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We
all wear cultural lenses, and despite any misconception on our part, the
truth is that they’re the source of most cultural misunderstandings. The
majority of us walk through life unaware of how these perceptions shape
our reality and how they make us project our view of the world onto
others. What’s worse, we ignore the fact that people of other cultures
also wear lenses – different from ours, of course – that provide them
with a perspective that is just as valid.
我們全都戴著「文化鏡片」，儘管每個人都存有偏見，事實上，這也是文化誤解的主要原因。在日常生活中，大多數的人自然而然地形成自己的文化觀點，並且透過這樣的觀點，看世界上其他的民族。糟糕的是，我們忽略了其他文化的人，也戴著和我們不同的鏡片，當然，他們根據這樣的鏡片去觀察事物。
For me, this reality came to light during a trip to the Peruvian Andes.
At the end of a sightseeing day with 20 other Western tourists, our tour
bus stopped at a pottery shop. The place looked like a humble family
home, and the owner stood by the door, inviting us in with a warm smile.
To our surprise, he offered a demonstration of pottery-making – shaping
clay on a potter’s wheel. We were all captivated, trying to guess what
would be the result. “This is a magic teapot,” he said in Spanish. A
magic teapot!
對我來說，一趟祕魯的安蒂斯山之旅，讓我發現這個現象。我們一群20個西方遊客在遊覽結束後，巴士停在一個陶器店。這家店看起來是一個純樸人家的屋子，店主人站在門口，用溫暖的微笑迎接我們。出乎意料之外，他為我們示範如何做陶器，用一個轉輪將粘土拉出陶胚。我們深深著迷，也猜測他會做出什麼成品。「這是一個魔壺。」他用西班牙語解釋。好一個魔壺！
He reached for a finished piece to show us how it worked. “See, there is
no opening on the top,” he said, “but there is one on the bottom.”
他拿一個現成的魔壺給我們看。「瞧，這上面並沒有開口，」他說：「下面卻有一個。」
We were intrigued. He turned the teapot around, poured water through the
bottom and turned it back around. There was no spill. Then he poured
some of the water into a cup, just like any regular teapot; still no
spill. Pure magic! Then the master graciously thanked us for our
attention and walked us to his shop.
我們的好奇心被勾起了。他把那個壺轉了一圈，將水從底部倒進去，再將壺轉回來。卻沒有水濺出來。然後像一般茶壺一樣，他從壺口倒出一些水，依然沒有水濺出來。好一個魔術！店主人謝謝我們的參觀後，帶領我們走進店裡。
We stormed in like 20 kids arriving at Disney World with a platinum card
– frantically browsing the shelves for a teapot. But there were none in
sight. I asked the owner where the magic teapots were. Amiably, he
pointed at a far corner on the upper shelf where two teapots sat.
我們像是20個帶著白金卡，衝進迪士尼樂園的小孩，瘋狂地搜尋架子上的茶壺。但是卻看不到任何一把茶壺。我詢問店主人那些魔壺擺哪裡，他親切地指向遠處的角落，在上層的架子上放了 2 把。
“Two! Where are the other ones?” I demanded.
「就 2 把！其他的呢？」我急於想擁有。
Smiling, he said, “Those are the two we have.”
他微笑地回答：「我們就只有這 2 把。」
Tempest Over a Teapot
茶壺外的風暴
Back on the bus
everyone was angry. “What was this nonsense all about?” “What was the
use of his promotional demo?” “No wonder they are poor.” In typical
fashion, we thought these people were inefficient and certainly not very
bright.
回到巴士上，每個人都很生氣。「豈有此理。」「他幹麼費心地示範給我們看？」「難怪他們這麼窮。」總而言之，我們認為這些人不僅沒效率，顯然地，也不聰明。
In reality, our judgment was entirely shaped by our Western tourist and
urban cultural lenses. We projected our own cultural values and
assumptions onto the motivations of our host. Actually, his behavior was
in complete harmony with his own cultural values. His humble home led us
to assume that he was in need of money, which led us to further assume
that he would take full advantage of this opportunity to make money.
Along that line, his free demonstration appeared to our conditioned
minds as a marketing strategy. We made many wrong assumptions based on
our cultural lenses when in fact:
實際上，我們是透過城市人的文化鏡片，用西方遊客的觀點在做判斷。我們投射自己的文化價值，並假設這個主人的動機。事實是，他的行為只是表現出謙虛的文化價值。他樸實的屋子讓我們以為他需要金錢，也因為這個先入為主的想法，認為他不會輕易地讓這群煮熟的鴨子飛走。這樣的情境中，他的免費示範挑起了我們的購買慾，似乎是一種行銷策略。透過自己的文化鏡片，我們產生了許多錯誤的想法，即便事實是：
★He
may be poor in our eyes but not see himself as poor.
在我們看來，他或許是貧窮的；可是他並不這樣認為。
★In
his culture, people live mostly in the present moment, working
essentially to cover their immediate needs. His culture, unlike ours, is
not future-oriented.
「活在當下」是他的文化，工作主要是滿足眼前的需要。不同於我們的文化，他們並不是未來導向的。
★Money,
in his culture, is mostly valued as a means of survival but is not a
motivation by itself. Wealth is measured in terms of enjoyment. As
befitting the expression “Nadie te quita lo bailado” (Nobody can
take away what you’ve danced), enjoyment is considered a true
investment.
在他的文化，金錢，只是生活的必需品，而不是追求的目標。活得快樂才是衡量財富的標準。俗話說的好：「沒有人可以奪走你已經跳過的舞。」享樂，不也是一種務實的投資。
★Fulfillment
is experienced primarily by bonding with people. That was the real
purpose of his free performance. It was not a promotional demo.
成就感主要來自和他人互動的經驗。這也是他表演的主要目的。這個表演並不是一種推銷示範。
★Bonding
with strangers involves sharing one’s cultural heritage and family
traditions. The satisfaction and pride experienced in the process is its
own reward.
和陌生人的互動，牽涉到文化資產和家庭傳統的分享。過程中帶來的滿足和自豪是他得到的回饋。
These are only a few of the deep cultural differences I discovered from
this episode. In order to step into our host’s perception of the world,
I needed to take off my own cultural lenses. But that was the second
step toward cross-cultural understanding. The first step was to develop
identity awareness – the knowledge of the limited dimensions of our own
culture. When we realize that a perception we think is universal is, in
fact, only one point of view, then we can put it aside. At that point,
we can try on other people’s lenses, take a good look and deal with
differences in an effective way.
這些僅僅是我從這個故事中，發掘出較為深刻的文化差異。為了進一步了解這個店主人看待世界的方式，我必須先拿掉自己的文化鏡片。在進行跨文化了解之前，首先，要認識自己，也就是了解自己文化的侷限性。當我們認為自己的想法是放諸四海皆準，而實際上只是以管窺天時，我們就能放下成見。此時，我們可以試試他人的文化鏡片，更直接地觀察、了解彼此的差異。
Is the Golden
Rule Really Gold?
「準則」，真的準嗎？
Studies on
humankind show that we all have the same basic needs: love, freedom,
belonging and self-esteem, along with the physical needs for survival.
What distinguishes us is the way we meet these needs. One strategy that
does not work across cultures is the Golden Rule, at least not in its
modern meaning: “Treat others as you would like to be treated.” In his
book Basic Concepts of Intercultural Communication, Milton
Bennett describes a humanitarian fund-raising advertisement in the New
Yorker magazine. The ad showed a young Asian girl, looking poor and sad;
under the picture, the caption read: “Tina has never had a Teddy Bear.”
研究人類的結果顯示，我們為了生存，都有相同的基本需求：「愛」、「自由」、「歸屬感」和「自尊」。也是這些需求，讓我們更傑出。「黃金法則」中的策略之一，就不見得適用於跨文化。Milton
Bennett
在他的《多元文化溝通的基本法則》一書中提到：「己所欲，施於人。」，評論《紐約客雜誌》中的一則人道基金募款的廣告
– 一個亞洲小女孩的圖片，看起來貧窮又悲傷，底下一段文字：「蒂娜不曾擁有過泰迪熊。」
“The fund appealers ask the readers to imagine what it would be like not
to have had a teddy bear [in their childhood],” writes Bennett. “I don’t
really think there is anything wrong with this kind of sympathetic
altruism. It is certainly well motivated, and it probably doesn’t do
much harm. However, sympathetic altruism may not be addressing the real
needs of those whom we want to help. We should at least ask, ‘But does
Tina want a teddy bear?’” Bennett touches on a common cause of
cultural clashes: People act with the best intentions – what can be
wrong with the Golden Rule? – but it may backfire.
「這個基金會廣告希望讀者去想像，如果在童年時期，少了泰迪熊的陪伴，是如何的孤單啊。」Bennett寫道：「對於這類同理心的利他主義，我並不認為有什麼不對。這個訴求相當動人，也沒有惡意。但是，具有同理心的利他主義所表達的需求，不見得就是那些，我們要幫助的對象，他們實際的需求。我們至少要問：『難道，蒂娜真的想要一隻泰迪熊嗎？』」Bennett指出一種，經常造成文化衝突的原因：人們習慣根據自認為是最好的方式去行動
– 相信「黃金法則」是放諸四海皆準的 –
要小心，或許會有反作用力的。
To Vote or Not to Vote?
投票表決？
Calling for a vote is seen in many societies as the natural and fair way
to settle a discrepancy. In the United States, if you are a seminar
leader trying to decide whether the coffee break should be at 9:30 a.m.
or 10:30 a.m., and opinions are divided within the group, a quick vote
will align everyone’s voice like a magic tuning fork. And it works in
just about every situation. This is not necessarily the case in other
parts of the world.
在許多地方，投票表決似乎是解決爭議的最佳之道。在美國，身為一個研討會主席，要在各持己見的團體中，決定中場休息時間是9點半，還是10點半，來場即時的投票表決，馬上一鎚定案。投票表決在任何場合總是屢試不爽。不過，有些地方卻不時興這一套。
In their book Riding the Waves of Culture, authors Fons
Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner describe an incident during an
international business meeting in Milan, where an American manager tried
to implement new meeting procedures. He was annoyed by Singaporean and
African representatives always turning up in groups, and he wanted them
to send a single – and the same – representative. This created uproar
within the group, and the American manager suggested it be put to a
vote, confident that most of the Western managers would back him. That
sparked even more controversy.
在 Fons
Trompenaars 和
Charles Hampden-Turner合著的一本書《乘著文化的浪頭而行》中，有這麼一篇文章，描寫一件發生在米蘭的跨國業務會議。一位美國經理試著執行新的會議規則，不過，卻被新加坡和非洲的代表，不斷提出意見所干擾。他要求比照其他地區，各推派一位代表。這個舉動引起很大風波，美國經理建議投票表決，心想多數的西方國家經理應該會支持他。不過，這又引發更多爭議。
“The French representative said he was ‘shocked that on such a sensitive
and important issue you seek to impose this decision upon a minority,’”
the authors wrote. “He said there really should be a consensus on this,
even if it took another hour. The German and the Scandinavian agreed.
The Dutch manager was not too happy and suggested that they should vote
on whether to vote. The American manager was too frustrated to answer.”
「法國代表認為，他很『震驚，對於這樣重要且敏感的議題，你竟然企圖強行讓弱勢者就範』，」文章中說道：「他認為即使需要另一個鐘頭，也要取得共識。這個想法獲得德國和北歐代表的認同。荷蘭代表也表示不悅，認為應該先投票表決『是否需要投票表決？』那個美國經理為之氣結。」
Yes, even the vote, which is considered by many a symbol of equality,
may come across as unfair and disrespectful in cultures that also value
equality. According to the authors, voting is the preferred mode for
individualistic societies, which value individual opinions.
Collectivistic societies “will intuitively refrain from voting
because this will not show respect to the individuals who are against
the majority decision. Members of such societies prefer to deliberate
until consensus is reached. The final result takes longer to achieve but
will be more stable.
是的，即使是投票，這個被多數人認為是公平的象徵，對於許多強調價值平等的文化而言，或許正是一種不公平，也不尊重的表現。根據作者的說法，「個人主義」社會傾向投票表決的模式；「集體主義」社會「直覺地否定投票表決，因為對於少數非主流者來說，投票就是擺明不尊重他們的意見。」這類社會傾向藉由商議達到共識，雖然費時耗力，不過結果會更穩健。
Switching cultural lenses can make all the difference. In this
particular episode, some managers might have acted out of intercultural
understanding and solidarity toward the Singaporean and African
representatives.
換換文化鏡片，世界會全然不同。在這個個案中，許多經理認同跨文化的了解，並且對於新加坡和非洲代表更支持。
Schedule vs. Relationships?
理性遇上感性
The American
manager’s position brings up another divisive cultural pattern: the
perception of time. The American culture is unique in its relationship
with time, which is reflected by expressions that, for the most part,
have no translation in other languages: “time-consuming,”
“multitasking,” “getting to the point” or “deadline.” For Americans,
“time is money.” I knew that Ben Franklin quote before I even learned
English, and people use it around the world to sum up their vision of
the American lifestyle.
這位美國經理的立場，也突顯另一個文化分歧：對於時間的觀念。美國文化強調時間的重要性，甚至一些相關的詞彙，在其他語言中還翻譯不出來：「曠日費時的」、「多工處理」、「講重點」或「限期」等等。美國人對於「時間就是金錢」的觀念根深蒂固。學習英語之前，我已經知道那是富蘭克林說過的話；全世界普遍認為，這是美國人的生活態度。
In contrast, the Indians say, “Time is free”; the Africans, “The clock
did not invent man”; the Japanese, “Time spent laughing is time spent
with the Gods”; the Italians, “He who goes slowly, goes safely and goes
far”; and the Spaniards, “Those who rush arrive first at the grave.”
相反地，印度人說：「時間不花一毛錢。」；非洲人說：「時鐘不會創造人。」；日本人說：「歡樂時光是上天賜予的。」；義大利人認為：「平安慢行才長遠。」；西班牙人諷刺：「衝太快的人，會先到墳墓。」
These differing perceptions of time are a source of clash in my own
home. Not long ago my companion, William – a Canadian with more than 30
years of U.S. residency – called an old friend, a Venezuelan, for
business-related reasons. We had not talked to this friend for months
and William went “right to the point,” jumping into the business matter
after a speedy “hello,” with no preliminary rapport-building talk. I was
horrified. And William was startled by my reaction: What did he do
wrong? Nothing – as seen through his cultural lenses.
在我家，這類對於時間觀念的差異，往往導致衝突。不久前，我的夥伴，威廉 – 住在美國超過30年的加拿大人
–
因為生意需要，打電話給一個委內瑞拉籍的老朋友。我們已經幾個月沒有聯繫，威廉簡短一聲「哈囉」之後，一個噓寒問暖的問候也沒有，就直接「切入重點」談生意。我相當不以為然；威廉也被我的反應嚇了一跳：我做錯什麼了呢？透過他的文化鏡片，是沒錯。
Explaining his rationale, he said he called our friend after business
hours to make sure he wouldn’t disturb him at work, and was specific and
succinct so as not to waste the man’s time. These are characteristics of
what anthropologist Edward T. Hall called a monochronic culture,
which places priority on the schedule. According to this philosophy,
individuals do everything possible to respect people’s schedules and
separate task-oriented time
from socioemotional
time. Besides, being North American in North America, William
instinctively felt he was in his own right to act on automatic pilot. On
my end, knowing that my friend was from a polychronic culture
that places the emphasis on the relationship over the clock, and tends
to associate the level of trust – even in business – with the level of
closeness, I felt that William was slapping him in the face and
dishonoring our 30 years of friendship with the man. Needless to say, he
hampered his chances of interesting our friend in the business.
他合理化他的行為，在下班時間打電話給朋友，是不想影響對方的工作；簡單扼要地講完電話，是不想浪費對方的時間。這是人類學家Edward
T. Hall所稱「單一時間型文化」，總是依照行事曆的順序在做事。根據這種哲學，做任何事都得依照人們的行事曆，並將「社交時間」從「工作時間」中分離。身為一個住在美國北方的北美人，威廉本能地做著他認為對的事。我卻知道，這個朋友來自「多元時間型文化」的地方，他會想要更緊密的信賴感，於公於私都一樣，認為可以花點時間來維繫的彼此關係。我感覺威廉對這位30年的老友不禮貌，彷彿賞了他一巴掌。不消說，他在這場生意中，錯過了友善朋友的機會。
Achieving effective intercultural communication is not about learning
all the differences – mission impossible – but about developing
mindfulness. It is about keeping in mind that we all wear legitimate
interpretive lenses, and being attentive to the perspectives of our
cultural counterparts in contrast to our own perspectives. These are the
first steps in preventing potential clashes.
想要透過學習不同文化的差異，藉以達到跨文化的有效溝通，簡直是緣木求魚；不如讓心思更敏銳些。就是要如履薄冰的警覺，每個人都帶著自以為是的鏡片去解讀事情，並企圖用來理解不同於自己文化觀點的文化。這是預防潛在衝突的開始。
Enjoy the Surprises
享受驚喜吧
Sitting on my dining cabinet is a magic teapot. There is more magic in
the way I acquired it than in the item itself. Back in our Peruvian
pottery shop, following the disappointment over the scarcity of magic
teapots, I decided to engage in small talk with our host while the rest
of the group kept scrutinizing the shelves for consolation prizes. After
a few minutes of chitchat about his region, his village and how
pottery-making had run in his family for generations, he said, “Wait, I
want to give you something.” He went into his workshop, came back with
the teapot he had used for his demonstration and handed it to me,
adding, “It is my pleasure to give it to you.”
擺在我櫥櫃內的是一把魔壺。我獲得這把壺的神奇過程，更勝於魔壺本身。讓我們回到秘魯那家陶器店，當其他旅客忙著搜尋其他替代品，聊以安慰買不到魔壺的失望，我決定和店主人說說話。經過幾分鐘閒聊，關於他住的地方、他的村莊、家傳數代的陶藝，他說：「等一等，我有東西要給妳。」他走進工作房，拿出那一把剛剛用來示範的魔壺給我，「拿去吧，這是我的榮幸。」
When you hesitate about which cultural lens to choose, you can always
try RB. No, it doesn’t stand for Ray-Ban; it stands for Relationship
Building.
如果你不知道使用哪一付文化鏡片，不妨試試RB。不是「雷朋太陽眼鏡」，而是「建立關係」。
Florence Ferreira, ACB, CL, is a member of Boca Raton
Toastmasters in Boca Raton, Florida. She is a trilingual
(English/Spanish/French) intercultural-communication consultant, the
founder of
www.SpeakGlobal.net and an inspirational speaker
and writer. Reach her at
f.ferreira@speakglobal.net.
Florence Ferreira, ACB, CL,
博卡拉頓分會會員，位於美國佛羅里達州博卡拉頓市。她是3種語言(英語/西語/法語)的跨文化溝通諮商師，
www.SpeakGlobal.net的創始人，也是激勵演說家和作家。可以透過f.ferreira@speakglobal.net和她聯繫。
譯者：邱少為
Alex, Ping Tung
Toastmasters Club |
