Directions: You are expected to study this section in class. Don’t preview.

Word Pretest

For each italicized word or expression, choose the best meaning below.

1. I have so many intrusions on my time that it’s difficult to get my work done.
A. activities B. appointment C. disturbances
2. His own personal future was at stake.
A. at risk B. in trouble C. under watch
3. Don’t just stand there in the threshold, come in!
A. causeway B. doorway C. driveway
4. Do you have a valid reason for being late?
A. valuable B. available C. acceptable
5. The plant converts crude oil into gasoline.
A. produces B. changes C. conforms
6. She humiliated him in front of his friends.
A. made…. Feel proud
B. made…feel ashamed
C. made… feel great
7. The time had come to say good-bye. At mother’s cue, we all ascended.
A. advice B. signal C. request
8. During summer vacations some teachers attend seminars at colleges.
A. lectures for teachers
B. classes for discussion
C. summer camps for students
9. You can identify me by a green carnation in my lapel.
A. know B. combine C. confuse
10. Becoming president is his ultimate goal.
A. first B. final C. great

Key:1. C 2. A 3. B 4. C 5. B 6. B 7. B 8. B 9. A 10.B

Text A

A Cross-Cultural Context: Americans, Germans, and English

　　The Americans, the Germans, and the English share significant portions of each other’s cultures, but at many points their cultures clash. Consequently, the misunderstandings that arise are all the more serious because sophisticated Americans and Europeans take price in correctly interpreting each other’s behavior. Cultural differences which are out of awareness are, as a consequence, usually misunderstood as unskillfulness, ill manner, or lack of interest on the part of the other person.

Germans and Intrusions
　　I shall never forget my first experience with German proximic patterns, which occurred when I was an undergraduate. My manners, my status, and my ego were attacked and crushed by a German in an instance where thirty years’ residence in this country and an excellent command of English had not affected German definitions of intrusion. In order to understand the various issues that were at stake, it is necessary to refer back to two basic American patterns that are taken for granted in this country and which Americans therefore tend to tread as universal.
　　First, in the United States, there is a commonly accepted, invisible boundary around any two or three people in conversation which separates them from others. Distance alone serves to isolate any such group and to provide in with a protective wall of privacy. Normally, voices are kept low to avoid intruding on others and if voices are heard, people will act as though they had not heard. In this way, privacy is granted whether it is actually present or not. The second pattern has to do with the exact point at which a person is experienced as actually having crossed a boundary and entered a room. Talking through a screen door while standing outside a house is not considered by most Americans as being inside the house or room. If one is standing on the threshold holding the door open and talking to someone inside, it is still defined informally and experienced as being outside. If one is in an office building and just “pokes his head in the door” of an office he’s still outside the office. Just holding on to the door-jamb when one’s body is inside the room still means a person is not quite inside the other fellow’s territory. None of these American spatial definitions is valid in northern Germany. In every instance where the American would consider himself outside he has already entered the German’s territory and by definition would become involved with him. The following experience brought the conflict between these two patterns into focus.
　　It was a warm spring day. I was standing on the doorstep of a converted carriage house talking to a young woman who lived in an apartment upstairs. The first floor had been made into an artist’s studio. The arrangement, however, was peculiar because the same entrance served both tenants. The occupants of the apartment used a small entryway and walked along one wall of the studio to reach the stairs to the apartment. As I stood talking on the doorstep, I glanced to the left and noticed that some fifty to sixty feet away, inside the studio, the Prussian artist and two of his friends were also in conversation. He was facing so that if he glanced to one side he could just see me. I had noted his presence, but not wanting to interrupt his conversation, I uncousciously applied the American rule and assumed that the two activities ---- my quiet conversation and his conversation ---- were not involved with each other. As I was soon to learn, this was a mistake, because in less time than it takes to tell, the artist had detached himself from his friends, crossed the space between us, pushed my friend aside, and with eyes flashing, started shouting at me. By what right had I entered his studio without greeting him? Who had given me permission?
　　I felt hurt and humiliated, and even after almost thirty years, I can still feel my anger. Later study has given me greater understanding of the German pattern and I have learned that in the German, there is no such thing as being inside the room without being inside the zone of intrusion particularly if one looks at the other party, no matter how far away.

The English
　　It has been said that the English and the Americans are two great people separated by one language. The differences for which language gets blamed may not be due so much to words as to communications on other levels including ways of handling time, space, and materials. If there ever were two cultures in which differences of the proxemic details are marked it is in the educated (public school) English and the middle-class Americans. One of the basic reasons for this wide difference is that in the United States we use space as a way of classifying people and activities, whereas in England it is the social system that determines who you are. In the United States, your address is an important cue to status (this applies not only to one’s home but to the business address as well). The Englishman, however, is born and brought up in a social system. He is still Lord ---- no matter where you find him, even if it is behind the counter in a fishmonger’s stall. In addition to class distinctions, there are differences between the English and ourselves in how space is assigned.
　　The middle-class American growing up in the United States feels that he has a right to have his own room, or at least part of a room. American women who want to be alone can go to the bedroom and close the door. The closed door is the sign meaning “Do not disturb” or “I’m angry.” An American is available if his door is open at home or at his office. He is expected not to shut himself off but to maintain himself in a state of constant readiness to answer the demands of others. Closed doors are for conferences, private conversations, and business, work that requires concentration, study, and resting.
　　The middle- and upper-class Englishman, on the other hand, is brought up in a nursery shared with brothers and sisters. The difference between a room on one’s own and early conditioning to shared space has an important effect on the Englishman’ s attitude toward his own space. He may never have a permanent “room of his own” and seldom expects one or feels he is entitled to one. As a consequence, the English are puzzled by the American need for a secure place in which to work, an office. Americans working in England may become annoyed if they are not provided with what they consider appropriate enclosed work space. In regard to the need for walls as screen for the ego, this places the Americans somewhere between the Germans and the English.
　　The contrasting English and American patterns have some remarkable implications, particularly if we assume that man has a built-in need to shut himself off from others from time to time. An English student in one of my seminars typified what happens when hidden patterns clash. As he stated it, “I’m walking around the apartment and it seems that whenever I want to be alone my roommate starts talking tome. Pretty soon he’s asking ‘What’s the matter?’ and wants to know if I’m angry. By then I am angry and sat something.”
　　It took some time but finally we were able to identify most of the contrasting features if the American and British problems that were in conflict in this case. When the American wants to be alone he goes into a room and shuts the door ---- he depends on architectural features for screening. For an American to refuse to talk to someone else present in the same room, to give them the “silent treatment,” is the ultimate form of rejection and a sure sign of great displeasure. The English, on the other hand, lacking rooms of their own since childhood, never developed the practice of using space as a refuge from others. Therefore, the more the Englishman shuts himself off when he is with an American the more likely the American is to break in to assure himself that all is well. Tension lasts until the two get to know each other. The important point is that the spatial and architectural needs of each are not the same at all.

Total Words: 1390 words
Total Reading Time ______
_______
The text is based on “Proxemics In A Cross-Cultural Context: Germans, English, and French” by Edward T. Hall, in the Hidden Dimension, Doubleday & Company, Inc.

Detailed Study of Text A

◆ Reading Skill ─ Scanning
Read each of the questions first, locate the relevant part of the text,
and then find the correct answer.

1. The German has lived in the United States for _______.
A. only a few years
B. all his life
C. thirty years
2. Which of the following statements is true of the first American proxemic pattern?
A. People in conversation use walls to separate themselves from others.
B. Distance alone can isolate a group of people in conversation from others.
C. People will show uneasiness if they hear people in private conversation.
3. According to the second American proxemic pattern, _______.
A. talking through a screen door while standing outside a house is considered as being inside the house
B. standing on the threshold and talking to someone inside is defined as being inside.
C. If one just pokes his head in the door of an office he is considered as being outside the office.
4. The arrangement of the apartment was peculiar because _______.
A. the same entrance served both tenants
B. the two tenants used different entryways
C. the tenants could hear each other in the apartment
5. When the author talked with the young woman and noted the German was talking with his friends too, he _______.
A. applied the German pattern and did not interrupt him
B. was curious and listened to what they said
C. applied the American pattern and thought he was not interrupting him
6. The German proxemic pattern is that _______.
A. one can be outside the zone of intrusion even if he is inside the room
B. one can be outside the zone of intrusion even if he is outside the room
C. one cannot be inside the room without being inside the zone of intrusion
7. In England they use _______ to classify people.
A. space B. money C. social system
8. In American, the closed door is the sign saying _______.
A. “Do not disturb”
B. “I am available”
C. “Knock before you come in”
9. The middle-and upper-class Englishman _______.
A. needs a secure place to work
B. may never have a room of his own
C. uses space as a refuge from others
10. For an American to give someone the “silent treatment” is _______.
A. the sign that he wants to be alone
B. the sign of rejection and great displeasure
C. the sign that he does not know what to say

Key:1.C 2. B 3. C 4. A 5. C 6. C 7. C 8. A 9. B 10. B

Vocabulary Building

I. Give the other parts of speech of each given word.

Key:

II. Fill in the blanks with words that are often confused.

1. assure, ensure
a. I _______ you that they’ll be perfectly safe with us.
b. Please _______ that all the lights are switched off at night.
c. They were ______ that everything possible was being done.
d. These pills should _______ you a good night’s sleep.
2. arise, raise, rise
a. Use your money when the need _______.
b. He _______ his eyes from his work.
c. The cost of living continues to _______.
d. The horses’ hooves _______ a cloud of dust.
e. A new difficulty has _______.
3. cue, clue
a. The only _______ to the identity of the murderer was a half-smoked cigarette.
b. Actors have to learn their _______ as well as their own lines.
c. We have no _______ as to where she went after she left home.
d. When I nod my head, that’s your _______ to interrupt.

Key: 1. a. assure b. ensure c. assured d. ensure
　　2. a. arise b. raised c. rise d. raised e. arised
　　3. a. clue b. cue c. clue d. cue

Ⅲ. Glossary
etiquette　 　　　extroverts　　　 introverts　　 manner
cultural identity 　conservatism 　　protocol　　 courtesy
gentility　　　　　 formality 　　　decency 　　　cultural norms
cultural values 　　ethnocentric 　　civilized 　　ethnic
beaten track 　　second nature 　　decorum 　　good taste
immersion 　　　segregation 　　　conventions of society

4. Cloze
Fill in each blank with one suitable word.

　　Architectural design influences how privacy is achieved as _______ as how social contact is made in public places. The concept of privacy is not unique to a particular culture but what it means is culturally determined.
　　People in the United States tend to achieve privacy by physically _______ themselves from others. The expression “good fences make good neighbors” _______ a preference for privacy from neighbors’ homes. If a family can afford it, _______ a preference for privacy from neighbors’ homes. If a family can afford it, each child has his or her _______ bedroom. When privacy is needed, family members may _______ their bedroom doors.
　　In some cultures when individuals _______ privacy, it is acceptable for them simply to _______ into themselves. That is, they do not need to remove themselves physically from a group in _______ to achieve privacy.
　　Young American children learn the rule “knock before you enter” which teachers them to _______ others’ privacy. Parents, too, often _______ this rule _______ to entering their children’s rooms. When a bedroom door is closed it may be a _______ to others saying, “I need privacy,” “I’m angry,” or “Do not disturb. I’m busy.” For Americans, the physical division of space and the use of architectural features permit a sense of privacy.
　　The way space is used to _______ the individual to achieve privacy, to build homes or to design cities is culturally influenced. Dr. Hall summarizes the relationship between individuals and their physical surroundings.
　　Man and his extensions constitute on interrelated system. It is a mistake to act as though man _______ one thing and his house or his cities, or his language were something _______.

Key: 1. well 2. removing 3. shows 4. own 5. close
　　6. achieve 7. restrict 8. order 9. respect 10. conform
　　11. strictly 12. signal 13. help 14. think 15. private