1. Culture
What is culture?

2. It is important to understand culture when learning a language
What culture is
English culture
Chinese culture

5. What Does Culture include?

6. Does it include Buildings? Art and music? Literature?
Philosophy and beliefs?
Language?
Social customs?

7. Does culture also include
Everyday life?
Clothing?
Our names?
Behaviour towards others?
Food?

8. Culture Shared knowledge Shared values Shared perspectives
Shared beliefs
Shared behaviour
Generalisations and stereotypes
Stereotypes are dangerous!

9. English Culture An Individualist culture
The need for personal space/privacy
Independence/self reliance
High achievement/career
Take credit and responsibility for what we have achieved

10. English Culture Reluctance to accept compliments
Reluctance to answer personal questions
A clear and firm distinction between your private and your public life
Westerners tend to speak directly-plainly and openly- We ‘get to the point’
Tolerant of behaviour that does not conform to cultural norms-accept a wide range of views and values
Family relationships-care of elderly/independence of the young.

11. Chinese Culture
A Collectivist culture-view themselves as members of a group-family/work unit/-consider the needs of the group to be more important than the needs of the individual
Obligation to help others in their group
Generosity
The host culture
Modesty
Tend to communicate in a way that is more indirect and subtle
High degree of conformity is expected-a clear consensus as to what is/is not acceptable behaviour. Pressure to conform
Self respect, dignity and ‘face’ are perhaps more important in Chinese culture.

12. A time-capsule
What objects would you choose to represent Chinese culture today, for people from another place and time?
Make a list and be prepared to say why you have chosen the object.

13. Our identity is linked to culture and is influenced by:
The groups we belong to
Our position in the life-cycle
Our socio-cultural context
Our job
How we choose to present ourselves
The language that we use
We can choose to change our identity: sometimes people do this when they move to another culture

14. In a country, are there one or many cultures?

16. What small cultures do we belong to?

17. Small cultures we belong to
Families
Workplace
Local community
Other groups – friends, classmates, special interest groups etc.

18. Case study 1: The taxi ride.
Lee is a Chinese student who has just arrived in England to take a Masters course. She had a long journey from Beijing and the flight took eleven hours, so she is exhausted. She goes through the immigration check, collects her two large suitcases and then goes through customs. The airport is busy and she has to wait half an hour for a taxi so she is feeling very tired.
At last she gets into a taxi. She tells the taxi driver the address of her hall of residence (dormitory) in Kensington, West London. The driver chats a little to her on the way and she begins to relax. When she gets to the hall of residence, the meter reads £34, so she starts to get some money out of her wallet. However, when the taxi stops the driver turns around, smiles at Lee, and asks her for £44!

19. Case Study 1: questions
What possible reasons can you give for the taxi driver’s behaviour?
Have you ever been cheated?
What do smiles mean?
How might Lee feel?
What would you do if you were Lee?
What effect might this incident have on Lee in the future?
What advice would you give to her?

20. Culture shock.
If we move to a new culture, we are likely to experience culture shock. There may be four stages.
The honeymoon period – when we feel excited by the novelty of a different culture.
Feeling stressed and confused, particularly if there are communication problems.
Beginning to adapt and find differences interesting.
Feeling more at home and adopting some or all features of the new culture.
Culture shock is more likely if we are tired, ill or are isolated.

21. Intercultural communication
Rule 1: Be careful, and don't jump to conclusions too quickly.
Rule 2: Try to see things from the foreigner's perspective.
Is it possible that this foreigner means something different? If so, what could it be?
Rule 3: Always keep trying to learn more and understand better.

22. Intercultural communication: some advice
Bad experiences in intercultural communication may lead to stereotyping.
Be aware of the effects of culture shock.
It is important to be open to different possibilities and to avoid negative interpretations of things we don’t understand.
It is good to be curious and to have a sense of humour!

23. Some questions about intercultural communication
What advice can we give to students about communicating with foreigners? Are there any topics to avoid?
What advice can you give to other teachers about communicating with foreigners? Are there any topics to avoid?
What advice would you like to give to foreign teachers?
What advice would you give to someone going to live in another culture? Do we have to know about all possible cultural differences before we leave our country?

24. Case study 2. Corrections
Grace is a university student in China, and she has an Oral English class with Mr. Schmidt, an American. Although she has lots of chances to practice her speaking in class in pair and group work, Grace worries that her fellow-students can’t correct her mistakes, so she talks to Mr. Schmidt directly as often as she can. Keen to improve, and anxious not to fall into bad habits by using incorrect English, she has repeatedly asked Mr. Schmidt to correct any errors she makes in English, and he has assured her he will.
However, after a speech that Grace made in class today, Mr. Schmidt only commented on the content of what she said, without pointing out any grammatical errors she might have made. Grace is surprised and frustrated.

25. Case study 2: questions
Make a list of possible reasons why Mr Schmidt doesn’t correct Grace’s mistakes.
Why does Grace want her mistakes pointed out?
What advice would you give to Mr Schmidt?
What advice would you give to Grace?

26. Case study 3: Lee in the dining room
In Lee’s hall of residence (dormitory) there are quite a few Chinese students but also some English students. Lee has a room to herself, so was pleased to meet an English student, June, who is on the same course. In the past, Lee has sometimes sat next to June in the dining room; she feels that she is beginning to make friends with her.
Yesterday, however, when Lee was in the dining room, June saw her and said hello, but then went to sit with some other English students. Lee feels disappointed, and her Chinese friends say that English students aren’t very friendly.

27. Case study 3: questions
Can you think of any reasons why June didn’t sit next to Lee?
What advice would you give to Lee about this incident and her friendship with June?
Should June have behaved differently?