实践 15: 外国文化
部分 2
Describe a foreign culture that you are interested in
你应该说
- what this culture is
- how you learned about this culture
- what you know about this culture and explain why you feel this culture is interesting.
I have spent most of my time learning Chinese and Chinese culture. But I did have an interesting experience about a year and a half ago that inspired me to learn about Costa Rican culture.
One of my friends spent a semester abroad in Costa Rica in early 2005, and I spent two weeks at the beginning of the summer visiting him there. Prior to visiting, I knew almost nothing about the culture, but staying there, even for such a short time, really opened my eyes. Costa Rican culture is extremely different from either American or Chinese cultures. Two of the phrases most often used in Costa Rica are a good illustration of their culture: Pura Vida和 Tranquilo. Pura Vida means “pure life” andTranquilo means “calm”. Both are used in situations where the level of stress is rising. When Costa Ricans say this phrase, they are telling themselves “Don’t worry. Chill out.” It’s an extremelylaid-back, relaxed culture. Their main goal in life is to be happy. Workdays tend to be shorter, and since the country is so small and borders both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, it is really easy to go to the beach, so many do just that. When I was there, it was routine to see people getting up around 6 是, go to the beach and surf for two or three hours, work from 10-4, go home and eat, then go back to the beach.
It was great to see a culture with such a different outlook on life.
部分 3
I do think it’s extremely important to learn about other cultures. Not only can you find out interesting things, but it makes it easier to interact with those people if you ever come in contact with them. 还, it makes it a lot easier to do business with those cultures. It’s important to be educated about the world and not just shut yourself into your own country.
Several ways that people can benefit from other cultures are in business, personal relationships, and just in self-improvement. In business, it is necessary to know a little bit about whatever culture you plan to work with. 例如, I think in Muslim cultures, shaking hands with your left hand is considered extremely rude. If you didn’t know that, it could hurt your chances of doing business. 还, it’s important just to improve yourself by learning as much as you can, and culture is a good subject.
明显地, the best way to learn about a culture is to go there and experience it. If you can get a feel for the culture firsthand, it will be a lot easier to pick things up, But I also believe that you can learn a ton about other cultures just by reading books about them. Reading about people’s experiences in foreign lands is the next best thing to being there.
I’m not sure that just learning the language is a good way to learn about a culture, but most places where you would learn a language would help you learn about the culture, so indirectly, 是的. The language alone isn’t great for understanding culture. 例如, German is a really harsh language, but Germans aren’t harsh people. You really need to study more than the language if you want to get to know a culture.
I think it is better to study a language in its native country. When you do that, you are engulfed in the language and forced to encounter it outside of the classroom. 否则, your only exposure to the language is when you’re studying or in the classroom. I know firsthand that when learning a foreign language in your home country, it is easy to lose what you have learned.
Globalization, in my mind, is the idea that the world is becoming smaller, so societies can interact and exchange culture more easily and more efficiently. 很遗憾, because some countries are richer and have more influence than others, certain cultures get spread around more than others. 总体上, 然而, globalization is a good thing because it is not the only culture that gets spread, but things like information and medicine can help people.
是的, globalization has its problems, but for the most part, it is good for most people involved. Some people have different opinions because they are really concerned with the loss of culture, but for me, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. People have access to more information, so diseases can be better treated, food can be made more efficiently, and goods that make people’s lives easier are now available.
是的, 当然, 这是. All you have to do is to look at art from long ago, about foreign cultures and you can see the lack of knowledge people had. 今天, with the Internet and the number of books available, it is almost impossible to be ignorant. It is so easy to learn about anything you want.