Acting Chinese An Intermediate-Advanced Course in Discourse and Behavioral Culture 行为汉语

Acting Chinese is a year-long course that, together with the companion website, integrates language learning with the acquisition of cultural knowledge, and treats culture as an integral part of human behavior and communication.

Using modern day examples of Chinese discourse and behavioral culture, it trains students to perform in culturally appropriate fashion, whilst developing a systematic awareness and knowledge about Chinese philosophy, values and belief systems that will prepare them for further advanced study of Chinese language and culture. Each lesson contains simulated real-life communication scenarios that aim to provide a concrete opportunity to see how native speakers generally communicate or behave in social situations.

An essential guide for intermediate to advanced level second language learners, Acting Chinese provides a unique and modern approach to the acquisition of both cultural knowledge and language proficiency.

Preface

Teacher's guide 教材使用指南

List of abbreviations and symbols

List of characters in communication scenarios

Unit one

Cultural perspective: group mentality 群体意识

• Lesson one

Text: 一起吃饭是缘分

Behavior highlighted: love to be part of the fun 爱凑热闹

• Lesson two

Text: 人多力量大

Behavior highlighted: follow the pack 从众行为

• Lesson three

Text: 人人都是一个"角色"

Behavior highlighted: relation-based conduct 关系本位

Unit two

Cultural perspective: the concept of li 礼的观念

• Lesson four

Text: 礼多人不怪

Behavior highlighted: li-based civilities 礼俗客套

• Lesson five

Text: 中国人到底有没有礼貌？

Behavior highlighted: humble oneself and exalt others 自谦敬人

Unit three

Cultural perspective: harmony orientation 贵和思想

• Lesson six

Text: 礼之用，和为贵

Behavior highlighted: harmony as priority 以和为贵

• Lesson seven

Text: 忍字头上一把刀

Behavior highlighted: forbear and forgive 忍字当头

• Lesson eight

Text: 保持中道

Behavior highlighted: (take) the middle road 中庸之道

Unit four

Cultural perspective: face psychology 面子心理

• Lesson nine

Text: 面子??打开中国人性格之锁

Behavior highlighted: saving face 保全面子

• Lesson ten

Text: 伤什么也不能伤面子

Behavior highlighted: face work 面子运作

Unit five

Cultural perspective: rules of renqing 人情法则

• Lesson eleven

Text: 来而不往非礼也

Behavior highlighted: reciprocation 礼尚往来

• Lesson twelve

Text: 多个朋友多条路

Behavior highlighted: networking 建立人脉

Unit six

Cultural perspective: differentiated mode of association 差序格局

• Lesson thirteen

Text: 看不懂的中国人（一）

Behavior highlighted: distinguish people based on relationships 亲疏有别

• Lesson fourteen

Text: 看不懂的中国人（二）

Behavior highlighted: distinction between the upper and lower status 上下有别

Appendixes: reflection worksheet for cultural exploration 文化探索

Traditional Chinese character texts 課文繁體字版

Indexes

Pinyin-English vocabulary

English-Chinese vocabulary

Speech pattern index by lesson