中西方文化的冲突（中英文）

三年前我带我的初二学生郭帅同学以这篇短文曾参加了04年全国青少年“斯诺杯”英语口语大赛阳泉地区选拔赛获初中组第一名，今天翻出这篇文章感觉又别有新味特登出来与大家分享：

1. 以下是可用来与其他人分离的一个有趣的故事。

2. 这一故事是说明东西方语言和文化差异的绝妙的例子。

3. 一个年轻的美国妇女去香港工作。

4. 初到香港时，她对中国文化或语言一窍不通。

5. 有一天，在去学校的路上，她去银行取钱。

6. 令她惊讶的是，那位银行职员问她是否吃过午饭。

7. 她以过样的问题感到目瞪口呆，因为在美国文化，这表示间接地邀请吃午饭。

8. 在未结婚的年轻人之间，这还暗示着年轻男士对女孩有意思。

9. 由于这位银行职员对这个美国女孩完全是陌生的，被他这一问，她不禁愕然，连忙说她已经吃过了。

10. 随后，她去了学校，而当一个老师问起她同样的问题，她更加感到茫然。

11. 现在她意识到这不可能是一个邀请，但她搞不懂他们为什么要问这个问题。

12. 接下来几天，她不断地被问到同样的问题，为，此她花了好几个钟头想搞清楚为何那么多人不断地问她这个问题。

13. 最后她得出这样一个结论：人们一定是对她的健康状况感到担忧。

14. 当时她有点瘦，所以她断定他们一定是担心她没有吃好。

15. 直到很久以后，她才发现这个问题并无多少意义，只不过是一个问候语，如同“How are you doing ?（你好吗？）”一样。

16. 文化差异有时候会让人感到迷惑，但通常都很有趣。

图从左至右为：博主 郭帅和他的妈妈和爸爸

The Culture Conflict of East and West

1. The following is an interesting story to share with other people.

2. It is a perfect example of language and culture differences between East and West.

3. A young American woman went to Hong Kong to work.

4. When she arrived she knew nothing about the Chinese culture or language .

5. On her way to school one day, she went to the bank to get some money.

6. To her surprise, the bank clerk asked her if she had had her lunch.

7. She was extremrly surprised at such a question because in Amirican culture it would be regarded as an indirect invitation to lunch.

8. Between unmarried oung people it can also indicate the young man’s interest in dating the girl.

9. Since this band clerk was taken aback ,and quickly commented that she had eaten already.

10. After this she proceeded to school and was even more surprised when one of the teachers asked her the same question.

11. By now she realized that it could not be an invitation, but was puzzled as to why they asked it.

12. In the following days she was asked the same question again and again, and she spent many hours trying to work out why so many people kept asking her this.

13. Eventually she came to a conclusion: people must be concerned about her health.

14.  She was somewhat underweight at the time, and so she concluded they must be worrying that she was not eating properly!

15. Only much later did she discover that the question had no real significance at all, it was merely a greeting like “How are you doing ? ”

16. Culture differences are sometimes puzzling, but most of the time they are fun !