李观仪第七册-1单元-课堂 - 图文

February 28, 2011

外国语学院

Integrated English I 综合英语VI

Teacher: Lü Wenpeng（吕文澎）

Unit One English and American Concepts of Space

（pp.2-4）

Edward T. Hall

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It has been said that the English and the Americans are two great

people separated by one language. The differences for which languages gets blamed may not be due so much to words as to communications on other levers beginning with English intonation(which sounds affected to many Americans) and continuing to ego-linked ways of handing time, space, and materials. If there ever were two cultures in which differences of the proxemic details are marked it is in educated (public school) English and middle-class Americans. One of the basic reasons for this wide disparity is that in the United States we use space as a way of classifying people and activities, whereas in England it is the social system that determines who you are. In the United States, your address is an important cue to status (this applies not only to one?s home but to the business address as well). the joneses from Brooklyn and Miami are not as “in as the joneses from Newport and Palm Beach. Greenwich and Cape Cod are worlds apart from Newark and Miami. Businesses located on

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Madison and park avenues have more tone than those on seventh and eighth avenues. A corner office is more prestigious than one next to the elevator or at the end of a long hall. The Englishman, however, is born and brought up in a social system. He is still lord－no matter where you find him, even if it is behind the counter in a fishmonger?s stall. In addition to class distinctions, there are differences between the English and ourselves in how space is allotted.

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The middle-class American growing up in the United States feel he

has a right to have his own room of office, invariably drew it for themselves and no one else. When asked to draw their present room of office, they drew only their own part of a shared room and then drew a line down the middle. Both male and female subjects identified the kitchen and the master bedroom as belonging to the mother or the wife, whereas father?s territory was a study or a den, if one was available; otherwise, it was “the shop,” “the basement,” or sometimes only a workbench or the garage. American women want to be alone can go to the bedroom and close the door. The closed door is the sign meaning “Do not disturb” or “I? m angry.” An American is available if his door is open at home or at his office. He is expected not to shut himself of but to maintain himself in a state of constant readiness to answer the demands of others. Closed doors are for conferences, private conversations, and business, work that requires concentration, study, resting, sleeping,

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dressing, and sex.

3The middle-and upper-class Englishman, on the other hand, is brought up in a nursery shared with brothers and sisters. The oldest occupies a room by himself which he vacates when he leaves for boarding school, possibly even at the age of nine or ten. The difference between a room of one?s own and early conditioning to shared space, while seeming inconsequential, has an important effect on the Englishman?s attitude toward his own space. He may never have a permanent “room of his own” and seldom expects one or feels he is entitled to one. Even Members of Parliament have no offices and often conduct their business on the terrace overlooking the Thames. As a consequence, the English are puzzled by the American working in England may become annoyed if they are not provided with what they consider appropriate enclosed work place. In regard to the need for walls as a screen for the ego, this places the Americans somewhere between the Germans and the English.

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The contrasting English and American patterns have some

remarkable implication, particularly if we assume that man, like other animals, has a built-in need to shut himself off from others from time to time. An English student in one of my seminars typified what happens when hidden patterns clash. He was quite obviously experiencing strain in his relationship with Americans. Nothing seemed to go right and it was

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quite clear from his remarks that did not know how to behave. An analysis of his complaints showed that a major source of irritation was that no American seemed to be able to pick up the subtle clues that there were times when he didn?t want his thoughts intruded on. As he stated it, “I?m walking around the apartment and it seems that whenever I want to be alone my roommate starts talking to me. Pretty soon he?s asking ?What?s the matter?? and wants to know if I?m angry. By then I?m angry and say something.”

5It took some time but finally we were able to identify most of the contrasting features of the American and British problems that were in conflict in this case. When the American wants to be alone he goes into a room and shuts the door---he depends on architectural features for screening. For an American to refuse to talk to someone else present in the same room, to give them the “silent treatment,” is the ultimate form of rejection and a sure sign of great displeasure. The English, on the other hand, lacking room of their own since childhood, never developed the practice of using space as a refuge from others. They have in effect internalized a set of barriers, which they erect and which others are supposed to recognize. Therefore, the more the Englishman shuts himself off when he is with an American the more likely the American is to break in to assure himself off that all is well. Tension lasts until the two get to know each other. The important point is that the spatial and architectural

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