跨文化交际(共8页).doc

精选优质文档-倾情为你奉上跨文化交际学期论文On the Different Ways of Social Communications Between China and the WestAbstract: Intercultural Communication is primarily concerned with theory and practice of communication between and among different cultures of the world; with comparisons of different communication systems in different cultural, national or ethnic groups; with other aspects of international communication, and with the relationship between communication and national development.Key words: communication culture language and nonverbal language different ways 1.Introduction With the development of our country, international exchange and cooperation with other countries become more and more important. Chinese people began to focus on how to exchange with different countries and races. The process of communication in which people in different cultural backgrounds are engaged is Intercultural Communication.1.1Different ways in the Appellation Appellation comes from relatives and other social correlations, related with people's status, profession. And relative appellation is based on blood relationship and a reflection form of marriage and family. Different countries and nations use different languages to express relative appellation. Chinese relative appellation pays attention to respect for seniority. There are many different kinds of relative appellations based on family tries, status of a generation in the family, age and sex, embodying its description in width. On the contrary, English relative appellation has the character of high summarization. Relative appellation often have their denotation except father and mother, husband and wife, son and daughter-in-law, daughter and son-in-law. For example, "cousin" has eight denotations. Since these appellations refer to many targets, it's hard for Chinese to distinguish. Chinese relative appellation has some unique characters compared with English relative appellation. In English, brother refers to elder brother or young brother, and sister refers to elder sister or young sister. Not only father's father called grandfather, but also mother's father can be called that. This is denotation we have mentioned in last paragraph which always gives us a concept of ambiguity. While in Chinese relative appellation system, no matter elder brother and young brother or elder sister and younger sister is dis-tincted seriously. Because our Chinese culture think highly of respect for seniority, paternal line maternal line and marriage. In blood relationship, relatives of mother, sister and daughter are called external relatives, such as mother's father or brother. All of them have a definite and special relative appellations which we can't find in English. This rare phenomenon's origin owes to feudal autocracy. In our traditional society, every relationship has its own position , high or low, based on sex, which reflects concept of men are superior to women. In general, husbands enjoy higher status than wives, so does to father and mother. While in the west, people attach more attention to care family and individuals. They emphasis on personality, special character and have centers based on themselves. They stand the view that men and women are equal and all men are equal. So their relative appellations have no relation to marriage. For instance, uncle both refers to father's brothers and mother's brothers. In daily life, Chinese attach importance to courtesy, and they often call the appellation before tacking. Many different kinds of relative appellations and social appellations are used by Chinese, based on other's status or blood relationship and distinct occasions. In general, their appellations embody politeness and respecting. While in the west, people pursue equal and close relationship. So they choose call others names directly no matter in formal occasions, for examples, Tom, Joy, Peter and so on. This phenomenon is more popular in American, even in the first time of meeting, people are allowed to call them directly. Not only similar ages can do that but also others, including people with wide gaps. They don't think it is impolite. Even a daughter may call her grandmother or father in name, so do people in different social positions. For example students to teachers and staffs to bosses, neither teachers nor bosses regard it as impoliteness. Instead they believe it is a form to reflect their friendship and closeness. All above, we can see that Chinese are accustomed to unequal appellations while the west prefer to equal appellations. In addition, Chinese have a deep-rooted concept of social estate. In order to show their respect to others, rank and social position are added up after family names, such as President Jiang, Manage Yang, Teacher Liu. However those are obeying western customs. In west, there are only a few positions and jobs are able to be used in appellation, for instance: Professor, Doctor, Governor and Major, etc. And people do not like to call in that way, thinking it hypocritical. Language and culture have all kinds of connections with each other. Any special language is related tightly with its national culture. Appellation is an important element in the process of languages exchange, and it is expression of personal relationship, reflecting a significant social courtesy. Different ways in the appellation reflects different cultures between China and the west.1.2 Different Ways in the Daily Communication Greeting each other is a common polite behaviour, no matter in China or the west. They are diversified forms to greet people between China and the west since varied transmission of culture and manners and customs. China has a history of strong cooking culture, and has the proverb "Food is the first necessity of the people." So Chinese people have a habit of greeting, just like this, "Have you eaten yet?" But the sentence has already lost tis literal meaning. It is not used to insult some information. In fact, it is only a form of greeting each other. And it has little importance with the answer 'Yes" or "No'. While if it is translated into English just as its literal meaning "Have you had your dinner?" to greet the westerners, they would misunderstand that. Hearing it, they may think that they are asked to have dinner. Moreover, if a man asks a young lady implying he hopes the girl to be his girl friend. Nevertheless, Chinese often say it without any attention of asking or appointment. There is another way for Chinese to greeting others. It is "Where are you doing?" Actually, people have not the purpose to get where others are going. Instead, they only show their friendly and polite personalities. So the other side could give any response what ever she or she likes. However, if using the same model to greet the westerners, such as "Where are you going?" or "Where have you been?" can been seen as rude and impolite in mostly foreigners' eyes. Their reflection may be "It's none of your business." or "So what?" Westerners usually greet people with "Good morning / afternoon / evening!", "How do you do!", "How are you doing?" or "Nice to meet you!" And intimate friends would like to say "Hello" or "Hi". In general, weather, health conditions, traffic, PT and hobbies are better topics for westerners. In addition, Chinese have a special greeting when two old friends meet, as follows: A: "Oh! Is it Mr. Li? You are still live! B: Yes, I think I would no longer see you!I f according to Chinese meaning to express greeting in English, it will result in misunderstanding, even more meet in battle. While the westerners adopt the following way to express this greeting;A: "Haven't seen you for ages. Hoe are you doing?" B: "I am doing great." Therefore, each culture is unique. In order to avoid errors in international communications between China and the west, we need to learn their differences in cultures and get out of the cage of the national culture.Usually when people communicate with each other, it is impossible for them to leave without any signal. There are always some words to say goodbye to each other before they leave. Both Chinese and westerners are accustomed to saying goodbye or bye-bye. However, before those words, they like to say some polite words.Different cultures have different models of saying goodbye and language rules. If transfer a model of the culture to another model of the culture, there must be some misunderstanding between them. Because of different social customs between Chinese and westerners, the unique methods of saying goodbye are full of special unique features. Chinese always attribute the reasons of saying goodbye to the opposite side. For example, Chinese usually say that he or she'd better be going now. The host must be very tired. Maybe they also say that the host will have to get up early tomorrow, so he or she should go now. However, if a westerner visits other's home, he must often find some reasons about himself or herself rather than the host's, such as,"Well, I'd better let you have some sleeping.""I'll have to go. Tomorrow I'll go to work." or "I must say goodbye. My wife is waiting for me at home." Just like what Alan Maley says:"In typical western context, the guests would usually find reasons to leave related to themselves rather than to their hosts." Besides, they may also say "We have to go to goodbye now. We enjoyed the evening very much. Thanks a lot." or "I think I'd better be leaving now. It's very nice to have a talk with you." They say that just what to thank the host's inviting, and his also shows that they are impolite. In China, people seldom use these words of saying goodbye. According the guest are leaving. The guest will say to the host,"stay here." or "Don't come any further with me,please." If you use these words to speak to westerners, they will feel very embarrassed. Because they don't want you to go too far with you. Don't want them to go far with you unless they are invited by you. This behavior doesn't mean that they are not friendly, but they don't have such a habit. If you say to foreigners like "Go slowly" or "Walk slowly", they may think that why he or she should walk slowly. Foreigners treat "Go slowly" and "Walk slowly" as a request. In fact, it is only an ordinary way to say goodbye for Chinese. Westerners often say, "Do come around again when you have time." or " Give my best regards to your parents."1.3 Different Ways in the Table MannerGenerally speaking, the atmosphere of dinner in the west is quite quiet. While in China, it's very lively. Though the westerners are liven up, they devote their hearts and soul to their service plats as soon as they sit in dining table. However, the Chinese like to spout eloquent speeches in dining table. The noisy atmosphere of Chinese dinner table and the quiet atmosphere of western dinner table reflect the basic difference of the cooking culture between the west and China.In China, hosts always show their greet enthusiasm to guests from the moment they come into the room. Tea is often as the first drink to be served. Then comes the fruit. Then hosts continue to add up hot water for guests no matter they drink or not. While in the west, after guests' sitting , hosts would like to ask for some opinions of their guests. "Would you like some tea or coffee?" If guests refuse all the time, hosts will give up up serve them. Usually after the first cup of tea, the host will inquire guest again. "Would you like some more?" If guests refuse, the hosts will not pour another cup of tea. But guests should drink over the tea in the cup as the basic politeness. Because the westerners regard leaving some water in the cup as a phenomenon of wasting water.The quality and quantity of food is related to the position of guests in Chinese dinner. Hosts would like to put the best food in front of guests. It not only expresses hosts' wish of hoping the guest eat more and showing their spirit of hospitable and eagerly attentive. During the dinner, people talk a lot. If they choose entertain guests at home, hostess usually step into the kitchen to be busy cooking after having a bit dinner with the guests. The quantity of the meal is great so that the guests are hard to be able to eat up. During dinner, hosts have a habit of urging hosts to drink. While in the west, a rich dinner just contains five or six main entree, appetizing entree, soup, meat, secondary entree, sweet food, and coffee. If it is a family feast, hostesses and hosts will be quite happy to see that guests eat up all of their food provided. They think that guests love the taste of the food.The main difference between Chinese and western eating behaviors is that unlike the West, where everyone has their own plate of food, in China the dishes are placed on the table and everybody shares. And sometimes the Chinese host use their chopsticks to put food in your bowl or plate. This is a sign of politeness. The appropriate thing to do would be to eat the whatever-it-is and say how yummy it is. If you feel uncomfortable with this, you can just say a polite thank you and leave the food there. Of course, the main difference on the Chinese dinner table is chopsticks instead of knife and fork, but thats only superficial. Besides, in decent restaurants, you can always ask for a pair of knife and fork, if you find the chopsticks not helpful enough. The real difference is that in the West, you have your own plate of food, while in China the dishes are placed on the table and everyone shares. If you are being treated to a formal dinner and particularly if the host thinks youre in the country for the first time, he will do the best to give you a taste of many different types of dishes. People who go to a formal western dinner party for the first time may be surprised by table manners in Western culture. Knowing them will help you make a good impression. Having good table manners means knowing,f or example, how to use knives and forks, when to drink a toast and how to behave at the table. Beside your napkin you will find a small bread roll and three glassesone for white wine, one for the red wine, and one for water. There are two pairs of knives and forks on the table, forks on the left and knives in the right of the plate. When you see two spoons, the big one id for the soup and the small one for the dessert. The knife and fork that are closest to your plate are a little bit bigger than the ones beside them.When you sit down at the table, you can take your napkin, unfold it and put it on your lap. In Chinese you sometime get a hot,damp cloth to clean your face and face and hands, which, however, is nat the custom in Western countries. Most Westerners like soft drink if they will drive home. Many of them drink white or red wine with the food. When drinking to someone's health, you raise your glasses, bu