Text A Emotional Problems as Barriers to IC

Pre-reading Activity

The following is a questionnaire with the aim of assessing the amount of your anxiety and uncertainty you generally experience when you communicate with strangers. Please finish the questionnaire according to the direction:

Respond to each statement by indicating the degree to which the adjectives are applicable when you interact with strangers. 

• If you never have the experience, choose "never"; and remember you get 5 points for that.

• if you almost never have the experience, choose "almost never"; and remember you get 4 points for that.

• if you sometimes have the experience and sometimes do not, choose "sometimes"; and remember you get 3 points for that.

• if you almost always have the experience, choose "almost always"; and remember you get 2 points for that.

• if you always have the experience, choose "always"; and remember you get 1 point for that. 

When you've finished the questionnaire, add your scores. our scores may range from 10 to 50. 

The higher your score, the more anxiety and uncertainty you experience when interacting with others.

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Text A Study

Read Text A through Page 108 to Page 110 to get the key points of this text. Below is the text audio for you to follow. 

Find out the answers to the following questions:

1. What is the title of Text A? How do you understand it?

2. Please write down the subtitles of Text A and make clear the structure in the text.

3. Read Text A, and underline the content that you think are important.

4. Find out the definitions of anxiety, uncertainty, and assuming similarity instead of difference.

5. Find out the possible causes and results of anxiety, uncertainty, and assuming similarity instead of difference.

6. What's the difference between anxiety and uncertainty?

7. Can you think of and share any of your past experience when you were anxious, or when you were uncertain about something, or when you assumed there must be no difference between your way and others' way?

Now, watch the lecture to check your understaning of the key points. 

Case 21 Study

Read Case 21, then try to summarize the case and analyze it from intercultural perspective.

                                       A Danish Woman in New York 

In May of 1997, a 30-year-old Danish actress was in New York visiting the father of her 14-month-old daughter. At some point they parked the baby's stroller in front of the windows of Dallas BBQ, an East Village restaurant, and went inside for a drink. This alarmed some of the customers and waiters, who summoned the police. When the police arrived, they took the baby into protective custody and filed criminal charges against the mother.

Extended reading material for your reference:

        一天，一对丹麦夫妇沃德洛和索伦森在纽约一家餐馆用餐时，将14个月大的女儿放在婴儿车里，让她在餐馆门外睡觉。他们一边用餐，一边透过玻璃窗照看熟睡着的婴儿。过路行人看到这个孩子“无人照管”，便打电话报了警。沃德洛夫妇与闻讯而来的警察发生争执，随后以虐待儿童及妨碍公务被拘留四天，他们的女儿也被纽约儿童收容所工作人员领走。索伦森对记者说：“这简直是一场恶梦，是我一生中最可怕的恶梦。”他们即将走上刑事法庭面对指控，之后将去家庭法院出席有关女儿监护问题的听证会，听候对孩子监护权的决定。

        此事一经曝光，丹麦舆论大哗。许多丹麦人认为，美国人简直疯了。把孩子放在餐馆外的推车里，而自己进去用餐在丹麦是司空见惯的事，因为餐馆里往往空气混浊，噪音很大，父母们宁可让孩子呆在户外呼吸新鲜空气，这没有什么不妥。然而，纽约儿童收容所所长认为，让孩子单独留在外面长达一个小时，太危险了。按照美国法律，这样是违法的，父母将失去对孩子的监护权。索伦森辩解说：“我们隔着玻璃窗，离孩子不过几尺。”但纽约警察局官员告诉她，这是纽约，不是丹麦。

        针对虐待儿童的指控，索伦森认为，儿童收容所口口声声说他们是为了保护孩子，但事实上正是他们在虐待小孩。丹麦一家报纸引述精神病专家的话说，小女孩由于被带到陌生的儿童福利局而大哭不止，因此可能已遭受精神创伤。科学研究表明，8至24个月大的孩子极易因突然与父母或所依附的人分离而受到影响。丹麦民众要求克林顿总统为此事道歉。

        究竟如何定义虐待儿童，丹麦人和美国人各执一词，双方在索伦森女儿问题上的理解可以说大相径庭。索伦森说，她被关了四天完全是因为文化不同而造成的，实在冤枉。

        丹麦人大骂美国人“疯狂”，美国人认为丹麦人“罪有应得”，相互指责的原因是对对方国情及生活习惯认识的不足。这件事使人感到，世界多么需要沟通和相互理解。此事给沃德洛夫妇留下了痛苦的回忆，也给丹麦人、美国人或其他国家的人提供了思考的活教材。多从他国的国情出发，去思考、理解、处理问题，而非一味地拿自己的标准去衡量、指责及要求别人，世界上的麻烦肯定会比现在少得多。

Read More: 瑞典儿童丢失事件轰动北欧，2小时找回，看完感觉被啪啪打脸！

Culture in Movie

Watch the movie The Treatment (《刮痧》) from Jiang Wenli and Tony Leung Ka Fai. Then work with your group members to analyze the emotional problem(s) in it. 

Now you've finished studying Text A, have you mastered the key points in the text? If the answer is YES, you are ready to study the next text. Congratulations!