At the restaurant

 

Chinese Customers Think Their Waiter Is American... But When He Takes Their Order...

 

 

 

超级实用的点餐 英语，看完就立刻能流利地用英语点餐啦

 

 

 

看英文菜單，用英文點菜

 

 

 

 

 

 

For a non-native English speaker, the major challenge is not

so much the language barrier per se. Rather, it is

the side of cultural assimilation in the equation. I'm not

saying that American culture is necessarily a model culture.

Your thought is insightful. 秋兰. Cultural assimilation indeed

pose huge challenges for us. eg. communication Styles.

Different cultures have different communication styles.

Native speakers also often use idioms, slang,etc.

美坛现在的PAPD， 还有之前的One Idiom。都是非常好的练习。欢迎大家积极参加。

Hi, 盈盈! I'm just speaking my mind, never mind that I might

"offend" people inadvertently. I have had quite a good

experience of cultural assimilation when learning Chinese,

all things considered. The bottom line is that one should

have every right to preserve his/her cultural identity when

picking up a foreign language.

When it comes to preserving cultural identity, 秋兰

You've done well. You connect with us, Chinese community,

through online platform 文学城美语世界。

That's something I may learn from you.

We are learning from each other. The best thing about

American culture is this: we can always agree to disagree.

Certainly! "Agree to disagree"

In my opinion, these are the most powerful English words:

I BEG TO DIFFER.

Goodnight, 盈盈!

I hear you. Thanks 4 sharing.

Goodnight, 秋兰！

yeah, it's a very convenient one:-)

one time at a family party, friends asked about who is elder, my husband or his brother. Brother said my husband is the firstborn but himself the better looking. i immediately raised my hand and said: i beg to differ!! :--))

everybody was chuckled out :-)

Thanks for sharing. 餐厅点菜有时确实不知道点了什么。

哈哈，谢谢分享生动的例子。你英语这么好。期待更多分享呀。：））

是哒。最让我抓狂的是，韩国餐馆。一堆韩文，再加英文，彻底懵圈～～

第一个视频好好笑！这位小哥真有语言天赋。

哈哈，确实很逗。据说上过央视的。太有语言天赋了～～

Agreed. Cultural intelligence is important in communication

There is a very good book called "The Culture Map" goes into depth to explain the how culture plays a significant role in shaping minds, communication, and the way people use their languages.

Adding to it, I share part of an impromptu speech I made a while back ago, it happened to touch on this topic.

"Cultural difference has its deep root in languages. There are 700K words in English but there are only about 150K words in French , what does that tell us? That tells us people from UK have more words to express themselves in a more explicit way than French people do, who would have to use combinations of fewer words to express the same idea. In that sense, British usually mean what they say, French expect you to read between the lines.

In the same vein, same word can mean two different things, depending on the geographic region or culture. An extreme example (is) gift in English means present whereas gift in German means poison. When a Portuguese says “am I understood?”, he is trying to be as polite as possible, while this very same phrase is usually said by a senior to their subordinates in United States. When I say interesting, I perhaps mean I am neutral or even slightly negative about an idea. When a Dutch says the same, they mean they really like the idea."