Unit 2

Text A

Listening

First Listening
Before listening to the tape, have a quick look at the following words.

conversation
谈话

comment on
评论

bowling
保龄球

lane
球道

connect
联系

converse
交谈

switch
转换

Second Listening
Listen to the tape again. Then, choose the best answer to each of the following questions.

1. What was the main cause of the problem discussed in the listening?
A) She was using a Western style in conversations among the Japanese.
B) She insisted on speaking English even though she was in Japan.
C) She spoke the Japanese language poorly.
D) She was an American woman married to a Japanese man.
2. Which of the following comparisons does the listening make about Japanese and Western conversational styles?
A) The Japanese style is like tennis and the Western style is like volleyball.
B) The Western style is more athletic than the Japanese style.
C) The Japanese style is like bowling and the Western style is like tennis.
D) The Japanese style is like singles tennis and the Western style is like doubles.
3. The author considers the Western conversational style to be ____________.
A) more interactive (互动的)
B) louder
C) more personal
D) better
4.The author considers the Japanese conversational style to be ____________.
A) easier to adjust to（适应）
B) more strictly (严谨地) organized
C) more traditional
D) better
5.The author concludes that ____________.
A) once you know the differences, it is easy to adjust to them
B) because she is American, she will never really understand Japan
C) life will be much easier for her students than it was for her
D) it remains difficult to switch from one style to another

Pre-reading Questions

1.Look at the title and guess what this passage is about.
2. Go over the first paragraph quickly and find out who the author is. Is she a Japanese born and educated in the United States or an American married to a Japanese?
3. Have you ever talked with a native speaker of English? What problems have you encountered in talking with a foreigner?

Conversational Ballgames

Nancy Masterson Sakamoto

After I was married and had lived in Japan for a while, my Japanese gradually improved to the point where I could take part in simple conversations with my husband, his friends, and family. And I began to notice that often, when I joined in, the others would look startled, and the conversation would come to a halt. After this happened several times, it became clear to me that I was doing something wrong. But for a long time, I didn't know what it was.
Finally, after listening carefully to many Japanese conversations, I discovered what my problem was. Even though I was speaking Japanese, I was handling the conversation in a Western way.
Japanese-style conversations develop quite differently from western-style conversations. And the difference isn't only in the languages. I realized that just as I kept trying to hold western-style conversations even when I was speaking Japanese, so were my English students trying to hold Japanese-style conversations even when they were speaking English. We were unconsciously playing entirely different conversational ballgames.
A western-style conversation between two people is like a game of tennis. If I introduce a topic, a conversational ball, I expect you to hit it back. If you agree with me, I don't expect you simply to agree and do nothing more. I expect you to add something — a reason for agreeing, another example, or a remark to carry the idea further. But I don't expect you always to agree. I am just as happy if you question me, or challenge me, or completely disagree with me. Whether you agree or disagree, your response will return the ball to me.
And then it is my turn again. I don't serve a new ball from my original starting line. I hit your ball back again from where it has bounced. I carry your idea further, or answer your questions or objections, or challenge or question you. And so the ball goes back and forth.
If there are more than two people in the conversation, then it is like doubles in tennis, or like volleyball. There's no waiting in line. Whoever is nearest and quickest hits the ball, and if you step back, someone else will hit it. No one stops the game to give you a turn. You're responsible for taking your own turn and no one person has the ball for very long.
A Japanese-style conversation, however, is not at all like tennis or volleyball, it's like bowling. You wait for your turn, and you always know your place in line. It depends on such things as whether you are older or younger, a close friend or a relative stranger to the previous speaker, in a senior or junior position, and so on.
The first thing is to wait for your turn, patiently and politely. When your moment comes, you step up to the starting line with your bowling ball, and carefully bowl it. Everyone else stands back, making sounds of polite encouragement. Everyone waits until your ball has reached the end of the lane, and watches to see if it knocks down all the pins, or only some of them, or none of them. Then there is a pause, while everyone registers your score.
Then, after everyone is sure that you are done, the next person in line steps up to the same starting line, with a different ball. He doesn't return your ball. There is no back and forth at all. And there is always a suitable pause between turns. There is no rush, no impatience.
No wonder everyone looked startled when I took part in Japanese conversations. I paid no attention to whose turn it was, and kept snatching the ball halfway down the alley and throwing it back at the bowler. Of course the conversation fell apart, I was playing the wrong game.
This explains why it can be so difficult to get a western-style discussion going with Japanese students of English. Whenever I serve a volleyball, everyone just stands back and watches it fall. No one hits it back. Everyone waits until I call on someone to take a turn. And when that person speaks, he doesn't hit my ball back. He serves a new ball. Again, everyone just watches it fall. So I call on someone else. This person does not refer to what the previous speaker has said. He also serves a new ball. Everyone begins again from the same starting line, and all the balls run parallel. There is never any back and forth.
Now that you know about the difference in the conversational ballgames, you may think that all your troubles are over. But if you have been trained all your life to play one game, it is no simple matter to switch to another, even if you know the rules. Tennis, after all, is different from bowling.
(801 words)

New Words

conversational
a. 会话的，交谈的

conversation
n. an informal talk in which people exchange news, feelings, and thoughts 谈话； 会谈

ballgame
n. any game played with a ball 球类活动