英文学院本科生学期论文
课程名称跨文化交际
学期2015-2016学年第2学期
学号1201010716
姓名全春霞
专业英文学院
任课教师
成绩
The Cultural Diversity and Cultural Shock of Cross-cultural Communication
by
全春霞
School of English Studies
Xi'an International Studies University
Xi’an, China
2015.6.28
The Cultural Diversity and Cultural Shock of Cross-cultural
Communication
Abstract:Time goes by. With the innovation of technology and the rapid development of productivity under the current of the economic globalization, the connection between people is near and near, as well as country. Therefore, people in different nations are more closely interdependent to each other and the world is becoming an international family. This paper focus on exploring the cultural diversity and cultural shock of cross-cultural communication under globalization through the comparison and analysis of the cultural differences between the different countries in two films.
Keywords:
cross-cultural communication;cultural diversity;culture shock
1.Introduction
Today, there are over 200 countries and more than 5000 nationalities in this world, among which 10% are minorities. Due to the geographical environment, climate, natural conditions and historical background, the way of life, the differences of economic and technology, every country and nationality is different and distinctive.Ethnic diversity inevitably lead to cultural diversity because different countries and regions, ethnic and racial have different culture. However, cultural shock is caused by cultural differences on the cultural values of contradictions and intense confrontation. Culture Shock refers to the cultural differences and not adapt to the huge loss and psychological imbalance caused by the culture. Therefore, if people do not know these cultural differences, people will hinder effective communication between different ethnic groups and close contacts, which is not conducive to human prosperity and harmonious development. With the rapid development of the world economy and frequent contacts between different countries, cross-cultural communication is getting more and more important. In order to the harmonious development of human beings, people must know more cultural diversity and decrease cultural shock to strengthen the understanding and communication between different ethnic groups.
2.The cultural diversity of cross-cultural communication
The cultural diversity shows in different regions and countries, in different languages, in distinctive customs, diverse ways of thinking and various faiths and so on. Since each region always has differences in the local history and culture, therefore it has their own unique cultural and history characters of the logical structure. Cultural diversity is the social reality, so our subjective desire can not change it. Everything has its rationality of existence, and people have to accept the truth of its existence. In cross-cultural communication, we can't change the reality, so people not only accept and respect other cultures but also need to actively adapt to different cultures.
2.1 the Cultural Diversity of Different Language
The language, the most important communication tool for human, is the carrier of the human thought. Generally speaking, each nation has its own
language.According to Linguistics and Language Communication Tools Handbook published by German says “that there are 5651 languages in the world.In these languages, than 1400 languages have not been recognized as an independent language.”
In Lost in Translation, The host, Bob was invited to Japan for an advertisement of whisky. On the spot for the first time, director from Japan speaking for a long time demanded Bob to turn to camera lens, but the translator told Bob the demand from director just by one sentence-“turn to camera”. The Bob were very confused and said “that’s all he said?” and “all right, does he want me to…to…turn from the right or…turn the left?”. Culture is divided into high-context and low-context culture from the angle of communication. Japanese is a high-context culture that everything needs to be understood by specific scenarios; American is a low-context culture country that people are used to express themselves directly.
Meantime, The Japanese develops a complete system of honorific, called Japanese honorific which refers to respect for the interlocutor. Here, in order to show the politeness, users who use honorific skills have a wide selection of words and expressions involving the different levels of language. Sometimes, a simple sentence may have more than 20 expression, which depends on the relative position between the speaker and the talking object. Proper conversation is quite challenging since the relative position relation is determined by the complex combination of many factors, such as social status, age, gender and so on. So in cross-cultural communication, knowing other languages is key to get along well with other people.
2.2the Cultural Diversity of Distinctive Customs and Diverse Thinking Ways
Custom is a specific social culture area and people abide by patterns of behavior or specifications. With a history of formation, custom is a kind of social traditions and has effectively restrictive function to members of society. Custom is the basis and supplement of social morality and law. Different country and nationality have different customs.
For colors, in china, red means lucky and festival but in western culture, it means bleeding, danger and fighting; white in china represents failure and death, on the country, in western, it represents lucky, pure and honest. So in cross-cultural communication, people should pay attention to these details to avoid causing misunderstanding and even lead to conflict. For example, in American, people who attend to wedding should avoid wearing red clothes and shoes. Therefore, we must master the interpersonal skills while we are in social conditions. We must respect others' habits and agree with their differences in order to avoid conflicts and embarrassment.
In Gua Sha Treatment, The biggest culture difference the film showed us was that Chinese culture was based on experience while western based on specific evidences. The film Guasha Treatment describes what happened to a Chinese family after they had used the traditional Chinese medical treatment Guasha to a
little boy in the Unite State. In addition, Datong was not the person who gave the little boy Gua Sha treatment but his father do that. However, Datong decided to be a scapegoat. This was a culture difference. In Chinese traditional culture, law is not important than affection. Though we also praise those people who put righteousness above family loyalty, nobody wants that happen to themselves. Chinese think that being a scapegoat for family members especially for father or mother is a responsibility. In different culture, people have different habit to do something what other people who have different culture can’t understand.
3.the Cultural Shock of Cross-cultural Communication
Cross-cultural communication is one of the major problems of the contemporary human society. Intercultural communication is becoming more and more common today. It provides people with many opportunities to contact and communicate with western and to deepen our understanding of western society but this is not a simple matter, because what we face is from new culture and country. The way of thinking and living and behavior are very different, and the cultural differences often cause communicative difficulties and problems, misunderstanding, confusion, contradictions and even conflicts.
3.1 the Conflict of Formulaic Language
Chinese people keep modest in communication with others and think of that as a virtue and the Chinese culture characteristic of polite. This is an obvious illustration of Self-denigration in Chinese politeness. When others praise us, we tend to be low to show modesty and polite. Western countries have no such cultural habits, when they are praised, there will always be very happy and say "Thank you" to accept. Due to the differences between Chinese and western culture, some Chinese think the west is too confident and haughty; And when the western hears Chinese answer that they deny their own achievement and other people’s praise , they can feel very surprised and think Chinese people are not honest.
In Gua Sha Treatment, the contradiction between Chinese and American erupted, because Datong's son Dennis hit John, the son of Datong’ boss,and Datong beat Dennis in front of his boss. That is to give the boss respect in Chinese style. T he boss is can’t understand and says "respect? Good Chinese logic of unreasonable!" Chinese people show respect by beating their children when their
children fight with other people’s chil dren. However, the way of politeness is hard to understanding for American who believe beating children is fault.
In different culture, knowing culture can help decrease conflicts and is good for people who are from different country to get along well with each other.
3.2 the Conflict of Time View and Personal Values
Western view of time and money are linked together, so they are very cherish their time. In life, they tend to make careful arrangements and plans and form the good habit of punctuality. In the west, people must advance notice, explain the purpose and inform the time and the place. After host has agreed, people can be carried out and then visit someone. But Chinese keep the multi-dimensional time that means the time is flexible and people have a great randomness on using time, in other word, people do not strictly carry out in accordance with the plan like westerners. Westerners often feel confused to understand this.
Traditional Chinese culture has always been promoting selfless dedication and team spirit, the Chinese is generally believed that the collective interests above all else, so people are educated to put group interest ahead of individual interest. while western culture tend to advocate individualism, independent consciousness is very strong like following one's inclinations, independent thinking and relying on their own ability to achieve personal interests.
For example, if there is an urgent task to complete overtime in company, the Chinese must be word even all night to complete, and westerners will express strong protest or refused and think company’s arrangement is unreasonable and encroach on his personal time to rest.
4.Conclusion
In cross-cultural communication, people must constantly improve the
cross-cultural awareness and respect each other culture to admit its rationality. In addition, people need to learn to understand differences between mother tongue and second language. To achieve friendly communication, people take the positive attitude to adjust the cultural diversity and respect different languages and distinctive customers and the way of thinking. In order to eliminating the interference of different culture, people should know and accept each other culture communication principle that punctuality and respect different formulaic Language and personal values. Therefore, in the cross-communication, besides respecting cultural diversity and decreasing cultural shock, there are some other thing that people can do by learning different culture.
Works Cited
Encyclopadia of language and linguistics.2nd. New York: Haper,2005.Print