2017考研英語拓展閱讀：文化多樣性是否隔絕了中英交流

考研英語來源：新東方網整理 2016-05-19　

The good news is that Chinese food remains as popular as ever, with surveys consistently showing the cuisine among the world’s favourites.

好消息是中國菜依然像往常一樣受歡迎。許多調查都持續顯示中國菜是全世界最受喜愛的菜式之一。

Meanwhile, China now sends more tourists abroad than any other country - their cash making a major contribution to the coffers of those host nations able to pull them in with the offer of beaches, beauty spots and heritage sites.

與此同時，中國現在擁有全世界最多的海外游客。他們海量的資金為目的地國家的經濟收入做出了巨大的貢獻，也使得他們能夠暢游在各種海灘、景點和文物古跡中。

Yet the increasing encounters between Chinese people and the rest of the world also provide more possibilities for cultural misunderstanding and for the perception of rudeness.

但是隨著中國人和越來越多的外國人接觸的同時，也更有可能發生對于文化的誤解、甚至留下粗魯的印象。

"Their habit of spitting was the main problem," says Eddie Chan, who runs a Chinese health centre in central London. A long-time resident of the UK, he watched the first wave of Chinese tourists arrive and the reaction they provoked.

艾迪·陳在倫敦市中心開辦了一家中國健康中心，他說：“中國人吐痰的習慣是(產生負面印象的)主要原因。”作為英國的一名長期居民，他目睹了第一波到來的中國游客潮，并且對這些游客引起的反響有一個切身的體會。

"Chinese people are also not accustomed to queuing. Their behaviour getting on a bus can certainly seem rude to foreigners."

“中國人也經常因為不排隊而受到指責。在外國人看來，中國人乘坐公交的時候的舉止是很粗魯的。”

No-one knows if the Queen felt her Chinese guests were getting too physically close, prompting her judgement that they were rude.

沒有人知道是否是因為女王的中國客人靠她太近了，從才而導致她認為他們很“粗魯”的評價。

But she might perhaps appreciate Switzerland’s approach to this perceived problem.

但是在這一問題上，她或許非常贊賞瑞士人的做法。

After repeated complaints of rude behaviour by Chinese tourists, one Swiss rail company created special carriages for visitors from Asia - acknowledging that they were really just aimed at the Chinese.

由于多次接到關于中國游客粗魯舉止的投訴，一家瑞士鐵路公司為亞洲游客設置了特別車廂，并承認這一行動其實只是針對中國游客。

A little more understanding is called for by Jieyu Liu, a sociologist at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. She argues that anyone’s behaviour is determined by the time and place of their upbringing and that rules of etiquette are never universal.

而有人卻呼吁應該多一點理解。劉婕妤(音)是一名倫敦東方和非洲研究學院的社會學家，她認為任何人的行為習慣都是由其所成長的時間和地點決定的，而全世界從來都沒有一個統一的禮儀規則。

"A lot of Chinese people work in factories, with machines in the background," she says by way of example. "That’s why Chinese people speak loudly and can appear rude when they talk loudly in public."

她舉例說道：“許多中國人都在工廠里工作，那兒一般都有許多機械在運轉。因此中國人習慣了大聲講話，而當他們在公共場合大聲講話時，就會被認為很粗魯。”

The perception of rudeness also cuts both ways, according to Eddie Chan. Chinese people, he says, often have an image of foreigners from films and the British in particular are imagined as being terribly polite, doffing their hats at passers-by and drinking tea with exquisite care.

據艾迪·陳表示，中國人對粗魯的認知卻是另一個極端。他說中國人對于外國人的印象大多來自于電影，而在電影里英國人一般被塑造為有禮貌得過了頭--向行人脫毛致禮、對喝茶非常考究等。

"We don’t understand where they’re coming from," says Rod Wye, a former Foreign Office official who spent 10 years at Britain’s embassy in Beijing. Chinese history and more importantly, the way Chinese people perceive their history are just not appreciated sufficiently, he believes.

羅德·瓦伊是英國前外交官員，曾在北京英國大使館工作了10年，他說：“我不知道中國人對英國人的這些印象是從哪里來的。”不過他相信，中國歷史、或者說中國人理解自己歷史的方式并沒有得到足夠的贊賞。

"We will all get more sophisticated as there is more personal interaction. But there will always be misunderstandings and these will be construed as rudeness."

“由于越來越多的人際交流(我們會越來越了解對方的歷史和文化)，我們會(對中英兩國人民之間的交流)變得更有經驗。但是無論如何誤解總是會存在的，而這些誤解將被解釋成為粗魯。”