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Plagiarism (II)
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E: Hi. Welcome to Let's talk. Today we are continuing our discussion about plagiarism and copying and honesty and what is a white lie.
R: Yeah. This is a very important topic. Because all people in the world want to trust each other and be honest. So there isn't right and wrong, there is a just differences between east and west. White lies are a good expression for you, because we know lying is not the best way to tell people what they believe and what they think. We want to tell people the truth, So we trust each other. This is true everywhere. But a white lie, what is that exactly? In 中文？There is a word for it?
E: White lie, I'm not sure.
R: It is a soft version of a lie. How can that be?
E: Well a white lie is something that saves face. It is a lie with there is no real harm done. It's not a lie to hurt someone or get someone in trouble. It's not got a black meaning.
R: Right.
E: It's got a good meaning. You are trying to use something. I think it's often used to save face.
R: One example is a friend of mine had an old father who lived alone. And he needed a new washing machine for his cloth. But he didn't want to buy one. He kept saying I don't need it.
E: But he was dirty.
R: His cloth was dirty. He wouldn't let everyone to help him enough and he wanted to be independent. He was a foreign man who had face. He was pride. So his daughter said "I need a washing machine, can I please put it in your house?" This was her, this was really true. This was her way of giving him face and giving him a washing machine.
E: And he accepted it.
R: He did. He wanted to help her. So it's a good example for a white lie. But most lie in the west is just like plagiarism which was copying in an incorrect way.
E: Actually...
R: These are not soft topics. These are very strong topics. People in the west feel strongly about not telling truth or copying something not quoting or citing your source. And you can get in big trouble as we talked about last time. There is a famous story. George Washington.
E: Yeah. George Washington is, this is story is told to every school child, every single. February 22 which was Washington's birthday, on that day we tell the story and I think it's actually not a true story. But it is now the story that is told everywhere about George Washington how when he was a little boy. He chopped down his father's cherry tree.
R: Oh, I heard he had a new axe.
E: Yes. He got a new axe. And he wanted to try it out. He wanted to chop the tree down. So he went outside and chopped down his father's cherry tree. And so when his father came and found George and said "Did you do this?" He said "I can not tell a lie, I did it with my little axe." And then his father didn't get mad at him or maybe I'm not sure how...
R: He probably was in trouble. But the point of the story was he told the true. He knew he would face trouble.
E: So you knew on Washington's birthday every year we all eat cherry pies, don't we, in memory of Washington cutting down the cherry tree. And it also reminds us the value of true. And I think in the west the truth is emphasized on much more in China. In China people are always thinking about their relationships with other people. This is very high value very highly value thing. But in the west because people are more independent, one by one, individualism you know. Then truth is valued more highly. So...
R: Yeah. It's even true that being honest is held in such respect that even if you were to in business. Be honest about something maybe you would lose money. But that's respected.
E: Because it's trusted.
R: So it's very important. And it's important for you to know that foreigners will sometimes be brutally honest and direct and that might offend you or offend the issue of face.
E: But they're still trying to tell you the truth. So that's all for this week. We're out of time again. See you next time.
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谈作弊
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E: 大家好 欢迎收看“你说我说”，今天我们继续谈谈关于作弊 抄袭和诚实的话题，还有 white lie（无恶意的谎言）。
R: 这是很重要的话题，因为全世界的人们都期望彼此能诚实互信，而对于这些问题的看法，东西方有所区别，white lie是个很好的说法，因为对别人说谎是很不好的，人们都希望彼此诚实相待，但white lie 就有所不同了，white lie 用中文怎么说呢。
E: 我不太肯定。
R: white lie是种无恶意的谎言。
E: 它有时可以保全别人的面子，不会对他人造成伤害，也不会给别人带来麻烦，它不含有负面的意思。
R: 是的。
E: 而是出于某种好意，人们总是用它来保全大家的面子。
R: 比如，我有个朋友，她的老父亲独居在家，他需要一台洗衣机， 但他不想买，他总是说：我不需要。
E: 但他的衣服总是很脏。
R: 他不想接受别人的帮助而想独立生活，他是个很好强，很要面子的人。结果我的朋友就对他说，我需要一台洗衣机，但我想把它放在您这里，实际上她并不需要，但这样她即保全了父亲的面子，又给了他洗衣机。
E: 她父亲接受了。
R: 因为他也想成全女儿的心意，这就是一个white lie。但大多数的谎言就像剽窃一样，是对别人的欺骗。
E: 而实际上。。。
R: 这不是小问题，西方人对此很在意，如果他们发现你有撒谎 剽窃等行为，你可能会有大麻烦，我们上次谈过这一点，有个关于乔治·华盛顿的故事。
E: 在西方的学校里，每年的2月22日，华盛顿的生日，我们都会给孩子们讲这个故事，尽管我觉得这可能不是真事，但还是广为流传。它讲的是华盛顿小时候，他砍倒了他父亲的樱桃树。
R: 因为他得到了一把新斧子。
E: 他想试试这斧子，结果就把他父亲新栽的樱桃树砍倒了，他父亲发现后问他，“这是你干的吗”，他回答说，“我不能说谎，是我用斧子砍的”。他们父亲没有责怪他。
R: 这个故事告诉我们，尽管华盛顿可能会遇到麻烦，但他还是勇敢的说出了实情。
E: 我们在2月22日，华盛顿生日这天，我们都要吃樱桃馅饼来纪念这个故事，它提醒我们诚实的价值，我觉得西方人对诚实看得比中国人重，中国人经常要考虑到和别人的关系，这是很重要的。但在西方，人们更强调个人独立，所以西方人对诚实看得更重。
R: 在商业活动中诚实同样很重要，哪怕你要因此损失金钱，只要坚持诚实，就会赢得别人尊重。
E: 是的，所以一定要诚实。
R: 你们要知道，西方人为了诚实和直率，有时会不近人情，甚至可能会冒犯人，或不顾情面。
E: 但他们还是会实话实说的。好了，时间到了，下次见。
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