四川外语学院继续教育学院本科毕业论文外文题目and British Cultures in专年2010年6月18日On the Differences b etween Chinese and British Cultures i nIntercultural CommunicationAbstractAlong with the deepening of reform and opening up,the rapid developments of economy,science and technology and the tendency of globalization have brought China into direct and indirect contact with other countries.While because of the diversity of world culture,people from different countries often behave in such different ways which makes us do not understand. This may result in communication failure.In intercultural communication, people should study the differences between cultures,in case of communication failure.Great Britain,an island country,is located in Europe,while China is an Asian country.Cultural differences are quite different.Beginning with the introduction,this thesis describes the role of intercultural communication plays in international communication.In order to describe the intercultural communication,the second part of this thesis defines the communication and intercultural communication,and represents the development of intercultural communication.In the third part,this thesis describes something about culture,including the definition,classification,characteristics and differences of culture.The forth part is the core of this thesis,it analyses the differences between Chinese and British cultures in verbal communication and nonverbal communication.And the last part is a conclusion.Key words:communication failure;intercultural communication;verbal communication;nonverbal communicationIntercultural CommunicationOutlineThesis Statement:The differences between Chinese and British cultures arereflected in verbal communication and nonverbalcommunication.I.Introduction:The prevalence of intercultural communicationII.Intercultural CommunicationmunicationB.Intercultural Communication1.Definition of Intercultural Communication2.The Development of Intercultural CommunicationIII.CultureA.Definition&Classification of CultureB.The Characteristics of CultureC.Cultural DifferencesIV.The Cultural Differences between Chinese and British in Intercultural CommunicationA.Cultural Differences in Verbal CommunicationB.Cultural Differences in Nonverbal CommunicationV.ConclusionEndnotesBibliographyIntercultural CommunicationⅠ.I ntroductionIn modern society,with the rapid development of economy,science and technology,transportation and communication are progressing with each passing day.More and more people live,study and work in different populations,people of different cultural backgrounds contact with each other more and more frequently.In the process of being“Global Village”,we are directly and indirectly contacting with other people,because of the cultural diversity,they often behave in such different ways that we do not understand them.Various cultures interact,infiltrate,absorb and fuse each other in the contacting and collision,this will affect intercultural communication.It not only needs the ability of language,but also the culture of English countries,when communicate cross cultures in English successfully.Otherwise,in the process of communication,improper or inappropriate pragmatic failure will appear, causing misunderstanding because of cultural difference.In order to avoid more culture conflicts between different countries, understanding the cultural differences in cross-cultural communication is a required course.This paper analyses the differences of verbal communication and non-verbal communication between Chinese and British Cultures in intercultural communication.Ⅱ.Intercultural CommunicationmunicationThe history of communication is as long as that of human beings. Communication appeared since the emergence of human.And communication, which is everywhere,develops along with the development of human society.However,because of its diversity,communication is difficult to define accurately.There are3definitions in OALD1:1.[U]the activity or process of expressing ideas and feelingsor of giving people information.2.[U]methods of sending information,especially telephones,radio,computers,etc.3.[C](formal)a message,letter or telephone call.In Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English,communication is defined as:“the process by which people exchange information or express their thoughts and feelings.”2The most universal definition is that communication is“the exchange of information and the transmission of meaning”.(Katz&Kahn,1996)A Chinese scholar Mr.Zhang Guoliang defines communication as:“communication is the process in which one party gives the message that is received by the other party”. (Hu Wenzhong,1999)Actually,almost all communication scholars agree to communication is a process.Thus it can be seen that communication is the process of people contacting and exchanging information with each other.Throughout history,lots of scholars have different opinions about communication,as a matter of fact,the definition of which could be divided into two schools.One is“persuasion”,regarding communication as the process of expressing information so as to influence the action of receiver.The other one is“sharing”,thinking communication is the process of sharing,that is,the process of turning the information of minoritysharing into the information of majority.B.Intercultural Communication1.Definition of Intercultural CommunicationIntercultural communication,also called cross-cultural communication,is the communication between native speaker and non-native speaker,also the communication of people in different language and culture.Generally speaking, intercultural communication is what you should pay attention to,and how to communicate properly,when you communicate with foreigners.2.The Development of Intercultural CommunicationWherever the people of different cultural backgrounds contact,cross-cultural communication will happen,and even can be said that the history of cross-cultural communication is the history of human.Intercultural communication occurs whenever there is communication between people from different cultural backgrounds,for example,what happened on the Silk Road,Marco Polo’s stay in China,Monk Jianzhen’s mission to Japan,and Zheng He’s seven voyages to the Western Seas—they tell us that intercultural communication is as old as history.Nevertheless,as a discipline,its history is short.Intercultural communication as a field of study first emerged in the United States in the1950s.United States is a nation of immigration,where culture conflict occurs at any time.Immigrants from world highlight and preserve their own culture,thus create the multi-cultural pattern of United States.Therefore intercultural communication raised the attention of American scholars and public.Edward Hall3is considered the father of intercultural communication with his population of The Silent Language in1959and his many other works.The 1960s was the period of conceptualization of the field by communication scholars.The1970s showed a rapid development,reflected in the publication of numerous studies.During the1980s the field moved toward integration and aclearer identity.The1990s stressed diversification of methods,displayed increased concern with domestic co-cultures,and also witnessed efforts to redress historical and colonial imbalances.By the end of the20th century,there was as many as nineteen specific intercultural communication theories put forward.(Gudykunst,2003)And Japan was unwilling to be left behind,in1972,the first International Conference on intercultural communication held in Tokyo,which has more than 2000people attend ing.In1974,SIETAR(Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research)was found in America.The study of intercultural communication in China started late.Professor Hu Wenzhong,the famous linguist of Beijing Foreign Studies University,engaged in the research of cross-cultural communication in early1980s,now has published Introduction to Intercultural Communication,Cross Culture and Language Communication,and many others books.At present cross-cultural communication has become a comprehensive branch of anthropology,linguistics,psychology,communication, sociology and other disciplines which are valued by international scholars.Ⅲ.C ultureA.Definition&Classification of CultureThe word“Culture”is widely used in daily life and academic works, people seem to know the meaning of it.However,the understanding and application of all kinds of people under all kinds of circumstances are differing in thousands of ways.“Culture”in culturology is the most basic concept and terminology,before studying the cultural difference,firstly,define“culture”.According to The Contemporary Chinese Dictionary,there are three definitions of culture:A.the sum of material wealth and spiritual wealth created bypeople in the process of social history,especially the spiritual wealth,such as literature,art,education,science and so on.B.Archaeological terms,refers to a complex of relics andlegacy which are not transferred according to distribution.The sametools,equipment,manufacturing technology are the features ofsame culture,such as Yangshao Culture,Longshan Culture.C.the ability of using language and general knowledge:learning culture,cultural level.4While in OALD,the definitions of culture are:1[U](a)refined understanding and appreciation of art, literature,etc.(b)(often derog)art,literature,etc.collectively.2[U]is the state of intellectual development in a society.3[U,C]is particular form of intellectual expression,e.g.in art and literature.4[U,C]culture is customs,arts,social institutions,etc.of a particular group or people.5[U]is developments through training,exercise,treatment, etc.6[U]culture is the growing of plants or rearing of certain types for animals(e.g.bees,silkworms,etc.)to obtain a crop or improvethe species.7[C](biology)groups of bacteria grown for med ical or scientific study.5Therefore,it’s not difficult to find that the understanding of culture between Chinese and westerners is not totally same.While views in cultural differences exits not only between Chinese and westerners,but also among scholars in different countries even the same country.Because of the differences of perspective,scope or theory,the definition of culture is not the same.It’s said that there are over a hundred definitions,thus culture is a complex object.For a long time,anthropologist believe that culture is the living style of a nation,that is,the patterns of behavior,attitude and achievement learned by the members of the nation.With the passage of time,the concept of culture has gradually changed.A famous British anthropologist Tylor6defines culture as:“The so-called culture or civilization,to its broad ethnographic sense,is an overall composite which knowledge,belief,art,morals,law,custom,and any of the members of the society as acquired all ability and habits.”(1871)this is the earlier and more comprehensive definition put forward by anthropologists,still used by people.Herskovits holds that,culture is the creation of artificial environment,that is to say,except nature;all the things added by people could be called culture. The things people create include two kinds:one is objective culture,the hardware product,the other one is subjective culture,the software product. Hardware is the tangible articles,such as housing,transportation,computer,TV and other mechanical devices.While software is intangible,which exists in everywhere,such as belief,ideal,value and social norms?They are affecting people like air and sunshine.(1955)This definition is very comprehensive,but not used by many scholars. With more widely used is the subjective culture,that is,culture is a shared value system.Geert Hofstede once refers to culture as“the software of mind”,and points out culture affects people,what concerns,how to act and how to judge people and things.To sum up,culture can be defined as“the material wealth and spiritual wealth created by people,through the inspection of history.”Culture almost includes every aspect of human society,so the classification is numerous.Professor Xing Fuyi divided culture into material culture,institutional culture and mental culture.Among them,material culture refers to material civilization created by people,all visible and tangible material and spiritual product,including diet culture,costume culture,architectural culture,drama culture,etc.Institutional culture is the social norms,involving the human social system,religious system,producing system,educational system, labor management system,family system,relationship system,custom system, behavior system,and various theories associated with them.Mental culture is defined as human thinking mode,thinking habits,value,aesthetic temperament, belief and mentality.B.The Characteristics of CultureAll theses definitions are not mutually exclusive that culture is a reflection of human life,record of activities,deposit of history,which also the people’s needs and requirements of life,ideals and wishes.People acquaint with nature, think about themselves on culture which includes some thoughts and theories. Culture is the method and standard of human’s survival,meanwhile thoughts and theories are the soul of culture,there are no thoughts and theories without culture.Although there may not be a standard definition of culture,there are lots of characteristics of culture which describe its essence.Firstly,culture is something shared by a group.Secondly,these things can be objective dominant,and subjective implicit.Moreover,the objective dominant and subjective implicit culture affects every aspects of the group.Last but not least,culture,from generation to generation,is organic. Although it is advancing with times extremely slow.And there are differences between different cultures.C.Cultural DifferencesCultural differences are reflected in all aspects of culture,such as religious beliefs,values,mode of thinking,lifestyle,philosophy,language,history,diet, time,space,interpersonal relationships and so on.Samovar,American semiologist,once pointed out that when a message left the culture of encoder,it carried the meaning which coder expressed.When arrived in the receiver,it would affected by the code culture.In the encoding process of intercultural communication,the connotations of the original information will be modified,the greater the difference in communication between the two parties,the greater the degree of tampering,which shows that the greater the cultural differences,the greater possibility intercultural communication occurs.Therefore,it’s beneficial to reduce misunderstanding and improve communication that has knowledge of both the degree and point of cultural differences.Ⅳ.T he Cultural Differences Between Chinese and British inIntercultural CommunicationThe full name of Britain is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.It is a complicated name for what is in many ways a complicated country.Most people know something about it because its huge overseas empire.The British state is a group of islands situated off the continent of Europe, which is made up of Great Britain(England,Wales and Scotland)and Northern Ireland.British always regard their country as“four nations,one kingdom”.One kingdom is the United Kingdom;four nations are English,Scot,Welsh and Irish. People from Scotland,Wales or Northern Ireland would like to be called British, instead of English.China is located in eastern Asia,the west bank of Pacific,which is a country with land and sea.A.Cultural Differences in Verbal CommunicationLanguage,the carrier of culture,is an inseparable part of culture.It not only reflects culture,but also influenced by culture.In addition to the structure rules,includes voice,vocabulary,grammar,the use of language also constrained by the use rules.The use rules prefer to the social culture which language belongs to,while social culture measures the appropriateness of using language. Due to the cultural transfer,foreign language learners often put their own culture model into a new culture,and“culture has unity,continuity,communism,but also differences and variability.”(Hu Wenzhong,1985)The form and application of language are restricted,affected,determined by cultural content.The form of different language application display different cultural characteristics.Because of different education,people of different backgrounds have different ideology,beliefs,style and customs system. Therefore,owing to the great cultural differences,people often suffer from the barrier of communication.In the practical communication,the factors of cultural differences mainlymanifested as follows:vocabulary,customs,values and way of thinking.They affect the principles and expression of language directly and fundamentally, affect the cognition and mastery of language learners,affect the success or failure of verbal communication.Vocabulary,an important component of language,is the carrier of language information.“The learning of vocabulary is related to the relationship between words and the outside world,as well as the relationship between words.”(Wilkins)Words are used to express concept,while concept is the result of perceptual knowledge and theoretical understanding.When people see a word, they will think of what it means,and link the meaning to objective facts or imagined things,forming an image in mind.On the same word,the image or association which of different people,may be completely different.The phrase“east wind”in Chinese reminds people of spring,while“west wind”makes people feeling cold winter.But in English,there are some phrases,“biting east wind”,“It is warm,blowing a west wind,full of birds crying.”Same phrases have totally different meanings.China faces sea in the east;east wind from sea is pleasure,while the west wind from Siberia is frozen.Britain is an island country,surrounded by the sea.It is separated from the rest of Europe by the English Channel in the south and the North Sea in the east.East wind is from European continent,the west wind blow from Atlantic Ocean,which is warm and pleasant.Thus,the differences on geography are one of the reasons making cultural differences between China and Britain.In English,the word“dear”is used in many situations to anybody whom you want to show your respect or intimacy,while in British families,they often use“darling”,“sweet heart”to show their love,although sometimes“dear”is also used.But in Chinese,“dear”is not so popular in family.First comes to customs.There are a large number of obvious differences between China and Britain in address,greeting,modesty,praise and some other daily communication.If people are not familiar with those communication rules, they will fail to communicate,even cause negative consequence.Since China has about three thousand years of history of feudal society, feudal ideas are deep-rooted in the minds of people.People attach great importance to blood relationship,emphasiz e the social status,advocate respecting the aged and taking good care of children.Nevertheless,Britishpursue equality,address is much simpler.Both paternal and maternal grandfather are“grandpa”.Whether mother’s brother or father’s brother are“uncle”.Even British children call their elders by their name.But it is not polite in Chinese.A common Chinese form of address is the use of a person’stitle,office,or profession,such as“张局长”,“李经理”,“严校长”.But one seldom hears English speakers addressing others as BureauDirector Smith,Manager Jackson,Principal Morris,etc.In English,only a few occupations or titles are used such as Doctor,Judge,Governor,Mayor,Professor,Nurse and ranks in the armed forceslike Captain.These can be used either singly or with the person’ssurname.(Deng Yanchang,et al.,1989)7Greetings are so common in both Chinese and English.When people meet, they usually greet each other.The purpose of the greeting is to establish or maintain social contact,not to transfer information,so formulaic expressions are often used.The following greetings are common in British English:“Hey.”“Hello.”“How do You do?”“Good morning/afternoon/evening.”“How is everything?”“How are things going?”They are more formal than American English.In Chinese,there is a very similar set of phrases like the following:“Where have you been”,“Where are you going”,“Have you had your meal”. British would be puzzled,when hear such greetings.Their natural reaction to these Chinese greetings would be:“It’s none of your business!”or regard it as an invitation to dinner.Chinese are known for modesty.Several thousand years ago,Confucius has educated his disciples be modest.The deep-rooted Confucianism has influenced Chinese people.Even Chinese modesty could be described as “humble”.In foreigners’view,quality of the British,and in particular of the English,is“reserved”.A reserved person is one who does not talk very much to strangers,does not show much emotion,and seldom gets excited.It is difficult to get to know a reserved person.As the same as the British,he never tells others anything about himself.Closely related to British reserve is British modesty. Within their hearts,the British are perhaps no less conceited than anybody else ofother countries,but in their relations with others they value at least a show of modesty.Self-praise is felt to be impolite.Even a British had managed to reach the finals in last year’s local championships;he would say it in such a way as to suggest that it was only due to a piece of good luck.British conservativeness is known to the world,but they think their behavior is the best,the most reasonable.Along with human entering into21st century,British people are in a huge change.British used to embarrass to express emotion in public.However,the famous British“stiff upper lip”has become a thing of the past,according to a survey which found Briton are no longer embarrassed to her a tear or be affectionate in public.Briton are also prone to getting carried away when they are excited,the research showed,with47percent waving their arms in the air,a third jumping up and down and three in10 throwing their arm around someone nearby.When receiving compliments from others:“You did a good job!”or“You look great!”Chinese people often say:“No,no,I didn’t do it well!”“I am not.”This may owe to Chinese modesty.But such respond may make a Briton think you lack of confidence,or you are just pretend ing,which they don’t like and can’t understand.Just respond like Briton:“Thank you!”In daily communication,Chinese always start conversations like this:“Where are you from?”“How old are you?”“Are you married?”“How much do you earn?”but little attention paid to the answers already given.However,such kinds of topics are regarded as private matters for British people,which Chinese should therefore be careful about discussing it with Briton.British people attach great importance to privacy.Generally speaking,it is regarded as impolite in English culture to ask a person his or her age.This is particularly true of woman when she is over thirty.So a direct question like“How old are you?”should be avoided.It is very common in China to ask someone’s salary in the past.Salary is also regarded as extremely personal and private in Britain.It is better to avoid questions like“How much do you earn?”Actually,there are many topics that are acceptable to both Briton and Chinese,such as the following:hobbies,holidays,the weather,films or books.When part,especially for an important guest,Chinese host will see him or her to the build ing gate,or even to the bus stop and say some thing like:“Walk slowly.”“Watch your step.”Sometimes they will not go back until the guest isout of sight.In contrast to this,British host will see the guest to the door and say thing like“Thank you for coming.”Next comes to values and way of thinking.“Traditional values are the core of culture.”(Hu Wenzhong,1992)Every social system has its own unique value system,which directly affects the way people are thinking and communication rules.Value system plays a mandatory role in people’s social life.For people belonging to a certain culture,behavior is dominated by the values,which belongs to the language.The traditional Chinese view is“The Unity of Man and Heaven”,that is,people live in unity and harmony with nature.The theory reflected in thinking model is integrated thinking,is a priority of the overall cognitive activity,reflected in language is integrated sentence.This model of thinking,first of all,pay attention to the overall image,and then attention to detail,first is the whole then is partial.Correspond ingly,British culture adhere to “man is separated from nature”,that is,“separation of subject and object”.Briton think man is the center of all things,man and nature are relatively discrete,and people should be at the disposal and transformation status.All these reflected in thinking model is sub-shaped thinking,also known as analytic thinking,reflected in language is sub-shaped sentence.The way to think is a stylized comprehensiveness and unity of thinking methods and thinking procedure during the progress of thinking subject reflecting object.(Rong Kaiming,1989:30)While thinking procedure“is the basic way of thinking,is the organic combination of thinking form and thinking method in thinking activity.”(Lian Shuneng,2002:40)For people of different nationalities,the way of thinking has similarities and differences.Making a comparative study of the differences and similarities of thinking way,especially understanding the differences between different nationalities,is the significant measure of reducing and eliminating intercultural communication barrier.The main differences of thinking model between Chinese and Briton are manifested as follows:Chinese people lay stress on ethics,while British people focus on cognition.Confucianism is one of the most influenced ideologies for Chinese society.Confucianism“is concerned with the humanity,rather than natural law.”(Lian Shuneng,2002:41)While British culture developed in marine geographic environment contributed to strong interest of Briton to astronomy geography,made them form the cognition of exploring the mystery of nature,extorting from the nature.Chinese people attach importance to integrity,toward to synthetic thinking, while British people attach importance to individ uality,toward to analytic thinking.The concept of all in one regards human and nature,individ ual and society,even everything in the world as an organic integrity which is inseparable, interdependent,interactional,mutual restraining.This is the simplest dialectic thinking methods of Chinese people.Advocating harmony is the outstanding performance of emphasizing integrity.Symmetry and harmony make Chinese feel the beauty of vision and hearing,and feel spiritual pleasure and psychological satisfaction.Chinese think highly of the antithesis language beauty,although so do Briton,not as exquisite as Chinese.Integrative thinking also reflected in the covertness of Chinese grammar,the parataxis of syntax,and the indistinct of words’meaning.Analytic thinking,however,reflected in the covertness of English grammar,the hypostasis of syntax,and the concrete of words’meaning.Chinese value intuition,while Briton value evidence.Intuition thinking emphasiz es perceptual knowledge,inspiration and sight.This kind of thinking characteristics is from Confucianism,Taoism and Budd hism,also is the product of philosophy theory“The Unity of Heaven and Man”.While the traditional thinking of British people always values rational knowledge,values analysis, thus so does the evidence.And advocates coming to a scientific and objective conclusion.So the analysis of English is very comprehensive.If people don’t analyze the grammatical relations of Chinese sentences,they can understand the meaning of a sentence.If there is no analysis of grammatical relations in English sentences,especially the complicated relationship of long sentences,then no understanding the meaning of English sentences.Chinese attach importance to figurative thinking,while Briton importance to logical thinking.“Imaginable thinking is a psychological process of people analyzing,processing memory image,and forming new image in mind.”Logical thinking“is a thinking activity of judging and inferring by concept.”(Guan Shijie,1999:241)。
