Ｍｙ Ｕｎｄｅｒｓｔａｎｄｉｎｇ ｏｆ Ｒｏｂｅｒｔ Ｇ．Ｈａｎｖｅｙ’ｓ Ｆｏｕｒ Ｌｅｖｅｌｓ ｏｆ Ｃｒｏｓｓ－ｃｕｌｔｕｒａｌ Ａｗａｒｅｎｅｓｓ

I. Robert Hanvey’s Four Levels of Cross-cultural Awareness

As to cross-cultural awareness， American educator Robert G. Hanvey put forward the theory of Four Levers of Cross-cultural Awareness. According to him， cross-cultural awareness is one of a difficult dimension to attain. Contact with the local people of other culture does not necessarily lead to cross-cultural awareness and understanding of an utterly different culture. Only when people respect and accept the objective culture and participate in it，the participation must be reinforced by rewards that matter to the participant， can it possible for them to achieve understanding of other culture and attain cross-cultural awareness.

II. My Understanding of the Four Levels:

In my viewpoint， Robert G. Hanvey had given us a good way to cross-cultural awareness.

For example， when we learn English at the very beginning， every one of us may learn a very useful expression: “How old are you?”. At that time， the teacher may add “Although it is useful， but don’t ask a foreigner this question， esp. a women”. We got this information from our teacher， and we just thought it was strange and didn’t know why. This level belongs to the first level of Hanvey’s four-level theory.

Then， once I met a pretty lady in the street， and I wanted to talk with her to practice my spoken English. I greeted her with “Hi， morning!”， after a few minute’s chatting， I asked: “How old are you?”. The pretty lady glared at me first， then turned away and left without a word. I was very angry and frustrated， and thought that was incomprehensible and unbelievable. This is the second level.

Later， I studied English further， and I began to analyze this phenomenon intellectually. I found that western cultures are quite different from ours， women want to be young， and the old want to remain young， so they usually keep their age as a secret， thus I began to understand and accept their behavior， and think their behavior believable. This level is the third one.

In order to understand the western culture fully， I tried to study their culture in detail， and feel their culture from the standpoint of a westerner. I found that in western countries， people appreciate respect， privacy， freedom and independence to a deeper degree than our Chinese. That’s why old people want to show others that they are still energetic， young， useful and still capable and why people conceal their income， and their age， etc. I finally understand them， and now can know the kind of action they may take from their standpoint under certain circumstance. This is the highest level of Hanvey’s four -level theory.

III. My Application of Hanvey’s Four Levels of Cross-cultural Awareness:

I still hold the opinion that it is not enough for us to know the four-level theory of Hanvey. The most important is that I make it serve my teaching practice， since I am a college teacher teaching English to non-English major students.

I think we should pay equal attention to cultural teaching and language teaching.

Some teachers only emphasize the teaching of pure language， so when students encounter some practical problems relative to cultural background， they become puzzled. A case in point is some students are puzzled to know the real meaning of “it’s raining cats and dogs”. However， if the teacher can tell the students that “In the 17th century， the underdrainage system in western countries was very poor， so if it rained very hard， dirty water together with not only rubbish but also the bodies of cats and dogs would flew out of the gutter”， the teaching result would be better.

But how could we make cultural teaching?

I think we should follow the pattern of “spot-line-surface” to arrange cultural teaching.

Here the “spot” refers to the scattered cultural information reflected in language. For example， it’s very difficult to translate the sentence “John’s brother married Linda’s sister” into Chinese because we can’t know the “brother” is the elder or younger brother of John， and the “sister” is Linda’s elder or younger sister. But our Chinese language has special name for elder brother/sister and younger brother/sister respectively. This kind of cultural difference indicates the conception of relative and family of Chinese culture is more important than the one of western culture. In this period， students should be exposed to the English culture to the greatest degree so as to accumulate the spots of scattered cultural information.

Here “l(fā)ine” refers to the relatively comprehensive system of certain aspect of culture by the accumulation of some “spots”. With the increasing in “spots” of cultural information， students get to know how to greet other people， how to initiate a conversation， and how to take leave， etc.

After the seedtime of “spots” and “l(fā)ines”， students are supposed to achieve the highest level: “surface”， which means， in this level， students integrate the knowledge from “spots” and “l(fā)ines” to form a deeper understanding and assessment of the objective culture and apply it to the practice of cross-cultural communication.

Only in this way， can we improve students’ ability of cross-cultural communication. And I believe that’s the most important thing I’ve learned from Hanvey’s four-level theory.

（050228 河北省石家莊聯(lián)合技術(shù)職業(yè)學(xué)院）