French engagement versus British commitment. Was it interlingual miscommunication or political manipulation?

ABSTRACT

The efforts undertaken to establish the contemporary European Union started many years earlier. The history of establishing a pan-European organization is interesting not only for historians and economists but also translators and linguists as it is the history of interlingual communication (negotiations and agreements). One such negotiation was allegedly ineffective due to the difference in understanding the French term engagement and its English equivalent employed by translators and interpreters, that is to say the English term commitment. The authors aim at presenting the political background of negotiations and the social semiotic analysis of the terms in question in order to provoke the reader to find the answer to the question whether the negotiation was broken due to interlingual miscommunication resulting from erroneously chosen equivalent or it was destined to failure from the very beginning due to socio-political and economic interests of negotiating parties. In order to achieve that goal, the authors have analysed notes exchanged between the governments of France and Great Britain in course of negotiation. The history of negotiation and the linguistic analysis are combined to illustrate the complexity of meaning construction and the semiotic implications of the contextual dependence of meanings of terms and their dynamic evolution in time and space.     

Doing Well vs. Feeling Well: Understanding Family Dynamics and the Psychological Adjustment of Chinese Immigrant Adolescents

Despite their average high levels of educational achievement, Asian American students often report poor psychological and social adjustment, suggesting an achievement/adjustment paradox. Yet, the reasons for this paradox remain unclear. Drawing on 5-year longitudinal qualitative interview data, this paper compares the family dynamics of two groups of adolescents from Chinese immigrant families: non-distressed adolescents (n = 20) who have high levels of academic achievement and high levels of psychological well-being; and distressed adolescents (n = 18) who have high levels of academic achievement but low levels of psychological well-being. Findings suggest that the two groups of families differed in parenting approaches after migration, parent–child communication, parental expectations, and parent–child relations. Implications for Asian American adolescent and youth development are discussed.

日本及中国的稻作文化与祭祀

中日两国历史久远的稻作文化及相关的祭祀,虽有地域、民族的差异,但也有不少类似之处.这与文化的传播与交流不无关系.通过实证性、复合性的比较研究,可以阐发东亚稻作文化的一些共同特征.     

Living and Teaching Across Cultures

As long as one lives within the confines of a single culture it is difficult to achieve cross-cultural awareness. Multiculturalism is often simply the tolerance of a dominant culture for minority cultures. Cross-cultural awareness is a state of mind in which one is alert to alternity , the existence of others possessing different and equally valid world views and ways of life. This can be acquired living within or alongside other cultures, when one's own and others' strangeness become readily apparent. Culture shock involves just such a realization. The challenge for the teacher of international relations is to convey the possibility of alternity to students in the classroom. After all, international relations is above all about the interaction between communities possessing separate identities and autonomous wills. The article discusses ways of cultivating cross-cultural awareness, comparing the difficulties of doing so in a society under siege—Israel—with the greater scope available in the cosmopolitan setting of an elite American university.     

New Public Management and Administrative Reforms in Nigeria

This study examines the Nigerian attempts to implement the New Public Management (NPM) reform. The paper aims at identifying the strand, the extent of progress made and the reason(s) for success/failure recorded. The author finds that the poor success story of the reform is as a result of the preference of the more attractive cost-saving neoliberal economic aspect to the more involving and demanding bureaucratic aspect, the inconsistencies in program implementation, and lack of strong political will common to adopting reform in developing countries. The article recommends that reforms require dealing with the critical challenges of institutionalization, inconsistency and legitimization.     

提升中俄经贸关系需要媒体助阵

从新闻传播的真实性与公正性原则出发,探讨媒体在中俄战略伙伴关系中发挥的三种作用:“尊重事实避免虚假新闻”、“摒弃炒作负面新闻”和“引导沟通充当经贸桥梁”。目的在于从大众传媒领域找到推进中俄战略伙伴关系的新动力。     

中韩建交以来两国文化教育交流综述

中韩文化教育交流是中韩全面合作伙伴关系的重要组成部分。中韩建交15年来,两国的文化教育交流取得了丰硕的成果。两国政府签署了一系列的交流协议,中国出现了"韩流"现象,韩国也掀起了强劲的"汉风",中国的韩国问题研究和韩国语教育发展迅速,韩国的汉学研究和中文教育持续升温,来华韩国留学生和赴韩中国留学生的人数稳居所在国外国留学生之首。两国文化教育交流的快速发展得益于政府的支持、经贸合作的稳步增长以及两国文化的渊源关系。     

公共卫生事件风险沟通中社会信任问题研究

在风险社会中,有针对性地进行风险沟通已成为应对风险不确定性的有效手段.随着我国经济的迅速发展,具有"脱域"特质的陌生人社会逐步形成,且移动智能终端进一步普及使得生活场景向虚拟化趋势发展,社会生活现状的改变对风险沟通提出了新要求.应从风险治理、立法完善、专家系统以及公众参与等方面着手完善公共卫生事件风险沟通中的社会信任机...     

The Effects of Blaming Others for Legislative Inaction on Individual and Collective Evaluations

Legislators commonly blame others for gridlock. We posit that legislators may engage in this type of rhetoric to minimize the individual reputational risks associated with legislative inaction or to boost the relative standing of their party. In a series of six survey experiments, we find that blaming others for inaction undermines voters’ evaluations of individual legislators who engage in this rhetorical strategy. This effect is particularly pronounced among out-partisans and independents. However, blaming rhetoric can also enhance the standing of the blamer’s party relative to the opposing party across all groups (including out-partisans), in large part by undermining the reputations of these other actors. Ultimately, we show that when an individual legislator engages in blaming rhetoric, the immediate net electoral effects are null. This suggests that coordinated efforts by a party to blame opponents may improve the party’s relative standing, while imposing few costs on those engaged in blaming.     

Communication uncertainty and the fictional role of organizational culture

This theoretical investigation aims to critically analyze the concept of organizational culture as an example of ＂organizational fiction＂. In order to benefit from unveiling organizational fictions, it is necessary to be aware of how illusion is linked to stability and predictability. It is here proposed to consider communicational uncertainties as positive qualities in flexible organizations, where communicative flows between organizational spheres and individual spaces of employees or managers engender new ideas and foster creativity. Thus, a strong organizational culture, especially in intercultural contexts, may be a barrier to organizational health, but a strong and unified corporate identity is necessary to guarantee organizational stability and cohesion. The solution is the interplay between stability and contingent openness toward external influences.