跨文化交际课件 Lecture 8 Verbal Communication II.ppt

3. Apology Sometimes a Chinese may not seem polite enough to English speakers and the English speakers may seem too insincere to the Chinese. Chinese do not make as many apologies as English speakers, but they are more flexible in giving and responding to apologies. Interpersonal relationships on the scales of social distance and power affect the frequency and choice of strategies in apology-making for Chinese people. 4. Compliments Case 1 A young Chinese woman in the US was complimented by an American woman for the lovely dress she was wearing: “It’s exquisite. The colors are so beautiful!” She was pleased but somewhat embarrassed. In typical Chinese fashion, she replied, “Oh, it’s just an ordinary dress I bought in China.” 4. Compliments Case 2 At a reception at an American college, Mr. Chen, a newly-arrived Chinese scholar, was chatting with the hostess. As an acquaintance of the hostess approached, she said, “Ron, let me introduce Mr. Chen, an outstanding physicist and one of the nicest people I know.” Mr. Chen offered his hand to the newcomer but looked at the hostess and said with a smile, “Should I blush, or should I tell him you don’t really mean it?” Comments In both cases, the words of the Chinese conveyed a message quite different from what was intended. In the first case, the reply could have meant that the American did not know what a really good dress is. Otherwise, how could she get so excited about an ordinary dress? The implication was that the American woman’s taste in clothing was questionable. Comments In the second case, if Chen had not been smiling, his words could have been interpreted as: “You’re just saying that to be polite; you don’t really mean that.” So in the first case, the implication was that American woman had poor judgement, while in the second one, the hostess was not sincere. What a gap between that intention and the message! Definitions Speech act: An utterance concerned as an act by which the speaker does something; An uttera