课外延伸-Developing Intercultural Competence as a Global Citizen资料文件与下载

Books（推荐书目）

Kim, Young Yun, Adapting to a New Culture. In L.A.Samovar&R.E. Porter (eds.) Intercultural Communication: A Reader (7^th edition). Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Publishing Co,1994.

Myron W. Lustig, Jolene Koester. Intercultural Competence Interpersonal Communication across Cultures (sixth edition). Pearson,2010.

Websites（推荐网址）

https://open.lib.umn.edu/communication/chapter/8-4-intercultural-communication-competence/

https://www.wikihow.com/Overcome-Culture-Shock-in-a-Foreign-Country

Further Reading （拓展阅读）

Description Interpretation and Evaluation

Adapted from Myron W. Lustig, Jolene Koester. Intercultural Competence Interpersonal Communication across Cultures (sixth edition). Pearson,2010, 76-80

The interaction tool is called description, interpretation, and evaluation (D-I-E). It starts with the assumption that, when most people process the information around them, they use a kind of mental shorthand. Because people are taught what symbols mean, they are not very aware of the information they use to form their interpretations. In other words, when people see, hear, and in other ways receive information from the world around them, they generally form interpretations and evaluations of it without being aware of the specific sensory information they have perceived.

For example, students and teachers alike often comment about the sterile, institutional character of many of the classrooms at universities. Rarely do these conversations detail the specific perceptual information on which that interpretation is based. Rarely does someone say, for instance, This room is about twenty by forty feet in size, the walls are painted a cream color, there is no artwork on the walls, it is lit by eight fluorescent bulbs, and the floors are cream-colored tiles with multiple pieces of dirt." Yet when students and professors say that their classroom is "sterile, institutional looking, and unattractive," most people who have spent a great deal of time in such rooms have a fairly accurate image of the classroom. Similarly, if a friend is walking toward you, you might say, "Hi! What's wrong? You look really tired and upset !” That kind of comment is considered normal, but if you said instead , "Hi! Your shoulders are drooping, you're not standing up straight , and you are walking much slower than usual," it would be considered strange. In both examples, the statements considered to be normal are really interpretations and evaluations of sensory information the individual has processed.

The skill we are introducing trains you to distinguish among statements of description, interpretation, and evaluation. These statements can be made about all characteristics, events, persons, or objects. A statement of description details the specific perceptual cues and information a person has received, without judgments or interpretations-in other words, without being distorted by opinion. A statement of interpretation provides a conjecture or hypothesis about what the perceptual information might mean. A statement of evaluation indicates an emotional or affective judgment about the information. Often, the interpretations people make of perceptual information are very closely linked to their personal evaluation of that information. Any description can have many different interpretations, but because most people think in a mental shorthand, they are generally aware of only the interpretation that immediately comes to mind , which they use to explain the event. For example, teachers occasionally have students who arrive late to class.

A statement of description about a particular student engaging in this behavior might be as follow:

• Kathryn arrived ten minutes after the start of the class.

Statements of interpretation, which are designed to explain Kathryn's behavior, might include some of the following:

• Kathryn doesn't care very much about this particular class.

• Kathryn is always late for everything.

• Kathryn is new on campus this semester and is misinformed about the starting time for the class.

For each interpretation, the evaluation can vary. If the interpretation is "Kathryn doesn't care very much about this class," different professors will have differing evaluations:

• I am really offended by that attitude.

• I like a student who chooses to be enthusiastic only about classes she really likes.

The interpretation a person selects to explain something like Kathryn's behavior influences the evaluation that is made of that behavior. In people's everyday interactions, distinctions are rarely made among description, interpretation, and evaluation.

Consequently, people deal with their interpretations and evaluations as if these were actually what they saw, heard, and experienced.

The purpose of making descriptive statements when you are communicating interculturally is that they allow you to identify the sensory information that forms the basis of your interpretations and evaluations. Descriptive statements also allow you to consider alternative hypotheses or interpretations. Interpretations, although highly personal, are very much affected by underlying cultural patterns. Sometimes when you engage in intercultural communication with specific persons or groups of people for an extended period of time. you will be able to test the various interpretations of behavior that you are considering. By testing the alternative interpretations, it is also possible to forestall the evaluations that can negatively affect your interactions. Consider the following situation, and notice how differences among description, interpretation, and evaluation affect John's intercultural competence:

John Richardson has been sent by his U.S.-based insurance company to discuss, and possibly to sell, his company's products with an Argentinean company that has expressed great interest in them. His secretary has set up for appointments with key company officials. John arrives promptly at his first appointment, identifies himself to the receptionist, and is asked to be seated. Some thirty minutes later he is ushered into the office of the company official, who has one of his employees in the office with whom he is discussing another issue. John is brought into the office of his second appointment within a shorter period of time, but the conversation is constantly disrupted by telephone calls and drop-in visits from others. At the end of the day, John is very discouraged, he called the home office and says, This is a waste of time, these guys aren't interested in our products at all!  hey couldn't even give me their attention when I got in to see them. There were constant interruptions. I'm getting on a plane and coming back tomorrow.

John would be better off if he approached this culturally puzzling behavior by separating his descriptions, interpretations. and evaluations. By doing so, he might choose very different actions for himself. Descriptive statements might include the following:

• My appointments started anywhere from fifteen to thirty minutes later than the time I scheduled them.

• The people with whom I had appointments also talked to other company employees when I was in their offices.

• The people with whom I had appointments accepted telephone calls when I was in their offices.

Interpretations of this sensory information might include the following:

• Company officials were not interested in talking with me or in buying my company's products.

• Company officials had rescheduled my appointments for a different time, but they neglected to tell my secretary about the change.

• In Argentina, attitudes toward time are very different from those in the United States; although appointments are scheduled for particular times, no one expects that people will be available at precisely that time.

• In Argentina, it is an accepted norm of interaction between people who have appointments with each other to allow others to come into the room, either in person or by telephone. to ask their questions or to make their comments.

These interpretations suggest very different evaluations of John's experiences. His frustration with the lack of punctuality and the lack of exclusive focus on him and his ideas may still be a problem even if he selects the correct cultural interpretation, which is that in Argentina, time is structured and valued very differently than it is in the States. But by considering other interpretations, John's evaluations and his actions will be more functional, as he might say the following:

• I don't like waiting around and not meeting according to the schedule I had set, but maybe I can still make this important sale.

• Some of the people here are sure interesting and I am enjoying meeting so many more people than just the four with whom I had scheduled appointments.

The tool of description, interpretation, and evaluation increases your choices for understanding, responding positively to, and behaving appropriately with people from different cultures. The simplicity of the tool makes it available in any set of circumstances and may allow the intercultural communicator to suspend judgment long enough to understand the symbols used by the culture involved.