原文標題：Language and Culture

Once a group of Chinese were visiting the home of a fairly well to do American .As they were shown around the house ,they commented, "you have a very nice home. It's so beautiful." The hostess smiled with obvious pleasure and replied in good American fashion "Thank you" -which caused surprise among some of her Chinese guests. Later, While conversing at the dinner table, the host regarded to the Chinese interpreter, a young lady who had graduated not long ago from a Chinese university , "your English is excellent. Really quite fluent. "To this she demurred, "No, no. My English is quite poor"-an answer that he had not expected and found a bit puzzling.
Was the American hostess` reply immodest, as it seemed to some of the Chinese?

Was the young Chinese interpreter's remark insincere, as it sounded to the Americans? In both cases the answer is no. To English - Speaking people, praise is to be accepted, generally with a remark like " Thank you ".some not unworthy achievement or thing ,Therefore ,there should however, the customary reply to a compliment would be to claimly enough, or that success was more a matter of luck or some other circumstances. Acceptance of a compliment would imply conceit or lack of manners. So. In the two cases above, the reason for such different reactions was differences in customs and habits. Each was interpreting what the other said according to his or her own culture.

譯文標題：語言和文化

有一次，幾個中國人到一位比較富裕的美國人家里去做客。主人引他們參觀 自已的住所，中國客人說："你們的房子多好啊。非常漂亮。"主人聽了十分高興， 按美國 習慣笑著回答說："謝謝"。有些中國客人對她的回答感到意外。后來，在 餐桌上談話時，主人對大學畢業不久的中國女翻譯說："你的英語很好，很流利"。 女翻譯謙虛地說："不！不！我的英語說得很不好"。主人沒想到她會這樣的回 答，感到有些迷惑不解。 那位美國主婦的回答是否像有些中國人認為的那樣：不夠謙虛"呢？
那們年輕的中國女翻譯的回答是否像美國主人聽起來那樣"不夠誠懇"呢？

其實，美國主婦的回答并非不謙虛，中國女翻譯回答也不是不誠懇。講英語 的人聽到別人贊揚是誠心誠意的，所贊揚的事是值得贊揚的。因此不應"假裝 自卑"或"幫作謙虛"。但是，對中國人來說，聽到別人贊揚時，通常要表示受之 有愧，做得很夠；或者說自已的成就不過是由于僥幸，或者說是客觀條件造成的， 等等，而接受贊揚則意味著有驕傲自滿情緒或缺乏教養。因此，上述兩種回答引 起不同反應是由于雙方語言習慣不同。他都根據各自的風俗去理解別人所說的話。