跨文化交际上课内容unit7.doc

Unit Seven Time and Space Across Cultures Warm Up 1. Please read the story on page 156. What can we learn from the story? 2. Go to answer the questions on Group Work (p235-236) and find out your sense of time? (Supplement: Additional materials Chronemics Chronemics is the study of how people perceive and use time. (i) The sense of time: 1) Time is linear线形. Western cultures think time is linear — a flow from the past to the present to the future. 2)? Time is cyclical周期的. Life on earth evolved in response to the cycles of day and night and the ebb and flow潮涨潮落 of the tides. (ii) Monochronic出现一次 and Polychronic Time (p256-257) 1. What is M-Time and P-Time? Which do you think is the dominating time system in our culture? 1) Monochronic time means paying attention to and doing only one thing at a time – events scheduled as separate items. 2) Polychronic time means being involved with many things at once. 2. What is the philosophy哲学 underlying each of the time system? 1) P-time stresses involvement of people and completion完成 of transactions事务 rather than adherence to遵守 present schedules. Appointments are not taken as seriously and, as a consequence, are frequently broken. P-time is treated as less tangible有形地 than M-time. Weakness: Matters in a polychromic多彩的 culture seem in a constant state 恒定常态of flux. Appointments are frequently broken. 2) In M-time system, social and business life is commonly schedule-dominated. By scheduling, we compartmentalize划分; this makes it possible to concentrate on 集中注意one thing at a time, but it also reduces the context. M-time is also tangible. M-time scheduling is used as a classification system that orders life. Weakness: Life in general is at times unpredictable. M-time reduces the context and alienate使疏远 people from themselves and from others. (iii) The Heartbeat of Culture (p229-232) What does the author want to tell us from his experience in Brazil and the questionnaire between students in Niteroi and those in Fresno? In Braz