Tasks in Cultural Linguistics Task 1

Activities


Activity 1. Fill in the chart with the main characteristics of low and high context cultures.

Low context cultures	High context cultures
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.	1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Activity 2.
Group discussion. Form 6 groups and discuss the following problems. Share your ideas with other groups

Group 1	Advantages of high-context culture
Group 2	Disadvantages of high-context culture
Group 3	Advantages of low-context culture
Group 4	Disadvantages of low-context culture
Group 5	Problems in communication of representatives of high and low-context cultures
Group 6	Overcoming problems in communication of representatives of high and low-context cultures

Activity 3. Read information about intercultural blunders taken from the source: Jandt, 2001, Intercultural Communication: An Introduction. Try to explain a nature of mistakes. Find 5-6 of your own examples to justify the existing coarse mistakes in the English speech which made by Uzbek students.

• Coca-Cola wanted to use the Chinese characters for a phonetic equivalent of Coca-Cola, so it chose Ke Kou Ke La, which translates as ‘bite the wax tadpole’ or ‘female horse stuffed with wax’ depending on the dialect.

• In Taiwan, the translation of the Pepsi slogan ‘Come alive with the Pepsi generation’ was translated as ‘Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead.’
• In a Bucharest hotel lobby: ‘The lift is being fixed for the next day. During that time we regret that you will be unbearable.’
• On a menu of a Swiss restaurant: ‘Our wines leave you nothing to hope for.’
• At a Hong Kong dentist’s: ‘Teeth extracted by the latest Methodists’.
• At a Greek tailor’s: ‘Order your summer suit. Because of a big rush we will execute customers in strict rotation.’
• In a Copenhagen airline office: ‘We take you bags and send them in all directions.’
• In an Acapulco hotel: ‘The manager has personally passed all the water served here.’


Activity4.

1. 
   Discuss in small groups the situation taken from N. Tanaka’s “It is my fault. Japanese and English Responses to Unfounded Accusation” (Culturally Speaking. L./NY: Continuum, 2000). A Chinese student studied in Great Britain was invited to the lunch, when a guest was going to leave the following talk took place. What was the owner's confusion exactly? Can we consider that there was a misunderstanding? Give arguments referred to the low-context and high-context cultures characteristics studied by you before.
   

Chinese student: Sorry, I’ve caused you a lot of bother this evening.
British host: Bother?It’s been no bother. What do you mean? I hope you’ve enjoyed yourself.
Chinese student: Yes, of course. But I’ve really given you trouble. I’ve taken up so much of your time.
British host: But we invited you to come.... We want you to come.
Chinese student: Next time you must come to my home and I’ll cook a Chinese meal for you.

B. Read a dialogue and define the type of the culture proving your statements with specificity of communicative style.

A: Stay with us for the dinner tonight.
B: No, thanks, please don’t bother.
A: No trouble at all. Just some dishes, it’s not complex. We will have it in just a few minutes.
В: I’m not hungry now so I will go back. Next time I will stay and bother you.
A: Since you are here, make yourself at home. All we can offer you is a simple diet, and we ourselves will have it. Please stay with us. You will give me the face, won’t you?
B: Well, then...then... I will stay.