Confucius heads west
By Su Wei
Picture by Zhu Lijun



What are the elements for successful communication with a foreigner? The language competence alone does not guarantee effective communication: sometimes a student with fluent oral English may unknowingly confuse or even offend his American teacher. His failure results from his ignorance of a basic element: cultural insensitivity.

I can still remember an incident about cultural insensitivity told by my American teacher, Annie. She was then tutoring a Chinese family on weekends. The family was very hospitable and easy-going, and Annie got on fairly well with them. One weekend after Annie had tutored for an hour, the student proposed a break and brought some fruit and said: "You must be tired, take a rest." She was wondering: "What does he mean? Does he think that I am too old to handle a one-hour class? Or is he simply not sure of my teaching ability?" Then she told the student: "In fact it is fun to be with you today, and I really enjoy your English."

"No, my English is poor."

"Come on, I am telling you the truth. Don't you believe me? Or do you just think I am not a good tutor?" Annie finally became annoyed, leaving the student confused, with no idea of Annie's sudden anger.

Later I explained to her that by saying his English was poor the student simply meant to be modest, "Chinese are told to be modest from their early age" I said, "Because the Confucius culture regards modesty as a virtue." "But my praise of him is sincere, besides, in America people will explicitly express their joy and gratitude in such good words," Annie argued.

Such is one example of the role cultural awareness plays. Only when we bear in mind how culture clashes and possible misunderstandings can be avoided can we achieve desired communication.

 

 

玩水时节
By Suky

夏天到了,游泳池里又下满了饺子,虽然我迄今为止不会游泳,但是我也喜欢去水里泡着,谁叫这是一个人人都爱海的滨海城市呢.

1.　You have a nice suntan.
你晒得很棒.
比如古天乐晒成古铜色的肌肤, 你就可以跟他说(当然要和他面对面对话难度过高), "You have a nice suntan." 但要是晒到脱皮, 则是 sunburn. Tan 这个字可单独当动词或形容词用, 例如, "I am tanned." 就是我晒黑了. "You have a nice tan skin." 就是说你的皮肤晒得很棒.还有你可以用 grab a tan 来表示出去晒太阳,例如,"I love to hit the beach and grab a tan." 至于形容晒黑的程度, 则可以用 "I have light/medium/dark tan skin."

2. Can you pass me the sunblock?
能不能拿防晒油给我?
涂防晒油是为了什么?为了晒得更黑还是不被晒黑?这点我一直没有搞清楚.防晒油还有另外一种简单的叫法:suntan oil.

3. I got plummy.
我的手起皱纹了.
在水里泡太久了, 手上就会起皱纹, 这个英文要怎么说? 就是, "I got plummy." 或是 "I am plummy." Plummy 这个字是 plum (李子)的形容词, 大概是说手跟李子表面一样皱皱的, 所以才说 plummy 吧!

4. Do you know how to do the free style?
你知不知道怎么游自由式?
大家应该都知道游泳有四式吧? 这四式分别要怎么说呢? 就是 free style (自由式), breast stroke (蛙式), back stroke (仰式), 跟 butterfly (蝶式). 对于MM来说,自由泳好像难度比较高,所以我那个好友Lynn总是用这个在我面前炫耀,气死了.

5. Do you know how to skip stones?
你知不知道如何打水漂?
打水漂大家会吧? 就是把一块扁平的石头平平地丢出去, 让它在水面上弹跳, 在英文里就是 skip stones.另一种说法, 叫 skip water. 我想两种说法都可以吧. 打水漂在英文里还有一个正式的单词, 叫 ricochet. 但是好像比较少人用.可以看出老外和我们玩水的方式也差不多了.

 

 

Ask the Chef
By the Chef

Chef's Profile: This chef is not just any chef, not only does he know everything there is to know about cooking, but also he is an absolute guru in Engish writing. Therefore, if you ever feel hungry or stuck in your English writing, you should go ask the Chef!

Last week's assignment:
Today is the birthday of the company. Please write an email to encourage your colleagues on such a special occasion.

Sativus wrote:
My dear colleagues, (1)
When (2) we are all entirely in the mood of great happiness to celebrate our company's birthday, (3)I am thankfully thinking of your cooperation and support in work, without which we can never achieve so many successes.
When talking about thanks, some memories, deep in my mind, come out, that we ever worked hard together several days without any sleep, that we encouraged each other when something disappointing emerged, that we all willingly gave the unselfish help to anyone in trouble, that we ever took a lot of violent debates without any concession when different opinions existed, that we had so much enjoyable time together celebrating our achievements. You are all my great friends indeed that I will never forget in my whole life.
Yours sincerely, Sativus

Chef commented:
(1) 这封信写得感情丰富,催人泪下,可谓email中的上品.美中不足的是,文中用到了一些有点牵强的表达,如(2)"we are all entirely in the mood of great happiness...",(3)"I am thankfully thinking of your cooperation and support in work".这两句话完全可以表达得简单点.此外,文章的结束有点突兀,我认为应该有点展望未来什么的,使文章变得更加完整.

Chef revised:
My dear colleagues,
Today is our company's birthday. I can't help but to remind you all of the many moments that belong to us: moments of hardwork, moments of encouragement and help, and even moments of debate and quarrels- without these we can never achieve so much.
Here I'd like to take this occasion to thank you all my great friends for everything you have done to help this company grow and I believe we will work even harder to create an even brighter future.
Yours sincerely,
Sativus

This week's assignment:
Many of your colleagues have been watching Euro2004 late at night, hence low spirit at daytime at work. Please work out a solution to this problem and email all your colleagues. Send your assignment to thecommonchef@yahoo.com with your Chinese name.

 

 

Crossword Puzzle



ACROSS
1. Stubbornly unyielding.
8. A chemical element with the symbol "I".
9. A prep.
11. A prep.
12. Opposite of "high".

Down
2. An athletic competition that China is good at.
3. Something monks say at work.
4. To steal.
5. An amusement for kids.
6. Religious ceremony.
7. A color.
10. Can be a good breakfast.
13. Protection for soldiers.
14. A Greek letter.

The following people have won free movie tickets: 朱翊天,谢燕莺,林素贞,黄青,李兴娟,马桂芳,陈玲玲,邓福水,许少坚,王冰心,王晓真.Please go to the Jinying Cinema (世贸金鹰影院) within two weeks. 欲知上期答案,请登录http://www.common-talk.com.

 

 

<活得别那么累>
By 王鸽鹏



相信每个人都有自己对于生活的定位,或许是轰轰烈烈,壮志凌云的一生,或许是谨小慎微,瞻前顾后的一生,或许是洒脱自在,松弛自如的一生.每个人都有自己的追求和快乐,但如何驾驭生活却是一门艺术.就像一朵含苞欲放的蓓蕾,虽然即将在你心中盛开,你却永远无法窥清它的全貌.就这样为着一个缥缈虚幻的梦想披荆斩棘,直至遍体鳞伤,才突然醒悟:我要的幸福和快乐究竟是什么,在哪里?
读读这本书吧,当你懂得为什么总有人喜欢建有花园,游泳池的别墅,发明美观实用的洗碗机,花掉整个月的工资云游天下,你就深知书中所提倡的"把生活简单化"的内涵了.在生活的金字塔中,逐步简化你的物品,金钱,时间,健康,人际关系,伴侣关系,最后的驿站"你自己"到达时,你已成功攀越幸福和快乐的阶梯.所有属于人类最本能的好奇,喜悦和潜能都在这里释放,生活开始像一面清爽澄澈的镜子...市内新华书店邀您前往.