Cultural Background Knowledge and English Teaching(3)
2013-11-24 01:41
导读：ItwasaHerculeantask,buthemanagedtodoit. DavidandGoliath(fromBible)—Davidwasashepherdboy;hekilledthePhilistinegiantGoliathwithashotfromhisslingandlaterbecamekingoftheHebrews;inmetaphoricaluse,Davidan
It was a Herculean task, but he managed to do it.
David and Goliath (from Bible)—David was a shepherd boy; he killed the Philistine giant Goliath with a shot from his sling and later became king of the Hebrews; in metaphorical use, David and Goliath stand for a contest between two persons, enterprises, countries, etc., in which one is much smaller and/or weaker, but in which the smaller/weaker one wins out.
a Horatio Alger story—any “success story”, often considered a myth, of a poor boy who works hard and finally rises to the top, becoming rich, successful, famous; Horatio Alger was a writer whose stories generally had the same such plot. His best-known books are the Ragged Dick series and the Tattered Tom series.
Some of these allusions may be looked up in the dictionary, but with the continuous development of society and language, new allusions have appeared. Unless one is well acquainted with developments of a certain country, one would be at a loss about the meaning and connotations of terms or expressions such as those below:
a Rambo—Rambo is the character made famous by American movies around the mid-1980s. He is a tough soldier of the Vietnam War, resourceful, taciturn, lonely, somewhat “odd”. Rambo gets involved in numerous risky adventures or in one violent situation after another. He makes miraculous escapes from impossible situations by shooting, knifing, bombing or burning his way out. Unbelievable as his feats may seem, and repugnant as some of his violent actions may appear, he is the current hero of many American boys and young men.
（转载自科教范文网http://fw.nseac.com）
a Pepsodent smile—A smile showing beautiful white teeth; from advertisements for Pepsodent tooth paste, one of the better-known brands in the USA.
Idiom is an important part of the language and culture of a society. They are often hard to understand and hard to use correctly. They are almost impossible to understand from the meanings of the individual words. And with English idioms, even the same words may have different meanings as in the examples blow:
So, first of all, a student should learn not to look down on such idioms just because they’re made up of such simple and easy words. He should look out for identical phrases with different meanings and look them up in a dictionary if he’s not sure. He’s bound to run into a lot of trouble when he first uses them, but he shouldn’t give in, much less give up. If he keeps trying and keeps at it long enough he’ll make out and things will turn out well in the end.
Though the passage is short, it includes ten idioms: look down, made up of, look out for, look up, run into, give in, give up, keep at it, make out and turn out (well).
您可以访问中国科教评价网（www.NsEac.com）查看更多相关的文章。 It is thus clear that difficulties in reading cannot be completely solved by one’s language knowledge, because works of a people cannot be separated from the people’s cultural tradition. So, in teaching reading, a teacher should explain grammatical difficulties as well as expound cultural background.
Similarly, writing and translating cannot be separated from cultural background knowledge.
In translation, even the very simple expressions cannot be dealt with without any consideration of specific context and customs.
We shall take the word “dog” as an example.
To English-speaking people, the dog does not carry the same associations as it does to Chinese. The dog is considered to be derogatory, for example, “癩皮狗” “丧家之犬” “走狗” “狗急跳墙” “狗头军师” etc. are often used to describe disgusting people. But dog in English, especially in proverbs, is a commendatory term. If we translate dog into Chinese “狗” without exception, we may make jokes. For example:
1. Every dog has his day.
2. You are, indeed, a lucky dog.,
3. Last night my father came home dog-tired.
Because some learners are not well aware of the cultural differences, they take it for granted that the three sentences should be translated into the following:
（科教论文网 lw.nSeAc.com编辑发布） 1.每条狗都有自己的节日。
2.你真是一条幸运的狗。
3.昨晚我爸爸回到家中像狗一样得累。
In fact, the right translations are as follows:
1.人人皆有得意时。
2.你真是个幸运儿。
3.昨晚我父亲回到家中非常累。
In writing, cultural background knowledge is also important. Why is it that the English writing of Chinese students read so much like translations of Chinese? Why is it that one can fairly easily tell whether an article was written by a Chinese or by a native speaker of English? On the one hand, it is probably because most Chinese students have not yet mastered the language; On the other hand, it is probably because of differences in Chinese and English writing styles that reflect cultural differences.
Narration and description in Chinese seem to be a bit more ornate, or “flowery”, than in English. The following passage from a student’s composition is typical of this kind of faulty writing in English:
“I walked joyfully along the path that was lit up by the golden rays of the morning sun. Beautiful flowers of many colors were blooming. How fragrant they smelled! Little birds were singing in the trees, as if greeting me ‘Good morning! Good morning!’… my heart was bursting with happiness…”
本文来自中国科教评价网
One of the common faults in this matter is the tendency of Chinese students to use too many adjectives. Adjectives, of course, are necessary in good writing. But if not used with care, they can have the opposite effect—quickly kill interest and produce boredom.
Chinese and English-speaking people seem to look differently on the use of set phrases and expressions. Good English writing discourages what are called “clichés” or “trite expressions”. Chinese writing, on the other hand, gives its approval to well-chosen “four-character expressions.” To a native English-speaker, the following sentence would be frowned on as an example of poor writing: He slept like a log and woke up at the crack of dawn, fresh as a daisy.
Trite expressions and clichés originally caught people’s attention precisely because they were and are so colorful and express an idea so well. But overuse caused them to lose their charm and freshness.
In persuasive writing such as social or political essays and editorials, English-speaking writers tend to be less militant in tone and language than most Chinese. The idea is to let the facts speak for themselves. In other words, the facts themselves should be able to convince the reader. Thus in such types of writing, one finds rather sparing use of such phrases as we must, we should not, it is wrong to, it is absurd, cannot be denied, resolutely demand. The tone is usually restrained; the language id generally moderate. In present-day Chinese social and political writings, facts are of primary importance, of course, but considerable stress is also laid on militancy, on making one’s stand clear. This difference in attitudes is an important one. Experience has shown that a hard-hitting essay or editorial in Chinese does not always have the effect intended when translated into English. Instead of convincing people, the blunt tone and language often antagonize people or arouse suspicion that the writer does not have a strong c
