一个美国人的古代中国情结

大约 10年来 ,我一直在做中国古代思想史的研究。从我开始涉足这个领域 ,我的那些中国朋友就在好奇一件事 :我 ,一个美国人 ,为什么要研究中国 ,而且是古代中国。毕竟 ,从那些他们熟悉的美国电影里 ,十几岁的美国孩子总是把时间花在赛车和玩橄榄球上——我几乎想不到哪一部好莱坞影片里 ,英雄在学习古代汉语。因此他们的这种好奇 ,部分地是这些美国电影造成的。但另外也是因为美国人学习和研究古代中国 ,似乎必须有一个和中国人不同的理由。下面 ,我将会从我的个人背景和历史原因这两个方面来谈我学习和研究中国文化的原因。学习和研究古代…     

美国:一个敢于自我唱衰的国家

在2012年到来前夕,美联社曾公布了一项新的全美民调发现,68%的受访者表示,2011年是美国最糟糕的一年。62%的人相信新的一年里美国将会变得更好,高达78%的人表示他们的家庭生活会有改善。持乐观态度的美国人认为再糟也不会比2011年糟。"还有比2011年更糟的吗?"一位接受调查者反问道。过去这几年,美国媒体上每天见     

奥巴马夫妇的育儿经

正在美国,即使是美国总统和第一夫人,他们在教育子女上面对的困扰以及处理方式与大多数普通美国家庭基本上也是共通的。每个家庭的父母都会有基本的育儿原则,尽管看似平凡无奇但却可以给人以启发。奥巴马在接受专访时,将今日的成就归功于生命中五个最重要的女人——外祖母、母亲、妻子和两个女儿。奥巴马表示:"我在家庭中不停地变化着角色,一会儿是外孙和儿子,一会儿又是丈夫     

美国的家庭主男

梅森·史密斯博士是我曾工作过的美国肯塔基大学英语系的教授。通过一次偶然的机会,我认识了他。在后来的交往中,我与梅森一家结下了深厚的友谊。他和他的太太玛瑞还请我们全家住在他们的房子里直到我们离开美国。他们说“我们的孩子没有机会去国外,但我们希望他们从小就了解外国的文化包括语言。请外国人来家里同住是学习外国文化的好办法。”梅森既健谈又幽默,既热情又勤快。他不仅每天负责他的三个孩子的起居、上学、放学,全家的早餐和晚餐     

美国华裔学生在汉语课堂中的优势和问题

美国华裔学生作为双重文化携带者,兼具美国文化和中华文化,这给他们学习汉语带来一定优势。但同时也往往造成师生双方在初、中年级阶段对相应问题的忽视,这些问题遗留到高年级就可能形成"化石化"现象,难以纠正。一定的文化背景对语言学习既有积极因素也有消极因素,教师要及时利用优势,化解问题。     

我在耶鲁遇到的牛人

耶鲁教会我很重要的一课就是"不要以貌取人"。美国文化跟英国文化,甚至欧洲文化都有很大的不同。在英国度过的两年让我见识了大多数英国人传统的保守和严谨,而相比较之下,美国人更为随意,崇尚个性和自由。尽管一些美国人的外表可能极其平常甚至邋遢,但是这并不意味着他们是泛泛之辈。     

这里有一群可爱的中国孩子——走近美国麻州北京中文学校

在美国麻州有一所北京中文学校，已经建校６周年了，学生从开始的两个班２２人发展到了目前的９个班１２０余人；教师由１人到今天的９人。老师大多是来自国内的有多年教学经验有爱心的老教师；也有一些是热爱孩子热爱教育的家长。他们共同的特点就是有一颗爱心，要把海外的孩子带进中文世界里去翱翔，给他们营造一处具有中国文化的环境，让他们在英语世界里不忘学好中国文化。 北京中文学校确确实实从丑小鸭逐步成长起来了。就拿一直坚持学中文五六年的第一班的情况来说吧。这个班的十几名学生从第一册的拼音开始学起，学到了第十册（国内…     

小事件大视界

我们中的大多数人会很乐意乘私人小船享受一两周的假期,但如果要在海上度过七年的宝贵时光,毫无疑问大部分人是从来不会想也不敢做的。然而,这正是一个美国家庭的经历。汤姆·克拉夫顿和凯西·克拉夫顿带着三个孩子,驾驶着他们43英尺长的帆船纽瓦维达号环游了世界。在过去的七年里,一家五口航行了30000英里,游历过20多个不同的国家,于近期返回了家乡。     

在美国怎样问候和打开话闸子

对美国人而言,什么才是适当的问候语?可能你已经懂得怎么说"How are you?",甚至也知道一般常用的回答是"Fine,thanks,and you?"。美国人的确常用这些老套的问候方式,而他们所期待的也只是一般的习惯性回答。但是,多数美国人偶尔会喜欢有些变化。在非正式的场合里,你可能听到美     

美国家庭

“请将火鸡与配料递给我。”这个简单的请求会使你想起什么呢?如果你是美国人,你会想到感恩节。对美国人而言,火鸡大餐象征感恩节。感恩节提醒了美国人什么呢?——他们的家人。感恩节是家人团聚的时刻。在这个节日,家人聚在一起尽情地享受着美味的火鸡和火鸡腹中的填料;家人一起去看游行、去看足球比赛的电视转播以及去享受同聚的时光。家庭对于美国人到底意味着什么呢?传统的美国家庭被称为“核心家庭”。核心家庭是指丈夫、妻子和他们的儿女。今日美国的一般家庭有两个或三个小孩(或者再加上几个宠物)。在一些文化里,大家庭住在一起,甚至…     

Behavioral, Affective, and Social Correlates of Involvement in Cross-Sex Friendship in Elementary School

The purpose of this study was to compare children with and without cross-sex friends on measures of social and cognitive competence, endorsement of sex-role stereotypes, and family composition. Subjects were 723 third and fourth graders (377 girls, 346 boys) from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds; 35% were African American. Measures included sociometric assessments of peer acceptance, friendship, and behavioral reputation, as well as self-reports of perceived self-competence and endorsement of sex-role stereotypes. In addition, teachers completed ratings of children's social and cognitive competence. In all, 92 children, about 14% of the sample, had one or more reciprocal opposite-sex friends; for 21 of these children, their cross-sex friendships were their primary or only friendships. African American children were more likely than European American children to have opposite-sex friends. Involvement in cross-sex friendships was unrelated to the gender make-up of the classroom, but was related to family structure. Comparisons of the children who had primarily or only cross-sex friends to matched groups of children who had only same-sex friends and to children who had cross-sex friends secondarily to same-sex ones revealed a number of differences between the groups in social competence and relationships with peers. Overall, children with primarily opposite-sex friends had poorer social skills than other children with friends, although they were less stereotyped about sex roles than other children, and were better adjusted than children with no friends on most measures. In contrast, children involved in opposite-sex friendship secondarily to same-sex friendship were as well adjusted socially as children with only same-sex friendships. These results suggest that children with cross-sex friends differ among themselves, depending on the primacy of the cross-sex relationship.     

University academics’ experiences of learning through mentoring

The use of mentoring for staff development is well established within schools and the business sector, yet it has received limited consideration in the higher education literature as an approach to supporting learning for academics. In this study located at one metropolitan university in Australia, an online questionnaire and one-on-one semi-structured interviews were used to explore academics’ experiences of mentoring, with a view to understanding the broader benefits mentoring might offer to the academic community. Findings from the study highlight that in an era where change is pervasive tertiary education providers should consider implementing mentoring as a valuable approach for supporting the work of academics. The academics in this research explained that through mentoring, they learnt how to build professional relationships and friendships; it helped them develop a sense of personal satisfaction; acted as a catalyst for career and leadership enhancement; expanded understandings of teaching and research and as a consequence of engaging in self-reflection it opened up new ways of thinking about their work.     

Cross‐Ethnic Friendships and Intergroup Attitudes Among Asian American Adolescents

This study examined cross‐ethnic friendship choices and intergroup attitudes in a sample of 762 sixth‐grade Asian American students (M_age = 11.5 years) attending 1 of 19 middle schools that varied in ethnic composition. Multiple measures of friendship (quantity and quality) and intergroup attitudes (affective, cognitive, behavioral) toward White, Latino, and Black grademates were assessed. The results showed that Asian American students overnominated White students and undernominated Latino and Black students as their friends when school availability of each ethnic group was accounted for. Cross‐ethnic friendships were related to better intergroup attitudes, especially the behavioral dimension of attitudes. Cross‐ethnic friendships were least likely to change attitudes toward Blacks. Implications for future research, educational practice, and attitude intervention programs were discussed.     

Making Sense of the Role of Culture in School Improvement

Addressing the need to find new ways for examining workplace cultures quickly and effectively in order to facilitate school improvement efforts, this article proposes a technique for carrying out such enquiries. By exploring the nature of school cultures and how they impact upon day-to-day encounters in classrooms, it illustrates how critical incidents can be analysed so as to help those in schools to understand themselves better in terms of those factors that shape their practice. It is argued that the proposed method has the potential to go beyond systems of external monitoring in such a way as to enable schools to develop procedures for self-review.     

Cultural and School-Grade Differences in Korean and White American Children's Narrative Skills

A great deal of ethnographic research describes different communicative styles in Asian and Western countries. Asian cultures emphasise the listener's role in assuring successful communication, whereas Western cultures place the responsibility primarily on the speaker. This pattern suggests that Asian children may develop higher-level receptive skills and Western children may develop higher-level expressive skills. However, the language of children in formal education may develop in certain ways regardless of cultural influences. The present study quantifies the cultural and school-grade differences in language abilities reflected in middle-class Korean and white American children's story-telling and story-listening activities. Thirty-two Korean first- and fourth-grade children and their American counterparts were individually asked to perform two tasks: one producing a story from a series of pictures, and one involving listening to and then retelling a story. The individual interview was transcribed in their native languages and analysed in terms of ambiguity of reference, the number of causal connectors, the amount of information, and the number of central and peripheral idea units that were included in the story retelling. The data provided some empirical evidence for the effects of culture and school education in children's language acquisition.     

Cultural and School-Grade Differences in Korean and White American Children's Narrative Skills

A great deal of ethnographic research describes different communicative styles in Asian and Western countries. Asian cultures emphasise the listener's role in assuring successful communication, whereas Western cultures place the responsibility primarily on the speaker. This pattern suggests that Asian children may develop higher-level receptive skills and Western children may develop higher-level expressive skills. However, the language of children in formal education may develop in certain ways regardless of cultural influences. The present study quantifies the cultural and school-grade differences in language abilities reflected in middle-class Korean and white American children's story-telling and story-listening activities. Thirty-two Korean first- and fourth-grade children and their American counterparts were individually asked to perform two tasks: one producing a story from a series of pictures, and one involving listening to and then retelling a story. The individual interview was transcribed in their native languages and analysed in terms of ambiguity of reference, the number of causal connectors, the amount of information, and the number of central and peripheral idea units that were included in the story retelling. The data provided some empirical evidence for the effects of culture and school education in children's language acquisition.     

A Pedagogy of Friendship: young children’s friendships and how schools can support them

Children’s friendships are often neglected by teachers and researchers. This phenomenological study conducted with seven children aged five and six years explores young children’s perceptions of their everyday friendship experiences. This multi-method study used role play interviews, drawings and persona doll scenarios to consider children’s everyday experiences of friendship in school. The paper discusses the importance of socio-cultural aspects of children’s friendship including: imaginary friends; losing friends; protecting time and space to develop friendships and children’s routines and practices as they form and maintain friendships. Data and findings are discussed, leading to an original conceptual framework: a ‘Pedagogy of Friendship’. This is designed to help children make meaning from their friendship experiences and also provide practitioners with the opportunity to nurture and scaffold children through their friendship experiences in schools. We suggest that there is a need to raise the profile of children’s friendships in early childhood education and generate an educational perspective on friendship. Finally we conclude that listening to children’s views of friendship indicates that the application of the framework of a ‘Pedagogy of Friendship’ would be beneficial to children’s all round learning and development.     

Psychosocial Benefits of Cross‐Ethnic Friendships in Urban Middle Schools

To examine the unique functions of same‐ and cross‐ethnic friendships, Latino (n = 536) and African American (n = 396) sixth‐grade students (M_age = 11.5 years) were recruited from 66 classrooms in 10 middle schools that varied in ethnic diversity. Participants reported on the number of same‐ and cross‐ethnic friends, perceived vulnerability, friendship quality, and the private regard dimension of ethnic identity. Whereas same‐ethnic friendships were uniquely associated with stronger private regard, more ethnic diversity and cross‐ethnic friendships were uniquely associated with less perceived vulnerability. Multilevel structural equation modeling tested whether cross‐ethnic friendships mediated the diversity‐vulnerability relation. Although cross‐ethnic friendships did not significantly mediate this relation at the classroom level, these friendships predicted less vulnerability at the individual student level.     

语篇模式差异:中美商务谈判中的"文化威胁"

在中美国际商务谈判中,双方代表的语篇模式由于受到了各自文化的影响而有所差别,对谈判能否有效地开展下去产生了威胁。谈判双方应清楚地认识到商务活动的背后是文化的交流,从而克服民族中心主义,保证中美商务谈判顺利、成功地进行。     

Intergroup attitudes of European American children attending ethnically homogeneous schools

Intergroup attitudes were assessed in European American 1st-grade (M=6.99 years, SD=0.32) and 4th-grade (M=10.01 years, SD=0.36) children (N=138) attending ethnically homogeneous schools to test hypotheses about racial biases and interracial friendships. An Ambiguous Situations Task and an Intergroup Contact Assessment were administered to all participants. Unlike previous findings with European American children attending heterogeneous schools, children rated minority perpetrators more negatively than majority perpetrators, and friendship as less likely when a minority than a majority perpetrator was portrayed. These findings suggest that intergroup contact contributes to racial bias in children's interpretations of peer dyadic encounters and to judgments about interracial friendships.