Differences between Western invitation and Eastern invitation It‟s acknowledged that there are many differences between Western culture and Chinese culture. Every country has its own traditional culture which can‟t be given up. It‟s difficult to say which one has more advantages that can lead a main status. They all contribute to the development and harmony of world. With the growing trend of globalization, we should come to understand the different cultures and grasp the core of them.Invitation is an important part of the culture, which reflects what people behave and think in social situations, and implies relative meanings about communication related to different people. For example, some businessman would send invitations to their cooperative partners, as a friendly and harmony sign to cooperate in future but as a defiant and aggressive meaning to their corrivals. Therefore, if you want to recognize a culture entirely, you could choose to study its invitation so as to you can grasp the center of culture quickly.Invitation is common in all cultures. Nevertheless, there are also many differences in how to give an invitation and how to reply to an invitation. In western country, inviting each other is a social activity, aimed at making more friends and getting help from each other when they need some day. As for invitations is just like a tool to expand their social intercourse. When English speakers wish to invite relatives, friends or colleagues to dinner, they may send a formal letter of invitation a week or so advanced. The person who has received the invitation is expected to indicate definitely whether he will attend or not.When you receive an invitation, you don't have to say yes or no immediately, but you should give an answer as soon as possible. Make sure you know the time and place of the party. Make sure you express pleasure or thanks to the host. If you are married or live with someone, you can bring him/her with you as long as your host knows that you have a spouse or partner. If the party includes business associates, a suit will be proper. If the party is just for friends, you don't need to dress formally.While In China invitation often occurs between old friends and relatives to talk about the past and brighten the chain with each other or renew friendship. For this invitation, people regard invitation as a passionate treat, and usually will attend it. But for other invitation, like business, politics, people always hold a little negative and unmeaning attitude even if it‟s very formal conference.When someone invites his friends to take part in a party, what he behaves is obviously different between Chinese and America.In America, men and women are more open to communicate, do not concern about if it‟s opposite sex overmuch, and one girl and one boy who has met first go to movie or eat together is very common to see. So people who have a dating sometimes don‟t mean that they are lovers, maybe they just want to stay together. If you want to invite an American girl alone, you must point to eat lunch or dinner, it‟s the different meaning. Generally speaking, an informal lunch, easy to be accepted while dinner is more serious, and people who are invited will behave formally and get the certain place on time. Chinese female students invited by American male classmate also should pay attention to the different with dinner and lunch. If you don't want toreceive someone‟s appointment or it makes you uncomfortable, you can be polite but stable to refuse him. In the United States, mutual respect is the based on communicative principle and rights.In China, people are very conservative and missish, they will be careful to receive any invitation no matter who invites them, especially someone who is unknown or meets first. By the traditional Chinese education, we mustn‟t optionally accept others‟gifts as if the one looks like a kind sheep. As a result, when a Chinese people receive an invitation, he will first take all matters into consideration, then he makes a decision about whether to go or not. Meanwhile, a Chinese don‟t give you a response as you are informing him while waiting a short time he will respond.It should be noted that in American culture, there are two kinds of invitation, one is …genuine invitation” , the other is “false invitation”. If one is not familiar with American culture maybe feel that Americans are not sincere or honest because he cannot tell the difference between “genuine invitation” and “false invitation”.American characters are cheerful and generous, optimistic. They usually stay up late and get up late, but have strong sense of time. When they say goodbye to you, they will say see you next day, find me when you are convenient, come to find me at any time and so on. These are just polite phraseologies to say goodbye when communicating with others, not real invited. If you drop at any time you probably get a cold treat because you interrupt their individual life.A false invitation usually includes the following elements. First, there is no exact time and place in the invitation. That means they don‟t want to really invite but out of politeness they talk to you. Second, if they use the word like should, must, etc. without getting you permission, it‟s normally a false invitation. In the United States, owing to the notion of equality, therefore, inviting people to a party probably will borrow someone else's time. People do what they want always respect the reflection of others, almost don‟t impose other.To sum up, with the growing trend of globalization, we should understand and grasp the differences between Chinese and American culture so as to we can handle the direction of the development of the world. Every culture has its own values and plays an important role in the world developing. We ought to respect every culture and devote ourselves to the trend creating a bright life.1. What are the differences in the concepts of friends between the Chinese andAmerican cultures?American thinks everyone is equal and should respect everyone. Therefore, they tend to use polite f orms such as “could you” and “would you” even with their friend s, and don‟t impose them friends. Many American want such time alone when they have problems. American apologizes to their friends over things like asking for help in some small matter or telephoning late at night. Besides, An American may feel that a friend needs privacy to “work out” a problem. So American may want to give you your privacy even if you don‟t want it.While Chinese people tend to make more direct requests to their friends. They address those know quite well in a very direct way. They may sound rude and demanding when they intend to sound friendly.2.Discuss the feasibility of a synthesis of Eastern culture and Western culture.In western culture a synthesis is not feasibility, people are most likely to value individual identity, which means the social unit is the individual and the interests of the individual are considered to be more important than those of the group.In Eastern culture a synthesis is feasibility. In eastern country, people tend to place high value on group identity rather than individual identity, which means quite contrary to the individualist cultures, the interests of the individual are lea important than those of the group. The social unit is the group. They may try their best to make the synthesis better.。
