Fundamentals of Cultural Mediation
Code: 105866 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2504012 Spanish and Chinese Studies: Language, Literature and Culture | OB | 3 | 1 |
Contact
- Name:
- Mireia Vargas Urpi
- Email:
- mireia.vargas@uab.cat
Use of Languages
- Principal working language:
- catalan (cat)
- Some groups entirely in English:
- No
- Some groups entirely in Catalan:
- No
- Some groups entirely in Spanish:
- No
Other comments on languages
Catalan, Spanish and Chinese will be used in class.Teachers
- Minkang Zhou Gu
- Shu-Ching Liao Pan
- Sara Rovira Esteva
- Helena Casas Tost
- Maria Carmen Espin Garcia
Prerequisites
Students are expected to have learnt the contets taught in previous Chinese subjects (Chinese I, II, III & IV).
Objectives and Contextualisation
This subject aims to provide students with a sociocultural context that allows them a better understanding of texts (oral and written) in Chinese that, in turn, can be used to carry out cultural mediation tasks successfully. Special attention will be paid to the content of socio-cultural knowledge included in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.
Competences
- Act with ethical responsibility and respect for fundamental rights and duties, diversity and democratic values.
- Carry out critical reading and interpretation of texts using linguistic and literary concepts acquired.
- Comment on literary texts in Spanish and in Chinese, situate them historically and relate them to the literary trends to which they belong.
- Compare Spanish and Chinese from a literary and linguistic knowledge of both languages.
- Demonstrate skills that facilitate teamworking.
- Evaluate the influence of cultural references in Chinese studies in interlinguistic and intercultural communication.
- Recognise the bases of the history of East Asia in general and China in particular, and interpret the historical and cultural relations and interactions between Europe and Asia.
- Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- Understand texts written in Mandarin Chinese at an intermediate level (B1, B2).
- Use techniques for compilation, organisation and use of information and documentation with precision.
Learning Outcomes
- Apply strategies for acquiring cultural knowledge for interpreting.
- Apply strategies for acquiring cultural knowledge for translation.
- Apply the perspective of gender to the analysis of literary production in modern and contemporary East Asia.
- Demonstrate a knowledge of literary trends.
- Describe and analyse values, beliefs and ideologies of East Asia.
- Describe, analyse and evaluate the history, thought and literature of East Asia.
- Describe, analyse and valorise the history, thought and literature of East Asia.
- Develop critical thought and reasoning and know how to communicate them effectively in both your own and in a third language.
- Develop strategies for autonomous learning.
- Differentiate between literary genres and identify the specificities.
- Ensure quality standards for your own work.
- Evaluate the result obtained in the process of searching for documentation and information and to update knowledge of the history, literature, language, thought and art.
- Explain the explicit or implicit code of practice of one's own area of knowledge.
- Generate innovate and competitive perspectives in research and in professional activity.
- Have cultural knowledge to be able to interpret.
- Have cultural knowledge to be able to translate.
- Identify and describe the processes and events of pre-modern, modern and contemporary history.
- Identify the need to mobilise cultural knowledge to be able to translate.
- Identify, differentiate between and use different linguistic genres.
- Integrate cultural knowledge to resolve problems of interpreting.
- Integrate cultural knowledge to resolve problems of translation.
- Integrate literary knowledge to solve translation problems.
- Know and understand the foundations of comparative cultural studies.
- Know and understand the pre-modern, modern and contemporary history of East Asia.
- Know, understand, describe and analyse the values, beliefs and ideologies of East Asia.
- Make document searches in the languages of East Asian countries.
- Possess interpersonal skills.
- Recognise the connotations of specific cultural references in the area of East Asia studies, and evaluate their influence on interlinguistic and intercultural communication.
- Recognise the need to mobilise cultural knowledge to be able to interpret.
- Recognise the referential universe of written and spoken texts in the languages of East Asia.
- Resolve problems of intercultural communication.
- Use different tools for specific purposes in the field of history.
- Work in teams in a multilingual and multicultural context.
- Work in teams in an international multilingual and multicultural context.
Content
The contents of the subject have been chosen from the repertoire of socio-cultural knowledge included in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Specifically, based on texts in Chinese, the following topics will be worked on:
- Philosohy: Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, contemporary political thought
- Geography of the Sinophone World
- Institutions and political organization of the Sinophone regions
- China-Spain relations
- Ethnic and cultural diversity
- Living conditions in China
- Social organization and family models
- Traditional art and crafts
- Calendar, festivals and traditions
- Food, drink and table manners
- Characteristics of nonverbal communication in Chinese
Methodology
The sessions will base on texts written in Chinese (corresponding to B1/B2 MCER level) that students will have to read and analyze. For each text, there will be two students (working in pairs) who will present the contextualization of the text, identifying the cultural references, the topics covered and the key aspects. This will also be one of the assessment activities. From the presentation of the students, the responsible teachers will expand the topic and make a broader historical, social and cultural context. Teachers will also prepare complementary activities (mediation activities of different types where students will need to apply cultural knowledge to solve problems they may encounter when translating, interpreting or transferring the contents of texts into their mother tongues) to complete the content of the sessions.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Activities
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Lectures | 26 | 1.04 | 1, 2, 3, 23, 24, 25, 5, 7, 6, 8, 10, 17, 18, 20, 21, 30, 29, 28 |
| Mediation activities | 22.5 | 0.9 | 1, 2, 3, 24, 25, 4, 5, 7, 6, 8, 10, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 30, 29, 28, 31, 15, 16, 27, 34, 33 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Preparation and presentations of texts | 30 | 1.2 | 1, 2, 3, 12, 23, 24, 25, 4, 5, 7, 6, 9, 8, 10, 13, 26, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 30, 29, 28, 31, 15, 16, 27, 34, 33, 32, 11 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Study and reading of supplementary texts | 47.5 | 1.9 | 3, 12, 23, 24, 25, 5, 7, 6, 9, 8, 10, 26, 17, 19, 20, 30, 28, 15, 16, 32 |
Assessment
Assessment will consist of the following activities:
- Preparation, documentation and preparation of an analysis text (activity in pairs). Texts will correspond to B1/B2 level and will require that students apply cultural knowledge in order to solve problems while translating, interpreting or transferring texts for a target audience.
- Comment on a text based on the instructions given in the subject. Texts will correspond to B1/B2 level and will require that students apply cultural knowledge in order to solve problems while translating, interpreting or transferring texts for a target audience.
- Final test with t / f questions, multiple choice and mediation problem solving similar to those that have been introduced during the course.
Review
When publishing final marks prior to recording them on students' transcripts, the lecturer will provide written notification of a date and time for reviewing assessment activities. Students must arrange reviews in agreement with the lecturer.
Missed/failed assessment activities
Students may retake assessment activities they have failed or compensate for any they have missed, provided that those they have actually performed account for a minimum of 66.6% (two thirds) of the subject's final mark and that they have a weighted average mark of at least 3.5. Under no circumstances may an assessment activity worth 100% of the final mark be retaken or compensated for. The lecturer will inform students of the procedure involved, in writing, when publishing final marks prior to recording them on transcripts. The lecturer may set one assignment per failed or missed assessment activity or a single assignment to cover a number of such activities.
Classification as "not assessable"
In the event of the assessment activities a student has performed accounting for just 25% or less of the subject's final mark, their work willbe classified as "not assessable" on their transcript.
Misconduct in assessment activities
Students who engage in misconduct (plagiarism, copying, personation, etc.) in an assessment activity will receive a mark of "0" for the activity in question. In the case of misconduct in more than one assessment activity, the students involved will be given a finalmark of "0" for the subject. Students may not retake assessment activities in whichthey are found to have engaged in misconduct. Plagiarism is considered to mean presenting all or part of an author's work, whether published in print or in digital format, as one's own, i.e. without citing it. Copying is considered to mean reproducing all or a substantial part of another student's work. In cases of copying in which it is impossible to determine which of two students has copied the work of the other, both will be penalised.
Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Documenting and presenting a text | 30% | 12 | 0.48 | 1, 2, 3, 12, 23, 24, 25, 4, 5, 7, 6, 9, 8, 10, 13, 26, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 30, 29, 28, 31, 15, 16, 27, 34, 33, 32, 11 |
| Final exam | 40% | 2 | 0.08 | 3, 24, 25, 4, 5, 7, 6, 10, 17, 20, 21, 22, 30, 28, 31, 15, 16, 11 |
| Text commentary | 30% | 10 | 0.4 | 1, 2, 3, 12, 23, 24, 25, 4, 5, 7, 6, 9, 8, 10, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 30, 29, 28, 31, 15, 16, 32, 11 |
Bibliography
Supplementary readings:
- Bauer, Wolfgang. 2009. Historia de la filosofía china. Barcelona: Herder.
- Borrás Arumí, Javier. 2019. Roja y gris: Andanzas y tribulaciones de un jovent corresponsal en China. Madrid: Alfabeto.
- Casas-Tost, Helena; Rovira-Esteva, Sara (Eds.). 2015. Guia d’estil per al tractament de mots xinesos en català. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Cultura. Biblioteca tècnica de política lingüística, 2. URL: https://ddd.uab.cat/record/133473
- Cheng, Anne. 2002. Historia del pensamiento chino. Barcelona: Edicions Bellaterra.
- Cheng, Yuzhen. 2017. Zhongguo Wenhua Yaolüe (中国文化要略). Beijing: Waiyu Jiaoxue yu Yanjiu Chubanshe.
- Dillons, Michael (ed.). 2017. China: A Cultural and Historical Dictionary. Oxfordshire: Routledge.
- Doñate, Mavi. 2022. Bajo la mirada del dragón despierto. Barcelona: Plaza & Janés Editores.
- García-Noblejas, Gabriel, ed. 2012. China. Pasado y presente de una gran civilización. Madrid: Alianza Editorial.
- Gernet, Jacques. 2005. El Mundo Chino. Barcelona: Crítica.
- Katan, David. 2004. Translating Cultures. An Introduction for Translators, Interpreters and Mediators. Manchester: St. Jerome.
- Lafayette de Mente, Boye. 1996. NTCS Dictionary of Chinese Cultural Code Words. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
- Lu, Yu-ting. 2010. Taiwan: Historia, política e identidad. Barcelona: Edicions Bellaterra.
- Minick Scott, Jiao, Ping. 1996. Arts and Crafts of China (中國工藝美術). Singapore: Thames and Hudson
- Ren, Qiliang (任启亮). 2004. Common Knowledge about ChineseCulture. Zhongguo Wenhua Changshi (中国文化常识). Hong Kong: Xianggang Zhongguo Lüyou Chubanshe.
- Rovira-Esteva, Sara; Casas-Tost, Helena (Eds.). 2015. Guía de estilo para el uso de palabras de origen chino. Madrid: Adeli Ediciones. URL: https://ddd.uab.cat/record/180644
- Schirokauer, Conrad; Brown, Miranda. 2011. Breve historia de la civilización china. Barcelona: Edicions Bellaterra.
- Schleichert, Hubert; Roetz, Heiner. 2013. Filosofía china clásica. Barcelona: Herder.
- Vicente, Sergi. 2018. Xina Fast Forward. Barcelona: Ara Llibres.
- Wang, Kai (王恺). 2004. Common Knowledge about Chinese History. Zhongguo Wenhua Changshi (中国历史常识). Hong Kong: Xianggang Zhongguo Lüyou Chubanshe.
- Yang, Defeng. 1999. Hanyu Yu Wenhua Jiaoji (汉语与文化交际). Beijing: Beijing Daxue Chubanshe.
- Zhou, Minkang. 1995. Estudio comparativo del chino y el castellano en los aspectos lingüísticos y culturales. Bellaterra: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. PhD dissertation.
- Zhou, Siyuan. 1997. Duiwai Hanyu Jiaoxue Yu Wenhua (对外汉语教学与文化). Beijing: Beijing Yuyan Wenhua Daxue.
Software
None.