Intercultural-Communication.doc

A Brief Comment on the Contradiction Between Eastern and Western CulturesDai HuanAbstract: The frequent cultural contradiction between the East and West affects the fluent communication. So it is necessary to point out its deep causes and adopt certain measures for enhancing the capability of intercultural communication.Key Words: intercultural communication, cultural contradiction, capabilityWith the deepening of Chinas reform and opening to the outside world, more and more people and things from the West are coming into our sight. So we have more opportunities to contact directly with them, which is positive for our standing of Western society but by no means easy. We have to meet people from unfamiliar cultural backgrounds, whose thinking patterns, lifestyle and behavior are utterly different from ours. Consequently, cultural contradictions are inevitable.1. Contradictions occurring1.1 Contradiction concerning privacyIn the aspect of privacy, the Chinese are generally frank and direct, and have little private room. The believe that individuals belong to the collective and should be united and caring for each other. So they are ready to inquire and pour each others happiness and sufferings. However, Westerners emphasizes privacy and personal room, unwilling to mention their own business, let alone having others interfere in it. Thus, contradiction takes place. For instance, Chinese people tend to inquire each others age, marrige condition, children, career, and even income, which, in the Chinese conception, is showing politeness, whereas to Westerners it is an offence against their right of privacy.1.2 Contradiction concerning timing Westerners hold a tight connection between time and money, so they treasure their time. They have long developed a habbit of planning carefully and making appointments on time. In Western society, you must make notice or appointment in advance, accertaining the purpose, time and site through negotiation, if you pay a visit to a person. Chinese people, on the contrary, are a nation of polychronical culture, which leads to a more spontaneous and unstructured lifestyle characteristics that often confuse and frustrate Westerners.1.3 Contradiction concerning polite formulasThe Chinese seem over-modest in communication and see it as a virtue. When praised by others, they say as a sign of modesty, “ Im not so qualified.” Or “ Just so so. ” However, there is no such custom in the West. Receiving compliment, Westerners reply with “ Thank you ” to show their appreciation. Because of the cultural difference, Chinese people think of Westerners as over-confident instead of being modest; the latter regard the former as dishonest when hearing them negate the praise or deny the achievements. 1.4 Contradiction concerning dining customs The Chinese people have a tradition of hospitality. During communicative activities, especially at banquet, hospitable Chinese people offer cigarettes and exchange toast. The host habitually presents polite formulas like “ Please forgive my poor dishes and courses ”, and sometimes picks up food with his or her own chopsticks and pours it into the guests bowls. In a word, the host tries to persuade the guests to eat and drink more. But in the West, people never behave like that, for on the principle of esteeming personal rights and privacy, they never force others to do whatever is against their will.2. The Causes of Cultural ContradictionThe reason for the frequent contradictions in intercultural communication roots in the different cultures and historical backgrounds. (1)2.1. Different thinking patterns The specific culture in which people live defines their conception of the world. Western culture emphasizes logical and analytical thinking, while the Chinese thinking pattern stresses integrated intuition. So the Chinese value experiece and feeling in their conception, and tend to use these to understand others. Compaired with Western thinking, the Chinese pattern has are obviously general and vague. It gradually developes into a fixed one, with which Chinese people simplify their conception. Some aspects of this fixed thinking are wrong or far-fetched, which will lead to mistakes in intercultural communication, though other aspects correct.2.2. Different codes of conduct Codes of conduct mean moral criteria and behaving norms that are generally accepted by the whole society. Simply speaking, they tell people what to do or what not to do. People tend to judge the reasonability of the other partys behavior with their own communitys codes. But since there exist differences between the two sets of codes, misunderstanding, anger or even worse results come into being. For instance, Chinese people pat childrens head as a sign of fondness, while this is, in Western countries, a conduct of shocking disrespect for them, whose parents will be infuriated. To smooth intercultural communication, people have to abide by the codes of conduct in the other culture, especially those defining what is taboo. The best principle is to “ do as the Romans do ”. 2.3. Different values The ability to communicate is formed in socialization, and therefore connected with social values. Every culture has its particular system of values, which cannot stand separate from the culture. Since every system has its own reason to exist, we cannot judge which one is more advanced than another. For example, Chinese people think highly of modesty and politeness, feel at home everywhere and in whatever situation they are, and despise personal ambition. Meanwhile society discourages outstanding individuals who pursue their own prominence and thus are seen as extreme individualists.However, Western cultures value individualism, while people with no gumption are look down upon as lazy and incapable. Humanism takes roots in Western society, where people advocate independent thinking and judgment, achieve individual success through ability and hard work, and regard individual interest as inviolable. Consequently, the use of language is different in different cultures; the codes of conduct in one culture cannot be applied to another. Any violation or insensitivity of the above law will cause communicating failure, which sometimes ends in great losses. For instance, Chinas cashmere products enjoys good reputation on the international market. A cashmere factory exported its quality quilts trademarked as “ Shuangyang ” which were translated as “ Goats ” into English, and expected decent sales, only to find the products unmarketable. The reason is that the word “ goat ” has a connotative meaning of “ lecher ” besides its literary meaning. With such an awful name, this sort of quilts were utterly unacceptable to girls or housewives no matter how high-qualified or comfortable they might be. (2)3. Solution: to enhance students capability of intercultural communication through English teaching From the above analysis, we can see many cultural contradictions in East-West communication, which obstructs the communicative effect. To solve this problem, we must develop students capability of dealing with different cultures. 3.1. Teachers should transform their teaching ideas and methods. Under the current educational system, foreign language teaching is usually conducted in the classroom only, where teachers predominate. If teachers emphasize mere grammar and vocabulary, students will never learn to apply their knowledge to real situation, not to mention acquiring the ability to handle intercultural communication. So teachers must realize the hazard of cultural contradiction and the importance of intercultural communication ability. At the same time, they should continue their studies to improve their own quality. Only through constant efforts can they control the quantity and quality of the teaching of English culture, manipulate the specific teaching steps and method, and achieve the teaching goals. (3) 3.2. The present teaching method should be improved. Emphasis has long been put on imparting language knowledge, while the cultivation of intercultural communication ability is neglected. To change this situation, we must enhance teaching methods, opptimize the quantity and quality of classroom teaching, and make full use of modern teaching techniques to mobilize students initiatives. Besides, we may give special forums to meet their learning enthusiasm and to cultivate talents of intercultural communication. But we must insure that the new contents are closely related to students language knowledge and to the application of communication. 3.3. Non-verbal communication skills should be stressed as an indispensable communicating form. Non-verbal communication refers to the process of communicating and understanding without language under certain circumstances. Non-verbal signs are not linguistic units, but they indicate particular meanings, varying with different cultures. For example, Chinese people believe in the proverb “ Silence is gold ”. They think that in deliberate silence there exists a lot of hidden information or even that “ Silence means more than utterance ”. But this often annoys Westerners. When two Westerners talk, the listener usually look attentatively into the eyes of the speaker and uses body language to show his attention as well as respect. However, the Chinese regard this as impolite because they are not accustomed to being watched so long. (4) 3.4. Teachers should direct students to approach extensively the materials about Western cultures. The time for classroom English teaching is limited, while students have abundant time at their disposal