跨文化交际英文版

C r o s s–c u l t u r a l c o m m u n i c a t i o n

Thesis statement: This paper is mainly talking about the culture differences between several countries.

Outline:

Chapter 1: Language and culture in communication

Chapter2: Culture shock

Chapter3: What’s in a name?

Chapter4: Social interaction

Chapter 5: Roles and relations

Chapter6: Non-verbal communication

Chapter 7: In other words.

Chapter 8: From a primitive Tribe to a Global Village

Conclusion

Chapter 1: Language and culture in communication

There is no denying the fact that out daily lives depend largely on communication, without it we can’t know each other. So, we should come to realize that communication is of great importance.

What is communication?

In total, communication can be divided into two parts; they are verbal communication and

non-verbal communication. However, different people hold different opinions about communication. In general, if there is communication, there must have 4 cases: there are at least two or more people, some contact between communicators, a language shared by communicators, an exchange of information has taken place. I just take the fist one for example. Suppose there is one person, there can’t be communication. Otherwise, he may talk to himself.

Communication not just exist in human-beings

There are five kinds of communications they are human communication, animal communication, human-animal communication, human machine communication, machine communication. So, Animals and machines can also communicate with each other.

For human beings, how can we communicate with each other?

Experts say that there are various kinds of communication. Nowadays, there are different kinds of tools for us to communicate .For people we can use telephone and computer to communicate with each other. By them, finally we can receive message.

What is social situation?

When there are two or more people gather to do a job or an activity, then it creates a social situation. That is to say, an individual working alone can not constitute a social s

A social situation may have two definitions. One is given by the community, and the other by the participants. Finally, we should notice that being polite plays a crucial role in social situation.

Chapter2: Culture shock

We should not only know what communication is but we should know what culture shock is.

In contemporary society, as our country is developing faster and faster, more and more foreigners will come to our country. Communicating with foreigners is an interesting thing. However,

there is no doubt that it can easily cause misunderstanding which is called culture shock. There are several kinds of culture shock.

Hospitality: First of all, in Britain, hospitality can not be judged by whether hosts put the food into your dishes, in there, everyone has own dishes, everyone helps themselves. By contrast, in our country, when we have guests, hosts may put the food into guest’s dishes to show thei r hospitality, so this is different.

Politeness: When it comes to this word, in many case, foreigners were described as being polite than Chinese. For example, when we finish work, foreigners may say thank you to us, although it is out duties. However, for Chinese, they seldom say thank you because they think someone who serves them are their duties.

What’s more, when we get along with foreigners, we should avoid asking their salaries, jobs and religious and so on. For the young, it’s all right to ask thei r ages, for the adults, this question is not allowed, especially for the females. But in china, these questions are allowed.

In conclusion, when we face these culture shocks, it is better to keep a cool head, and then make an adjustment toward it, finally, we can cope with it. As time goes by, we can adapt it. For example, American Jewish and Israel, the two groups are equal and integration. Both groups have positive attitudes toward one another. So I am sure that after learning this unit, we can know a lot about culture shock and can easily communicate with foreigners.

Chapter 3: What’s in a name?

The topic of unit three is “what’s in a name?” As is known to all, the English name is different from the Chinese name .The Chinese name consists of family name and given name ,with family name put first. But in contrast, the family name of English name is coming last. Most English people have three names. The last name , or surname is the family name .This is the family name of the father and is given to all his children. And the first name is given to the child at birth, which is called “given name”. And another name used to refer to them is Christian name.

However, Chinese name can give all sorts of information about a Chinese people .they may give the address, the birthday ,and also tell us about the family relationship, ethic groups, sex and the parents’ expectation for their children. At the same time, in Chinese the use of kin terms is closely related to age politeness, such as that children are expected to call an old lady, Granny and call a male adult who is older than their fathers, elder uncle. The appropriate and extend use of kin term according to age is taken as reflecting good manners.

Chapter4: Social interaction

What is “social interaction”. It is the topic of unit four. Social interaction is an important way of human existence, and it is different from other animals’ communication. And it’s meaningful. Different countries have different social interactions. Many Chinese people tend to ask age, marital status, and even salary when they meet each other first. To the Chinese people, these are open conversational topic. and Chinese people pay much attention to family life. So in their spare time, they will talk about the family member features as a common topic. It is so natural. And the salary is not a secret .and when a Chinese offers refreshments or drinks to his colleague, his colleague often declines the offer politely, because he don’t want to trouble the person who offers. And it also shows his politeness. But in western countries, if you ask the person who meet you first about these, they will feel so bad. They think it is not polite.

Do you know how English native negotiate a time to meet .from the text I know that you may find their way of settling on a time is quite similar to our own, that is , normally one gives or suggests a time, then the other may find it is not suitable and suggest another time, and finally a time is fixed which suits both.

Consequently, you can know from above, different countries have different habits.

Chapter 7: In other words.

Different languages cause some misunderstandings

There are many countries that their language is the same. such as America , British, Canada, Australia，and so on, they all speak English, people from America and British speak different varieties of English. They usually find little difficulty in understanding each other. However, there are some differences which may cause some misunderstanding, because of profusion of synonyms that they use different words to refer to the same thing. But for other countries which do not speak English they hardly understand the idioms, for example “face the music” in America it means to accept the criticisms, unpleasant consequences, etc . it probably comes from the custom in some Western armies of punishing soldiers to the sound of beating drums, if a person who is come from China may comprehend that enjoy himself by listening to music. on the contrary，they can not understand the meaning of Chinese idioms.

There are some similar in languages

With the exception, both English and Chinese have many such idioms that refer to animals, and some animals have similar associations in both cultures: deer, for example , are bloodthirsty and cruel, ect . But some other animals have rather different associations, like dogs, in the eyes of

English-speaking people，dog is loyal ,but in the eyes of Chinese it aways contains derogatory sense are seen rather differently from the way appear to us. About proverb, since human experiences and observations of the world are in many respect similar. in spit of the dissimilar cultural backgrounds of the Chinese and the English-speaking peoples, the number of proverbs or saying in two language that are equivalent or closely approximate is rather surprising.

Swearwords is the taboo for every countries

Every language contains a special group of taboo words which people avoid using because they find them embarrassing or offensive. In many languages, swearwords are taboo, this is generally true of both English and Chinese. In English, certain swearwords seem to be more offensive than others and consequently the social prohibition against their use is stricter.

Chapter 8: From a primitive Tribe to a Global Village

Animals might have astonishing ways of showing their emotions and feelings.

This unit takes us back in to history, inviting us to reflect upon how man has extended his limbs and senses by using new technologies. Nowadays, the technologies are so advanced that communication over long distance can be done in a split of a second. People all over the world are living, quite literally, in a global village. In the textbook, we have learned that animals might have astonishing ways of showing their emotions and feelings. The way different kinds of animals behave, have fascinated great minds since Plato and Aristotle

Communication is covering everywhere

One point that is beyond doubt is that our ancestors were extremely handicapped --- in comparison with us now --- in communication. From the Stone Age, to the present day, over 2,000,000 years, man has done his best to extend himself in order to improve his way of communication. Writing, printing technology, postal services, telegraph, telephone, radio, picture communication, television, computer and laser technology, internet --- these have extended man’s mouth, eyes, ears, hands, legs, in short the whole body beyond a house,

a village, a county, a province, a country, an ocean, a continent, and even beyond the mother earth to the moon and the Mars. Going global is great, but an entirely different tone was heard: Globalization is a menace to mankind. Globalization will make the powers more powerful but the weak is weaker and the poor is poorer.

Conclusion

Different countries have their own cultures, so it causes the different cultures .Consequently, sometimes the people come from different places may cause some misunderstandings. After learning this textbook we can get along well with people all over the world.

Finally, through this paper, we can learn more knowledge.