The best thing foreigners should know about China
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暨南大学华文学院学期论文（论文题目）Unique art of China—— Chinese Communication manner课程名称：政治专业：汉语国际教育硕士学号： 1132194033姓名: 黄赏月2011年12月Unique art of China—— Chinese Communication manner1132194033 Huang Shang-yue With the development of Chinese economy and the increase of its compensative power, more and more foreigners coming from different county come to China. Some of them just want to have a different travel experience to China, some of them want to get a greater self development in China, there are also someone just wanting to know more about China and its people. No matter what reasons for them coming to China, every one of them should know some basic things of China.When introduce our country to foreigners, most of our Chinese people would like to introduce the famous seeing sights, such as scenic spots and historical sites、special regions and wherever are representative; some will introduce our best food 、artworks、festivals and what most of us think particular and important. But in my view, no matter for natives or newcomers, the first thing they should face in their daily life is communication. Therefore, if let me introduce China to them, I prefer to tell them some Chinese manner of communication firstly. What’s more, Chinese manner of communication is a kind of unique art.1. A brief introduction of Chinese communication manner.In our daily life communication, we will meet the things of “greeti ng、thanks、apologize、saying goodbye、invitation、acceptation and rejection ” and so on. Now I will introduce our Chinese communication manner from the following aspects. 1.1Greeting.Chinese people are very kind and hospitable. They will make greeting to others when come across the one they have met or known. But the sentences they use to make greetings are very interesting. They used to say “hi, where are you going”、“Have you have eaten yet”, instead of “hello ,how are you”. One day you are walking on the road, and coming across some one you have seen before, but you only get very little information about him/her. While, he/she may smile or nod to you, and asked “have you eaten yet” or” where are you going”. At that time, don’t be confused by this question, it does not care for time and places, so does the answer you give. It is just the manner of greeting in China. You can answer to it concretely. In fact, most time you need only to make a brief response, regardless of these kinds of questions. You can just answer it like “I am going out”、”yes” or “no”. It is enough.1.2 Thanks and replies for thanks.As we often say that you are living in a large world, you are connected with everyone around directly or indirectly. You need others and others need you too. As for, we accept others` help, and offer help to others at the same time. Then, how to express thanks to the one helped you, and how to make a reply when somebody says thanks to you? In Chinese communication manner, that is a kind of art.First, Chinese people are full of gratefulness inner their mind. They say a lot of thanks to others, though, there is just a small thing, even a word that they think useful, and they will say a lot of thanks to the offers. When they get success in some aspect, they often say that it is all thank for the help of elders、superiors and other person they think important. But they seldom express thanks to their family members or relations. Communicating with others and talking about their successes, seldom of them will own their successes to themselves. But you will usually find that their success attained by themselves` hardworking, with few or without helpful effect made by people they thank for.Second, Chinese are modest. After they helped others, few of them will accept thanks directly. Thank for somebody’s help, you always are refused by words, for example, “It’s a piece ofcake. Don’t keep it in mind.” Maybe the thing you did is very important and significant, and their help is a key for your success sometime. To them, it’s not a thing worthy keeping in mind. So they maybe tell you that the things and the function of the help they offer to you are slight. When you say thanks to someone, if he/she weaken the function and importance of the things, don’t feel uneasy, they never rea lly mean that the thing is easy or unimportant, they only want to reply for your thanks with a modest attitude.1.3 Praise and replies for praise.Making highly praise to others and belittler oneself has become a traditional communication manner of Chinese. Chinese are good at flattering. They flatter others` family、skills、new things and what they can see or whatever they can make as a communication focus. Sometimes, it’s well thing to be praised, however most time what they praise is just as a manner of communication or a skill to build a comfortable communication atmosphere. When you show your works to a Chinese and hope an object comment, you will hear, “it is so great. How did you make it” (you r works are really great or just not too bad), or “good, it is nice” (you r works are bad in the commenter’s eye s). That means no matter good or bad yourworks are, it will be praised. That is Chinese.Of course, it will give foreigners an impression of un-honest sometimes. In fact, it don’t refer to whether Chine se honest or not, it is only a manner. Chinese think that everyone of us hope to get definition, praise can match to people` subconscious of seeking for satisfaction. And they believe that people can understand what their words really standing for.1.4 Saying goodbye.As a proverb says, all good things must come to an end. In our daily communication, saying goodbye is an unavoidable thing. Commonly, there is very little difference of saying goodbye in different countries. Certainly, it’s no doubt that everything has exception. There exist exceptions in Chinese communication manner. Namely, there is another sentence——“walk slowly” following by “goodbye”.Chinese are used to express their care by saying “walk slowly” or “take a good walk” when leave each other. In their mind, taking care of others by words is meaningful. And slow rhythm is what they adored. “Walk slowly” seems unreasonable, but it contains Chinese best wish to people they should say goodbye to.In Chinese communication manner, people prefer toexpress a feeling indirectly, and they insist that it is not necessary to make everything obviously. They make comments of others or what others own with positive and exaggerated words. Oppositely, they seldom talk loudly and publicly about their own advantages and outstanding aspects. More or less, they like to say holiday words to people whom they talk to, but demean the value of themselves frequently. In a word, during communication, Chinese people hold attitude of being modest、mild 、implied and polite.2. Misunderstandings foreigners may face, aroused by little knowledge of Chinese communication manner.In most communication manner of foreign countries, people are used to a fast rhythm life. They will not take a lot of time to chat，nor will they call on somebody without making an appointment. They like to share their feeling naturally and directly, speak out their outstanding aspects loudly and publicly if it is needed. Most of their manner of communication is opposite to that of China. They may not accept some communication manner of China. And it is easy for them to make a misunderstanding, because of that they are not familiar with our country’s communication manner.There are some examples of communication misunderstandings.2.1 For thanks.As it was said before, Chinese seldom express thanks to their family members and relations. They think that it will create a feeling of distance. Sharing thanks to our family members and relations seems unnecessary. So foreigners will be puzzled by this kind of phenomena. They suspect of the parlance that “Chinese are full of gratefulness.” At the same time, foreigners are puzzled by Chinese response of thanks. There is a small story about “thanks” among foreigners and Chinese. One day, a group of foreigners come to China to have an important meeting, the receptor is Chinese. When foreigners thank the receptor for his considerate service, the receptor replied as proper as Chinese think to, while the response made foreigners unhappy. The response is, “Nothing. It’s my responsibility.”Foreigners can’t understand at that circumstance. Why? Obviously, your service make us comfortable, you are worth getting thankfulness. And many things of us don’t get any relation with you, why do you reject our thanks? Why do you say that is your responsibility?If foreigners have been told something about Chinese communication manner, they would have knew those are politeness and humility of Chinese. When facing the kind ofsituation above, they shouldn’t be suspected or unhappy any more.2.2 For responses of praise.Chinese insist building a condition of middlebrow. They seldom say good of themselves, which build an impression of lacking self-complacent. Once were praised, Chinese prefer to be disavowal. A Englishwoman was attracted by Chinese mother` s perfect、complex knitting, admired, and spoken highly of it. To her surprise, the mother made a reply with sunny smile. However, the words ——“It’s not worth talking about, I just made it randomly” really made her angry. She felt that her comment was rejected, which made her thought that the Chinese mother is jesting with her ignorance. Another time, a foreign tourist said to his guide, “Your English is quite fluent and you have got a beautiful voice as well”. The guide answered politely, “No, my English is very poor.” Then, the tourist misunderstood, “Does it go wrong of my judgment?”Dealing with praise, Chinese often use defined or self-deprecating manner. While, under the same situation, most of foreigners prefer to agree with others` praise and express their thanks for others` praise. If foreigners don’t know the differences, misunderstandings will be a potluck happeningfrequently.3.3 Holiday words for invitation.Be invited to a dinner, Chinese people will always not accept directly, they often give a blurry response. If foreigners don’t know this manner of Chinese communication, they will confuse whether they should prepare for this guest. And another misunderstand is more normal. “Let’s have lunch sometime?”Does it really an invitation for dinner? No, it’s only a kind of holiday words. But many foreigners never know it.A lively story written in a book named “The difference between Chinese and Overseas culture”. It says that there is a foreign oral English teacher of a school. He is interesting and easy to get well on. After he came to the school for a few days, he got know of some people, and could easily adapt to the life in China. One day, he was going to a teacher’s home, who works in the same office with him, had invite him for dinner for many times. When he arrived, the teacher who gave him an invitation was surprised by his coming. To his surprise and discomfit, it just was a misunderstanding.Most of familiar misunderstandings happen in the communication between Chinese and foreigners. It gives us analarm that it is significant for us to introduce our communication manner. It is really necessary to let foreigners know that Chinese are particular, they have unique communication manner based on their thinking style.3. Conclusion of my view.All the time, China has played an important role in the world; its amazing power and its high speed of development has attracted lots of attention of foreign countries and foreigners. They have been paid awful concern on China. A great number of them are interested in China. I am proud of being a Chinese. And to introduce my country, I prefer to tell foreigners something about our communication manner. As we know, communication is one of the basic but most important things in the daily life of human beings. Every country has its own communication characters. Because of differences, it is easy for people to make misunderstandings when communicate with people come from different background. What’s more, Chinese communication manner is so unique in the world. If one knows something about Chinese communication manner, he/she can get no problem in communicating with Chinese, and get a well knowledge of Chinese thinking and living style, so will he/she acquire a great of knowledge about China in different field, suchan culture、arts、architecture and so on. As for these reasons, introducing Chinese communication manner to foreigners is meaningful.I have introduced it from several aspects before. And we can see that humility、flatters、self-deprecating、equivocal reply are main character in Chinese communication manner. Chinese pursue a moderate situation. They enjoy a slow rhythm life and an implicit style. To foreigners, all these are different and impenetrable. They can’t understan d what Chinese really think and what the real meaning of their words. If they don’t know Chinese communication manner, misunderstanding will come out. They may form a misconception on Chinese, even on China, what’s worse.In conclusion, in order to share our unique character and let foreigners get more knowledge of China, it is important and significant to introduce our communication manner to them.Bibliography:[1]. Liu Hong-mei, Reason analysis of wrong use between Chinese and western communication pragmatic culture [J] Journal of Weinan Teachers College, Jan, 2004.[2]. He Jia-ning, Differences between Chinese and Englishcommunication culture [J], Journal of secretary, Jun, 1998. [3]. Wu Song-chu, Comparison of modern popular Chinese and English euphemisms [J], Modern foreign language, 1996(3). [4]. Ye Jian-min, Cross-cultural comparative study on the expressive forms of both Chinese and English euphemism [J], Shangdong Foreign language teaching Journal, 2004(3). [5]. Hu Wen-zhong, Intercultural communication and what it means to Chinese learners of English [M], Shanghai Translation publishing house,1998.[6]. Gao Yong-chen, Inter-cultural communication: differences and communication, Journal of Suzhou university [J], 1991(3).。
