The Difference between Chinese Culture and Western Culture in Intercultural Communication跨文化交际中中西方文化的差异

吉林大学商务英语毕业论文论文题目 The Difference between Chinese Culture and Western Culture in Intercultural Communication跨文化交际中中西方文化的差异姓 名 考 号 专 业 商务英语 年 月 日 摘要：在跨文化交际中经常出现文化冲突，这会影响到跨文化交际能否成功实现。因此我们应该比对、研究文化冲突的起因，尽量避免文化冲突，从而实现成功的跨文化交际。 关键词：文化冲突 跨文化交际 比对 成功交际Abstract : In the intercultural communication , the culture conflict appears frequently , it has a negative influence on the successful international business communication . Therefore we should find the deep cause of the culture conflict , compare the phenomenon of culture conflict , and cultivate our intercultural communication ability to avoid the culture conflict . Key words : intercultural business communication culture difference culture conflictContentsAbstract in Chinese.1Abstract in English.1Intruduction 2Chapter I 。2Chpater II 。3Chapter III .。3Conclusion .。4References.。5Acknowledgement .。6The Difference between Chinese Culture and Western Culture in Intercultural Business Communication Culture is the system of knowledge used by relatively large numbers of people at the societal level . It is the deposit of knowledge , experience , beliefs ,values ,actions , meanings , hierarchies ,religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and artifacts acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving. Intercultural business communication is a multi-dimensional subject covering areas like anthropology , linguistics ,sociology and media, etc . it starts from the 60s, American universities began to have intercultural communication as a course . In China , the discipline was introduced into China in the early 1980s . Common areas of interest among scholars lie in : Value , beliefs , world view ,interpersonal relational , rules of social behavior, ethnocentrism, stereotyping , social organization , language , thinking pattern , verbal and nonverbal communication , concept of time and space , culture shock , culture adaption , culture identity , etc .With the opening and development of China ,some foreign affairs and culture have entered our world . In this case , the communication across the country , culture , economy, society has been improved . There are more chances to get touch with some foreign countries , but it is not a simple matter , what we face is the culture , thought , custom and behavior from a strange country and culture , so there is a culture conflict . we can see the conflicts and problems in intercultural communication again and again: one countrys president think that the gesture means friendly, but it enrages another countrys people; some businessmen from foreign countries come to China to do business but failed and left with complaint; the teachers coming from England and America say Chinese students dont cooperate with them; some Chinese people go to America to study, but, after a short time, they give up the plan, and come back to ChinaI. The reasons leading to the cultural conflictBecause different people come from different society , religion and living environment , there are different language custom , social culture and customs , etc .Different culture brings different speaking way and living habit . therefore , people like to use their own way to explain the other persons language , this can lead to an inaccurate conclusion to a conflict. There are varied of reasons which caused the culture conflicts between China and western countries. 1. The difference in the mode of thinking Culture has an effect on peoples view and cognition. Different countries have different cultures. So, the difference in peoples thinking way must exist. You can easily find such difference between Chinese culture and western culture. When western people think, they would like to attach importance to logic and analysis, While Chinese people value intuition which is the characteristic of Chinese traditional mode of thinking. Due to the great influence of this traditional culture, Chinese people pay great attention to intuition, experience and the feeling in the course of communication, and they often use this experience and feeling to communicate with people. Compared with the thinking way of the western people, the mode of thinking of Chinese people has obvious vagueness, after a long time, it forms their thinking way. It can be explained as the classifying feeling course of distinguishing and simplifying o outside objects. Looking from the essence, Chinese peoples thinking way often neglects the difference of individual objects and exaggerates the recognitive attitude of other social masses. It often bear a persons own emotion, accompanied with fixed faith. In all of Chinese peoples thinking ways, some are right but some are wrong. They will affect the intercultural communication directly and cause the failed communication.2. The difference in behaviorThe specific meaning of behavior is the moral standard and action standard. In simple words, it is a standard that just tell people what they can do and what they can not do. When people coming from different cultures communicate with each other, a phenomenon that people usually use their own social behavior standard to judge if others behavior is reasonable or not. Because of the difference of the behavior standard, it always causes misunderstanding, unhappiness or even worse result. For example, Chinese people like tapping the childrens head to show their friendliness. But in western countries, this is a very disrespectful gesture. Their parents will be very angry if they see someone does this to their child. So, whether you can recognize and use behavior standard correctly in the intercultural communication is a very important factor to ensure intercultural communication to go successfully. To guarantee the successful intercultural communication, one must understand the others behavior standard, especially, one must know what behavior standard is. Then he can avoid the troubles.3. The difference in language transference The evaluation and explanation that people give the phenomena and affairs they see are built on the base of their own culture. Some people meet troubles in intercultural communication. One reason is that they neglect the language transference. The rule of using language is different because of the difference of culture. One can explain something in its own culture, but fail to do so in another culture. The basic reason is that people lack the sensation of the difference of social language. They will use language transference unconsciously. The result of this action is very serious, and it can even bring big economic loss. Chinas woolen industry gets a good evaluation all over the world. There is a delicate woolen quilt tick produced in the north region. Its Chinese trade mark is “ShuangYang”. The trade mark is translated to “Goats” in English, as the result, the commodity sells badly in western countries. The reason is that “goat” this word has a meaning of “sex manias” besides the original meaning. Having this English trade mark, even if the quality of this woolen quilt tick is very good and people will feel comfortable when they use this woolen quilt tick, many women will not put it on their bed.II. Cultural BackgroundOne of the cultural different reasons between China and western is cultural background. In Spring and Autumn and Warring s periods of China emerged Confucianism, Taoism and other ideologies .As different ideologies developed and combated each other, the basic framework of Chinese civilization was established. And then Confucianism became the foundation stone of Chinese philosophy system. Confucianisms central doctrine is that of the virtue of Ren. What is Ren? Ren is translated variously as goodness, benevolence, humanity and human-heartedness. In short, Ren means affection and love. For more than 2 thousand years it has molded and shaped the civilization of China and exerted a profound influence upon almost one fourth of human race. Just as DR. Sun-Yat-Sen said:” Therefore the old morals of loyalty and piety, affection, and love, faithfulness and righteousness, are superior to those of the foreign countries Let alone that peace and harmony. These high standards of morals are our national spirit. Different from China, Christianity plays an important role in western. The English speaking countries are generally considered as Christian countries where many people believe in Christianity. Christianity is the region based on the life and teaching of Jesus Christ. He is the founder of Christianity. According to the doctrine of Christianity, the Trinity is the union of the three forms of God, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ the son of the God, and the holy book ofChristianity is the Bible, which consists of the Old Testament and the New Testament. However, the power of the church cannot compare with the past time, it still influence many aspects of people s daily life. For example, there are a few important festivals in the western is concern with Jesus Christ. Christmas day is a festival in celebration of the birth of the Jesus Christ on Dec.25.Virgin Birth refers to the birth of Christ, which Christians believe to have been caused by God rather than by ordinary sexual union. III. The frequent conflicts appeared in intercultural communication between Chinese culture and western cultureThere are many culture conflicts in intercultural communication between Chinese cultural and western culture, it is impossible for us to list them out one by one. Here, some frequent conflicts are listed out.1. The conflicts on privacyThe privacy sense of Chinese people is comparatively weak. Chinese people think individual should belong to the collective; they think people should be united and fraternal; they think people should care for each other. So, Chinese people are willing to know the other peoples things and the others also want to tell them. But western people attach great importance to the personal privacy. They want to have personal space and they are not willing to tell others their own things, they do not even want others to interfere their life. So, there are many conflicts on privacy between Chinese people and western people. For example, when Chinese people meet each other the first time, they would like to inquire about the others age, marriage, family, profession and even their income. They think this is a polite way to communicate with each other, but western people believe these questions encroach upon their privacy.2. The conflicts on the sense of timeThe sense of time of western people is closely related with money. The idea that Time is money has formed in their thought. So, they set a high value on their time. In the daily time, western people have a meticulous plan about their time and they have a good habit of coming to date on time. In western countries, if you want to call on someone, you must inform them or date with them before you come and you should tell them your coming purpose, the time and the place. After both of you discuss about it, you can make it out. But, Chinese people use their time at their pleasure. Usually, Chinese people will not do things as the western people, and western people usually feel unsuitable on this course. Most western people spend their time in working and studying, they seldom spend a lot time in eating or doing something else. But Chinese people spend much time on other things. For example, when western people come to KFC to have a meal, they eat their food as soon as possible, but, the Chinese people in KFC show another situation. They eat their food slowly and chat with each other. They do not think this is a way to waste time.3. The conflicts on traditional culturesChinese people pay special attention to modesty. When they communicate with others, they often respect others but look down upon themselves. They think this is a virtue and this is a polite phenomenon with Chinese characteristics. When others praise Chinese people, they often show very modest. Western countries do not have this phenomenon, when they are praised, they are often very happy and say “thank you” to others to show they accept the praise. Because of the cultural difference, Chinese people often hold that western people are too confident and ignorant of the fact that modesty is one kind of politeness in Chinese cultures. But, when western people know Chinese people do not agree with others when others praise them or when western people know Chinese people deny their own achievement, western people will feel very surprised, they think Chinese people are not honest.4. The conflicts on table customChinese nationality has a excellent tradition of enthusiasm and hospitality. In the settings of social communication or on the banquet, the enthusiastic Chinese people often give cigarettes to others and drink with each other. When Chinese people hold a party, even there are a lot foods on the table, the host often say some conventional sentences such as “There is not much food” or “This is but a homely meal”. The host sometimes gets some foods for the guest and put them to the guests bowl and they try many ways to let the guest drink more and eat more. But in western countries, people attach importance to personal authority and personal privacy. So, they will not force others to do any thing. When they have a meal, they will not get some food for the guests, the guests eat what they want to eat, they will also not ask the guests to drink and drink till they get drunk.IV. How to Learn Western Culture1. Establish a right attitude toward cultural differences .Attitude is a manner of feeling and behaving. It can form a part of ones perception of self, of others, and of the culture in which one is living. A foreign language learner should set up a right attitude toward different culture. i.e., to be open-minded to them. Prejudice should be avoided. Prejudice in culture refers to an intolerant, unfair or biased attitude toward another culture. Regardless of the existence of Prejudice, cross-cultural communication may become difficult because it stands in the way of acquired knowledge in it. When facing a new culture, people should be flexible and able to adapt themselves to the new situation. “Do as the Romans do is an effective way for those who are experiencing cultural differences. Therefore., being open-minded to cultural difference is a prerequisite to a successful communication with native speakers. 2. Reading extensively for cultural informationHaving the successful communication is the main purpose of English. The cultural information that the students need in authentic communication greatly exceeds that covered in any courses. To developed peoples communication competence, people should read authentic materials such as foreign newspapers, advertisements, journals, short stories, novels, plays and other types of literature works. Literary works are of great significance to foreign language learners. In many cultures, particularly those whose languages are widely taught, literature performs an important role in society. They can reflect a culture, help readers gain deeper insights into the target society, enable them to have a better understanding go the national character of the people who produce the literature, and of the values they cherish. If we regard literature as a treasures house, then paying a visit to it will enable us to absorb cultural information stored in it. Informative works relevant to national character studier are another source of cultural information. Historians, sociologists and anthropologists, who engage themselves in the study of the target society, usually write these books. Foreign language learners can benefit a lot from these books since the books provide them with a detailed explanation of the peoples character in the target culture. There are some other reading materials, which are related closely to our daily life, such as newspapers and magazines. Because most contents of these materials are authentic, they expose to us various cultural backgrounds, ranging from geography, history, customs, religion and philosophy, to entertainment, fashion and tourism. This kind of reading materials will help foreign learners get a better understanding of the target culture and keep a keen eye on it.3.Learn culture through TV and movies .It is even more so for western culture learners because they come to know the truth of native speakers behaviors on the screen. Foreign language learners can get a vivid picture of what the peoples life is like in the target culture. With the popularity of TV, they can obtain news all over the world, watch and enjoy movies in original versions of the target language at home. Such movies help foreign language learners with their vocabulary, listening ability as well as their awareness of cultural differences. Form the observation through the media, the features of everyday situations will impress them, such as, sightseeing, telephoning, shopping, or asking directions. What they have learned from books can be verified by the performance of the native speakers. While enjoying the attractive performance, language learners have to observe details of everyday situations, in case of greeting, farewell, compliment, apology, requirement, etc. Though the media people can learn the polite behavior, etiquette, means to solve conflicts, techniques of negotiation, debates, ways of show love, dating and so on. Movies can also improve cross-cultural communication by conveying the important values, communication styles and so on. After watching movies, foreign language learners may take notes of their observations, and supplement the findings and talk with those who have shared the same movies so that they can apply what they have learned to real cross-cultural communication someday.4.Attend lectures on culture Foreign language learners should attend lectures on culture given by foreign teachers or those who have experience in foreign countries. Some lectures may be centered on the target culture while others may be a comparison between two cultures. Whichever lecture the learners attend, it may increase their cultural awareness through the description of different cultures and the techniques for proper behavior in cross-cultural communication. Participating in discussions after the lecture will reinforce the cultural information they have got from the lecture. Whats more, such discussions can reveal the relation between value systems and peoples behavior in social activities.5.Communicate with native speakers Foreign language learners can go to English Corners to learn culture. While communication with people from the other culture, students are easily hesitating to speak. They often ask themselves questions like these, “I wonder whether they will like me? Suppose they disagree with my arguments? What if they misinterpret what I say? What if I say something inappropriate? ”When a westerner greets Chinese people, some to them pretend that they have not heard of it, or bow their head keeping silent. Some of them smile shyly and quickly go away. All these would make the westerner embarrassed. So Chinese must try to talk to westerners and take advantage of every opportunity to talk with foreign teachers and students available in a relaxed atmosphere. They will benefit from such talks since they can not only practice language, but also observe native speaker