大学英语大学英语跨文化交际跨文化交际

Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

黑龙江大学外语部

QuotationQuotation

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

— Confucius

Learning Objectives

In this chapter, the teacher should enable the students to: 1. understand the definition of cultural patterns. 2. describe the components of cultural patterns. summarize the theory about cultural patterns. 4. evaluate the importance of cultural patterns.

Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

Chapter Outline Chapter Outline

Cultural Patterns

Beliefs

Values

Human Nature

Person-Nature

Components Edward T Hall’sContext -

Culture Theory

Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s Value

Orientation

Definition

Norms

Social Practices

Time

Activity

Relational

Individualism and Collectivism

Uncertainty Avoidance

Power distance

Masculinity – Femininity

High-context

Low-context

Ways of

Thinking

Ways of

Acting

Hofstede’s Dimensions of

Cultural Variability

Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

Marriage and Social Marriage and Social statusstatus

1. Why did Shaeed quit the idea of marrying the

Indonesian young lady, even though they loved each

other very much?

2. In what way did the Indonesian young lady’s mother

refuse Shaheed’s mother’s marriage proposal? And

what did she mean by serving bananas with the tea?

3. How does this case reflect the ways of Indonesian

communication?

Lead-in Case: Lead-in Case: Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

Please read case and then Please read case and then discuss the questions in pairs.discuss the questions in pairs.

1. Ways of thinking Cultural patterns are shared mental programs that

govern specific behavior choices.. 2. Ways of acting Cultural patterns are not so much consciously taught

as unconsciously experienced as a by-product of day-

to-day activities.

Defining Cultural PatternsDefining Cultural Patterns

Text Text AA

Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

Components of Cultural Patterns Components of Cultural Patterns

Cultural Patterns

Social Practices

Beliefs

Text Text BB

Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

NormsValues

A belief is an idea that people assume to be true about the world.

For example:1) a widely shared belief dates back to the time

when Europeans believed that the earth was flat

2) a belief for many European Americans is that in “reality” there is a separation between the physical and spiritual worlds.

BeliefsBeliefs

Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

ValuesValues

Values involve what a culture regards as good or bad, right or wrong, fair or unfair, just or unjust, beautiful or ugly, clean or dirty, valuable or worthless, appropriate or inappropriate, and kind or cruel.

Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

NormsNorms

Norms are the socially shared expectations of appropriate behaviors.

Norms may change over a period of time, whereas beliefs and values tend to be much more enduring.

Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

Social PracticesSocial Practices

Social practices are the predictable behavior patterns that members of a culture typically follow. Thus, social practices are the outward manifestations of beliefs, values, and norms.

Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

Edward T. Hall’s Edward T. Hall’s Context-Culture TheoryContext-Culture Theory

1. The definition of context: “the information that surrounds an event; it is

inextricably bound up with the mean ing of the event.”

2. Categorization of high-context culture and low-context culture depending on the degree to which meaning comes from the set tings or from the words being exchanged.

Chapter 7 Cultural PatternsText Text CC

High-Context CultureHigh-Context Culture

“A high context (HC) communication or message is one in which most of the infor mation is already in the person, while very little is in the coded, explicitly transmit ted part of the message.

Tea Ceremony

Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

Low-Context CultureLow-Context Culture

A low context (LC) communication is just the opposite; i.e., the mass of the information is vested in the explicit code.”

An American standing on chair in restaurantgiving speech at his leaving his hometown

Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

Cultures Arranged Along Cultures Arranged Along the High-Context and Low-the High-Context and Low-

Context Dimension Context Dimension High-Context Cultures Japanese Chinese Korean African American Native American Arab Greek Latin Italian English French American Scandinavian German German-Swiss Lower-Context Cultures

Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

Case Analysis - “wrong signals”Case Analysis - “wrong signals”

1. What is the problem shown in this case? 2. Why did Ning Tong keep silent? What information do you think he wanted to convey?

3. Why did Tom get so angry? What is his interpretation of Ning Tong’s silence?

Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

What’s the What’s the valuesvalues reflected reflected in the following proverbs? in the following proverbs?

Blood is thicker than water. Time is money. A man’s house is his castle. The early bird catches the worm. 人之初，性本善。 天人感应。 一人得道，鸡犬升天。 以人为鉴，可以明得失； 以史为鉴，可以知兴替。

Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

Hindu ethics

1. Human Nature Orientation

2. Person-Nature Orientation

3. Time Orientation

4. Activity Orientation

5. Relational Orientation

Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s Value Orientation

Text Text DD

Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

1. Human Nature Orientation1. Human Nature Orientation

(1) Humans are evil but changeable, (2) Humans are evil and unchangeable, (3) Humans are neutral with respect to good and evil, (4) Humans are a mixture of good and evil, (5) Humans are good but changeable, and (6) Humans are good and unchangeable.

Good but corruptible

Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

Evil but perfectible

2. Person-Nature Orientation2. Person-Nature Orientation(1) Mastery with Nature （注：图片为愚公移山）(2) Harmony with Nature （注：图片为中药材）(3) Subjugation to Nature （注：图片为印尼海啸）

subjugation to

nature Harmony with

Nature

mastery with nature

Mastery with Nature

Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

3. Time Orientation3. Time Orientation

a. Value - Past Orientation

b. Value - Present Orientation

c. Value - Future Orientation

Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

4. Activity Orientation4. Activity Orientation

a. Value - Doing Orientation b. Value - Being Orientation c. Value - Being-in-Becoming Orientation

Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

5. 5. RelationalRelational orientation orientation

a. Value - Individualism Orientation

b. Value - Lineality Orientation

c. Value - Collaterality Orientation

Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

Exploring IdeasExploring Ideas

What would you add or change to more

accurately express the Chinese

orientation to relation?

Is the relational orientation changing?

What is your evidence?

Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

Hofstede’s cultural dimensions

Hofstede’s cultural dimensions

1. Individualism v.s. Collectivism

2. Uncertainty Avoidance

3. Power Distance

4. Masculinity v.s. Femininity

Text Text EE

Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

1. Individualism versus 1. Individualism versus collectivismcollectivism

The characteristics of cultures that value individualism People’s personal goals take priority over their groups like the family or the employer. The loyalty of individualists to a given group is very weak. People feel they belong to many groups and are apt to change their membership as it

suits them, switching churches, for example, or leaving one employer for another.

----Daniel Goleman

Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

2. Uncertainty avoidance2. Uncertainty avoidance

Uncertainty avoidance deals with the degree to which members of a culture try to avoid uncertainty.

Hofstede summarizes the view of people in high uncertainty avoidance cultures as “what is different, is dangerous,” and the belief of people in low uncertainty avoidance cultures as “what is different, is curious”.

Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

3. Power Distance3. Power Distance

Power distance is “the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations accept that power is distributed unequally”.

How do you interpret the relationship between the following pairs in both high and low power distance culture ?

. parents-children . teacher-student . boss-employee

Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

4. Masculinity and femininity 4. Masculinity and femininity

In masculine cultures both man and women are relatively tough, and social gender roles are clearly distinct. Men are supposed to be assertive, tough, and focused on material success, whereas women are supposed to be more modest, tender and concerned with the quality of life.

In feminine cultures social gender roles overlap. In these cultures, no one should fight and no one should be too ambitious. Everyone should be concerned with maintaining good relationships with others. Both men and women are sup posed to be modest, tender, and concerned with the quality of life.

Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

Exploring IdeasExploring Ideas

How do you explain the significantly lower score for Hong Kong as compared to Taiwan and Singapore on Hofstede’s Ranking of Forty Countries or Regions on Masculinity and Femininity?

Chapter 7 Cultural Patterns

Thank you!

Thank you!