[Prompt: Describe a meaningful cross-cultural experience you have had that highlights your awareness, understanding and appreciation of interaction with people from diverse backgrounds in a business setting.]

Shake hands at the beginning and end of every social or business meeting. Do not use your title when introducing yourself. Do use others’ titles and their last names when addressing them (until they invite you to do otherwise). These are a few of the unique cultural customs I learned in eastern Germany.

For seven months, I taught international business English in Chemnitz, Germany. The experience heightened my awareness, understanding, and appreciation of people from diverse backgrounds.
I primarily worked at the local university, but I was contracted on several occasions to other institutions and businesses. One school I worked for, Euro-Schulen Chemnitz, had many teachers from particularly diverse backgrounds. The different life experiences (including diverse nationalities, family customs, community mores, religious beliefs, ethnic background, and socio-economic levels) made for a particularly interesting faculty, and working there challenged my understanding of different people.

Teachers congregated in a break room between classes to discuss their impressions of teaching and living in a foreign culture. We universally agreed that our preconceived notions about Germans were mistaken. Certainly, efficiency, punctuality, and industriousness were apparent in some of the individuals we taught, but such hackneyed cultural archetypes were no more common than the fiercely independent, gun-touting Americans of Hollywood myth.

We also discussed the difficulties we faced in teaching students whose approach to learning was so different from our own. Teachers from different backgrounds shared their thoughts on education and problem-solving styles. Certain methods were unorthodox for some, the norm for others. Nonetheless, we worked as a multi-national team to help our students achieve their objectives.

At times, I struggled to motivate my German students. High unemployment, business closures, and discrimination from western Germans left even the most highly educated of my students feeling hopeless. Other teachers experienced the same problem, and many provided valuable insights since they had grown up in countries with similar economic and social conditions.

I had never experienced discrimination personally. I had never witnessed a wide-scale economic slowdown. To understand eastern Germans better, I discussed the differences between American and German cultures with my students. I described my culture and encouraged them to describe theirs. To give each student an opportunity to contribute to the group, I learned to leverage the unique characteristics of each. As my understanding of the students grew, I was able to develop better lesson plans and teaching methods. In the end, their level of motivation rose, and there was greater trust in the classroom.

點(diǎn)評(píng)：

此文描述了在德國(guó)的教學(xué)經(jīng)歷以及與學(xué)生溝通中對(duì)兩國(guó)文化差異的認(rèn)識(shí)。但從寫作手法以及文章重點(diǎn)同樣存在問(wèn)題：

寫作手法

從文章的開頭到結(jié)尾并沒(méi)有讓讀者看到一個(gè)很深刻的事例。只是淡淡的描述了自己在教育工作中的所見(jiàn)所聞。直到文章的結(jié)尾才開始進(jìn)入描述個(gè)人的對(duì)跨國(guó)文化認(rèn)識(shí)。給人的感覺(jué)完全是流水脹的將自己的經(jīng)歷紀(jì)錄下來(lái)。對(duì)于描述經(jīng)歷然后再談個(gè)人的認(rèn)識(shí)理解，必須是通過(guò)一個(gè)目的明確和生動(dòng)的事例。

文章重點(diǎn)不明確

此文究竟想重點(diǎn)應(yīng)該是突出對(duì)商務(wù)交際與認(rèn)識(shí)呢？還是作者對(duì)東德教育的認(rèn)識(shí)，還是突出兩國(guó)各大文化的差距，還是對(duì)德國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)生活條件的看法。作者是否可以抓住最后一段所提到信任與溝通為重點(diǎn)，表明不同的文化、異種只要通過(guò)人與人之間相互的理解與信任，這樣才能更好的進(jìn)行交流和溝通。

譯文：

提示:描述你經(jīng)歷過(guò)的一次能深化你對(duì)跨文化商務(wù)交際的認(rèn)識(shí)與理解,并能加深你對(duì)這種交流的喜愛(ài)和有意義的跨文化交際經(jīng)歷.

在每次一般性的社會(huì)會(huì)議或商業(yè)會(huì)議的開始與結(jié)束的時(shí)候,出于禮貌,都應(yīng)與會(huì)者握手. 在介紹自己的時(shí)候不應(yīng)加入自己的頭銜.在稱呼別人的時(shí)候,除非對(duì)方希望你這樣做,一般不要加入別人的頭銜和姓,這樣并不禮貌.而在東德我也學(xué)會(huì)了一些當(dāng)?shù)靥赜械奈幕?xí)俗.

我在德國(guó)的開姆尼茨市進(jìn)行了7個(gè)月的國(guó)際商務(wù)英語(yǔ)的教學(xué).這份經(jīng)歷深化了我對(duì)跨文化交際的的認(rèn)識(shí)與理解,我也漸漸喜歡上了這種交流.

最開始我在一間當(dāng)?shù)氐拇髮W(xué)工作,而同時(shí)我也在一些機(jī)構(gòu)和商業(yè)集團(tuán)任職.在我工作的其中一間學(xué)校, 開姆尼茨歐洲學(xué)校里有許多來(lái)自不同文化背景的老師.不同的生活經(jīng)歷(不同的國(guó)家生活,不同的家庭習(xí)俗,不同的社交圈子,不同的宗教信仰,不同的民族背景,不同的社會(huì)經(jīng)濟(jì)水平等)使我們的學(xué)院氛圍變得很有趣,而且在這樣的工作環(huán)境下我也鍛煉了自己與不同背景人相處的能力.

課間老師們都會(huì)聚在休息間談?wù)撛谶@樣一個(gè)異域文化里教學(xué)與生活的感受.我們大都贊成德國(guó)人在大家固有印象中都是被誤解了.當(dāng)然,高效,嚴(yán)謹(jǐn),勤奮這些品質(zhì)在一些我們所教的學(xué)生中展露無(wú)遺,但是這種陳腐的典型文化形態(tài)已經(jīng)在日益風(fēng)行的好萊塢迷幻式的高度獨(dú)立,武器泛濫的美國(guó)文化下相形見(jiàn)絀.

我們也談到了在與我們自己學(xué)習(xí)方式不同的學(xué)生在進(jìn)行教導(dǎo)時(shí)候的困難.來(lái)自不同背景的教師們互相分享了各自對(duì)教學(xué)及問(wèn)題解決方法的見(jiàn)解.有的方式對(duì)于某些老師來(lái)說(shuō)也許是異端非常規(guī)的方法,而對(duì)其他的一些老師而言則是慣用手法.無(wú)論如何,我們作為一個(gè)跨國(guó)教學(xué)團(tuán)隊(duì)盡力地幫助學(xué)生們努力達(dá)成自己的目標(biāo).

有時(shí)我也會(huì)盡力去鼓勵(lì)我的德國(guó)學(xué)生。高失業(yè)率，經(jīng)濟(jì)的蕭條以及在工作上來(lái)自西德人的偏見(jiàn)等甚至讓我的大部分擁有高學(xué)歷的學(xué)生感到未來(lái)很渺茫.許多同樣面臨這種問(wèn)題的老師，因?yàn)樗麄兌荚c現(xiàn)在類似德國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)環(huán)境般的國(guó)家生活過(guò),都能提供很多寶貴實(shí)用的建議.

我個(gè)人從未有過(guò)被歧視的經(jīng)歷.我也從未見(jiàn)證過(guò)大范圍的經(jīng)濟(jì)衰退.為了更好地理解東德,我與學(xué)生們討論過(guò)美國(guó)文化與德國(guó)文化的差別.我向大家用自己的語(yǔ)言形容了美國(guó)文化,然后鼓勵(lì)他們也描述一下自己的文化.為了讓每位同學(xué)都有機(jī)會(huì)對(duì)自己所在的組做出貢獻(xiàn),我學(xué)著去發(fā)掘每位同學(xué)獨(dú)特的性格特質(zhì).隨著我對(duì)同學(xué)們的了解加深,我也能制定出更好更適合大家的計(jì)劃和教學(xué)方法.后來(lái),他們的士氣與學(xué)習(xí)勁頭得到了很大提升,而大家也對(duì)彼此有了更大的相互信任。