Unit 1 You Say, I Say

【因为字数原因 不能超过5000字 只能拆开了】

7. Cultural Focus: Meeting Someone New

How are you

Today we’re going to talk about some things we should keep in mind when meeting someone from a different country

Most Western people have a first name middle name and last name

For example John Edward Smith

Most people will not use their middle name in daily life so you would call that person John Smith

You can use Mr.　Mrs. or Ms. with the last name but not the first name

This means that it’s polite to say Mr. Smith but not Mr. John. Mrs. is used for women who are married so if you don’t know if a woman is married you can say Ms. instead

Then should we call you Mr. Glenn or Mr. Davis

My full name is Glenn Michael Davis so my last name is Davis

Please call me Mr. Davis

Ok Mr. Davis how about other people

Well Most people will call each other by their first names even in a business setting

It’s considered more friendly to call someone by their first name

However in more formal situations people might use Mr.　Mrs  or Ms with the last name

If you’re not sure what you should call someone you can ask How should I call you

The person will tell you how they would like to be called so this is the most polite option

By the way the most common baby names in the United States in 2013 were Jackson and Aiden for boys and Sophia and Emma for girls

What should I talk about when I meet someone new

Well different countries have different ideas about what is considered private information

In many Western countries it’s considered rude to ask how old someone is how much they weigh whether they are married or single or how much money they make

You may be able to ask after you become good friends but definitely stay away from those topics if you’re in a business situation

Instead you can talk about sports

Movies TV books news weekend or holiday plans and how someone is feeling

How’s it going? is a common greeting

This sounds really complicated

Don't worry about it

The most important thing is to be friendly

As long as you're friendly and having a big smile the other person will be happy to meet you so go out there and meet some new people

Ok

Section 1.6 discusses self-introductions

Several examples are given about how people from various backgrounds introduce themselves with a variety of information

Each begins by giving their name and typically follow that with where they are from

After that each chooses different aspects of their life to focus on

Some choose hobbies while others choose pets

Some talk a little bit about their families and give either simple information such as I have one sister… while others give more in-depth information about their family like what their siblings do for a living

When somebody offers information that usually means that is a subject they are comfortable talking about

This is good because you don't want to ask questions or bring up subjects that are too personal

Personal Information is a good term to remember because different cultures have different opinions about what is truly personal or private

As Glenn Davis points out in section 1.7 asking somebody's name of course is not rude however asking somebody's age might be

In America it would be rude to ask an older woman her age 

If asked she might answer That's personal

What she means is That's private and not suitable for conversation

If somebody does not wish to continue talking about a subject there are a number of ways to politely express this either directly or indirectly

你们好

今天我们 要讲讲与外国友人见面时

应该注意的一些问题

大部分的西方人都有一个名

一个中间名

和一个姓

比如说

John Edward Smith

大部分人平时都不会用到自己的中名

所以你可以简单地把这个人称作John Smith

你可以在姓前面加上先生

夫人

或女士

但不能在名前面用这些词

也就是说出于礼貌

你可以称呼John Smith为史密斯先生

而不是约翰先生

夫人通常用于称呼已婚妇女

但如果你不知道一个女人的婚姻状况

可以直接使用女士这个称呼

那么我们应该称呼您Glenn先生

还是Davis先生呢

我的全名是

Glenn Michael Davis

所以我的姓氏是Davis

所以请叫我Davis先生

好的 Davis先生

那么其他人呢

即使是在商业场合

大多数的人都是直接称呼对方的名字

直呼其名被认为是比较礼貌的做法

但是

在一些比较正式的场合

人们可能会用到先生

夫人或者女士

如果你不确定应该如何称呼对方

你可以问

我应该怎么称呼您

被问到的人就会告诉你

他们喜欢如何被人称呼

所以这是最礼貌的做法

顺便提一句

2013年美国最常见的

男孩名字是杰克森和艾登

而女孩则是索菲亚和艾玛

当我和朋友初次见面时

该谈论些什么呢

不同的国家

对于私人信息的想法有所不同

在许多西方国家

询问他人的年龄 体重 婚姻状况

和薪水

也许在你们成为好朋友之后

但是在商业场合中

则应尽量避免这些问题

事实上

你可以谈论运动

电影  电视

书籍

新闻

周末

或者假期计划

或者询问他人身体状况如何

最近怎么样

是一个常见的问候语

这听起来真复杂

不要担心

（与人交往）最重要的是要友好

只要你态度友好并且面带微笑

别人就会很乐意与你交往

所以

出去结识一些新朋友吧

好的

在1.6节中

我们 讨论了自我介绍

举了 几个不同背景的人

如何介绍自己的各种信息的例子

每个人都是先介绍他们的名字

之后通常会接上他们来自哪里

在那之后

每个人会选择自己的生活特别关注的事物

有些人选择介绍爱好

而另一些人选择介绍他们的宠物

有些人会谈谈他们的家庭

给出一些简单的信息

例如 我有一个妹妹......

有的人会提供一些关于自己的家庭的

更深入的信息

比如他们的兄弟姐妹的职业等

当我们谈话的对象提供了某些信息

这通常意味着

那是一个他们谈着舒服而不尴尬的话题

这是一件好事

因为你不会希望问出的问题

或提出的话题过于私密

个人信息

是需要记住的很好的词汇

因为不同的文化对什么是真正个人的

或私人的有不同的理解

正如Glenn Davis在1.7节中指出的

问别人的名字是不无礼的

但是

问别人的年纪可能就无礼了

在美国

问一个年长的女性的年龄是不太礼貌的

如果你问了

她可能会回答 这是隐私

她的意思就是说

这个问题太私人 不适合交流

如果一个人不想继续谈论这个话题

有很多种礼貌的方式

直接或间接地表达

8. Office hour

Hi Professor Yang  I have a question

When I meet someone for the first time I really don't know how to introduce myself

Could you give me some suggestions

Let's look at the two videos

OK

There are two young ladies from Tsinghua University

They meet in front of the department

Hello everyone my name is He Yi

You can call me Lily

I'm a student in Tsinghua University

I like go traveling

When I was in high school

I went to Europe with my parents

It's been a great experience to meet different people to experience different culture and to have different kinds of food

I like the pizza in Italy the beer in Germany and also dessert in France and when I was a Junior

I went to America to attend an exchange program

At that time I experienced the difference between American colleges and university in China 

The students and faculty relationship is different and we have different courses

When I was an undergraduate student

My major was English

I changed my major to Education for graduate study cause I'm very interested in what's going on in Chinese universities and what's the difference between

China and America

My name is Zhang Zhiwei

I'm from Myanmar

I've been to China for two years

I major in Chinese literatures

There are five people in the families

My grandparents my dad my sister and I

My grandparents are very healthy they go for walk together every morning

They all love me so much

My grandpa usually shares his story with me

And my grandma usually gets me much delicious food

My father is the person who loves me most in this world

I like my families

I feel happy to be a member of them

Thank you  Professor Yang

I know how to introduce myself

But what can I talk about after simple greeting

Could you give me some topics

For the general topics

The general topics can be like you introduce your family  introduce your hobbies

Let's look at the two videos

Hi

Hi  How are you

I'm fine and you

I'm great

Do you have brothers or sisters

How many

Two

How old are they

One fifteen and one twelve

Are they boys or girls

Where are they right now

All in Myanmar

In Myanmar

Do you miss them when you are in Beijing

Of course

And then how do you contact with them

WeChat

You notice in this conversation one of them asked questions the other one gave the very brief answer

If you give brief answers you are telling people you don't want to continue the conversation

So if you greet each other after that you answer very briefly it is both rude and also you're not sociable so my suggestion is you give people a little bit more about the information you're talking about

For example you will say there are four people in my family

Then will say… My father is a teacher

And he taught history in the middle school but now he's retired

You gave two more information about your daddy and that conversation can go on and on

Yeah I read Jin Yong's novel He said you should give questions that our conversation can be continued

So not just answer others but give those questions make the conversations continue right

You are absolutely right

Let's look at another example