A Meeting
of Worlds
International English
and Multiculturalism
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Definitions of culture:
– A system of shared beliefs,
values, customs, behaviors,
and material things used to
deal with the world. They are
handed on from generation
to generation.
– All socially communicated
behavior patterns, arts,
beliefs, institutions, and all
other products of human
work and thought.
The connections created by a common language also bring challenges.
For example, we are brought into contact with strangers both at home
and abroad. How are we to understand one another? In the following
article we take a closer look at some of these challenges.
The Challenge of Cultural Variety
Communication is more than language. Underlying what we say to one
another is a web of assumptions, values, expectations, feelings, ideas
and common experiences that we share. Taken together these may be
called our “culture,” which may be defined as including everything in
“the way of life of a group of people.” We may not be aware of it, but our
culture provides a common basis for us to understand one another.
Equally, however, it may provide a basis for us to misunderstand one
another if we come from different societies and lack insight into one
another’s cultures. Today the globalization of our modern world has led
to the meeting and mixing of many such cultures. International English
has played an important role in that development. But a technical command of the English language is no longer enough for accurate communication. Increasingly it is intercultural communication that takes
place in English. Therefore it has become important for English speakers to train themselves to be aware both of their own culture and of the
culture of the people they speak with.
web nett, vev
assumption antakelse/
gjetting
accurate nøyaktig
intercultural interkulturell,
mellom kulturer/
interkulturell, mellom
kulturar
aware klar over
society samfunn
get a grip her: få tak i, lære
72
In the following section we will work with intercultural communication
among English speakers. First we will look at communication between
societies on the international level. Then we will examine communication within the multicultural societies of the United States and Great
Britain. Before we do that, however, let us get a grip on some terms we
can use to work with intercultural communication.
Messages and misunderstandings
All communication can be seen as having three parts;
1) a sender 2) a message and 3) a receiver.
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SENDER
MESSAGE
RECEIVER
Problems in intercultural communication can occur at any point in this
chain of communication. The sender of the message may believe that
what is being said (the message) is obvious and needs no explanation.
Or the message itself may be formulated in a confusing way. Or perhaps
the receiver interprets the message incorrectly. Let’s look at examples of
this.
occur forekomme, hende/
hende, skje, inntreffe
hostess vertinne
mystified uforstående,
mystifisert/uforståande,
mystifisert
assume anta
nudge dytt
admiration beundring
prejudice fordom(mer)/
fordom(mar)
Sender problems
One snowy winter night a Norwegian hostess pointedly whispered to
her English dinner guest, who had walked directly into her living room
from the front door – “You have your shoes on.” For a Norwegian the
message would have been clear. “Please take off your shoes. Put
on another pair.” The English guest, however, was mystified. Europeans and Americans do not bring a
change of shoes to dinner parties. It is enough
to use the doormat.
Ethnocentrism
The Norwegian hostess had assumed that
her standard of politeness was the same
everywhere. All her guest needed
was a reminder, a nudge in the
right direction. This is a simple
example of ethnocentrism, a long
word that simply means viewing
the world as if your culture (or
ethnicity) is the center of the universe
from which everything and everyone may
be judged (or nudged). Ethnocentrism is
based on ignorance of other cultures and
often on admiration of one’s own culture
as the best. Untreated, it can lead to
prejudice, fear and some-times
violence.
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Message problems
Some problems of intercultural communication can arise from the way
the message itself is stated by one culture and understood by another.
For example, a European manufacturer of pills to cure headaches used
the following illustration to sell its product in Saudi Arabia.
Pain
Pill
Relief
Unfortunately the major written language in Saudi Arabia, Arabic, is
read from the right side of the page to left, not left to right. So to Saudi
Arabians the message was:
Pain
Pill
Relief
The message communicated was the exact opposite of what was
intended.
Receiver problems
Misinterpreting the message received can be another source of misunderstanding. Consider the following example:
A Pakistani immigrant to America named Fareed worked in a gas station.
His boss told him to sweep the garage floor. But customers came and
Fareed did not get time to sweep while his boss was away. When his boss
returned, he looked at the floor and said:
“Didn’t you sweep the floor?
“Yes,” said Fareed.
“No you didn’t.”
“Yes,” said Fareed again.
“You’re lying!” said the boss.
Insulted, Fareed replied, “I quit!”
arise komme av, skyldes/
komme av, skyldast
manufacturer produsent
headache hodepine/
hovudpine
misinterpret feiltolke
insulted fornærmet/
fornærma
74
What happened? Well, in Fareed’s mother tongue, a negative question is
answered with a positive answer.
Negative question: “Didn’t you sweep the floor?”
Positive answer: “Yes” (I didn’t sweep the floor).
In America, on the other hand (and Norway, too, of course), a negative
question can be answered with a negative answer.
Negative question: “Didn’t you sweep the floor?”
– Kostet du ikke gulvet?
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Negative answer: “No” (I didn’t sweep
the floor).
– “Nei” (Jeg kostet ikke gulvet).
Fareed had replied to his boss honestly;
“Yes” (I didn’t sweep the floor).
But his boss had heard a lie: “Yes”
(I did sweep the floor).
Both ended up losers.
Of course much, much more than a job
can be lost through such mutual misunderstandings. How can they be avoided?
HEYSEL – Liverpool v Juventus 29.8.85
In Heysel football stadium in 1985 there was a stampede that caused the death of thirty-nine Juventus football fans. The surprise
was that these deaths were caused by something as innocuous as
running, the practice that half the juvenile fans in the country had
indulged in, and which was intended to do nothing more than
frighten the opposition and amuse the runners. The Juventus fans
– many of them chic, middle-class men and women – didn’t know
that, though, and why should they have done? They didn’t have the
intricate knowledge of English crowd behaviour that the rest of us
had absorbed almost without noticing. When they saw a crowd of
screaming English hooligans running towards them, they panicked,
and ran to the edge of their compound. A wall collapsed and, in the
chaos that ensued, people were crushed to death. It was a horrible
way to die and we probably watched people do it. We all remember
the large bearded man, the one who looked a little like Pavarotti,
imploring with his hand for a way out that nobody could provide.
Some of the Liverpool fans who were later arrested must have felt
genuinely bewildered. In a sense, their crime was simply being
English: it was just that the practices of their culture, taken out of
their own context and transferred to somewhere that simply didn’t
understand them, killed people.
mutual felles
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From here to there – understanding other cultures
Understanding begins at home. The first thing to do in order to understand other cultures is to be aware of one’s own. Everyone has a right to
honor and respect their own culture. That has nothing to do with
ethnocentrism. The trick is to show equal respect to other cultures at
the same time. This is a very old message found in all the world’s great
civilizations – treat others as you would like them to treat you. To do
that you must accept that people have many different ways of ordering
their societies. It does not help to claim that only one way is right for
everyone.
Cultural relativism
Cultural relativism is the opposite of ethnocentrism. It means that one
does not dismiss or condemn other cultures simply because they are
different from one’s own. Rather, one views them as equals. Note that
cultural relativism does not require you to give up your own beliefs;
quite the opposite. It means that you must be extremely conscious of
your own beliefs. Otherwise you might let them get in the way of understanding the beliefs of other cultures. Nor does cultural relativism mean
that “all values are relative” with no right or wrong. Understanding other
people’s values and accepting them are two different things.
Other terms for intercultural communication
As we work with intercultural communication in this section we will
encounter more terms, terms like tolerance, prejudice, stereotypes, culture shock, and others. These will help us to see our own culture and
other cultures more clearly.
honor ære
in order her: for å kunne
claim hevde
dismiss avvise
condemn fordømme
require kreve/krevje
conscious [ˈkɒnʃəs] bevisst
encounter møte
76
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1 UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT
a) Why is culture important for communi-
cation?
b) Why is technical command of English no
longer enough for accurate communication?
c) Into what three parts can communication be divided?
d) What is ethnocentrism?
e) What is cultural relativism?
2 TALK ABOUT IT
a) Make groups of
three and write a list of
the interests, values and customs that
you think are typically Norwegian. For
example, taking hikes in the woods,
admiring nature, believing in equality
and so on. Compare your list with
another group’s and discuss similarities
and differences.
d) In some countries it is polite to burp
after a meal to show your host that you
enjoyed the food and ate your fill. If you
were visiting such a culture, would you
burp? Should you burp? Discuss how far
you would be willing to go to meet the
cultural expectations of the people you
are with. For example, would you:
– eat with your hands?
– eat from the same plate?
– eat sitting on the floor?
– eat lying on a couch?
– eat fish that had been buried and dug
up again? (rakfisk/rakørret)
– eat uncooked fish (sushi and smoked
salmon)
– eat dog or cat?
Can you think of other examples? If so,
try them out on your fellow pupils.
b) Have you heard any stories of
people
who have suffered from a cultural
misunderstanding? Discuss these in class.
c) Which of
the following forms of media
provide the best insight into other
cultures: film, TV, radio, internet chat
rooms or e-mails?
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3 IMPROVE YOUR LANGUAGE
Match the following definitions with words.
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
obvious
mutual
require
international
prejudice
provide
communication
encounter
receive
ethnicity
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
to come across
the culture of a group
to give
to get something
clear and without a doubt
dislike based on fear or false information
to make necessary
common to two or more
exchange of information
between countries
4 WRITING
5 ACT IT OUT
Write a short story about intercultural
communication based on one of the
following titles.
Form groups of three. Act out the scene
between the garage owner (Mr Wright) and
Fareed, but this time put in a third character,
Kate, who understands what Fareed is
trying to say and tries to explain to them
what they are getting wrong. This might get
rather complicated, depending on how you
do it. For example, if Kate asks Fareed a
negative question – “You don’t dislike
Mr Wright, do you?” – what is Fareed likely
to say? And what is Mr Wright likely to
think of that?
a)
My Friends’ Friends
b) Keeping It in the Family
c)
d)
78
1
2
If Aunt Mary Had Only Known
Keeping Time
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The following story is an example of mutual misunderstandings
caused by mutual ethnocentrism. This can be termed culture clash,
a situation in which people of different cultures have quite incorrect
expectations of one another and therefore misinterpret the
meaning of the messages they exchange. Although it can occur
between individuals, it is more than a mere misunderstanding
between two people or even between two languages. The gap is
between different sets of values and customs. Sometimes it ends
tragically. Sometimes it ends ... well, you will see.
R.K. Narayan (1906–2001) was born in Madras, India. After studying
at Maharaja’s College in Mysore, he settled in that city and began
writing. The central characters in his short stories are often beggars,
children, servants and animals.
A
Horse and Two Goats
by R. K. Narayan
The village was so small that it found no mention in the atlas. On the
local survey map it was indicated by a tiny dot. It was called Kiritam,
which in the Tamil language means “crown” (preferably diamond-studded) – a rather gorgeous conception, readily explained by any local
enthusiast convinced beyond doubt that this part of India is the apex of
the world. In proof thereof, he could, until quite recently, point in the
direction of a massive guardian at the portals of the village, in the shape
of a horse moulded out of clay, baked, burnt, and brightly coloured. The
horse reared his head proudly, prancing, with his forelegs in the air and
his tail looped up with a flourish. Beside the horse stood a warrior with
scythe-like moustaches, bulging eyes, and an aquiline nose. The imagemakers of old had made the eyes bulge out when they wished to indicate a man of strength, just as the beads around the warrior’s neck were
meant to show his wealth. Blobs of mud now, before the ravages of sun
and rain they had had the sparkle of emerald, ruby, and diamond. The
conception påfunn
apex [ˈeɪpeks] topp
guardian vakt
prance danse på bakbeina
scythe-like [saɪð] formet som
en ljå/forma som ein ljå
aquiline [ˈækwɪlaɪn] nose
ørnenese/ørnenase
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Penelope Anstice:
“Indian Shepherd”, 1991
80
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big horse looked mottled, but at one time it was as white as a dhobiwashed sheet, its back enveloped in a checkered brocade of pure red and
black. The lance in the grip of the warrior had been covered with bands
of gay colour, and the multicoloured sash around his waist contrasted
with every other colour in these surroundings. This statue, like scores of
similar ones scattered along the countryside, was forgotten and
unnoticed, with lantana and cactus growing around it. Even the youthful
vandals of the village left the statue alone, hardly aware of its existence.
On this particular day, an old man was drowsing in the shade of a nearby
cactus and watching a pair of goats graze in this arid soil; he was waiting
for the sight of a green bus lumbering down the hill road in the evening,
which would be the signal for him to start back home, and he was disturbed by a motorist, who jammed on his brakes at the sight of the statue,
and got out of his car, and went up to the mud horse.
“Marvellous!” he cried, pacing slowly around the stature. His face was
sunburned and red. He wore a khaki-coloured shirt and shorts. Noticing
the old man’s presence, he said politely in English, “How do you do?”
The old man replied in pure Tamil, his only means of communication,
“My name is Muni, and the two goats are mine and mine only; no one
can gainsay it, although the village is full of people ready to slander a
man.”
The red-faced man rested his eyes for a moment in the direction of
the goats and the rocks, took out a cigarette, and asked, “Do you
smoke?”
“I never even heard of it until yesterday,” the old man replied nervously,
guessing that he was being questioned about a murder in the neighbourhood by this police officer from the government, as his khaki dress
indicated.
The red-faced man said, “I come from New York. Have you heard of
it? Have you heard of America?”
The old man would have understood the word “America” (though
not “New York”) if the name had been pronounced as he knew it – “Ah
Meh Rikya” – but the red-faced man pronounced it very differently, and
the old man did not know what it meant. He said respectfully, “Bad
characters everywhere these days. The cinema has spoiled the people
and taught them how to do evil things. In these days anything may happen.”
“I am sure you must know when this horse was made,” said the redfaced man, and smiled ingratiatingly.
The old man reacted to the relaxed atmosphere by smiling himself,
and pleaded, “Please go away, sir. I know nothing. I promise I will hold
him for you if I see any bad character around, but our village has always
mottled flekket
dhobiwashed vasket av en
”dhobi”, indisk vaskekone/
vaska av ein ”dhobi”, indisk
vaskekone
sash bredt stoffbelte/breitt
stoffbelte
lantana busk i
jernurtfamilien
arid uttørket/uttørka
gainsay motsi/motseie
ingratiating [ɪnˈgreɪʃɪeɪtɪŋ]
innsmigrende/innsmigrande
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affably omgjengelig/
omgjengeleg
camphor kamfer
urchin [ˈɜ:tʃɪn] guttunge/
gutunge
antiquity elde
drive a bargain tvinge
gjennom harde betingelser/
tvinge gjennom harde vilkår
avatar etter hinduisk
mytologi kan en guddom
opptre i jordisk skikkelse.
Guden Vishnu har 10 slike
”avatarer”/etter hinduisk
mytologi kan ein guddom
opptre i jordisk skapnad.
Guden Vishnu har 10 slike
”avatarar”
deluge syndflod
82
had a clean record. Must be the other village.”
“Please, please, I will speak slowly. Please try to understand me,” the
red-faced man said. “I arrived three weeks ago and have travelled five
thousand miles since, seeing your wonderful country.”
The old man made indistinct sounds in his throat and shook his head.
Encouraged by this, the other went on to explain at length, uttering each
syllable with care and deliberation, what brought him to this country,
how much he liked it, what he did at home, how he had planned for
years to visit India, the dream of his life and so forth – every now and
then pausing to smile affably. The old man smiled back and said nothing,
whereupon the red-faced man finally said, “How old are you? You have
such wonderful teeth. Are they real? What’s your secret?”
The old man knitted his brow and said mournfully, “Sometimes our
cattle, too, are lost; but then we go and consult our astrologer. He will
look at a camphor flame and tell us in which direction to search for the
lost animals ... I must go home now.” And he turned to go.
The other seized his shoulder and said earnestly, “Is there no one – absolutely no one – here to translate for me?” He looked up and down the
road, which was deserted on this hot afternoon. A sudden gust of wind
churned up the dust and the dead leaves on the roadside into a ghostly
column and propelled it toward the mountain road. “Is this statue yours?
Will you sell it to me?”
The old man understood that the other was referring to the horse. He
thought for a second and said, “I was an urchin of this height when I
heard my grandfather explain this horse and warrior, and my grandfather himself was of this height when he heard his grandfather, whose
grandfather ...” Trying to indicate the antiquity of the statue, he got
deeper and deeper into the bog of reminiscence, and then pulled himself
out by saying, “But my grandfather’s grandfather’s uncle had first-hand
knowledge, although I don’t remember him.”
“Because I really do want this statue,” the red-faced man said, “I hope
you won’t drive a hard bargain.”
“This horse,” the old man continued, “will appear as the tenth avatar
at the end of the Yuga.”
The red-faced man nodded. He was familiar with the word “avatar”.
“At the end of this Kali Yuga, this world will be destroyed, and all the
worlds will be destroyed, and it is then that the Redeemer will come, in
the form of a horse called Kalki, and help the good people, leaving the
evil ones to perish in the great deluge. And this horse will come to life
then, and that is why this is the most sacred village in the whole world.”
“I am willing to pay any price that is reasonable – ”
This statement was cut short by the old man, who was now lost in the
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visions of various avatars. “God Vishnu is the highest god, so our pandit
at the temple has always told us, and He has come nine times before,
whenever evil-minded men troubled this world.”
“But please bear in mind that I am not a millionaire.”
“The first avatar was in the shape of a fish,” the old man said, and
explained the story of how Vishnu at first took the form of a little fish,
which grew bigger each hour and became gigantic, and supported on its
back the holy scriptures, which were about to be lost in the ocean.
Having launched on the first avatar, it was inevitable that he should go
on with the second one, a tortoise, and the third, a boar on whose tusk
the world was lifted up when it had been carried off and hidden at the
bottom of the ocean by an extraordinary vicious conqueror of the
earth.
“Transportation will be my problem, but I will worry about that later.
Tell me, will you accept a hundred rupees for the horse only? Although
I am charmed by the moustached soldier, I will have to come next year
for him. No space for him now.”
“It is God Vishnu alone who saves mankind each time such a thing
has happened. He incarnated himself as Rama, and He alone could destroy Ravana, the demon with ten heads who shook all the worlds. Do
you know the story of Ramayana?”
“I have my station wagon, as you see. I can push the seat back and
take the horse in. If you’ll just lend me a hand with it.”
“Do you know Mahabharata? Krishna was the eighth avatar of Vishnu,
incarnated to help the Five Brothers regain their kingdom. When
Krishna was a baby, he danced on the thousand-hooded, the giant, serpent, and trampled it to death ...”
At this stage the mutual mystification was complete. The old man
chattered away in a spirit of balancing off the credits and debits of conversational exchanges, and said, in order to be on the credit side, “Oh,
honourable one, I hope God has blessed you with numerous progeny. I
say this because you seem to be a good man, willing to stay beside an old
man and talk to him, while all day I have none to talk to except when
somebody stops to ask for a piece of tobacco ... How many children have
you?”
“Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” the red-faced man said to himself. And then, “Will you take a hundred rupees for it?” Which encouraged the other to go into details.
“How many of your children are boys and how many are girls? Where
are they? Is your daughter married? Is it difficult to find a son-in-law in
your country also?”
The red-faced man thrust his hand into his pocket and brought forth
pandit lærd hinduprest
scripture hellig skrift/heilag
skrift
tortoise [ˈtɔ:təs]
landskilpadde/
landskjelpadde
boar galte
mutual gjensidig
mystification forvirring
progeny avkom
nothing ventured, nothing
gained den som intet våger,
intet vinner/utan innsats
ingen vinst
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reel svimle
hoard skjult skatt
creeper slyngplante
minute bitte liten
gunny sack vadsekk
84
his wallet, from which he took a hundred rupee currency note.
The old man now realized that some financial element was entering
their talk. He peered closely at the currency note, the like of which he
had never seen in his life; he knew the five and ten by their colours,
although always in other people’s hands. His own earning at any time
was in coppers and nickels. What was this man flourishing the note for?
Perhaps for change. He laughed to himself at the notion of anyone’s
coming to him to change a thousand- or ten-thousand-rupee note. He
said with a grin, “Ask our village headman, who is also a money-lender;
he can change even a lakh of rupees in gold sovereigns if you prefer it
that way. He thinks nobody knows, but dig the floor of his puja room
and your head will reel at the sight of the hoard. The man disguises
himself in rags just to mislead the public.”
“If that’s not enough, I guess I could go a little higher,” the red-faced
man said.
“You’d better talk to him yourself, because he goes mad at the sight of
me. Someone took away his pumpkins with the creeper and he thinks it
was me and my goats. That’s why I never let my goats be seen anywhere
near the farms,” the old man said, with his eyes travelling to his goats as
they were nosing about, attempting to wrest nutrition out of minute
greenery peeping out of rock and dry earth.
The red-faced man followed his look and decided it would be a sound
policy to show an interest in the old man’s pets. He went up to them
casually and stroked their backs.
Now the truth dawned on the old man. His dream of a lifetime was
about to be realized: the red-faced man was making him an offer for the
goats. He had reared them up in the hope of selling them some day and
with the capital opening a small shop on this very spot; under a thatched
roof he would spread out a gunny sack and display on it fried nuts,
coloured sweets, and green coconut for thirsty and hungry wayfarers on
the highway. He needed for this project a capital of twenty rupees, and
he felt that with some bargaining he could get it now; they were not
prize animals of a cattle show, but he had spent his occasional savings to
provide them some fancy diet now and then, and they did not look too
bad.
Saying, “It is all for you, or you may share it if you have a partner,” the
red-faced man placed on the old man’s palm one hundred and twenty
rupees in notes.
The old man pointed at the station wagon.
“Yes, of course,” said the other.
The old man said, “This will be their first ride in a motor car. Carry
them off after I get out of sight; otherwise they will never follow you but
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only me, even if I am travelling on the path to the Underworld.” He
laughed at his own joke, brought his palms together in a salute, turned
round, and was off and out of sight beyond a clump of bushes.
The red-faced man looked at the goats grazing peacefully and then
perched himself on the pedestal of the horse, as the westerly sun
touched off the ancient faded colours of the statue with a fresh splendour. “He must be gone to fetch some help,” he remarked, and settled
down to wait.
perch balansere
pedestal sokkel
Indian School: “Tenth
Incarnation of Vishnu as
Kalki: The White Horse”
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1 UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT
Complete the following sentences.
At first the old man thinks that the
American motorist is …
b) The American assumes that old man
must know ...
c) The old man believes the American is
asking him about …
d) The American had been in the country
for …
e) The old man believes he comes from “the
most sacred village in the whole world
because …
f) The American wishes to …
g) This horse will appear as the tenth
avatar …
h) The American has a problem with … the
horse.
i) The old man thinks the American wants
to buy …
j) The American pays … for the horse.
k) The old man expects the goats to be
taken off in a …
l) The American expects the old man will …
this tell us about his own culture?
b)“The old man chattered away in a spirit
of balancing off the credits and debits of
conversational exchanges …” What does
this tell us about the art of conversation
in India? Is this also why the American
continues the conversation?
a)
2 TALK ABOUT IT
Form groups and discuss the following
questions:
a)
86
The American motorist sees the statue of
the horse and immediately wants to buy
it. What does this tell us about his
knowledge of Indian culture? What does
c)
The Indian tells us a good deal about his
village and the people who live there
through his conversation with the
American. What impression do you get
of the village? Compare your impressions.
d)
If the old man had understood that the
American wished to buy the statue of the
horse, do you think he would have sold
it to him? If the American had understood what the statue of the horse meant
to the old man and the village, do you
think he would have tried to buy it?
e)
Both of these men were ethnocentric in
their own way. Find examples of this in
the story. (see Ethnocentric on p. 73)
f)
Have you ever had an experience of
misunderstanding a social situation
when you were out travelling, either
because of different languages or
cultures or both? Have you heard of
someone who has? Exchange stories in
your group.
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3 IMPROVE YOU LANGUAGE
a)
Adjectives and adverbs
Most adjectives can be turned into
adverbs, often by adding -ly:
e.g. The red-faced man was very polite.
He spoke very politely.
Some adjectives already have -ly. Then it
is more complicated:
e.g. The red-faced man was very friendly.
He spoke in a very friendly manner.
Some adverbs look just like adjectives:
e.g. He had a fast car. He drove very fast.
Write sentence pairs like the ones above –
one using an adjective, one using an
adverb – for the following adjectives:
ready
2 bright
3 proud
4 nervous
5 lively
6 respectful
7 ingratiating
8 hard
9 indistinct
10 mournful
11 earnest
12 vicious
13 hungry
14 occasional
1
b) Playing adverbs
Make groups of three or four. Send one
member of the group out into the
corridor. The rest of the group should
then choose an adverb. You may choose
adverbs you used in the previous task, or
any other adverb.
Now call in the person you sent into the
corridor. Do not tell him/her which
adverb you have agreed on. He/she must
try to guess the adverb by asking the
other members of the group to do things
or say things in the manner of the adverb.
Let’s say, for example, that you sent Jon
into the corridor and that the adverb you
chose was “nervously”. When Jon comes
in, he might ask, “Marit, can you brush
your teeth in this manner?” Marit then
has to “brush” her teeth “nervously”.
Then Jon might ask another person in
the group to conduct an orchestra in this
manner. And so on.
When Jon has guessed the adverb, it is
someone else’s turn to be the one in the
corridor.
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4 WRITING
a)
Imagine someone who could translate
Tamil into English had come along the
road just before the old man left with the
money. Write the dialogue between the
three of them as the translator sorts out
their misunderstanding. How does the
story end now?
5 RESEARCH
a) The old man in this story tells the
American a good deal about one of the
central figures in Hindu religion, Vishnu,
and some of his “avatars” (earthly
forms). Go to access.cappelen.no and
see if you can find out more about
Vishnu and what the old man is talking
about. Then make a brief oral presentation to class about it.
b) Mass tourism has grown explosively over
the past thirty years in Norway.
– Find estimates of how many tourists
there are per year now.
– What are the major destinations they
go to?
– How much money is spent in this
industry?
– What kinds of problems does it cause?
– What kinds of benefits does it
bring?
– What future is it expected to have?
b) You are the police inspector for the
Make this information available to the class
on a wall poster or in a report.
region of the village of Kiritam. You
must make out a report to your
superiors about the theft of a valuable
and old artifact from the village. You
have spoken to members of the village
who blame the old man who suddenly
has one hundred and twenty rupees.
What does the old man say? What does
the police inspector do? How does the
report end? (See Toolbox on p. 371)
88
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The following story is set in Australia, a multicultural nation. It stands
in sharp contrast to the preceding tale in which culture clash led to
a complete breakdown of communication. Although we again meet
ethnocentrism and misunderstanding, we also meet communication across cultures. There are basic things we all share. There is
hope for us.
Tim Winton was born in Australia in 1960. He is the author of several
books and short-story collections and his novels have won many
awards. He has lived in Paris, Greece and Ireland, but has now
returned to Australia.
N
eighbours
by Tim Winton
When they first moved in, the young couple were wary of the
neighbourhood. The street was full of European migrants. It made the
newly-weds feel like sojourners in a foreign land. Next door on the left
lived a Macedonian family. On the right, a widower from Poland.
The newly-weds’ house was small, but its high ceilings and paned
windows gave it the feel of an elegant cottage. From his study window,
the young man could see out over the rooftops and used-car yards the
Moreton Bay figs in the park where they walked their dog. The neighbours seemed cautious about the dog, a docile, moulting collie.
The young man and woman had lived all their lives in the expansive
outer suburbs where good neighbours were seldom seen and never
heard. The sounds of spitting and washing and daybreak watering came
as a shock. The Macedonian family shouted, ranted, screamed. It took
six months for the newcomers to comprehend the fact that their neighbours were not murdering each other, merely talking. The old Polish
man spent most of his day hammering nails into wood only to pull
them out again. His yard was stacked with salvaged lumber. He added to
it, but he did not build with it.
Relations were uncomfortable for many months. The Macedonians
raised eyebrows at the late hour at which the newcomers rose in the
wary varsom/varsam
newly-weds nygifte
sojourner [ˈsɒdʒɜ:nə] en som
oppholder seg/ein som
oppheld seg
fig fikentre
docile [ˈdəʊsaɪl] rolig/roleg
moult røyte
rant rase
salvage berge
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thesis avhandling
cobalt knallblå
manure gjødsle
hill hyppe
mulch dekke med halm/
dekkje med halm
vermilion sinoberrød/
sinoberraud
rooster hane
superior overlegen
muscovy en type and/ein
type and
dress gjøre klar (for ovnen)/
gjere klar (for omnen)
down dun
stun sjokkere
90
mornings. The young man sensed their disapproval at his staying home
to write his thesis while his wife worked. He watched in disgust as the
little boy next door urinated in the street. He once saw him spraying the
cat from the back step. The child’s head was shaved regularly, he assumed,
in order to make his hair grow thick. The little boy stood at the fence
with only his cobalt eyes showing; it made the young man nervous.
In the autumn, the young couple cleared rubbish from their back
yard and turned and manured the soil under the open and measured
gaze of the neighbours. They planted leeks, onions, cabbage, brussels
sprouts and broad beans and this caused the neighbours to come to the
fence and offer advice about spacing, hilling, mulching. The young man
resented the interference, but he took careful note of what was said. His
wife was bold enough to run a hand over the child’s stubble and the big
woman with black eyes and butcher’s arms gave her a bagful of garlic
cloves to plant.
Not long after, the young man and woman built a henhouse. The
neighbours watched it fall down. The Polish widower slid through the
fence uninvited and rebuilt it for them. They could not understand a
word he said.
As autumn merged into winter and the vermilion sunsets were
followed by sudden, dark dusks touched with the smell of wood smoke
and the sound of roosters crowing day’s end, the young couple found
themselves smiling back at the neighbours. They offered heads of cabbage and took gifts of grappa and firewood. The young man worked
steadily at his thesis on the development of the twentieth century novel.
He cooked dinners for his wife and listened to her stories of eccentric
patients and hospital incompetence. In the street they no longer walked
with their eyes lowered. They felt superior and proud when their parents
came to visit and to cast shocked glances across the fence.
In the winter they kept ducks, big, silent muscovies that stood about
in the rain growing fat. In the spring the Macedonian family showed
them how to slaughter and to pluck and to dress. They all sat around on
blocks and upturned buckets and told barely-understood stories – the
men butchering, the women plucking, as was demanded. In the haze of
down and steam and fractured dialogue, the young man and woman felt
intoxicated. The cat toyed with severed heads. The child pulled the cat’s
tail. The newcomers found themselves shouting.
But they had not planned on a pregnancy. It stunned them to be
made parents so early. Their friends did not have children until several
years after being married – if at all. The young woman arranged for
maternity leave. The young man ploughed on with his thesis on the
twentieth century novel.
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The Polish widower began to build. In the late spring dawns, he sank
posts and poured cement and began to use his wood. The young couple
turned in their bed, cursed him behind his back. The young husband, at
times, suspected that the widower was deliberately antagonising them.
The young wife threw up in the mornings. Hay fever began to wear him
down.
Before long the young couple realised that the whole neighbourhood
knew of the pregnancy. People smiled tirelessly at them. The man in the
deli gave her small presents of chocolates and him packets of cigarettes
that he stored at home, not being a smoker. In the summer, Italian women began to offer names. Greek women stopped the young woman in
the street, pulled her skirt up and felt her belly, telling her it was bound
to be a boy. By late summer the woman next door had knitted the baby
a suit, complete with booties and beanie. The young woman felt flattered,
claustrophobic, grateful, peeved.
By late summer, the Polish widower next door had almost finished
Michael Buhler: “Engaged”,
1995
antagonise [ænˈtægənaɪz]
provosere
bootie strikket babysokk/
strikka babysokk
beanie liten lue/lita lue
peeved irritert
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labour fødselsveer/
fødselsvear
black the stove sverte ovnen/
sverte omnen
midwife jordmor
contraction ve
uterus [ˈju:tərəs] livmor
gossamer spindelvev
croon nynne
mottled flekket
cord navlestreng
vernix vernix caseosa:
osteaktig, hvitt stoff som
dekker spedarnets hud ved
fødselen/osteaktig, kvitt
stoff som dekkjer huda til
spedarnet ved fødselen
92
his two-car garage. The young man could not believe that a man without
a car would do such a thing, and one evening as he was considering
making a complaint about the noise, the Polish man came over with
barrowfuls of woodscraps for their fire.
Labour came abruptly. The young man abandoned the twentieth
century novel for the telephone. His wife began to black the stove. The
midwife came and helped her finish the job while he ran about making
statements that sounded like queries. His wife hoisted her belly about
the house, supervising his movements. Going outside for more wood,
he saw, in the last light of the day, the faces at each fence. He counted
twelve faces. The Macedonian family waved and called out what sounded
like their best wishes.
As the night deepened, the young woman dozed between contractions, sometimes walking, sometimes shouting. She had a hot bath and
began to eat ice and demand liverwurst. Her belly rose, uterus flexing
downward. Her sweat sparkled, the gossamer highlit by movement and
firelight. The night grew older. The midwife crooned. The young man
rubbed his wife’s back, fed her ice and rubbed her lips with oil.
And then came the pushing. He caressed and stared and tried not to
shout. The floor trembled as the young woman bore down in a squat.
He felt the power of her, the sophistication of her. She strained. Her face
mottled. She kept at it, push after push, assaulting some unseen barrier,
until suddenly it was smashed and she was through. It took his wind
away to see the look on the baby’s face as it was suddenly passed up to
the breast. It had one eye on him. It found the nipple. It trailed cord and
vernix smear and its mother’s own sweat. She gasped and covered the
tiny buttocks with a hand. A boy, she said. For a second, the child lost
the nipple and began to cry. The young man heard shouting outside. He
went to the back door. On the Macedonian side of the fence, a small
queue of bleary faces looked up, cheering, and the young man began to
weep. The twentieth century novel had not prepared him for this.
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1 UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT
b) Tim Winton has chosen not to give
names to any characters in the story.
Why do you think he did that? What
effect does it have?
Sit with a partner and write answers to the
following questions.
Why were the young couple wary of the
neighbourhood they moved into? What
kind of a background did they come from?
b) How many ethnic groups lived in the
neighbourhood?
c) Give examples of things the young couple
and the neighbours disapproved of about
each other.
d) About how long did it take before the two
sides began to communicate? What kinds
of topics did they exchange information
about?
e) How did the increased communication
change the way the young couple felt and
behaved?
f) How did the young couple know that
neighbours had found out that they were
going to have a baby?
g) Why did the young man begin to cry when
he went outside at the end of the story?
a)
2 TALK ABOUT IT
a)
This story is set in a multicultural neighbourhood in an Australian city. Is this the
kind of setting that comes to mind when
you think about that country? What images
and stereotypes (see p. 98) are connected to
that nation? Make a short list and compare
it with a classmate’s. Where do these
associations come from, do you think?
c)
This is a story about intercultural
communication. What examples of
different cultural values and expectations does the author hint at by describing forms of behaviour, habits,
customs, activities, suspicions, etc.
d)
Why did the couple feel “superior and
proud when their parents came…”?
Can you relate this to the term culture
relativism on page 76?
3 WRITING
Choose one task.
a)
Write a description of the young couple
from one of the neighbours’ point of
view. Call it “Our new neighbours”.
b)
Continue the story in dialogue form.
Write what the neighbours and the
young man say to one another when he
comes outside. You can give them names
if you like. Use whatever forms of
International English you think are
appropriate. When you are finished,
form groups and play out your dialogue
together, taking turns.
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