different languages, different lifestyles, different eating habits, and different religions, etc.

Audiovisual supplement

Cultural information

Audiovisual supplement

Cultural information

Priest:

We’ve come together to show our support for Sidney and Rachel, and their joining hands and joining themselves together in holy wedlock. The weather’s been pretty miserable all weekend, but now it’s a beautiful day. And it’s a beautiful day because when two people come together who really love one another and want to share that with other people, it makes it a beautiful day. So Sidney Williams and Rachel Buchman have come to do that. And, Rachel, you go first.

Audiovisual supplement

Cultural information

Rachel: Paul Buchman likes to say that the measure of a great life is not how well loved you are, but how well you love others. Sidney, you teach me that every day. You are just so full of grace, and I promise before God and these beautiful people that I will love you fiercely and sweetly. And I look forward to sharing that great life with you. Thank you for marrying me. Sidney: All that I ever wanted was to just hear music, and when I met you, I heard you. And, Rachel, you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard. Thank you for marrying me. Rachel: You’re welcome.

Audiovisual supplement

Cultural information

1. Quote Human beings draw close to one another by their common nature, but habits and customs keep them apart. — Confucius

Audiovisual supplement

Cultural information

2. Cross-cultural Communication Strategies The key to effective cross-cultural communication is knowledge. First, it is essential that people understand the potential problems of cross-cultural communication, and make a conscious effort to overcome these problems. Second, it is important to assume that one’s efforts will not always be successful, and adjust one’s behavior appropriately.

Audiovisual supplement

Cultural information

Suggestion for heated conflicts is to stop, listen, and think. This helps in cross-cultural communication as well. When things seem to be going badly, stop or slow down and think. Active listening can sometimes be used to check this out — by repeating what one thinks he or she heard, one can confirm that one understands the communication accurately. Often intermediaries who are familiar with both cultures can be helpful in cross-cultural communication situations. They can translate both the substance and the manner of what is said. They may explain the problem, and ma

ke appropriate procedural adjustments.

Text analysis

Structural analysis

1. Which sentence is the thesis statement? The last sentence of the 3rd paragraph: ―Most fundamental is the profound relationship between language and culture that lies at the heart of society and one that we overlook at our peril.‖

Text analysis

Structural analysis

2. Compromising, in the author’s view, is a key notion in translation and thus also in intercultural communication. Numerous examples are used to explain this notion. Try to find these examples.Paragraph 4: The lack of an exact counterpart of the English word ―homesickness‖ in other languages such as Italian, Portuguese, and German. Paragraph 5: The problem of untranslatability which the early Bible translators encountered.

Text analysis

Structural analysis

Paragraph 6: English and Welsh speakers make adjustments regarding the color spectrum in the grey / green / blue / brown range; the flat breads of Central Asia are a long way away from Mother’s Pride white sliced toasties, yet the word ―bread‖ has to serve for both.

Text analysis

Structural analysis

1. What type of writing is this essay? And what’s the main strategy the author adopt to develop the body of the essay? It is a piece of argumentation. Abundant examples are provided to support her argument in the body of the essay.

Text analysis

Structural analysis

2. Divide the text into parts by completing the table. Paragraphs 1-3 Main idea It describes the communications revolution taking place worldwide and the widespread use of the English language, and then points out that there are indeed problems with the communications revolution.

Text analysis

Structural analysis

Paragraphs4-7

Main ideaIt exemplifies that language and culture are so closely interrelated that often we find that what we can say in one language cannot be conveyed at all in another, and that confronted with insurmountable linguistic problems, translators negotiate the boundaries between languages and come up with a compromise. It briefly points out the immense significance of intercultural understanding.

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Detailed reading

Cultural Encounters Susan Bassnett We live in an age of easy access to the rest of the 1 world. Cheap flights mean that millions of people are able to visit places their parents could only dream about, while the Internet enables us to communicate with the remotest places and the traditional postal services are now referred to almost mockingly as ―snail mail.‖ When students go off backpacking, they can email their parents from Internet cafes in the Himalayas or from a desert oasis. And as for mobile phones — the clicking of text messaging at any hour of the day or night has become familiar to us all. Everyone, it seems, provided, of course, they can afford to do so, need never be out of touch.

Detailed reading

2 Significantly also, this great global communications revolution is also linked to the expansion of Englis

h, which has now become the leading international language. Conferences and business meetings around the globe are held in English, regardless of whether anyone present is a native English speaker. English has simply become the language that facilitates communication, and for many people learning English is an essential stepping stone on the road to success.