Chapter 2: Becoming Aware
The first step in learning to communicate across cultures is to consider that what people mean when they talk about culture. Most people assume that everyone knows what it means, so they do not define it. In fact people mean quite different things when they talk about culture. The most usual meaning is that culture refers to people’s customs and behavior. People have no trouble recognizing that people in different cultures behave differently and have different customs, but they seldom try to figure out what the behavior and customs mean to the people who are following them. This is unfortunate, because culture is all about meanings.
第二章：知悉（文化）
学习跨文化交际的第一步就是要考虑人们在谈论文化时所说的是什么意思。大多数人都认为每个人都知道这意味着什么，所以人们甚少去定义它。事实上，当人们在谈论文化时所表达的是完全不同的东西。最常用的意思是文化是指人们的习惯和行为。人们能毫不费力地认识到人们在不同的文化中表现不同，并有不同的习俗，但人们很少试图去弄清楚这些
行为和风俗习惯的含义。这是不幸的，因为文化是有深意的。
What is culture?
Simply put, culture is a system of meaning. That is too abstract a definition to really understand, so consider the following images.
简而言之，文化是一种意义体系。这个定义过于抽象难以理解，所以要思考以下影像。
Culture is like an iceberg
Like an iceberg, only some of culture is visible. Aspects of culture that we can easily observe are often referred to as objective culture. This includes things such as history, literature, and customs. When we learn the facts about our own or other cultures, we are learning the objective culture. Most of culture is below the surface of our awareness. It is not easily observable. This is referred to as subjective culture. It includes feelings and attitudes about how things are and how they should be. When we only learn objective culture, we are missing the bigger part that is below the surface.
文化就像一座冰川vaguely
文化就像一座冰川，只有部分可见。我们可以轻易观察到的文化层面的文化通常被称为客观文化。这包括历史，文学，风俗方面等的东西。当我们学习我们自身或其他的文化，我们所学的就是客观文化。然而大多数文化存在于我们意识的表象下。这是不容易观察到的。这就是所谓的主观文化。它包括我们对事物的感受和态度。如果我们只是学习客观文化，那么我们将会错失埋藏在表象之下的更大的文化层面。
Culture is our software
Culture is the basic operating system that makes us human. Humans around the world are physically pretty much the same. There are variations in body size, shape and color, but the basic equipment is universal. We can think of our physical selves as the hardware, but we cannot be said to be human until we are programmed and each of us is programmed by our own home culture. Humans are unique among all the animals on earth in that the infant is weak and incapable of survival for an exceptionally long period of time. At birth the infant is only a potential human. It must learn how to be human and it l
earns that in a culturally specific way. It is the culture that provides the software. As with any good software, we are only vaguely aware of it as we use it. It fades into the background and we just know that we can be, that the computer works, or perhaps sometimes does not work because it is incompatible with someone else’s software.
文化是我们的软件
文化是使我们成为人类的基本的操作系统。世界各地的人们在身体构造上大同小异。虽然我们的体格，体型和肤各不相同，但人体的基本构造都是相同的。我们可以将我们的身体视作为硬件，但我们不能被称为人直到我们被“程序化”，正如我们被我们自身的家庭文化“程序化”。在地球上，人类是区别于动物的独一无二的所在。因为婴儿是如此脆弱以至于无法独立地长时间生存。在出生时，婴儿只是有成为人的潜力，他必须在特定的文化方式中学会如何成为人。而文化就是使其成为人的软件，和其他好的软件一样，我们只是依稀意识到我们正在使用它。我们只是了解到他隐藏在后台程序中促使计算机运行，也许有时候它无法运行因为他与其他的文化软件不兼容。
Culture is like the water a fish swim in
Like any creature a fish scans its environment to find food, reproduce and protect itself from danger. It notices everything except the water it swimming in. The fish takes the water for granted because it so totally surrounds the fish that it really cannot image another environment. The same is true for us. Our culture is so much a part of who we are and what the world is like for us that we do not notice it. We take it for granted. For most people for most of their lives, everything they see and do takes place in the same culture. Everyone is swimming in the same water. They couldn’t describe the water even if they wanted to.
文化就像水中的鱼在游
同其他任何生物一样，鱼审视它所生存的环境以觅食，繁殖和保护自己免受危险。鱼注意到了所有的东西除了它赖以生存的水。鱼把水的存在当作是一件理所当然的事，因为它完全包裹着鱼以致于完全无法想象另一个环境。我们人类也是如此。文化就是这样一部分关于我们是谁和世界对于我们是怎样的我们没有注意到的一部分。我们认为这是理所当然的。对于大多数人的生活和他们所看到的一切都发生在同一文化中。每个人都在同一种文化环境中生存。他们无法描述他们自身所处的文化。
Culture is the story we tell ourselves about ourselves
Every cultural group has a story that provides a way for members of the group to understand who they are and what the world is like. People tell themselves their story in their folklore arts, in politics and in intimate conversations among friends and family members. The stories may be very old and include legends of how the group was created, but stories also change to adapt to changing circumstances.
文化是说给我们自己听的关于我们自己的故事
每个文化体都有一个故事，这个故事为体内的成员提供了解自己和世界提供途径。人们从民间文学艺术，政治和朋友，家人间的亲密谈话中了解关于自己的故事。这些故事也许非常古老或是包括了这个体是怎样被创造的神话传说，但为了适应不断变化的环境，故事也在随之发生改变。

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