On Crosscultural Communication

1、谈跨文化交际on cross-cultural communicationcontentsabstract.1key words11. introduction.22.conceptions of culture, communication and cross-cultural communication3 3.the pattern of cross-cultural communication.44.cultural factors.54.1 the ways of thinking.54.1.1 unity opposites.64.1.2 past oriented future o

2、riented.6 4.2conception of value7 4.2.1 dependence independence8 4.2.2 closeness privacy.8 4.3rules of social behaviors94.3.1 social custom.10 4.3.2 norm of moral.104.3.3 norm of law.115.predictability of cross-cultural communication.126. cross-cultural communication strategies127. conclusion14refer

3、ence.15on cross-cultural communication摘要：从跨文化交际的概念入手，分析跨文化交际的理论模式，并通过中美文化的比较，探讨跨文化交际的要素及可预见性。这是一个每时每刻都在变化的时代。个体之间乃至整个民族之间都在互相融合，各种文化也在融为一体，这都是全球化的必然结果。从这一点来看，跨文化交际是极为重要的。我们都应该成为能够很好地表达自己思想的文化交流者，而不仅仅是信息接收者或聆听者，换句话说，要成为积极的参与者。否则，他人将不会意识到我们的存在。再者，跨文化交际和语言教学密不可分。英语教学的目的是尝试培养不同文化背景的人们之间的交际能力。因此，教师不仅仅是在教

4、语言，同时更要介绍相关的文化背景，从而帮助学生增强跨文化交际意识以避免他们在与不同文化背景的人们的交流中出现的问题。那么，怎样才能意识到并区分这些文化差异以便更好地进行交流呢？接下来本文将介绍一些有效的跨文化交际的策略。关键词：跨文化交际；跨文化交际要素；可预见性；交际策略abstract：starting from the concept of cross-cultural communication and following theoretical pattern, this essay discusses the communication essence and analyzes t

5、he predictability of cross-cultural communication, on the basis of comparing chinese culture and american culture. it is an age of rapid change where everything is changing every single moment. people and the whole nation are melting now into one another. others fully vanish into other cultures. thi

6、s is a natural outcome of globalization. on this point, the importance of cross-cultural communication is significant. all of us should be good culture communicators not only to be receivers or listeners, but also to share and present what we have as well, in other words, be positive participants. o

7、therwise, people will never realize our existence. in addition, cross-cultural communication is closely tied with language teaching. the goal of teaching efl is an attempt to cultivate people in communication between different cultural backgrounds. so the teachers are required to teach not only lang

8、uage but also culture, and to help increase students cross-cultural awareness so that fewer problems arise in their interaction with people of another culture. then how to realize and distinguish these differences and make our communication effective. next, some cross-cultural communication strategi

9、es are introduced to lead to an effective communication.key words: cross-cultural communication communication essence predictability communication strategieson cross-cultural communication1. introduction in the 20s30s, the study of cross-cultural communication has drawn interest in u.s.a. it focuses

10、 on the problems arising from communication between people of different cultural backgrounds and how to solve them. linguists, cultural linguists, applied linguists and experts all turned their attention to this field of study. learning such abilities of cross-cultural communication as how to greet

11、people and how to choose topics etc. helps to explain what happens during the communication.the study of cross-cultural communication is of recent origin. it is a hot subject involving many disciplines. among them, the relationship between culture and language in cultural anthropology, communication

12、 and context culture in social linguistics, code and decode in semieology, etc. have great influence on it. owing to different academic backgrounds and research purposes, experts and researchers have drawn different views from different angles. among them, sarbargh and gunskunst pointed that cross-c

13、ultural communication occurs whenever people from different cultures come in contact with each other, that it is almost like the ordinary communication (communication in one culture), that the differences between them vary in degrees, not in essence.in modern societies, the rapid development of econ

14、omy, science & technology and global cooperation bring out the reality that cross-cultural communication becomes immense. because of different social backgrounds, social systems, ways of thinking, norms of behaviors and customs, people have many difficulties and obstacles in understanding one anothe

15、r and communicating with one another. the study of this field helps to overcome and solve these problems, and to predict peoples possible behaviors during the cross-cultural communication. to avoid unnecessary misunderstanding between interpersonal, inter-group and international communication, to co

16、mmunicate more efficiently and to build a good relationship between each other, it is indispensable to learn something in this field, then to improve the communicative abilities.in addition, cross-cultural communication is closely tied with language teaching. the goal of teaching efl is an attempt t

17、o cultivate people in communication between different cultural backgrounds. so the teachers are required to teach not only language but also culture, and to help increase students cross-cultural awareness so that fewer problems arise in their interaction with people of another culture.cross-cultural

18、 communication, as many scholarly fields, is a combination of many other fields. these fields include anthropology, cultural studies, psychology and communication. it is also frequently referred to as intercultural communication. the main theories for cross-cultural communication are based on the wo

19、rk done looking at value differences (or cultural dimensions) among cultures, especially the works of geert hofstede, harry c. triandis, fons trompenaars and more recently shalom schwartz. these theories have been applied to a variety of different communication theories and settings, most notably ge

20、neral business and management (fons trompenaars and charles hampden-turner ) and marketing (marieke de mooij, stephan dahl)2. conceptions of culture, communication and cross-cultural communication culture is unavoidable to be mentioned when talking about cross-cultural communication, let alone how t

21、o communicate. then what is culture? culture is a large and evasive conception, and scholars have all tried to define culture in different aspects. the first profound scientific concept of culture was first argued in print in 1871 by sir edward burnett tylor. according to tylor (1924), culture is “t

22、hat complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, moral, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” since then more than 200 concepts of culture have been proposed by anthropologists, sociolinguists and language teaching theorists. as a matter

23、of fact, the concept of culture is so notoriously difficult to define that some theorists have abandoned the attempt to define it. for example, seelye, refusing to offer a precise definition, simply describes culture as “a broad concept that embraces all aspects of the life of man”. (1984) brown (19

24、78) wrote, “ a culture is a collection of beliefs, habits, living patterns and behaviors which are held more or less in common by people who occupy particular geographic areas.”it is difficult to find an all-inclusive definition of communication because of its complex nature, especially when it is d

25、iscussed in the dimension of culture. scholars and researchers from different fields have different point of views towards communication. the word “communication” is derived from latin word “commonis”, which means common. a british prof. gillian brown suggested, communication is a risky business, wh

26、ich means the process of communication is the process of complete interaction. its not an easy thing to fully communicate, because of different histories, cultures, and social habits in eastern and western countries. the so-called communication, in semiology, is a process whereby one sender passes m

27、essage to another receiver through channels to arouse his/her response.culture and communication are inseparable because culture not only dictates who talks with whom, about what, and how the communication proceeds, it also helps determine how people encode messages, the meanings they have for messa

28、ges, and the conditions and circumstances under which various message may or may not be sent, noticed or interpreted. in fact, our entire repertory of communicative behaviors is dependent largely on the culture in which we have been raised. culture, consequently, is the foundation of communication.

29、and, when cultures vary, communication practices also vary. in other words, culture affects communication.people of different cultural backgrounds come to communicate with each other, their interaction is cross-cultural communication. naturally, cross-cultural communication is bound up with culture.

30、 misunderstandings or breakdown of communication may occur as a result of the different cultural contexts in which encoding and decoding take place. for example, in chinese culture, a message of greeting may be realized by asking if one has had his or her meal: have you had your meal? this might ori

31、ginate from the traditional chinese idea that having food to eat is the most important thing. although it is a greeting in chinese culture, it is often decoded in western culture as an invitation to a meal.language is a social phenomenon, and each language stands for one culture. literally, cross-cu

32、ltural communication refers to the communication between a native speaker and a non-native speaker. cross-cultural communication looks at how people, from different cultural backgrounds, endeavor to communicate. its charge is also to produce some guidelines with which people from different cultures

33、can better communicate with each other. for example, how does a person from china communicate with a person from turkey? cross-cultural communication tries to bring together such relatively unrelated areas as cultural anthropology and established areas of communication. 3. the pattern of cross-cultu

34、ral communication a famous linguist saussure once maintained, “ language is a system of signs.” mr. white, a british cultural anthropologist mentioned that all languages depend on signs. language communication is a process during which messages are encoded and decoded through language signs. an effi

35、cient communication takes place when the understandings of signs between an encoder/sender and a decoder/receiver are identical or almost close to each other. take the following as an example, lets see how they communicate in this pattern. as intention is to be polite at his first visit to his teach

36、er, he encodes it according to american culture, then he sends the message: hello, nice to meet you, prof. wang. your wife is very beautiful. after receiving the message, the professor encodes it according to chinese culture: people should deny compliments to show modesty when receiving compliments.

37、 so he quickly says,“ 哪里哪里.” but the student interprets his words literally into “where?” the professor asked me where his wife looks nice, i should answer his question, otherwise, he may think me impolite. next, the student encodes the message and sends it to b, “ her face is beautiful, her eyes, n

38、ose and everything in her are nice-looking, too.” we know that the messages change when they are passed from one culture to another. what the sender expresses is somewhat different from what the receiver understands. a successful communication depends upon a sender and a receiver, namely communicati

39、on of both sides. cicourel held that both sides must have a shared culture, rules in language interaction. in other words, an efficient communication occurs when both sides share a set of social standards and behavioral norms, etc.eventslikethesearefairlycommonwhenpeopleofdifferentlanguagesandcultur

40、escommunicate.becauseofculturaldifferences,misunderstandingsmayarise,althoughthelanguageusedincommunicationmaybefaultless.the same words or expressions may not mean the same thing to different peoples. because of cultural differences, a serious question may cause amusement or laughter; a harmless st

41、atement may cause displeasure or anger. because of cultural differences, jokes by a foreign speaker maybe received with blank faces and stony silence. yet the same stories in the speakers own country would leave audiences holding their sides with laughter.4. cultural factors: culture is national in

42、that even a nation with one kind of language may have different cultures because of its geographic location. for instance, both british and american cultures were inherited from anglo-saxon, but they do have differences between each other caused by geographic separation. it goes without saying that

43、people in one nation hardly detect the differences, but in different cultural situations, the case will be different. theres a wide range in cultural differences from social classes, family structures, careers, social activities to dating, making a call and having a dinner etc.above all, we should l

44、earn others cultures before we inter-cultural communicate. anthropologists divide a culture into three categories: high culture, popular culture and deep culture. high culture includes philosophy, culture, art, religion, etc. popular culture refers to customs, living patterns, etc., namely the rules

45、 of social behavior. deep culture includes ways of thinking, value systems, aesthetic standards etc. these three cultures are connected with one another. a foreigner should learn the deep culture to further understand others behavioral standards and norms, and try to avoid misunderstanding. next, i

46、will discuss the ways of thinking, value system and rules of social behavior respectively.4.1the ways of thinking people from different cultures get to know the world with different philosophies. people speak in the way they think. language, as an essential part of culture conveys peoples mind and r

47、eflects different cultural connotation. thus cross-cultural communication is deepened and restricted by the patterns of thinking. easterners and westerners think fairly differently. accordingly to the study of most scholars, chinese thinking pattern, comparatively speaking, is more intuitive, direct

48、 and romantic while western thinking is more concise, logic and theoretic. in the book the comparative study between chinese and western cultures by zhen chunmiao, a chinese scholar, he concludes that chinese thinking pattern tends to view the situation as a whole, so it is abstract and that western

49、 thinking pattern prefers to draw conclusions from different individuals, so it is concrete. the literary works as products of thinking are definitely influenced by thinking pattern, which is deeply rooted in ones mind. based on the logic system of ancient greece, western thinking patterns are quite

50、 different from those of chinese. the western line of argument is generally deductive, with a topic introduced at the beginning and followed by the minor or supporting arguments. this pattern contrasts with the chinese inductive pattern, in which minor points of the argument are placed first and the

51、n the main point is presented. another important point is that westerners tend to be “analytic” (beginning with the separate parts and piecing them together to make a whole) as opposed to the chinese “global” tendency (beginning with the whole picture) (nelson, 1995).4.1.1 unity opposites the chines

52、e tend to look things as a whole and are accustomed to doing things from unity to sections. moreover, two-thousand-year traditional “ru (儒) culture” puts more emphasis on unity which takes heaven and human as a whole (天人合一). naturally, chinese people tend to be human-centered when considering things

53、. e.g. the feature of the chinese compliments is that many of them usually begin with “you” or “ your”, such sentences like your skirt is very pretty! you did a good job! while americans tend to divide one thing into two opposite sides, e.g. would you like a cup of coffee? you should say, “yes, plea

54、se.” or “no, thank you.” only “ thank you!” will be too ambiguous to know your intention.4.1.2 past oriented future oriented the ways of thinking come from the culture to a large degree. traditionally, the inherent quality theory (本性论) is that men are innately good. it was originated from confuciani

55、sm dominated chinese people for many generations. it stressed “humanity”, “to satisfy with things as they are（安于现状）”, “happy is he who is content（知足者常乐）”. in addition, china is an ancient country with a long history and splendid culture. while, the inherent quality theory in western countries is tha

56、t men are innately evil. it came from “ the origin sin” in the concepts of christianity. according to the bible, mens first ancestors-adam and eve were expelled from “ the garden of edem” as a punishment because they disobeyed the gods order and ate “ the forbidden fruit” secretly. men are innately

57、evil, but they can change it by their own efforts. americans hold the belief that the purpose of life is to look forward and to change.different basic nature theories lead to different notions of time. the chinese seem less interested in future than in the past. most of them like to conform to conve

58、ntions. in their minds, “age, experience and teacher”, which are related to the past, are symbols of authority. on the contrary, few of the americans conform to conventions, respect elders and teachers in our understanding, worship ancestors like most chinese people do. in cross-cultural communication, americans use back to refer to past, forwa