EXPLORING Chinese Cultures and American Cultures

1
EXPLORINGChinese Cultures and American
Cultures

• Myriam Met
• myriammet_at_gmail.com

2
the values that are most important in the
West are least important worldwide.Harry C.
Triandis, the New York Times, as quoted by Samuel
Huntington. 1993. The Clash of Civilizations.
Foreign Affairs Vol. 72, No. 3. p. 41
3
Culture Who are we? Who am I?

• Who is an American?
• What does it mean to be American?
• Who is Chinese?
• What does it mean to be Chinese?

4
How Culture Shapes Us

• EXPLICIT TRANSMISSIONS those behaviors which
  are spoken (e.g. stick to your own kind, family
  first, wearing of colors, use of language)
• TACIT TRANSMISSIONS those behaviors which are
  hidden or unspoken and at times, unknown (e.g.
  communication patterns, ordering at a restaurant)

5
Multilingual
Intercultural
Multicultural
Mono-cultural
Monolingual
6
Teaching Culture

• Culture and Language
• Culture in language

7

National Standards for Foreign Language Learning
Products
Practices
Perspectives
8
Culture learning A journey
9
Deciding What To Teach

• How do we choose what are our students need to
  know? What do they need to be able to do?
• What is most important? Least important?
• In what order should we teach these objectives?
• How will we know when our students have arrived?

10
Start With The Eyes?

• Becoming an observer
• Analyzing, understanding, and validating

11
Start With The Eyes?

• Same form, different meaning
• Different form, same meaning
• Same form, same meaning different distribution

12
Practices Chinese and US

• Greetings
• Names
• Smiling and joking
• Touching
• Meal customs
• Celebrations

13
Practices Gifts

• When do we give gifts?
• To whom?
• Whats an appropriate gift?
• What do you do when you receive a gift?

14
Whats a perspective?

• Value, attitude or belief
• Sacred norma given, so deeply ingrained that we
  take it for granted as the natural order of
  things
• A lens or filter

15
Cultural PerspectivesThe Family
US Hispanic Cultures China
? Family at core Confucian values (social harmony, filial piety)
Individualism and independence Serve the group, not oneself
16
Language, Culture, and Perspectives

• Home
• Friend
• Work/Leisure
• Thank you

17
Language and PerspectivesWhats a lucky
number?Whats an unlucky number?

• 4
• 6
• 8
• 13
• 18

18
Giving Compliments

• Whats a compliment?
• Who gives compliments to whom?
• What is an appropriate response?

19
Public and Private Emotions

• Where or when is it ok to display the emotions
  below?
• anger, happiness, grief, fear, disgust, surprise,
  disappointment

20
Cultural PerspectivesSchool and Workplace

• Collectivist
• Focus on group goals
• Work in groups or teams
• Attribute success to the group
• Avoid confrontation
• Use indirect forms of commands/requests

• Individualist
• Independent work
• Individual effort ?personal success