Who on Earth are we?

Who on Earth are we? 我们到底是谁？
Who on Earth are we? is a series about culture and how it affects us. It explores some of the major differences between cultures and looks at what happens when people from different cultures meet and communicate. The series is presented by Marc Beeby.
Callum: Hello and welcome to Talk about English. Today we start a new series about culture and inter-cultural communication. It’s called - Who on Earth are we? - and is presented by Marc Beeby.
Marc:Hello. I’m Marc Beeby. I’m white. A westerner. I was born in Australia and I went to school in England. The culture I grew up in was basically 1 English. But what does that mean? What’s my culture like? How has my culture affected 2 the way I behave, how I see the world? And do I behave and see the world in a different way from you and the people from your culture?
Talking about culture in any way is surprisingly hard -even describing what our own culture is like can be difficult, and it’s even harder to say how our culture affects the way we behave. And what about ‘foreign’ cultures? We may have a few ideas about what ‘foreigners’ are like, but are these ideas based on truth, or are they just stereotypes（老套） – simple and inaccurate（不准确的） pictures of people we don’t know very well. Over the next twelve programmes we’ll be thinking about these issues: we’ll also be hearing about ways of describing culture, and exploring some of the major differences between cultures. Today, as an introduction, we’ll be looking at a topic that will be central to all the programmes in the series: ‘inter-cultural communication’ - what happens when people from different cultures meet and communicate. But we start with what happens when communication breaks down. War.
Ilse Meyer
I was a child in Berlin in the first world war and I used to lie in bed at night, praying that God should give victory to the German soldiers until one night it suddenly occurred to me that at
that very moment French and English children might be lying in bed praying that God should give victory to their soldiers.
Marc:In 1945 the United Nations was established "to save succeeding generations from the scourge（惩罚） of war’. 55 years later, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan welcomed the latest attempt to build lasting 3 world peace – the proclamation (宣言，公布)of the year 2001 as the Year of Dialogue among Civilisations.

Kofi Annan
The United Nation itself was created in the belief that dialogue can triumph 4 over （获得胜利）discord. That is why I have warmly welcomed the proclamation of the year 2001 as the United Nations year of the dialogue among civilizations.
Marc: This dialogue, this communication between people from different cultures, isn’t something that’s only relevant 5 to politicians and representatives of the UN. It’s personal. The world, we hear, is getting smaller. Global business, world-wide tourism, faster and more accessible（可得到的，易接近的） ways of communicating all mean that most of us, at some point in our lives, will come into contact with people from cultures that are very different from our own. And when that happens we find ourselves facing some very interesting, very personal questions. Rebecca Fong teaches a course in intercultural communication（跨国文化交流） at the University of the West of England. Here she is, a million miles away from war, facing up to flowers and the question of beauty…

Rebecca Fong
When I was quite young I went to live in Japan, and after having been there for a little while I was asked by some of the women I was working with if I'd like to do 'Ikebana' which is Japanese flower arranging. I decided 6 not to but I did go to many flower arranging exhibitions and one day I was at one of these exhibitions and I saw an arrangement and I laughed and I said 'oh well that one was obviously 7 done by a beginner ' and the person I was with who had been studying for a long time said 'no no that was done by an expert and I could never do that, that's very hard'. I later discovered that when the Japanese are looking at flower arrangement they see something that we don't see. Because they've been trained in flower arranging and trained in the understanding or appreciation 8 of the art of flower arranging they can appreciate it for its beauty in a way that I was completely unable to see when I first went to the country. Think about what this implies（暗示，意味） for the way that we see beauty. We were both looking at the same object at the same time but they were seeing something completely different. What this implies 9 is that we're all wearing culture tinted 10 glasses（有色眼镜） if you like. We're looking at things and judging their value from our own cultural backgrounds and our own experience, which is often very different.
Marc: Rebecca Fong. We look at things and judge their value from our own cultural
backgrounds. No problem with that, of course…. until we meet people who see,
judge, and do things differently. Here’s Rebecca again, with comments by
Guillermo from Venezuela, Kjung-Ja from Japan and Rajni from India.

Rebecca Fong
You don't actually notice culture very much until you meet someone from another culture. And in the first week or two or maybe even the first month or two, you might not notice any differences; you might get on quite well with that person. But then a misunderstanding might suddenly occur. The reason that something has gone wrong is that your culture and the other person's culture have collided 11. （碰撞，冲突）

Guillermo
When the Venezuelan president came to Spain for an official visit he came to the king in Spain and he hugged him. That’s something that you never never do. You don’t go and hug the King of a country just like that. And the president of Venezuela did it because he’s used to that and for him I’m sure that was the normal thing to do and if that happened with a president and a king that happen everywhere.

Kjung-Ja Yoo
One of my husband's colleagues came to the house and he kissed me, kissed me, hugged me you know as a friendly terms. But in Tokyo I'm someone's wife and then someone -westerner -kissing my cheek is an embarrassing 13 thing. I didn't want to embarrass 12 him, so I just accepted and then when I looked at my husband he just pretended - not seeing anything, typical!

Rebecca Fong
We all grow up inside our own cultures and what this means is that we assume 14 without thinking a number of different values, attitudes, beliefs, ways of doing things, ways of saying things which come to us naturally -but the way we do things isn't necessarily 15 the same as the way people in other cultures do them and it's not until something goes wrong that you're going to realise that the way someone else does something is different from the way that you do it.

Rajni Baldani
When I first went to England I was absolutely, absolutely shocked. There were three of us, two of us Indians and there was one English person, who whilst（当。。。时） he was talking, right in the middle of the conversation he takes out a banana, peels it and starts eating it. And he's peeling this banana and eating it without even saying excuse me or whatever. We expect to be offered. That is something that is culturally very different.

Rebecca Fong
When there's a cultural misunderstanding like this, the temptation 16 can be to think 'Well they've got a stupid way of doing it - why don't they do it like we do it ' and you find that your standards become the standards by which you judge everybody else. And lead to a lot of conflict .
Marc: So how can we avoid cultural misunderstanding and the possibility of conflict?
What do we need to learn to be able to communicate better with people from
other cultures and so become ‘inter-culturally competent 17?’ We could study the
other culture - find out what food people eat, what their economy is like, learn
about their history, read books, get the facts….
Rebecca Fong
Intercultural communication is a bit more sophisticated（诡辩的，久经世故的） than that if you like. It's not really only about the knowledge that we gain by reading books or watching documentaries 18 about a certain other culture. It's really much more about what happens when we meet someone from that culture and we interact 19 with them. Their behaviour patterns will be culturally specific -just as ours are. So how do we act in different situations, how do we respond to things - do we respond verbally(口头地) or non-verbally, how close can we stand to someone when we're talking to them. Time, how do we use time, how do we use space. So what that involves is not just learning 20 facts about another culture but also the competence 21 that you get from actually engaging in an encounter 22 with someone from another culture.
Marc:Rebecca Fong. And we’ll be looking in detail at all the aspects of intercultural communication that Rebecca mentioned over the next few weeks. Studying culture and intercultural communication can help make communication across cultures easier. It can help make us more tolerant（宽容的） of ‘difference’ and things that are ‘strange’ or ‘foreign’. But it’s also great fun. I’ve been lucky enough to have met people from all over the world - and communicating with them has been an enormous 23 pleasure and a great education. But, strangely, although I’ve learnt a lot about other cultures in the process, I’ve learnt more about myself. Which is not an unusual experience for people involved in inter-cultural communication. Here’s Mahmood Jamal from Pakistan.

Mahmood Jamal
When I first cam to Britian I did not know who I was. Over the years I began to discover, as I discovered Britain, I also discovered myself. and this is also very important in people who move from one culture to another, one place to another because it’s not just discovering the other place you also discover who you areMarc:Mahmood Jamal.
Callum: And that was Marc Beeby ending this edition of Talk about English, Who on Earth are we. Join Marc next time when he’ll be trying to answer that most difficult of questions: what is culture? (本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑)

点击收听单词发音  






1
basically

  
 


adv.基本上，从根本上说


参考例句：





His heart is basically sound.他的心脏基本上健康。
Basically I agree with your plan.我基本上同意你的计划。












2
affected

  
 


adj.不自然的，假装的


参考例句：





She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。












3
lasting

  
 


adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持


参考例句：





The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。












4
triumph

  
 


n.胜利，成功；vi.获胜，成功；击败


参考例句：





The victorious army returned in triumph.获胜的部队凯旋而归。
I could detect no triumph in his eye.我不能在他的眼里看出胜利的喜悦。












5
relevant

  
 


adj.有关的，贴切的


参考例句：





I don't think his remarks are relevant to our discussion.我认为他的话不切我们的议题。
These materials are relevant to the case.这些材料与这案件有关。












6
decided

  
 


adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的


参考例句：





This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。












7
obviously

  
 


adv.显然；明白地


参考例句：





Obviously they were putting him to a severe test.显然他们是在给他以严峻的考验。
Obviously he was lying.显然他是在撒谎。












8
appreciation

  
 


n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨


参考例句：





I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to you all.我想对你们所有人表达我的感激和谢意。
I'll be sending them a donation in appreciation of their help.我将送给他们一笔捐款以感谢他们的帮助。












9
implies

  
 


暗示，暗指( imply的第三人称单数 )； 必然包含； 说明，表明


参考例句：





They believe that submission in no way implies inferiority. 他们认为服从决不意味着低人一等。
Your silence implies tacit consent to these proposals. 你的沉默意味着你默许这些提议。












10
tinted

  
 


adj. 带色彩的
动词tint的过去式和过去分词


参考例句：





a pair of glasses with tinted lenses 一副有色镜片眼镜
a rose-tinted vision of the world 对世界的理想化看法












11
collided

  
 


v.相撞( collide的过去式和过去分词 )；碰撞；冲突；抵触


参考例句：





The car and the van collided head-on in thick fog. 那辆小轿车和货车在浓雾中迎面相撞。
The car collided with a stationary vehicle. 小汽车撞到一辆停着的车上。












12
embarrass

  
 


vt.使困窘，使局促不安，阻碍


参考例句：





He didn't mean to embarrass you.他不是成心让你难堪。
He is a shy person.Don't embarrass him any more.他是个腼腆的人，你就不要再羞躁他了。












13
embarrassing

  
 


adj.使人尴尬的，令人为难的v.（使）窘迫，（使）局促不安( embarrass的现在分词)


参考例句：





His jokes didn't even raise a smile, which was embarrassing. 听了他讲的笑话，都没人笑一下，真是太尴尬了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
I was in the embarrassing position of having completely forgotten her name. 当时我完全忘记了她的名字，很是尴尬。 来自《简明英汉词典》












14
assume

  
 


vt.假装；假定，设想；承担；呈现，采取


参考例句：





I assume that he won't cheat you.想来他是不会骗你的。
We can't assume anything in this case.在这种情况下我们不可能做出假设。












15
necessarily

  
 


adv.必要地，必需地；必定地，必然地


参考例句：





More work does not necessarily call for more men.增加工作量不一定就要增添人员。
A voter must necessarily be no younger than eighteen.选民必须在18岁以上。












16
temptation

  
 


n.诱惑，引诱；v.引，诱


参考例句：





I should congratulate you that you resisted the temptation.我应向你祝贺，你抗住了这种引诱。
Will they be able to resist the temptation to buy?他们能忍住诱惑不买吗？












17
competent

  
 


adj.能干的，胜任的，有权能的，足够的


参考例句：





He is not competent to the task of teaching English.他不能胜任英语教学工作。
He did a competent job.他的工作做得相当出色。












18
documentaries

  
 


n.纪录片( documentary的名词复数 )


参考例句：





As for 'documentaries', these too are not altogether new. 至于“资料性文学”那也并不完全是新鲜事。 来自辞典例句
These are not just animations live-action films, comedies, dramas and documentaries. 这些不仅仅是动画片，还包括表演摄制影片，喜剧，戏剧以及纪录片。 来自互联网












19
interact

  
 


vi.相互作用，相互影响，互通信息


参考例句：





All things are interrelated and interact on each other.一切事物互相联系并相互作用。
The policeman advised the criminal to interact with the police.警察劝罪犯与警方合作。












20
learning

  
 


n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词


参考例句：





When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时，常会从车上掉下来。
Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。












21
competence

  
 


n.能力，胜任，称职


参考例句：





This mess is a poor reflection on his competence.这种混乱情况说明他难当此任。
These are matters within the competence of the court.这些是法院权限以内的事。












22
encounter

  
 


v.遇到，偶然碰到；遭遇；n.遭遇；意外的相见


参考例句：





It was a bloody encounter between the two armies. 这是那两军之间的一次激烈的遭遇战。
A fortunate encounter brought the two friends together after a long separation.两位老朋友长期分离这次才有幸相遇。












23
enormous

  
 


adj.巨大的；庞大的


参考例句：





An enormous sum of money is injected each year into teaching.每年都有大量资金投入到教学中。
They wield enormous political power.他们行使巨大的政治权力。