2016年7月20日星期三

An Experience on Intercultural Communication Stumbling Blocks


Once I lined up to order my meal in a fast food restaurant ,I incautiously stood before one person who have waited longer than me. However, I didn’t realize I jump a queue. I still didn’t make out the right way to line up. When I finally understood how to queue up, I spotted him. I really felt sorry for my behavior, and I really didn’t do it deliberately.

However, he looked at me, in some way that seemed scornful and said: ”You go first.”  I was sure that he thought I jumped a queue. I wanted to explain, but he showed me in a way that he wanted to ignore me because I wasted his time.

To be honest, I felt very uncomfortable about that because I destroyed the image of the Chinese to some extent. I am one of the Chinese, and what I do represents what our nation might do in the same circumstance in some way .That is not the result I wanted to have, but surly it is.

I think he may not have much good impression on Chinese before, that is why his attitude is impatience. He didn’t give me the chance to clear out my behavior because his tendency to evaluate.

This experience happened 6 years ago, but I still can’t forget it.

3 条评论:

  1. Good post of cultural misunderstanding!
    Next time try to write your blog similar to the academic way of writing. It would be much clearer if the blogs starts with an introduction with a topic sentence, body and conclusion.
    Try to post some illustrations like photos or video.
    By this time you need at least two blogs to write, keep writing such good blogs.

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  2. Interesting. "Go first" is usually an invitation for somebody to go first. That is what people usually mean. It's not that they notice that you have skipped the line, they invite you to skip the line :) A stumbling block indeed.

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  3. It is really an interesting stumbling block! I really understand your feeling in that situation. I have faced the same situation too and I felt really embarrassed and thank the person again and again.

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