Polite But Thirsty by Yaping Tang

1. Polite But Thirsty
-Yaping Tang, China

2. Introduction
• A native of the People’s Republic of China
• A bilingual education teacher in the USA
• Appeared in a 1996 volume of MATSOL Currents, a
publication for teacher of English as a second language
• Discusses the culture shock she experienced when she moved
to USA
• focuses on some of the cultural variations in between Chinese
and American Society
• tries to make the Chinese Students aware about the
American culture

3. Main Points
American
• No certain norms and values
of the classroom
• Directness
• Informality
• Direct use of compliments
• Open the gifts just in front of
the guests
• Tipping system is highly
popular
Chinese
• Proper discipline in the
classroom
• Indirectness
• Formality
• Indirect use of compliments
• Open the gifts after departure
of the guests
• tipping system is rarely
practiced.

5. Conclusion
The main intension is to reduce the cultural misunderstandings
and enable the Chinese students to learn the American Culture
before they come to America.