Class 0903 of College of Literature 2009 10 1040327 Fu
As a non-English major, I have a unique interest and emotion in English. I have gained a lot by taking this course this semester. On the one hand, the professional knowledge of the course, that is, the society and culture of major English-speaking countries, especially Britain and the United States, has given me a better understanding of English-speaking countries and the comparison and differences between Chinese and Western cultures. On the other hand, teacher Li Duanqi's profound knowledge and incisive explanation really benefited us a lot.
As far as the course knowledge is concerned, it mainly focuses on the society and culture of Britain and America, and mainly introduces the geography, political elections, media, economy, education and related festivals in Britain and America. My understanding and mastery of this knowledge, as well as my love for English, further enhanced my interest in these English-speaking countries and gave me the idea of personal experience. People say that Americans are cheerful, confident and lively; Traditional English people are introverted, polite and very gentlemanly. There has always been a popular saying: British people say that Americans have no history, and Americans say that British people don't understand the future. Both Britain and the United States are English-speaking countries, but they show great differences, mainly referring to social and cultural differences here.
For example, for international students, Britain and the United States are very different. Influenced by oriental ideas, friendship comes first for students studying in Britain. Coupled with the influence of British traditional culture and their loneliness in foreign countries, friendship and mutual assistance among international students can be seen everywhere in Britain. In the eyes of American students, influenced by American thinking, they believe that friendship is defined in context and time. Friendship only exists in a specific time and space, and they will not define the standard of friendship too high. Because they believe in the future time orientation, that is, they believe that everything they do now will be harvested in the future. This difference is really intriguing. If we don't have a certain understanding of the society and culture of the two countries, we will easily fall into a misunderstanding, and we will not be able to treat and respect foreign cultures correctly and objectively.
Since it is an optional course in English course, it must embody one goal of English teaching: to cultivate students' awareness of cross-cultural communication, so as to improve their cross-cultural communication ability. Learning the society and culture of major English-speaking countries is to better understand English, correct our learning attitude, and then help us learn and use English better. At present, English teaching in China only pays attention to the form of language, but ignores the practical use of language. Nowadays, college students, especially non-English majors, are unique in that our learning purpose is very clear, that is, to pass different types of exams, such as CET-4 and CET-6. In my opinion, with this mentality, it is better to give up learning English. Because for them, English is only a springboard for their future development or their future career under this development. In addition, most students, including English majors and non-English majors, rely too much on teachers in their studies and lack autonomy and purpose. They just learn the basic language rules, not pragmatic knowledge, let alone pragmatic knowledge. In order to change this situation, I think it is very necessary to strengthen the teaching of cultural contrast, let us know some material culture and spiritual customs of English-speaking countries, and indirectly improve our cross-cultural communication ability. Therefore, it is of great significance to offer the course "Society and Culture of Major English-speaking Countries". By introducing the social and cultural knowledge of major English-speaking countries, it helps us to straighten out the relationship between learning English cultural knowledge, using pragmatic knowledge and other training programs. There is no doubt that this is very important for us to learn English.
On the other hand, Mr. Li Duanqi always combines the course knowledge with the current social reality in the classroom teaching process. For example, regarding the self-worth and goal orientation of our contemporary college students, he gave a very incisive sentence: "People are the most important thing in China", and he told us to know the embarrassing social reality that the labor force in China is very cheap at present, and to establish a correct and pragmatic concept of job selection. When talking about social competition, he contacted countries such as Britain and the United States. In view of the current reality in China, he thinks that the views of "survival of the fittest" and "survival in competition" have important practical significance. Because of the comfortable environment, it is not optimistic from the physical quality of Chinese people alone. And his views on canceling and prohibiting college students from occupying campus space have really benefited us a lot, not only in our study, but also in our future orientation.
The learning experience of "Society and Culture in Major English-speaking Countries" is far from being finished in a blunt sentence. Whether from the teaching of course knowledge or from the incisive supplement of the teachers, the opening of this course has important practical significance for our English learning and even the choice of future life path (from the network)
I will say a few words myself:
In fact, the cultures of the United States and Britain alone are not the same, and I don't know where to start.
Let's start with the United States and Canada. I think people there are generally sunny, casual and comfortable to touch. Their English pronunciation is exaggerated (compared with British), and some American words are shorter. In addition, American slang is also used a lot. From this, we can see their overall personality through the development of their English language.
On the other hand, British people sometimes don't express their views as frankly as Americans/Canadians do, but they still consider other people's ideas and occasionally cater to them. Then, think back to the British accent. Frankly speaking, it's not as easy to understand as an American accent. It sounds like a gentleman. All accents are subtle (local accents are out of the question).
I think I appreciate La ~ ~ in two different cultures (purely personal opinion, if there is any omission, it contains more).