Case Analysis,By Group 5,思考：当老师邀请你和你的几位同学 到家里做客时，你会怎么做？,去的时候： A.在约好的时间独自赴约； B.与同学一起，在约好的时间准时到达。 走的时候： A.自己决定，想什么时候走就什么时候走； B.当同伴起身告别时，与同伴一起走。,Jane, an American teacher in the US, had just started teaching English to a group of Japanese students. She wanted to get to know the students more formally, so she invited them to her house for party. The students all arrived together at exactly 8:00 p.m. They seemed to enjoy the party: they danced, sang, and ate most of the food. At about 10:00 pm, one of the students said to the teacher, “I think its time for me to leave. Thank you very much for the party.” Then all the other students got up to go, and all left at the same time. Jane decided she would never invite them again!,Case 1,Question : Why?,Li Na: Yes, and Japanese people think people go and leave the host family on time shows the respect for the host family.,Fan Yanming: From the case I think Japanese is always on punctual, and when they think its time for the host to rest, they will leave together. This is common in Asian countries.,Zhang Xiaoxia: As far as I am concerned, American people think many people leave at the same time didnt show the respect for the family host. Whats more, 10:00 p.m is so early for a party to end.,Group Discussion:,Li Xuesong: Yes, all of these cultural differences finally led to Janes misunderstanding.,Gao Rui: In my opinion, Americans are typical individualisms, while Japanese are obviously collectivity. Thats why Jane didnt understand why all the students were gonna leave at the same time.,He Lixia: I agree. And in my view, the Japanese students may think its impolite to stay so late that they would disturb their teacher.,Group Discussion:,Analysis:,Answer:,In this case, Japanese students showed their respect to Jane in the way of their tradition. As we know, Japanese attach importance to their etiquette(礼仪) and respect when contact with others, this is why they arrived together at exactly 8:00 p.m. They were unwilling to disturb their teacher, so they left together. But for Jane, her American thinking made her misunderstand this. Since in American, its impolite to leave a party so soon and leave all together, these actions mean that the guests didnt enjoyed the party at all and didnt have enough respect for the hosts hard work. So Jane got angry.,Answer:,And when we analyze this case with Hofstedes Dimensions of Cultural Variability, we will find that American people are typical individualism, while Japanese obviously belong to collectivism. In Japan, individual person must obey collectivity, When they go to a party, they tend to go to the part together and leave the party together. This is so different from American, in American, people like to act freely. Therefore, its easy to understand the reason why Jane got happy.,Case 2,Identify problems that occurred in the cross-cultural encounter in the following case.,问题,英国著名诗人杰弗里乔叟(Geoffrey Chaucer）的代表作是什么？,LI Hua was a freshman in a university and had an American teacher named Alan. One day Alan was on the subject of poetry, wrote something by Chaucer on the blackboard, and asked the students what it meant. Li Hua knew little about this great British poet, let alone his poems, as did the others. To tell the truth it would have been difficult for Li Hua to answer the question, even if the writing had been translated into Chinese. There was a long silence during which everyone was afraid to answer and they lowered their heads. Unfortunately the teacher chose Li Hua to answer the question.,She mustered up all her courage and said, “Sorry, I dont know. “ That was always the reply to difficult questions in Chinese classes. She expected him to go on and ask one of the other my classmates, as a Chinese teacher would do. To her surprise he spent the rest of the class explaining how childish her answer was. “As an adult, you should at least have some idea about a question, no matter how difficult it is. Even though your answer is totally wrong, its much better than I dont know.“ She didnt know why she couldnt say, “I dont know.“ It was always safe for her to say that in her Chinese classes.,Question:,1. Why do most Chinese teachers accept a students reply “I dont Know“ to a difficult question? 2. What did Li Huas American teacher Alan expect her to say? 3. Who was wrong, Li Hua or Alan?,Fan Yanming: The case tell us clearly the difference between Chinese teachers and American teachers. In brief, as I think, Chinese teachers value the results of learning, and American teacher value the process of learning.,Zhang Xiaoxia: I totally agree. Chinese teachers concentrate on what their students can get in the end, while American teachers tend to guide their students to think and study on their own. Thats why Chinese teachers accept a students reply “I dont Know“ to a difficult question but American teachers not.,Group Discussion:,Gao Rui: As Alan said in the case, “As an adult,