英语听说译与跨文化交际

　　《英语听说译与跨文化交际》：　　Language competence is the basic skill for cross-cultural communication, and inefficiency of it will inevitably cause miscommunications. However, cross-cultural miscommunication results not only from language incompetence but from other cultural factors as well. The meanings conveyed by the cultural context, like values, interpersonal relationships, stereotypes, and norms, are more complex and more difficult to understand and overcome in that they are not readily noticeable.Culture exerts a significant impact on the way people communicate. Even when we speak or write in a foreign language, we tend to do it in our own way and interpret the received messages in the same way. That tendency may account for the fact that misunderstandings inevitably arise when people from different cultural backgrounds communicate and result in counterproductive behaviors and miscommunications.　　Cultural misunderstandings may occur between those people with the same mother tongue but with different cultures. Where there is a different mother tongue as well as a very different culture, clearly there will be greater potential for misunderstanding. Some misunderstandings will be found in the written language, and others in the spoken one;others may be the result of a different interpretation of a concept rather than an incorrect translation of a word or an expression. The use of colloquialisms and figurative language can be a source ofmisunderstanding.　　Misunderstandings can occur between people of different cultures for a number of reasons, not necessarily because they possibly speak different languages. Certainly the potential for misunderstanding is increased when there is a language difference as well. As far as language is concemed, most words and expressions can be translated, but they may not have the same significance in another language.　　There is often ambiguity in the meanings of words and expressions, and the intended meanings may be clear only from their contexts-and sometimes not even then. The ambiguity may also result from very similar pronunciations of different words. There are a number of well-known examples of such ambiguity. The ambiguity may appear only in the written form or in the oral form, but it can cause a breakdown in comprehension. Clearly cross-cultural misunderstandings can be unintentional and serious.　　……