СЕМИНАР № 4
НАЦИОНАЛЬНЫЙ ХАРАКТЕР, НАЦИОНАЛЬНЫЙ МЕНТАЛИТЕТ
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Приведите определения «культурно заряженных» слов
John Wayne approach, Back-slapping American; keep up with the Joneses, recycle, to brown bag, flag-waving American, Mexican promotion, car pool, majority rule, powwow, grass roots
Text # 18
Прочтите заголовок и подзаголовок нижеследующего текста и определите, какого рода проблема будет обсуждаться в тексте.
NOT MADE FOR WALKING
Why won’t Europeans move to where the jobs are? That reluctance is one of the biggest barriers to a more dynamic EU.
There is a scene in Michael Moor’s “Roger & Me”, the 1989 documentary featuring GM factory closings, in which a laid-off worker in depressed Flint, Michigan, can’t leave town. All the moving companies and truck rentals are booked for six months, it seems, as a daily trek of job-seekers set out for brighter prospects in California or Texas.
Compare that with Europe. Two weeks ago GM announced a fresh round of layoffs at its struggling German plants. But how many of those unlucky 10,000 workers will be loading moving vans in Bochum and Rüsselsheim and heading for booming Bavaria, let alone Budapest or Barcelona? Not more than a handful, if that. Like hundreds of thousands before them, nearly all will go home and collect unemployment checks – probably for years. Says Werner Marquis, spokesman for the Bochum unemployment office: “Work isn’t something people move for around here.”
Как вы думаете, на какие черты национального характера ссылается автор (Стивен Тейль) и использует для сравнения культур? К каким ценностям он обращается? Насколько американские и европейские ценности сопоставимы?
Or elsewhere in Europe. Like those German workers Marquis says are “securely rooted in their region,” the vast majority of the now 18 million jobless Europeans are unlikely to ever look beyond their own backyards for work. No matter that regions such as southern Germany, northern Italy and much of England are close to full employment and practically begging for outside labor. Europeans just won’t go to where the jobs are.
Какова причина, по мнению Марки, того, что европейцы предпочитают оставаться безработными? Разделяете ли вы его мнение?
Think of Silicon Valley, just one of many regions in America that sucks in (and spits out) tens of thousands of new workers every year. The secret of its success is intellectual interchange, fed by continual infusions of new blood. Draw the contrast to Europe: in 2000, only 16.4 percent of its workers had been with their employer for less than a year, compared with 30 percent in the United States. Just 1.4 percent of Europeans moved between regions that year, compared with 5.9 percent of Americans. When it comes to moving between EU member countries, only 0.1 percent of the total EU population – or 225,000 people – took advantage of their right to live and work anywhere in the Union.
Источник: Stefan Theil. Not Made for Walking // Newsweek. – November 1, 2004. – p. 36 - 38
Подумайте о возможной реакции европейцев на эту статью. Приведет ли подобное описание к какому-нибудь конфликту когнитивное замешательство, легкое культурное столкновение (конфликт с благими намерениями, конфликт). Сравните ваши предположения с мнениями, изложенными в ответ на появление этой статьи.
Ваше мнение _____________________________________________
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A Reluctance to Relocate
Thanks for the great article about Europeans’ reluctance to relocate… This barrier is a problem when it comes to flexibility and adaptability in employment because of our different historical backgrounds. It will take time for people to change their attitudes to job possibilities in other EU countries and the need to move. When I was in the States, I was surprised to learn that the average American lives in up to four different states in the course of a lifetime. We Europeans are still a long way from such a cosmopolitan lifestyle and we are definitely not yet the “big melting pot” of nations. Instead, we are still a patchwork of many nations that retain their individual character and national identity. Unlike the States, Europe is not a behemoth with one language, so relocating for employment reasons is not common here except for the minority that has the training and higher education.
Source: A letter from Prader hans Leibnitz, Austria // Newsweek. – December 20, 2004. – p. 10
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You are right, we aren’t made for walking. It’s true, too, that to move to any European country, you need to speak its language. But we could, and don’t move inside our own countries. A big mistake. The Catalan government has made it obligatory for kids to learn English at school. It’s a start, until arrogant countries like France understand that English must be our common language.
Source: A letter from Micky Ricart, Barcelona, Spain // Newsweek. – December 20, 2004. – p. 10
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Stefan Theil is wrong: nobody in Germany or Europe needs workers from Bochum or Rüsselsheim. And moving to Poland and working for Polish wages makes no sense for people from Western Europe. Do you think people in America would move to the South for lower wages and a lower standard of living (as we have in Eastern Europe)? Finally, unlike in America, every state in Europe speaks its own language and has a unique culture. If you have nothing to do with that, it’s easy to walk away from it.
Source: A letter from George Fisher, Weissach, Germany//Newsweek. – December 20, 2004. – p. 10
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You ask us to imagine a prospective worker prohibited from working until he gets his official qualification from the country where he moved by comparing this to a move from Michigan to Florida. But this comparison makes no sense: Michigan and Florida are in the same country. How about moving from Detroit to Mexico City, or from St. Louis to Montreal? These cities are all in the same NAFTA region. But are the professional qualifications of that hypothetical worker recognized the way they’d be for the worker moving from Michigan to Florida?
Source: A letter from Atsushi Taira, Takamatsu, Japan // Newsweek. – December 20, 2004. – p. 10
Text # 19
На основе интервью Олега Щербинского1, данного газете «Известия», выделите национальную черту русских.
Известия: Почему в итоге вас выпустили, как вы считаете?
Олег Щербинский: Думаю, без участия народа суд бы не одумался.
Известия: Как вы узнали об отмене приговора?
Олег Щербинский: Просто пришли, сказали – «свободен!»
Известия: Накануне вас перевезли из СИЗО г. Бийска в Барнаул. Вы подумали, что это признак того, что вас могут освободить?
Олег Щербинский: Старался не думать об этом, но что-то ожидал. То, что повезли сюда, - это был такой намек. В Бийске сидел в камере на двоих, уже обжился. Даже поправляться начал – режим, тишина. Вчера, когда поехал сюда, мне пожелали не возвращаться.
Известия: Вы имеете право на реабилитацию. Будете требовать возмещения морального и материального ущерба?
Олег Щербинский: Пока не думал об этом. Я первые минуты на воле – какой иск, какая компенсация?
Известия, № 51, 24.03.2006. - С. 3