来的时候,英文不好,朋友也少,郁闷得很,当然就是上学。我上的第一个课程是business communication. 这个课程不讲语音,语法,讲business enviroment 的沟通模式,原则。 末了,每人要做一个presentation ,题目自选。课程里提到过的一个原则是分析听众,要讲听众感兴趣的话题,这个成了我选题要考虑的原则。我往周围一看2-30号人,五颜六色的,各自的文化背景都不一样。我的英文也还是磕磕巴巴。想了三天三夜,决定,讲吃的! 管你什么文化,吃是天下文化一大统. 而且安全,不涉及宗教,政治。而且简单,词汇不难, 容易被理解, 容易引起人的兴趣
我的题目是: how to make a breadpudding?
而且我还真烤了一个 bread pudding带到课堂跟大家分享
这是我平生第一次烤东西
我的presentation最后的总结是:
The spirit of communication is about reaching people’s heart.
It is said that the shortcut way to get to someone’s heart is through his stomach. In China, most of the business contracts are signed on dinning table instead of office desk. We can see that food culture can be an interesting way of business communication, and it can be really effecient and effective.
虽然咱对millionaire 的节目问题一无所知,可是他们对咱们熟知能祥的很多东西也是根本不知道。不是他们不想知道,是无从知道。在大家的chitchat 里,我竖着耳朵听有没有任何可以联系和引申到我熟知的内容,然后抓住机会抢过话题,不失时机给大伙上一堂东方文化的扫盲课,其中穿插一些趣闻。(这个咱平时是有准备的,所以说起来可以表达得不错)。当听众开始提问的时候,沟通就开始了。同理,在听他们说到一些我半懂不懂的话题,我一定抓住机会提问,表现我的沟通兴趣和参与意识,一般情况下都受欢迎。如果要追究很深的细节和渊源,2-3人的小组讨论最有效。日积月累,都会有一些共同的话题。我觉得文化融入不应该成为目标,只要能够共处和交流,就已经很好,当然交流共处久了,是否就自然融入或者生成第三种文化,这就是个consenquence 。 我的办法的内里精神是:open mind, communicate. Once you open yourself to share your culture with others, you will be welcome to share theirs as well.
"观点截然不同的,就不要来凑热闹了"----提个建议, 既然是探讨, 就应该欢迎观点不同的人吧. 否则那就不叫探讨, 而是"reinforce your own view or seek approval", 你觉得对吗? :)
-dropoutinmiami(东北的饺子);
2002-9-21(#759827@0)
我对主流的一点理解: value adding
-snowing(snowing);
2002-9-24{302}(#764624@0)
我的那个朋友把公司的第一工作语言由法语变成英文的例子,让我不由得想到:主流就是最能create value 的群体。
还有一个专业上极聪明的朋友,每次开会讲破破的英文,却总是有石破天惊的方案,没有一个人不认真听他的讲话,做笔记的。大家(non-chinese)都觉得他很酷。他性格也很开朗。同事们non-Chinese出去玩都愿意叫上他。
I guess she might be a little bit too rush in transcribing textbook that she may not even get the point of your post :)
-wade(wade);
2002-9-24(#764214@0)
That is exactely what snowing tried to say in his/her post. You were too rush in making comments.
-wade(wade);
2002-9-24(#764241@0)
I think that's the result of modernization.
-olivetree(Olive Tree);
2002-9-24{146}(#764206@0)
In early Europe, the individual had to obey the common custom, or opinion of the group. Things have been changing while the society is evoluting.
that is good point. North American culture is different from European culture. For obvious reason, North American culture is more dominating, at least louder.
-dropoutinmiami(东北的饺子);
2002-9-24(#764239@0)
Since thousand year’s history of Europe, each nation still obtains their unique cultural identification, which is amazing.
-snowing(snowing);
2002-9-24{445}(#764649@0)
I rather not use the word “European culture”, because there are so many different cultures there. Spanish, Italian, British, French are some of them so unique that there is no way you can’t differentiate them.
Likewise I’ve been explaining to all of my non-Chinese friends that Cantonese is just one dialect of Chinese. Cantonese food is just one of the 8 major styles of Chinese food and actually every family has its own cooking style.
and personally, I do find Canadian culture is so different from American culture.
-snowing(snowing);
2002-9-24{278}(#764666@0)
Is there anyone watched the "dog eats dog" on TV?
One of the questions was: “what is the biggest nation in north America?"
The pretty American young lady said:" Asia"
After she was told the correct answer, she defend: “How can I know? I don’t live there.”
I faint.
It's very intelligent comment. It's quite original too.:)
-wade(wade);
2002-9-24(#764191@0)