[Prompt: Describe a meaningful cross-cultural experience you have had that highlights your awareness, understanding and appreciation of interaction with people from diverse backgrounds in a business setting.]
Shake hands at the beginning and end of every social or business meeting. Do not use your title when introducing yourself. Do use others’ titles and their last names when addressing them (until they invite you to do otherwise). These are a few of the unique cultural customs I learned in eastern Germany.
For seven months, I taught international business English in Chemnitz, Germany. The experience heightened my awareness, understanding, and appreciation of people from diverse backgrounds.
I primarily worked at the local university, but I was contracted on several occasions to other institutions and businesses. One school I worked for, Euro-Schulen Chemnitz, had many teachers from particularly diverse backgrounds. The different life experiences (including diverse nationalities, family customs, community mores, religious beliefs, ethnic background, and socio-economic levels) made for a particularly interesting faculty, and working there challenged my understanding of different people.
Teachers congregated in a break room between classes to discuss their impressions of teaching and living in a foreign culture. We universally agreed that our preconceived notions about Germans were mistaken. Certainly, efficiency, punctuality, and industriousness were apparent in some of the individuals we taught, but such hackneyed cultural archetypes were no more common than the fiercely independent, gun-touting Americans of Hollywood myth.
We also discussed the difficulties we faced in teaching students whose approach to learning was so different from our own. Teachers from different backgrounds shared their thoughts on education and problem-solving styles. Certain methods were unorthodox for some, the norm for others. Nonetheless, we worked as a multi-national team to help our students achieve their objectives.
At times, I struggled to motivate my German students. High unemployment, business closures, and discrimination from western Germans left even the most highly educated of my students feeling hopeless. Other teachers experienced the same problem, and many provided valuable insights since they had grown up in countries with similar economic and social conditions.
I had never experienced discrimination personally. I had never witnessed a wide-scale economic slowdown. To understand eastern Germans better, I discussed the differences between American and German cultures with my students. I described my culture and encouraged them to describe theirs. To give each student an opportunity to contribute to the group, I learned to leverage the unique characteristics of each. As my understanding of the students grew, I was able to develop better lesson plans and teaching methods. In the end, their level of motivation rose, and there was greater trust in the classroom.
点评：
此文描述了在德国的教学经历以及与学生沟通中对两国文化差异的认识。但从写作手法以及文章重点同样存在问题：
写作手法
从文章的开头到结尾并没有让读者看到一个很深刻的事例。只是淡淡的描述了自己在教育工作中的所见所闻。直到文章的结尾才开始进入描述个人的对跨国文化认识。给人的感觉完全是流水胀的将自己的经历纪录下来。对于描述经历然后再谈个人的认识理解，必须是通过一个目的明确和生动的事例。
文章重点不明确
此文究竟想重点应该是突出对商务交际与认识呢？还是作者对东德教育的认识，还是突出两国各大文化的差距，还是对德国经济生活条件的看法。作者是否可以抓住最后一段所提到信任与沟通为重点，表明不同的文化、异种只要通过人与人之间相互的理解与信任，这样才能更好的进行交流和沟通。
译文：
提示:描述你经历过的一次能深化你对跨文化商务交际的认识与理解,并能加深你对这种交流的喜爱和有意义的跨文化交际经历.
在每次一般性的社会会议或商业会议的开始与结束的时候,出于礼貌,都应与会者握手. 在介绍自己的时候不应加入自己的头衔.在称呼别人的时候,除非对方希望你这样做,一般不要加入别人的头衔和姓,这样并不礼貌.而在东德我也学会了一些当地特有的文化习俗.
我在德国的开姆尼茨市进行了7个月的国际商务英语的教学.这份经历深化了我对跨文化交际的的认识与理解,我也渐渐喜欢上了这种交流.
最开始我在一间当地的大学工作,而同时我也在一些机构和商业集团任职.在我工作的其中一间学校, 开姆尼茨欧洲学校里有许多来自不同文化背景的老师.不同的生活经历(不同的国家生活,不同的家庭习俗,不同的社交圈子,不同的宗教信仰,不同的民族背景,不同的社会经济水平等)使我们的学院氛围变得很有趣,而且在这样的工作环境下我也锻炼了自己与不同背景人相处的能力.
课间老师们都会聚在休息间谈论在这样一个异域文化里教学与生活的感受.我们大都赞成德国人在大家固有印象中都是被误解了.当然,高效,严谨,勤奋这些品质在一些我们所教的学生中展露无遗,但是这种陈腐的典型文化形态已经在日益风行的好莱坞迷幻式的高度独立,武器泛滥的美国文化下相形见绌.
我们也谈到了在与我们自己学习方式不同的学生在进行教导时候的困难.来自不同背景的教师们互相分享了各自对教学及问题解决方法的见解.有的方式对于某些老师来说也许是异端非常规的方法,而对其他的一些老师而言则是惯用手法.无论如何,我们作为一个跨国教学团队尽力地帮助学生们努力达成自己的目标.
有时我也会尽力去鼓励我的德国学生。高失业率，经济的萧条以及在工作上来自西德人的偏见等甚至让我的大部分拥有高学历的学生感到未来很渺茫.许多同样面临这种问题的老师，因为他们都曾与现在类似德国经济环境般的国家生活过,都能提供很多宝贵实用的建议.
我个人从未有过被歧视的经历.我也从未见证过大范围的经济衰退.为了更好地理解东德,我与学生们讨论过美国文化与德国文化的差别.我向大家用自己的语言形容了美国文化,然后鼓励他们也描述一下自己的文化.为了让每位同学都有机会对自己所在的组做出贡献,我学着去发掘每位同学独特的性格特质.随着我对同学们的了解加深,我也能制定出更好更适合大家的计划和教学方法.后来,他们的士气与学习劲头得到了很大提升,而大家也对彼此有了更大的相互信任。
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