克拉克大学-克拉克大学
Unit Five
Language and Culture
Part One
Warm-up Listening
Differences Between Western
Language Styles and Japanese Language Style
Task One
Styles
Description
It
is like a game of tennis. If I introduce a topic,
a
conversational
ball,
I
expect
you
to
hit
it
back.
If
you
agree
with
me,
I
don’t
expect
you
simply
to
agree
and
do
nothing
more.
I
expect
you
to
add
something
—
a reason for agreeing, another example,
or
a
remark
to
carry
the
idea
further.
But
I
don
’t
Between
expect
you
always
to
agree.
I
am
just
as
happy
if
two
you
question
me,
or
challenge
me,
or
completely
people
disagree
with
me.
Whether
you
agree
or
not,
your
response will return the ball to me.
And then it is my
Western-
style
turn again. I don’t serve a new
ball from my origin
al
conversation
starting line.
I hit your ball back again from where it
has
bounced.
I
carry
your
idea
further,
or
answer
your
questions
or
objections,
or
challenge
or
question you. And so the ball
goes back and forth.
Between
It is like doubles in tennis, or like volleyball. There
more
is
no
waiting
in
line.
Whoever
is
nearest
and
than two
quickest hits the ball, and if you step back, someone
people
else will hit it. No one stops the game to give you a
turn. You are responsible
for taking
your own turn
and no
one person has the ball for very long.
It is like bowling. You wait for your
turn, and you always know
your place in
line. It depends on such things as whether you are
older
or
younger,
a
close
friend
or
a
relative
stranger
to
the
Japanese-style
previous speaker, in a senior or junior position, and so on. The
conversation
first thing is to wait for your turn, patiently and politely. When
your
moment comes, you step up to the starting line
with your
bowling ball, and carefully
bowl it. Everyone else stands back,
making sounds of polite encouragement.
Differences Between Western
Language Styles and Japanese Language Style
After
I
was
married and had lived in Japan for a while, my Japanese
gradually
improved
to
the
point
where
I
could
take
part
in
simple
conversations
with
my
husband, his
friends and family. And I began to notice that
often, when I joined in, the
others
would
look
startled
and
the
conversation
would
come
to
a
halt
.
After
this
happened
several times, it became clear to me that I was
doing something wrong. But
for
a
long
time,
I
didn’t
know
what
it
is.
Finally,
after
listening
carefully
to
many
Unit 5 Listening
1
Japanese
conversations,
I
discovered
what
my
problem
was.
Even
though
I
was
speaking Japanese, I was handling the
conversation in a Western way.
Japanese-style
conversations
develop
quite
differently
from
western-style
conversations. And the difference isn’t
only in the languages. I realized that just as I
kept trying to hold western-style
conversations even when I was speaking Japanese,
so were my English students trying to
hold Japanese-style conversations even when
they
were
speaking
English.
We
were
unconsciously
playing
entirely
different
conversational ballgames.
A
western-style
conversation
between
two
people
is
like
a
game
of
tennis.
If
I
introduce a topic, a conversational
ball, I expect you to hit it back. If you agree
with
me,
I
don’t
expect
you
simply
to
agree
and
do
nothing
more.
I
expect
you
to
add
something
—
a
reason
for
agreeing,
another
example,
or
a
remark
to
carry
the
idea
further. But I
don’t ex
pect you always to agree. I am just as happy if you question me,
or
challenge
me,
or
completely
disagree
with
me.
Whether
you
agree
or
not,
your
response will return the ball to me.
And then it is my turn again. I don’t serve a new
ball
from
my
o
riginal
starting
line.
I
hit
your
ball
back
again
from
where
it
has
bounced
.
I
carry
your
idea
further,
or
answer
your
questions
or
objections,
or
challenge or question you. And so the
ball goes
back and forth.
If
there are more than two people in the
conversation,
then it is like doubles in
tennis, or like volleyball. There is no
waiting in line. Whoever is nearest and quickest
hits the ball, and if you
step bac
k, someone else will hit it. No one stops the game to
give you a turn. You
are responsible for taking your own turn and no
one person has
the ball for very long.
A Japanese-
style conversation, however, is not at all like tennis or volleyball. It’s
like
bowling.
You
wait
for
your
turn,
and
you
always
know
your
place
in
line.
It
depends
on
such
things
as
whether
you
are
older
or
younger,
a
close
friend
or
a
relative stranger to the
previous speaker, in a senior or junior position,
and so on. The
first thing is to wait
for your turn, patiently and politely. When your
moment comes,
you
step
up
to
the
starting
line
with
your
bowling
ball,
and
carefully
bowl
it.
Everyone else
stands back, making sounds of polite
encouragement.
Unit
5 Listening
2
Part Two
Focus Listening
Ethnicity
Task One
1. The easiest way to look forwards is
to look back to the
of 1948-55
2.
Racism
diminishes in
times
of
prosperity.
When
the
economic
going
gets
tough,
people want someone to take their
feelings out on.
3. He envisages it in
two ways: a mosaic of communities and a pick-and-
mix social
landscape.
4.
They are excluded and disadvantaged.
5. It implies a Britain in which people
will construct multiple identities defined by all
sorts
of
factors:
class,
ethnicity,
gender,
religion,
profession,
culture
and
economic
position. It
won't be clear-cut.
6.
Enduring
communities
linked
by
blood
through
time
versus
flexible,
constantly
shifting identities.
7.
Identity won't be about where you have come from;
it will be a set of values you
can take
anywhere that is compatible with full
participation in whichever society you
live in.
Ethnicity
I
find
it
easiest
to
look
forwards
by
looking
back,
to
the
“Great
Labour
Migration” of
1948
-55, seen at the time as a matter of black guests coming to a white
host.
It's a quasi-imperial
perception that has shifted since the 1970s, but
the social
problems and
deficiencies
it
engendered
dog us still.
It’s highly questionable whether
Britain is an open society even now. Against the
upward trend
in the 1980s of ethnic minorities breaking into the professions and the
media
must
be
set
objective
evidence
of
a
very
racist
society.
Since
the
Stephen
Lawrence affair the
government has at least been talking about the
existence of racism,
but
it’s
always
the
case
that
racism
diminishes
in
times
of
prosperity
.
When
the
economic going gets tough, people want
someone to take their feelings out on.
The social
landscape
seems to me at a
surreal
crossroads. Britain
fosters
images
of
itself as
homogeneous
—
to be white is no longer the central defining feature
—
but
there remain
various kinds of
envisage
the future in two very
different ways.
The
first
is
broadly
the
way
Britain
is
at
the
moment:
a
mosaic
of
communities
—
Bangladeshi,
Afro-Caribbean,
Chinese
or
Jewish
holding
fast
to
a
strong
social
identity,
but
lumbere
d
also
with
a
whole
raft
of
benefits
and
disadvantages, most of them
defined in economic terms. It’s possible that will
still be
the pattern in 50 years time,
but not very likely.
Instead, I
expect the old
duality
of a “host community” and “immigrants” whose
bad
luck
it
is
to
be
excluded
and
disadvantaged
to
have
vanished.
Some
ethnic
communities
may
make
a
point
of
survival,
but
only
those
who
are
most
proud
of
their cultural roots.
Unit 5 Listening
3