文档介绍：跨文化交际
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王美妹
Talking about Cross-munication
When a person is living in his home culture, he knows what people mean when they speak and act. He is able to interpret situations and knows how to respond. When he leaves that familiar environment, he is deprived of familiar cues, familiar behaviors and meanings that reassure him that he understands the world. Suddenly meanings are not clear, and the person does not know how to respond. All through life people are confronted with new situations that require them to adjust their thinking and behavior.
For example, my foreign teacher Mr. X told me an interesting story he experienced: When he came to China at the first time, he was curious about one thing. Every time he met a Chinese, he or she would say this word to him: Laowai(老外). Therefore, Mr. X thought: “People often say ‘Hello’ to each other when they met, so in Chinese Laowai should mean ‘Hello’.” So when he met Chinese, he said Laowai to them and smiled. But oddly enough, everybody laughed at him and said:“You are Laowai(你才是老外!)”
I smiled firstly after hearing the story then I thought it deeply. Perhaps Mr. X just tries to be funny and tells this story in a humorous way. But I believe that this kind of things does happen. Out of curiosity and historical reasons, Chinese people act weird and rude towards foreigners especially the white westerners when they see th