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I.  Warm-up Questions

Directions: discuss and answer the following questions.

1.    Do you sometimes find it difficult to adapt to a new environment? Why or why not?

2.    In films or in your personal experiences, you may have found Westerners behave differently from us Chinese. Please give some examples to show the cultural differences.

3.     Suppose one of your foreign friends comes to work in China. What suggestions would you give to help him settle down?

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II.  Quotes

Directions:  Study the following quotes about intercultural communication. Which quote(s) do you like best? Why?

1.     Variety is the very spice (香料) of life that gives it all its flavour.

                                            —— William Cowper

2.     I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any. 

                                         —— Mahatma Gandhi

3.    If man is to survive, he will have learned to take a delight in the essential differences between men and between cultures. He will learn that differences in ideas and attitudes are a delight, part of life’s exciting variety, not something to fear.   

                                        —— Gene Roddenberry

4.    Other nations of different habits are not enemies: they are godsends. Men require of their neighbours something sufficiently akin (近似) to be understood, something sufficiently different to provoke (引起) attention, and something great enough to command admiration. We must not expect, however, all the virtues.

                                       —— Alfred North Whitehead

Interpretation:

1.    It is variety that makes life colourful and delightful.

2.    This quotation reveals Gandhi’s attitude towards cultural exchanges. He warmly welcomes the introduction of foreign cultures into his nation, but refuses to give up his own cultural identity or be carried away by them. Here, he compares his cultural origin to the ground he is standing on.

3.    This quotation tells us about the right attitude towards the differences between people and between cultures. We should not be frightened by the differences; instead, we should regard them as a delight because they make our world more exciting and colourful.

4.    Countries with different cultures should not be despised or resented. There is no universal criterion for virtue and every nation has its unique traits and strong points. We need people with cultures similar enough to ours so as to enable usto understand each other better, while, at the same time, different enough to stimulate us. We cannot always expect to have advantages over others in everything.