英语教学中跨文化意识单薄的现象

admin

　从毕业到现在成为一名英语教师已经快一年的时间了,我想英语的学习不只仅是词句的学习,更是文化的学习.由于中西方存在的文化的差别,很多同学在学习英语的时候总爱用我们自身的思维去想问题,依照我们自身的习惯去解决问题,这样一来,我们学到的英语根本不能拿出来交流,有时候的做法还会让外国人觉得很奇怪甚至生气,导致很多误会的发生.自身总结了一些在我们的日常交际中我们存在误趋.(下面的11点,我将全部用英语书写,供广大的英语教师一起研讨)
　　　1. Different meaning. (1) About the colors. The green-eyed in English means jealous, but we translate into mean from the word. “Black tea”means red tea, but we understand as black tea.(2) About the animal. Every dog has its day. Means everyone has their happy days but we translate just from the meaning of word. There are many sentences that got different meanings like a top dog, a clever dog etc. Those sentences are all including the dog in it that is why we translate into other meanings. In China, the sentences or the words with dog mean to show people’s weak or bad part, but in western countries, dogs mean honest, clever. By the difference of different culture, shows that people got different thinking of a same thing. (3) Others. Word likes cool, means cruel or cold in China, but in western, it means Modern etc.
　　　2. The difference of article talked about. In order to talk with other people, people like to find some topic to discuss. By the influence of our culture, we normally discuss things about age, income, asset, marriage, family etc. But in western, this is the sensitive part in their life, it is about their privacy. When we talk to them, we have to pay attention; we cannot ask or talk about their private things. The best topic will be popular things such as weather, travel, sports or news
　　　3. Misuse of numbers. In England and United States, number 13 is the worst number. And date 13 plus Friday is the worst day in both countries, called black Friday. Either Jesus dies in the cross, or Adam and Hawa eat the green apple. In 13th, they didn’t do any activities, no business, no travel, no Marry. They didn’t like level 13. And some building use 12a instead of 13. Even the street number, they use some other number instead of 13. The lucky number for them is 7, 8, and 11.
　　　4. Boldness salute. Sometimes we want to show our ardor, when we met western people, we often put our hands out and shake with them. We should notice that in English and American countries, people from two different levels, normally people from higher level should put their hands out first. Also when gentleman met lady, lady should put their hand out first. If old people met young people, young should wait for old to put their hands out first. Or no further action should be taken. And the time, strength should be moderation, or it will be disrespect. Kiss and hug are also major formality in the western company. Normal situation is for young and old should kiss face and forehead. For people from similar age they should face by face, for husband and wife, they kiss the lips. Man kisses the noble lady in the back of hand. Between working area and unfamiliar people, there is no kiss; hug and kiss are normally together.
　　　5. About misunderstanding of words. When the western people talked to us about our good work or habit, we like to say where, where, or no, no, not good or just so so etc. This is not correct. The staff in our store likes to say what do you want or what do you buy, this is not correct. We should say can I help you, or what can I do for you. And to bless other people is also different in formal and informal situation. Normally in big good thing, low level to high level, young to old to congratulate, we should use formal language. Like” Let me congratulate you”， “Please accept my heartiest congratulations”,or“Allow me to offer my hearties congratulations”etc. In informal situation, we can say “Congratulations”, “Congratulations on passing the exam”,or “Congratulations on your new job”etc.
　　　6. Lack of civilization commonsensible. Leave in halfway of dinner, cough, burp, sneezes to the other people is also discourteousness. When waiting for bus, go to hospital or paying money, insert in to the query, block our people’s road etc, this action makes western people rebel, they think you are without culture.
　　　7. Break an appointment. When you make an appointment, you should make sure that you will be there on time. If you are late or can not go to the appointment, you should call to either delay or cancel the appointment as soon as possible. If you did not obey the time of an appointment, or without an appointment, break into other people’s working area or room without permission, this is fall short of western culture, they thought those actions are lack of civility.
　　　8. Misuse of appellation. Without title to say their surname, normally say teacher plus surname etc. This is not obeying western culture. Normally people did not say surname, when they introduce themselves, they usually say their given name. In school, you can say the teacher’s name without calling him or her teacher. This is western culture rule. Even in the company in western countries, employee can talk to employers with their names without using the job title.
　　　9. Greetings and farewells. When the Chinese people meet friends, they often say: “have you eaten yet” or “have you had your lunch”. This is a common Chinese greeting around meal time. If you say this with foreigners, it means hi or hello. But many foreigners feel unusual. To Americans, the greeting might mean this: “I haven’t either. Come on, let’s go together and get something to eat,” in other words, it could indicate an invitation to a meal. There is a similar Chinese greeting, translate in English like “where are you going” or “where have you been?” the natural reaction of most English-speaking people to this greeting would most likely be “it’s none of your business.”
　　　10. Ways of address. In recent years, the trend of many English-speaking people has been to address others by using the first name like Tom, Michael, Jane, etc. Rather than calling the person Mr.Summers, Mrs. Howards or Miss Jones. This is especially common among Americans, even when people meet for the first time. This applies not only to people of roughly the same age, but also of different ages. It is not at all uncommon to hear a child calling a much older person like Joe, Ben, May, Helen etc. This may even include the child’s parents or grandparents. People of different social status do the same. For example, many college students call their professors by their first names. The professors do not regard this as a sign of disrespect or familiarity, but rather, as an indication that the professor is considered affable and has a sense of equality. This, of course, is quite counter to Chinese custom. One can imagine the reactions of adults if a child were to call a grandparent by his or her first name, or a student to do the same in calling a teacher. A quick reprimand, and possibly even a spanking for the child, would be sure to follow.
　　　11. Compliments and praise .cultural difference also exist in who can be complimented. It would not be unusual to hear an American woman talking about how hard her husband works and how well he has done, about all the promotions and honors that he has received. She might do the same about a son or a daughter of hers, how bright he or she is, what good marks he or she makes in school, how active the child is in his\her stamp-collection group, when and where he or she performed in a concert, ect. In Chinese, this would be considered bad taste; one simple does not praise members of one’s own family in front of other. Another example of a Chinese taboo is complimenting a man on his wife’s looks. The remark “you have a lovely wife” would be regarded as almost perfectly natural and even highly appreciated by westerners.