Routine Activities and Deviant Behaviors: American, Dutch, Hungarian, and Swiss Youth

The current investigation examined cross-national similarities and differences in routine activities, measures of deviance, and their relationship in representative samples of 7,000 adolescents aged 1519 years (mean age: 17.5 years) from Hungary, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States. For the majority of youth, most of their time was spent in solitary activities, followed by peer activities, community/sports activities, and family activities; Hungarian youth reported spending a much greater amount of time with the family than adolescents from other countries, while Dutch youth spent far more time in solitary activities than their peers. Rates of total deviance were remarkably similar for American, Dutch, and Swiss youth; Hungarian youth reported substantially lower rates than all other adolescents. Finally, findings indicated that routine activities accounted for 18% for males and 16% for females of the variance explained in total deviance. Furthermore, with the exceptions of alcohol and drug use, country had very little or no explanatory power in deviance. The current study suggests that the utility and the explanatory power of the routine activities framework replicates across national boundaries.     

Watching Bran Nue Dae in Japan

While recently teaching in Japan, I used the Australian film Bran Nue Dae (2009), directed by Rachel Perkins, in one of my courses. The mixed, but non-Australian students, were interested to discuss why a film that was partly about family and historical trauma was a comedy. Extending from the interest, this article considers whether there has been a similar response in Australia to Indigenous-themed films. Are Indigenous issues in Australia, today, also understood to be best represented as serious; that is, to be presented in terms of trauma and with a focus on the difficult moments? Why might many people—the Tokyo students, but also non-Indigenous people in Australia—find it hard to laugh with (or even at) Aboriginal peoples doing funny things? Using Bran Nue Dae, and my students' reactions, this article examines the usefulness and limits of the sometimes careful attendance to issues of race and pain, which are often the way non-Indigenous people engage with Indigenous peoples and issues. Drawing on the success of Perkins' film, the article also explores the usefulness of comedy.     

Extending the General Theory of Crime to “The East:” Low Self-Control in Japanese Late Adolescents

This study examined the measurement of low self-control as well as the low self-control-deviance relationship in a sample of N = 335 Japanese late adolescents. Participants completed the Grasmick et al. low self-control instrument and the Normative Deviance Scale (NDS). Findings indicated that the low self-control measure was a valid and reliable indicator of low self-control among male and female Japanese late adolescents and that it was multi-dimensional. Furthermore, the study provided evidence that low self-control was consistently related to diverse measures of deviance, ranging from trivial to more serious norm-violating behaviors (e.g., assault). Finally, in a series of comparisons of partial unstandardized regression coefficients between Japanese and U.S. late adolescents, the study found that the low self-control-deviance relationship was invariant across all measures of deviance with the exception of alcohol use. Findings are discussed in terms of their importance for cross-cultural/cross-national predictions made by the General Theory of Crime.     

TABOO AND EUPHEMISM

Taboo is a ruin to the principle of appropriateness in using language and is to be avoided for polite communication. Different cultures, though sharing some, have different taboos, which makes it necessary to have some knowledge of taboo both in foreign language and in our own in order to avoid their use and to carry out cross-cultural communication effectively and successfully.Another solution of taboo is the use of euphemism, which is not only to avoid using taboo, but also to beautify the language. Both ...     

自主性理论下多元化口语教学研究

目前,国内英语口语教学中,相当数量的大学生未完全摆脱应试学习模式,课上听多说少,形成缄默英语;又因中学时即缺少目的语文化知识,表达起来多为中文思维模式。要解决这些问题,口语教师应借鉴一种有利于发挥学生自主能动性的多元教学模式,依靠多媒体教学手段来模拟交际场景,以促进学生听说能力的提升。     

跨文化翻译维护国家文化安全的策略研究

全球化进程既是机遇亦是挑战,世界格局也因此而发生了深刻的变革。机遇意味着发展,不同文化之间的竞争也随之愈演愈烈。在不同文明的交融和碰撞中,国家文化的安全问题凸显出来。国际格局呈现出多极化趋势,文化间的交流与合作是时代的潮流,但是国际环境依然存在不确定性因素,威胁世界和平的单边主义、霸权主义和强权政治等国际因素依然活跃。复杂多变的国际形势要求维护国家文化安全,跨文化翻译涉及文化间的交流,对文化安全负有责任。跨文化翻译工作者应当树立起文化安全意识,并将其与跨文化语境意识结合起来,从国家文化安全的立场出发,提升翻译的语言水平,尊重文化差异,灵活运用“归化”和“异化”的翻译策略,形成具有中国文化特色的英语表达模式。跨文化翻译事业要重点塑造和维护国家形象,积极参与国际对话,提升中国的国际话语权,还要吸收其他国家优秀的文化成果,增强中国文化的国际影响力和感召力,打破“沉默的螺旋”。跨文化翻译要始终坚持中国传统文化的民族性和先进性。在推进翻译事业的过程中,维护中国语言文字安全、风俗习惯安全、价值观安全和生活方式安全,从而全面提升中国文化的软实力,坚定中国模式和文化产品的自信心。跨文化翻译事业将融入中国走向世界的进程,通过对精品文化的内外流通严格把关,为国家的文化安全建设保驾护航。