National Cultural Background Research Articles

The Use of Strategies in Diplomatic Translation

With the continuous development of the world's political economy, global communication and dialogue in the post-pandemic era have returned to normal, and the demand for diplomatic translation has also increased. The dialectical unity of precision and ambiguity is a common linguistic feature of diplomatic language usage in various countries. As the important official access to cross-cultural communication, if some expressions in diplomatic translation cannot be properly handled, they may lead to serious diplomatic accidents. Restricted by the influence of national psychological traits, historical and cultural backgrounds, and values, there is a significant linguistic and cultural distance between Chinese and Western languages, causing the different translation methods adopted in translation. With specific language registers and translation strategies, countries have developed different diplomatic images and sought communication and cooperation This article mainly compares the translation skills taken by China and the US in the diplomatic context and analyzes the underlying reasons, exploring the impact of political stances on diplomatic translation.

On the Cultural Reflection of the Chinese Taboo Language

With the increasing communication between people from different cultures, many taboo language problems emerge. Taboo language is not only a linguistic phenomenon, but also a cultural phenomenon. Different social backgrounds and historical cultures will have different language taboos. Taboo language is changing continually with time. Taboos in the Chinese language reflect the cultural practices, religious beliefs and moral traditions of the Chinese people. Starting from "taboo language", this thesis adopts the method of analysis to study the origin and development of Chinese taboo language, introduces the national psychology, religious beliefs, social customs and cultural background of the Chinese nation, further explores the cultural roots that cause Chinese taboo language, and reveals the profound cultural connotations of Chinese taboo language.

The Cultural Connotation of Pu'er Tea

From production to drinking, Pu'er tea emphasizes the harmony and unity between man and nature in the simplicity of returning to nature, which is the national tea culture in Yunnan Only by understanding and interpreting Pu'er tea culture with Yunnan national culture can we do a good job in brand building of Pu'er tea Pu'er tea culture, that is, Yunnan national tea culture, can only be found in the specific national cultural background of Yunnan From production to drinking, Pu'er tea emphasizes the harmony and unity between man and nature in the simplicity of returning to nature.

Application of Intelligent Disability Rating Method Based on Big Data Cloud Platform

Action plan on aging is a major strategic issue in China. Rapid and accurate identification of the disabled elderly and evaluation of the disability level is the basis of targeted interventions in aging. In this paper, we have reviewed the studies on the methods and existing problems of disability rating at home and abroad. We found that there was no unified standard for the identification and evaluation of the disabled elderly, and there were many problems in the current evaluation methods, such as tedious evaluation contents, complex evaluation steps, high requirements for the evaluators, time-consuming evaluation process, abstract and complicated evaluation results, inability of patients and their families to conduct self-evaluation and poor guidance for practical work, etc. Based on the theory of "accurate identification of disabled people", our research team developed the national standard of "Longshi assessment method of activities of daily living" (Longshi Scale), which is in line with China's national conditions and cultural background. This scale has the characteristics of "simplicity" "quickness" "accuracy" and "time-saving", which can provide a reliable basis for the identification of the disabled elderly and the rating of disability. This study focused on the design concept, evaluation process, evaluation criteria and intelligent applications (big data cloud platform, mobile applications, WeChat in-app programs, etc.) of Longshi Scale. The scale has good application prospects in the disability evaluation of the elderly, disability prevention and health care, employment policy making, aging industry development, nursing human resources allocation and other field.

What roles do quality and cognitive absorption play in evaluating cloud-based e-learning system success? Evidence from medical professionals

Purpose The purpose of this study is to propose a hybrid model integrating the expectation-confirmation model with the views of cognitive absorption (CA) theory and updated DeLone and McLean information system success model to examine whether quality factors as antecedents to medical professionals’ beliefs can affect their continuance intention of the cloud-based e-learning system. Design/methodology/approach This study’s sampling frame was taken from among medical professionals working in hospitals with over 300 beds in Taiwan which had implemented the cloud-based learning management system (LMS) with a blend of asynchronous and synchronous technologies. Sample data for this study were collected from medical professionals at six hospitals in Taiwan. The data for this study were gathered by means of a paper-and-pencil survey, and each sample hospital that participated in this study was asked to identify a contact person who could distribute the survey questionnaires to medical professionals who had experience in using the cloud-based LMS in their learning. A total of 600 questionnaires were distributed, and 378 (63.0%) usable questionnaires were analyzed using structural equation modeling in this study. Findings This study proved that medical professionals’ perceived learner–content interaction quality, learner–system interaction quality, service quality, cloud storage service quality and learner–human interaction quality all positively caused their perceived usefulness, confirmation and CA elicited by the cloud-based e-learning system, which jointly explained their satisfaction with the system, and resulted in their continuance intention of the system. Research limitations/implications Several limitations and suggestions may open avenues for future research. First, the limitation of self-reported measures should be considered; future research may combine with qualitative data (e.g. semi-structured, narrative, in-depth interviews, focus group interviews and open-ended questions) to get more complete interpretations of medical professionals’ cloud-based e-learning continuance intention. Next, this study’s data were collected from hospitals in Taiwan only; given this study’s limited scope, future research may generalize this study’s sample to the respondents of other national cultural backgrounds and make cross-country comparisons to enhance the completeness of this study. Finally, this study’ results were based on cross-sectional data; future research may use a longitudinal analysis by taking into account the evolution of medical professionals’ cloud-based e-learning continuance intention over time. Originality/value This study fully evaluates interaction-related and cloud-related quality determinants through an understanding of medical professionals’ state of CA in explaining their cloud-based e-learning system continuance intention that is difficult to expound with only their utilitarian perception of the system. Hence, the results contribute to deep insights into an all-round quality evaluation in the field of medical professionals’ cloud-based e-learning continuance intention, and extrinsic and intrinsic motivators are both taken into consideration in this study’s theoretical development of medical professionals’ cloud-based e-learning continuance intention to acquire a more comprehensive and robust analysis.

Intertextuality as an Integral Component of the Modern Ukrainian Discourse (on the Example of Literary and Journalistic Styles)

The article highlights the impact of globalization processes on formation of dominant worldviews and guidelines, as well as ways and means of representing the latter. The state and prospects of studying intertextuality as an important element of modern world discourses in the projection on the national cultural background are studied. Attention is drawn to the high degree of development of both theoretical and applied aspects of intertextuality of discourses by representatives of academic communities of different countries and fields of knowledge, which gave grounds to establish the polydiscursive and interdiscursive nature of the object of analysis. Orientation of domestic experts on parameterization of mainly specific manifestations of intertextuality within certain discourses at the level of isolated intertexts and presence of gaps in the theoretical description of the phenomenon in the context of national specificity is stated. Emphasis is placed on the definite variability of the terminology due to the interdisciplinary nature of discursiveness and, accordingly, intertextuality. A complementary link has been established between postmodernism as the dominant philosophical worldview and the intertextuality of discourses. The specifics of the intertextuality of contemporary Ukrainian literary discourse with regard to various scientific studies are clarified. The concept of “intertextual memory” is introduced and justification of its use is given. The need to apply the term “postmodern intertextuality” in relation to contemporary literary discourse is considered. The common and distinctive features of the manifestation of intertextuality in literary and journalistic discourses are traced. The specifics of intertextuality of Ukrainian journalistic discourse are described. It is established that the precedent character of the communicative act is of exceptional importance for realization of intertextuality in journalistic discourse.

Researching intercultural competence in language learners: Gaps between theory and methodology

Traditional approaches to intercultural competence (IC) in language learning have been criticised for reproducing cultural differentialism, a theoretical perspective which emphasises that people are different due to essential distinctions between their ethnic or national cultural background. While differentialist views have been recognised as problematic in the theory of IC, it remains to be examined whether and how cultural differentialism is reflected in the methodological tools used in empirical research in the field. To shed light on this issue, the article analyses five questionnaires studying IC or related concepts: the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (van der Zee & van Oudenhoven, 2001), the Intercultural Development Inventory (Hammer et al., 2003), the Intercultural Communicative Competence Instrument (Arasaratnam, 2009), the Intercultural Effectiveness Scale (Portalla & Chen, 2010) and the UNGSPR?…K Questionnaire (Haukås et al., 2021b). The analysis reveals that cultural differentialism persists at the level of methodology. However, the extent to which questionnaires reproduce it varies according to how notions of culture, identity and differences are reflected in the questionnaire statements. The concluding section discusses the possible implications of using methodological tools that reproduce cultural differentialism. It also provides some recommendations that can help researchers avoid this problematic approach in an empirical study.

DINAMIKA KELOMPOK DALAM PROSES EMERGENCY DECISION MAKING (EDM): PEMBELAJARAN DARI SIMULASI TANGGAP DARURAT DI PEMBANGKIT LISTRIK TENAGA NUKLIR

Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) is a non-fossil energy source with very high output and most sustain power plant. NPP is also classified as environmentally friendly because, in normal processes, NPP produces zero Carbon Dioxide (CO2) as the primary air pollutant. However, if there is a disaster, the impact is exceptionally terrible. Besides causing fatalities, it can also result in hazardous health problems and takes hundreds of years to recover the surrounding natural environment. Therefore, to avoid disaster, the skills of nuclear power plant operators are critical, especially in overcoming the crisis. Typical challenges in Analog System-based NPP is the synergy among operators whose numbers are higher than in digital systems. This paper reflects learning outcomes from simulation to overcome the crisis in NPP, particularly the immediacy in making the right decisions. The simulation was carried out at the Analog System-Based NPP Simulation Center in Essen, Germany, and followed by a group of students from the Human Factor Engineering Master Program, Hochschule Niederrhein, with diverse national cultural backgrounds. One result is that the unique characteristics of each nation's cultural background can affect its effectiveness in overcoming the crisis. Two different aspects are initiative and assertive behavior among people inside the group.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ВІДТВОРЕННЯ ФОЛЬКЛОРНИХ ЕЛЕМЕНТІВ ПРИ ПЕРЕКЛАДІ УКРАЇНСЬКИХ НАРОДНИХ КАЗОК

Recently, more and more urgently we can note the increased interest in the problems and features of the translation of folklore text. The authors of works associated with each year appear, explore the features and certain difficulties of translating folklore genres and folk tales, in particular, the difficulties associated with reproducing the national cultural background in translation, the difficulties associated with maintaining a special form of existence, difficulties associated with the display folklore thinking, the difficulties associated with symbolic translation of a folklore text into the language of the text of the host tradition. Authors-translators of folklore most often face the problem of conveying words that can denote concepts inherent only in the original culture, traditions of the language. These words include words-dialectisms, words-archaisms, and, first of all, realities. All these units have a national and cultural background. The author-translator must take into account the genre and style features of the translated text, preserve not only the content, but also the emotional-style, colored background and make it accessible for the process of understanding native speakers, the text is translated. An adequate translation of folklore elements and realities of Ukrainian folk tales is of particular importance when working with a folk tale. The purpose of the article is to establish the peculiarities of the translation of Ukrainian realities and the revealed universal characteristics of the fairytale text, which can be used as a reserve of translation matches when reproducing the folklore elements of Ukrainian folk tales into English. The research used the following methods: analysis of special, network and methodological literature, synthesis and structuring of data obtained in theoretical analysis. The article examines the well-known realities of the Ukrainian folk tale and analyzes their English translation correspondences. In the course of the research, it was found that the fabulous color is one of the key features of the Ukrainian folk tale. Manifestations of a fabulous color are variability in the translation of national traditions.

Minimum standards of clinical practice for physical therapists working in intensive care units in Japan.

Early mobilization and rehabilitation has become common and expectations for physical therapists working in intensive care units have increased in Japan. The objective of this study was to establish consensus-based minimum clinical practice standards for physical therapists working in intensive care units in Japan. It also aimed to make an international comparison of minimum clinical practice standards in this area. In total, 54 experienced physical therapists gave informed consent and participated in this study. A modified Delphi method with questionnaires was used over three rounds. Participants rated 272 items as "essential/unknown/non-essential". Consensus was considered to be reached on items that over 70% of physical therapists rated as "essential" to clinical practice in the intensive care unit. Of the 272 items in the first round, 188 were deemed essential. In round 2, 11 of the 62 items that failed to reach consensus in round 1 were additionally deemed essential. No item was added to the "essential" consensus in round 3. In total, 199 items were therefore deemed essential as a minimum standard of clinical practice. Participants agreed that 42 items were not essential and failed to reach agreement on 31 others. Identified 199 items were different from those in the UK and Australia due to national laws, cultural and historical backgrounds. This is the first study to develop a consensus-based minimum clinical practice standard for physical therapists working in intensive care units in Japan.

Proposal of the Autopsy Guideline for Infectious Diseases: Preparation for the Post-COVID-19 Era

With the rapidly spreading coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic over the past few months, the world is facing an unprecedented crisis. Innumerable lives have been lost to this novel infectious disease, the nature of which supersedes conventional medical understanding. People around the world are sacrificing their daily lives and enduring the crisis regardless of national boundaries and cultural backgrounds. The COVID-19 pandemic is not just a global health crisis, several aspects of life in the post-COVID-19 era are also being contemplated. Experts in unison are warning that the upcoming changes in all areas of life could potentially be far more drastic than ever experienced in the entire human civilization. The medical community is no exception, and therefore, personnel involved in forensic medicine also need to be adequately prepared for the future. Forensic medicine is a branch of medicine dedicated to one of the most important stages of the human lifecycle and has always been at the forefront in times of unprecedented social change. We present new autopsy guidelines in forensic medicine, formulated based on the various infectious diseases that we presently live with and may encounter in the future. In formulation of these guidelines several considerations have been taken into account, namely, the role forensic pathologists should play in the post-COVID-19 era and the necessary preparations as well as the support needed from society to fulfill that role. The present COVID-19 outbreak should be a starting point for formulating improvements in current practices in forensic science, including autopsy biosafety practices and the medicolegal death investigation system. Key Words: Autopsy · Infectious disease · Guideline · COVID-19 · Forensic medicine

Physical Education in Primary Schools: Cognitive Stimulation, National Active Games and Cultural Background

This study describes the features of active game-based learning in primary schools. The survey involved 38 national sports coaches and 29 school teachers. Based on previous empirical findings, this study probes whether there is an established opinion about national games in the school curriculum among teachers and experts. Primary school students are offered many techniques to form necessary skills during the execution of physical exercises. The findings demonstrate that different games and competitions are able to expand the social circle of children. In the long run, the relationships between individual tribes and tribal unions became consistent and global. Games and competitions favoured this tendency, contributing to a gradual formation of behavioural norms in people of different generations.

Comparative Slavic phraseology and paremiology: Cornerstones and stumbling blocks

The comparison of phraseological units of various Slavic languages is based on a unified system of concepts and their oppositions. Czech and Russian, Polish and Russian, Russian and Bulgarian, and Russian and Ukrainian idioms and paremias are studied in the article. Russian idioms such as белая ворона, паршивая овца and Polish biały kruk, czarna owca, Czech idioms obĕtní beránek and Russian жертвенный агнец, козел отпущения are examples of comparison. The sources of the material for the study are published bilingual dictionaries of phraseological units, as well as articles by linguists from different countries on this topic. Numerous semantic differences (connotations) were found that confirm the idiomatic character of each language. The equivalence of phraseological units is hindered by their polysemy and different semantic scope. And the content of proverbs reflects more the morality of society at a certain stage of its history than the linguistic image of the world. The influence of the national cultural background on the phraseological productivity (“phrasemogeneity”) of lexemes is demonstrated in the work. In particular, the words цървул, калпак, бъклица, трън, denoting the facts of rural life, are productive for Bulgarian phraseology. An attempt is made in the article to systematize the differential features that distinguish phraseological units of different languages. These are such oppositions as: “person” — “object”, “space” — “time”, “spiritual” — “material”, “assessment: approving/disapproving/neutral”, “external manifestation” — “internal state”, “scale: general — private”, and “stylistic coloring: from rough to sublime”. The depth and thoroughness of the semasiological analysis revise the thesis about the universal phraseological fund. The article discusses and develops some provisions of professor Valery Mokienko’s concept.

Advertisement. Specific character of translation

The article describes the peculiarities of translating advertisements. Advertisements perform a very important function in the society – they distribute information about the product. Foreign goods make up a significant share of the Russian market today. This fact makes research in the field of translating advertisements popular and relevant.Creating texts of advertisements requires some background knowledge in different fields – in science, history, music, and painting. This knowledge helps to make bright, memorable images; transmits information about the advertised product.Language game is typical for advertising slogans. It adds expressiveness to the text. Language game is very effective. It performs different functions: esthetic, gnostic, emphatic, visual and concealing function that raise the interest to the advertised product. Language game improves the text, makes it easy to understand and memorable.The analysis of advertisements and their translations highlights their semantic, structural and stylistic peculiarities. Translation of advertisements applies communicative approach. To translate texts of this type it is necessary to take into account some presuppositions: national psychology, historical traditions, and cultural background. Extralinguistic component of an advertisement needs use of translation techniques.

Empirical analysis of ‘level of comfort’ among international workers at multinational firms

The research is grounded in responses of multicultural team members at multinational workplaces from 14 different countries that provided their preferences or choice of nationalities of members that they would like to hire/work with. Results show clear differences in ‘levels of comfort’ displayed by managers and members having particular national cultural background in what concerns their preferences and choices of colleagues with origins from other national cultures. These variations results into designation of rankings to the destination regions based on preference by the respondents from the source countries. Results also show a somewhat common pattern of preferences irrespective of their national origins that has been described.

Motivational Projections of Russian Spontaneous Speech

The article deals with the semantic, pragmatic and structural features of words, phrases, dialogues motivation, in the contemporary Russian popular speech. These structural features are characterized by originality and unconventional use. Language material is the result of authors` direct observation of spontaneous verbal communication between people of different social and age groups. The words and remarks were analyzed in compliance with the communication system of national Russian language and cultural background of popular speech. Studies have discovered that in spoken discourse there are some other ways to increase the expression statement. It is important to note that spontaneous speech identifies lacunae in the nominative language and its vocabulary system. It is proved, prefixation is also effective and regular way of the same action presenting. The most typical forms, ways and means to update language resources as a result of the linguistic creativity of native speakers were identified.

Structural health monitoring of historical heritage in Italy: some relevant experiences

The architectural heritage in the world represents a fundamental resource and a sign of the national cultural background. Its maintenance and preservation require a balance between the structural safety needs and the respect for their architectural and cultural value. Structural health monitoring (SHM) is increasingly emerging as a unique tool to achieve such a balance, through a proper combination of traditional and innovative techniques. This paper presents some recent experiences of SHM applied to the historical heritage in Italy, discussing relevant tools and reporting some of the most significant case studies.

MA Students' Foreign Language Learning Motivation and Autonomy in an International Learning Context

How motivated and autonomous are tertiary-level students of English? What role does their national cultural background play in their learner profiles? Research in these areas does not seem to abound. However, since advanced learners have relatively long foreign language learning histories, they could provide valuable insights into the phenomenon in focus. This article discusses the language learning motivation and learner autonomy of MA Applied Linguistics students in Barcelona originating from a variety of countries, including Spain, China, and Japan. Its theoretical framework rests on the process model of L2 motivation (Dörnyei & Ottó, 1998). A small-scale qualitative study was carried out using retrospective interviews as an instrument for data collection. It was learned that MA students are highly motivated, committed to their goals, and possess significant learner autonomy. Different patterns emerged across the examined national cultural backgrounds in learning environment preference, management of time, concept of learner autonomy, and performance history attribution. Pedagogical implications include that university teachers of EFL should be prepared to teach in a multicultural class and promote intercultural skills.

Pregnancy Discrimination in the National Courts: Is There a Common EU Framework?

As a case study this article compares how German and Dutch courts integrate the European equality framework within their national systems using pregnancy discrimination in the field of employment law. In the European Union (EU), the principle of non-discrimination is well developed and prohibits vertical as well as horizontal discrimination in order to foster substantive equality. Today, it is one of the key elements of the EU human rights policy and covers a wide range of protected grounds. As a result, national courts cannot ignore the EU equality framework. However, the reception of EU non-discrimination law still depends on the national legal and cultural background and, in particular, the response of the national courts to the European challenge to readdress national understandings of equality, which often focus on vertical relationships alone. This article evaluates how and to what extent the EU non-discrimination law framework has impacted on national approaches to pregnancy discrimination. It highlights the differences between two Member States and national influences on the application of the EU rules but also demonstrates the EU influence, which can promote the development of a coherent equality framework, though it may also hinder such a development.

Achieving Subjective Well-Being Around the World: The Moderating Influence of Gender, Age and National Goals for Socializing Children

We propose that one’s subjective well-being (SWB) arises from the satisfaction of one’s basic needs, but that the importance of attaining specific needs will vary according to one’s gender, age, and national culture. We argue that the role of one’s national-cultural background in that process can best be unpackaged in terms of the emphasis of a nation’s citizens on the goals for socializing children, namely, self-directedness versus other-directedness and civility versus practicality. Accordingly, we analyzed the responses of 65,025 persons across 50 nations to questions on the World Values Survey about their perceived state of health, financial satisfaction, trust of in-group members, and sense of personal control over events. Using HLM analysis, we showed that all four factors were significant predictors of SWB pan-nationally, but that the linkages of financial satisfaction and trust of in-group members to SWB were moderated by a nation’s self-directedness and civility; those of financial satisfaction and health were moderated by age. These results indicate that the socialization emphases characterizing one’s national culture operate to make some of the key contributors to one’s SWB more or less predictive. Cross-national studies are thereby vindicated in their capacity to reveal nation-specific formulas for psychological processes leading to SWB.