Case 1 Girl-ness
As a visiting professor in an American university, Zhang Hua was invited to give a lecture to a group of American students. He talked about university students in China. During the question-and-answer period after the lecture, one female student asked a question that surprised Zhang Hua. “When you talked about female students, you referred to them as girls. Why?”
“Because they are girls. That’s what they are called,” Zhang Hua tried to answer, but he knew he did not really understand the intent of the question. “ I don’t quite understand your question, I’m afraid.”
“In the States, we call ourselves ‘ women’ if we’re old enough to go to the university. Calling us ‘girls’ is insulting.”
Do Chinese female college students prefer to be called women? Case 2
Many years ago, a Chinese man showed a photo of his wife to some American visitors. Out of courtesy, they all said,” She is very beautiful.” Also out of courtesy, the man replied with what he would have done in Chinese under the circumstance,” Where! Where!” Quite taken aback, nobody said anything for a moment, until the most ingenious one among the visitors, taking another look at the photo, said, “Oh, everywhere!”
What did the Chinese intend to mean by replying with “ Where! Where!”?
Case 1 Girl-ness
As a visiting professor in an American university, Zhang Hua was invited to give a lecture to a group of American students. He talked about university students in China. During the question-and-answer period after the lecture, one female student asked a question that surprised Zhang Hua. “When you talked about female students, you referred
to them as girls. Why?”
“Because they are girls. That’s what they are called,” Zhang Hua tried to answer, but he knew he did not really understand the intent of the question. “ I don’t quite understand your question, I’m afraid.”
“In the States, we call ourselves ‘ women’ if we’re old enough to go to the university. Calling us ‘girls’ is insulting.”
Do Chinese female college students prefer to be called women? Case 2
Many years ago, a Chinese man showed a photo of his wife to some American visitors. Out of courtesy, they all said,” She is very beautiful.” Also out of courtesy, the man replied with what he would have done in Chinese under the circumstance,” Where! Where!” Quite taken aback, nobody said anything for a moment, until the most ingenious one among the visitors, taking another look at the photo, said, “Oh, everywhere!”
What did the Chinese intend to mean by replying with “ Where! Where!”?
Case 3 “I Just Wanted to Talk”.
Wu tong was a graduate student in a Chinese university. Like many students these days, he was very keen on learning English. He would talk with English speakers as often as he could.
One day, he saw a new foreigner on campus, Leonard Ramsay, and overheard him speaking English. When Mr. Ramsay finished speaking with the other person, he turned to go, but Wu Tong stopped him. He went up and said, “ You speak English, is that right?”
“Yes, why?”
“I’d like to practise my English with you, if you don’t mind.” Mr. Ramsay looked a little annoyed. “ I prefer not to, if you don’t mind.” Case 4 An Unwanted Food Service
During a lunch buffet at a conference in China, Wu Fa, the interpreter of the conference, sat with four foreign participants. They were having a good time talking. When Wu Fa stood up for more food, she asked whether she could bring anything back for them.
Everyone thanked her and said “no”. A while later, Wu Fa came back with a plate full of food, and asked whether the others would like to have something from her plate.
Again, the four others said , “No”.
“ Oh, please take something, I can’t eat this much food myself.” The foreigners shrugged and one or two of them even frowned a little. Case 5 Simple Can Be Special
Wen Hong had an American professor in her economics class in China. She had given the professor a lot of help during the course. At the end of the semester，the professor and his wife invited her to their home for dinner. They said they were going to cook her an American meal.
Wen Hong felt very flattered and excited，since McDonald，KFC and Pizza Hut had been her only exposure to Western cooking.
They had salad to start with，then steak with potatoes，followed by ice cream. Wen Hong had expected more courses but the meal came to an end. She knew the professor and his wife were being kind to her，but somehow she was a little disappointed. She wondered whether Americans do eat like that at home. Case 6 Chinese Coffee Customs
While studying in the United States, Lin Jun made a few American friends. One day he invited two of them to his apartment and cooked them a meal. When his friends said they would like some coffee, he started boiling some water. Without asking them any questions, he made three cups of 3-in-1 coffee, the way he usually took it.
Both friends tasted the coffee and frowned. One said she always took coffee black，the other said he preferred to have less sugar in his coffee. They also told him that the spoon is for stirring the coffee，not to drink from like he did. Lin
Jun was embarrassed. He had thought that everyone drank coffee the same way as he did.
Case 7 Noise from Noodles
Jane and Peter were Chen Dong’s landlord and landlady when he was in the States. They had become good friends by the end of his one-year stay. They kept in touch with each other after Chen Dong returned to China. Jane and Peter decided to visit China soon after Chen Dong left the States.
They made a special stop in Guangzhou where Chen Dong lives. Chen Dong had promised to show them around the city and let them try some authentic Cantonese food. One thing，in particular，he wanted them to try was noodles. He knew several restaurants that served good noodles and took the couple to one of them for lunch one day.
Noodles typically come in soup in Cantonese cooking. Chen Dong started eating the noodles with chopsticks，while Jane and Peter exchanged a look at the noise that came with his eating. After a little hesitation，they asked for forks. A waitress told them that they did not have forks，and Chen Dong explained that noodle restaurants do not usually keep forks because no one would think of using forks for noodles.
In the next half an hour，Jane and Peter had a hard time trying to roll the long noodles onto their chopsticks. Chen Dong said，“that’s not the way we eat noodles. You put the noodles directly to your mouth with your chopsticks.” “But that’s not the way we eat noodles，” Jane and Peter said, frowning. Case 8 Dinner in a Chinese Home
Besides taking Peter and Jane to restaurants, Dong Chen also invited them to his home for dinner once. Dong Chen ‘s mother is a nice wife, and made eight courses for four of them.
“I'm sorry there isn’t much for dinner, she said.”
“God this is much more than enough food,” Jane said. Peter was too overwhelmed to even respond to Dong Chen‘ mother
Dong Chen was a little embarrassed. “This is what we usually say to guests，even though there’s plenty of food” he explained．
What bewildered Jane and Peter most was that though Dong Chen’s mother kept saying that the food was not good，she constantly served helpings to Jane and Peter．Peter did not like two of the courses very much，and felt bad that his plate was full with whatever he would not be able to eat. At seeing Dong Chen's mother’s next move to serve him food，he said in a begging voice，“Please don’t give me any more food．Let me do it myself．
Case 9A Not-sociable Drink
Martin was sent by an American company to work in a special economic development zone in China for a year. He became very friendly with a few Chinese colleagues. Soon, he started to go out with them. He noticed that Chinese like to have something , such as peanuts, when they have beer, instead of just drinking beer without anything to eat as many North Americans do.
One day he was invited to a dinner party to celebrate a colleague’s birthday. They ordered alcoholic beverages and toasted the guest of honor frequently. Soon Martin realized that the plan was to get their friend drunk. Each colleague would offer a toast, concluding with a cheery “ gan bei!” and tried to get Martin to join in, even though he was unwilling to do it. Martin didn’t think it a good idea, and tried to talk them out of the game. However, he was accused of not being a good friend for not co-operating.
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