1st Edition
Acting Chinese An Intermediate-Advanced Course in Discourse and Behavioral Culture 行为汉语
Acting Chinese is a year-long course that, together with the companion website, integrates language learning with the acquisition of cultural knowledge, and treats culture as an integral part of human behavior and communication.
Using modern day examples of Chinese discourse and behavioral culture, it trains students to perform in culturally appropriate fashion, whilst developing a systematic awareness and knowledge about Chinese philosophy, values and belief systems that will prepare them for further advanced study of Chinese language and culture. Each lesson contains simulated real-life communication scenarios that aim to provide a concrete opportunity to see how native speakers generally communicate or behave in social situations.
An essential guide for intermediate to advanced level second language learners, Acting Chinese provides a unique and modern approach to the acquisition of both cultural knowledge and language proficiency.
Preface
Teacher's guide 教材使用指南
List of abbreviations and symbols
List of characters in communication scenarios
Unit one
Cultural perspective: group mentality 群体意识
- Lesson one
Text: 一起吃饭是缘分
Behavior highlighted: love to be part of the fun 爱凑热闹
- Lesson two
Text: 人多力量大
Behavior highlighted: follow the pack 从众行为
- Lesson three
Text: 人人都是一个"角色"
Behavior highlighted: relation-based conduct 关系本位
Unit two
Cultural perspective: the concept of li 礼的观念
- Lesson four
Text: 礼多人不怪
Behavior highlighted: li-based civilities 礼俗客套
- Lesson five
Text: 中国人到底有没有礼貌？
Behavior highlighted: humble oneself and exalt others 自谦敬人
Unit three
Cultural perspective: harmony orientation 贵和思想
- Lesson six
Text: 礼之用，和为贵
Behavior highlighted: harmony as priority 以和为贵
- Lesson seven
Text: 忍字头上一把刀
Behavior highlighted: forbear and forgive 忍字当头
- Lesson eight
Text: 保持中道
Behavior highlighted: (take) the middle road 中庸之道
Unit four
Cultural perspective: face psychology 面子心理
- Lesson nine
Text: 面子??打开中国人性格之锁
Behavior highlighted: saving face 保全面子
- Lesson ten
Text: 伤什么也不能伤面子
Behavior highlighted: face work 面子运作
Unit five
Cultural perspective: rules of renqing 人情法则
- Lesson eleven
Text: 来而不往非礼也
Behavior highlighted: reciprocation 礼尚往来
- Lesson twelve
Text: 多个朋友多条路
Behavior highlighted: networking 建立人脉
Unit six
Cultural perspective: differentiated mode of association 差序格局
- Lesson thirteen
Text: 看不懂的中国人（一）
Behavior highlighted: distinguish people based on relationships 亲疏有别
- Lesson fourteen
Text: 看不懂的中国人（二）
Behavior highlighted: distinction between the upper and lower status 上下有别
Appendixes: reflection worksheet for cultural exploration 文化探索
Traditional Chinese character texts 課文繁體字版
Indexes
Pinyin-English vocabulary
English-Chinese vocabulary
Speech pattern index by lesson
Biography
Yanfang Tang, Kunshan Carolyn Lee, Li Xu, Jin Zhang, Peng Yu
