Cultural Differences in English-Chinese communication.docx

cultural differences in english-chinese communication i.thesis:there are many cultural differences in english-chinese communication.during our daily life,this kind of difference is everywhere and it is very important for us to find them and deal with them.ii.abstract:this paper mainly talk about the basic manners during the daily activities among the english speaking countries and china.such as:greeting,salution,ect.and what we should pay attention to when we communicate with foreigers.iii.key words:daily communication,pragmatic failure , misunderstanding.iv.main body: language is the production of the cultural circumstance and it is also the support of culture.acting as the tool that used to record the history and thoughts of human-beings,so every kind of language has its unique cultural characteristic.learning english culture is good for fluent and high-efficiency communication.on the contrary,lacking of the knowledge about the english culture backgroud must suffocate communication then lead to misunderstanding even conflict.it means “pragmatic failure”.as we all known,the way chinese people say is quite different with the way english people say.and because of the cutural differences,people make misunderstandings and funny stories in daily communication.now,i try to analyse the western people and eastern people and their daily habits to discuss the misunderstandings that caused by the cultual difference.1.greeting. in china,when we meet a familiar people and greet them we always say:你去哪？吃了没？if we translate them directly into english(eg.where are you going?have you eaten yet?)and western people must feel puzzle.sometimes will make mistake.for example,you ask your foreign friends:have you eaten yet?he probablely think it is not a simple greeting but an invitation.eg2.“where are you going?”can make people feel umbrage,so he most likely to answer you:“its none of your business.”the western people usually say：“good morning/afternoon/evening.”“how do you do?”“nice to meet you.”“how are you doing?”when they greeting people.otherwise,when people meet a close friend they just say“hello!/hi!”2.salutions.in china,english beginer always say:“good morning,teacher!”it dosent meet the western language standards.in english,“teacher”is a name of job,not salution.it is the same that in china “工人（worker）”is a job not a salution.we dont say “worker zhang”and“worker wang”but “master wang”and“master zhang”.in the primary and middle school in western country,they usually add:mr. mrs or miss before the family name to call their teachers.in a university,it depends on the academic title and the degree you have got.for the professor and vice-professor,we add “pro.”before their family name.and we call the people who have got a doctor degree“dr.x”.sometimes even call their name.otherwise,when we call a teacher,we also have to considering teachers character and age.vi. conclusion. there are many cultural differences in english-chinese communication.during our daily life,this kind of difference is everywhere and it is very important for us to find them and deal with them.when we learn english,we should learn about the cultural backgroud and custom at the same time.comparing with our mother tongue whenever we use it to aviod the mistake and misund