College English: Linking American and British Culture

Author: Jiang Zhiwei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: This book is written in the form of essays, using humorous and witty language to provide a detailed explanation of various British and American cultural phenomena found in college English textbooks. It is rich in romantic charm and stands as a good textbook for British and American culture. Given that college English courses in China are typically only offered for two years, we aimed to shorten the time it takes for students to grasp Western cultural concepts, embodying the idea of "speed." In the writing process, the easier parts are presented in full English, the moderately challenging parts are presented in a Chinese-English format, and the more difficult and important parts are presented in Chinese. We believe this writing model can provide students with a learning platform to quickly master British and American culture.
The authors of this book are professors and lecturers who have long been engaged in college English teaching. We believe this book can open up a brand-new perspective for readers. With the development of the global trend in today's world and the requirements of China's social development after joining the WTO, college English teaching in China is bound to reach a new level, and the symbol of this new level is to make "communication" the ultimate goal of our English teaching. As everyone knows, the foundation of communication is language, and the guarantee of effective communication is culture. To a large extent, merely mastering some linguistic phenomena and grammatical content can only help students pass exams but not communicate confidently, because modern language is constantly given different meanings by a changing society beyond its original vocabulary. Moreover, since our cultural identity differs greatly from the West, some words convey information that cannot be understood or accepted according to the cultural concepts of Chinese people. For example, the word "cuckoo" () is seen by Westerners as similar to the concept of "owl" () in Chinese culture—the symbol of death. However, in the eyes of Chinese people, the call of the cuckoo during the spring planting and autumn harvest seasons is a symbol of beauty. Another example is that Chinese people often say "to beat a dog that is already drowning" (), which makes Westerners feel sympathetic, as they regard dogs as the most loyal friends of humans. Such cases are countless.
If we follow the traditional pure-language teaching model and ask a foreign friend, "Where are you going?" upon meeting them, the foreign friend might be puzzled or even angry: "What business is it of yours where I'm going?" Because Westerners highly value their rights, especially privacy. If our students are unaware of these cultural differences, they may make similar communication mistakes when interacting with foreigners in the future, thus hindering normal exchanges.
Given this, Western cultural content, especially those aspects that differ from Chinese culture, should be integrated into the regular college English teaching process. For this purpose, after carefully studying various college English textbooks and the "College English Teaching Syllabus," we have fully considered the comparison between Chinese and Western cultures as well as the acceptance ability and characteristics of Chinese college students, and organized the writing of this book.