中美非语言交流方式的文化差异探讨

1、中美非语言交流方式的文化差异探讨 指导教师: 王慧姑教授 作 者: 尚长皓 系 别: 继续教育学院 专 业: 英语 学 号: 1014671158 完成时间: 2012年5月15日 The Cultural Differences between Chinese and American on Non-verbal CommunicationA thesis presentedbyShang ChanghaotoSchool of Continuing Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

2、Bachelor of Arts in the subject of English. Date: May 10th, 2012内容摘要非言语交际在人类交际中占据了十分重要的地位，是言语交际所不能比拟的。经济全球化进程的不断加剧，缩短了世界上人们之间的距离。几年来有许多地球村的概念流传，也更进一步地印证了世界一体化的趋势。这就使得交流的重要地位越来越突出，作为学生，对交流必须要拥有一定的知识结构掌握。但同时，言语交流的研究在我国已经硕果丰盛，因此本文旨在突破非语言交流中文化差异的现象分析，希望借此机会不但提高自己的语言能力，还能为语言的研究作出一点贡献。关键词: 中美 非语言 交流 文化差异

3、ABSTRACTThe non-verbal communication in the world has played a important role, which is incomparable by the verbal communication. The world is fiercer than before, which shortened persons distance in life. Recent years, more and more scholars call on the concept of a global village which is the resu

4、lt of the globalization. The entire phenomenon makes the communication so important in the world especially in exchange. As a student, we must have the knowledge of language. At the same time, the study of verbal communication in China is so popular and well-achieved. Therefore in this paper, I will

5、 state the phenomenon of the non-verbal communication and do some analysis in cultural differences.Keywords: Chinese American nonverbal communication cultural differences AcknowledgementsMy heartfelt gratitude goes to Professor Wang Huigu who has offered me precious advice and enlightening suggestio

6、ns.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements.iIntroduction.11. Notions Concerning The Topic.3 1.1Brief Introduction Of Cultural Differences.31.2What is The non-verbal communication.41.2.1 facial expression.51.2.2 gesture and posture.51.2.3 Eye Contact and Physical Contact.51.2.4personal appearance.62. The w

7、ay to distinguish the non-verbal communication according to Edward Twitchell Hall.72.1 personal distance.72.2personal distance.72.3social distance.82.4public distance.83. The Situation of Cultural Differences between Non-verbal Communication between C-E.93.1the internal element.93.2cultural backgrou

8、nd.93.3context and objection.104. The Methods to Avoid the Misunderstanding However, in None-verbal Communication between C-E.114.1get rid of the misunderstanding of the culture.114.2change the expression of the stereotype group.114.3 overcome the nationalism.114.4systematically learn the verbal lan

9、guage.12Conclusion.13Bibliography.14Declaration.1515IntroductionIn daily life, when people exchange their ideas and thoughts or express their affection, the method they use could usually be non-verbal communication as well as the verbal communication. Even in some special condition, people could use

10、 the non-verbal communication alone. And the communication or interaction is a process between two persons who exchange information or negotiate.The cross-cultural communication is the feature of modern life. People in that process are confident and competent to understand the information expressed

11、by the counterpart both verbally and non-verbally. However, in the process, if one could not understand the culture of his counterpart, he could not explain and decode the information expressed by the counterpart and then some misunderstanding or mistaking would occur. Misunderstanding or mistaking

12、could be small and big enough to discomfort somebody or lead to a blunder even to a conflict or a combat. Therefore, with the trend of globalization, to avoid the mistaking and promote the valid communication between different cultures, groups, countries, people must get a knowledge of the cultural

13、differences and promote the ability to communicate multi-culturally.The study of non-verbal communication primarily began after the World War II in last half nineteenth century. Delsarte made his early attempts to identify forms of bodily expressions in his work which is now seemed as father of the

14、most influential pre-twentieth century works of Darwin Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals which spawned the modern study of facial expression in communication. When people came into the twentieth century, the study of non-verbal communication became more systematical. There are three extr

15、aordinary influential works in the study of non-verbal communication. They are Kretschmers Physique and Character in 1925, Sheldons The Variations of Human Physique in 1940, and Efron;s Gesture and Environment in 1941. Modern information and communication technologies give this development a further

16、 global impulse now at the change-over from the 20th to the 21st century. Birdwhistells Introduction to Kinesics in1952 and Halls Silent Language in 1959 were milestones of that decade. In the twentieth century, the linguists in China have produces a lot works on non-verbal communication. Beijing Li

17、nguistics Institute Press has published lots monograph on non-verbal communication from different perspectives (Keith Leopold, .1986: 87).Then why these oppressive means in different areas can bear such a resemblance? The previous studies only see these problems from the outside, which is not all-in

18、clusive, lacking the analysis of internal causes. It seems that the cultural differences could play an essential role in non-verbal communication. Therefore, I choose cultural differences as my perspective to discuss this problem.1 Notion Concerning the TopicIn this age of information, economic glob

19、alization is subjecting the entire world to an irresistible, all-encompassing and profound transformation. Any single nation has the likelihood to exceed the boundaries of its domestic market, and its natural and human resources to realize an optimum allocation of resources on the international leve

20、l. By now, a pattern of multinational competition has developed and Chinas accession into the WTO has provided it with a rare opportunity to integrate into the international mainstream economies and to realize its immense development potential. But at the same time China is bound to an important obl

21、igationits solemn promise to abide by all the rules and regulations of trade as agreed upon by all the WTO member countries. Under such circumstances, it is necessary for China to open its market according to prevalent international conventions and practices and bring its mode of economic operation

22、and management, along with relevant laws and regulations, into an international framework until absolute conformity is achieved. Against such a larger background, the physical and geographical concept of the nationality of an enterprise has been virtually eliminated. The intensification of internati

23、onal competition is bound to create resource allocation on a global scale. 1.1 Brief Introduction of Cultural Differences The world is getting smaller with the increasing exchanges in almost every field. People have different languages which bring difficulties in their communication. Translators ser

24、ve as a bridge for communication. They translate not only between languages but also between cultures. What is culture?Culture is a system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members of a society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transm

25、itted from generation to generation through learning. This definition includes not only patterns of behavior but also patterns of thought (shared meanings that the members of a society attach to various phenomena, natural and intellectual, including religion and ideologies), artifacts (tools, potter

26、y, houses, machines, works of art), and the culturally transmitted skills and techniques and to make the artifacts. Culture, a production of human activities and social heritage, bears strong local and national color. Foreign communication, old or young, are fascinated about China with a history of

27、over five thousand years. Before they come to China, they often learn something about the destination by reading tourist materials. But they are often confused by the cultural information in the English version. Therefore, translators should try their best to cope with the difficulty in the process

28、of translating. Of various challenging problems to Chinese translators, the greatest difficulty comes from the differences between Chinese and Western cultures. A comparison of Chinese and Western cultural differences will help Chinese translators not only sharpen their sensitivity to those differen

29、ces, but also develop the translation strategies. What is cultural difference? General speaking, it happens in different areas due to their different traditional cultures，including the historical, religious, geographical cultural differences and so on. It will be showed in the daily life, especially

30、 in the human languages. We must realize the cultural differences so that we will not do something stupid or produce some unacceptable communication introduction to the foreigners. And I think it is an important element when translating cultural image of scenic spots introduction. Cultural differenc

31、e is a barrier of translation, it is important that we make a clear understand on culture before translation.1.2 What is the non-verbal Communication?There are many definitions about non-verbal communication because there are lots of researches paying attention to non-verbal communication. Generally

32、 speaking, non-verbal communications consist of the entire element when people communicate except verbal information. That is to say, all the non-verbal element and information is non-verbal communication between persons in the whole communication event. This definition laid emphasis on the role of

33、shared social conventions in non-verbal communication. However, besides the social convention, there is other factor helping convey non-verbal meanings. In fact, the non-verbal communication consists of many parts such as facial expression, gesture and posture, vocal characteristic and personal appe

34、arance.1.2.1 Facial expressionFacial expression is a common phenomenon in daily life during communication, which is a way for giving information and receiving information. Maybe it could be the single most important part of the body of exchanging non-verbal communication. Among the facial expression

35、s, there are more categories of expression, such as happiness, fear, anger, surprise, sorrow, disgust, interest and contempt. When referred to laughter, people always reminds up with happiness and satisfactory or confident. However, there are some non-conventional meanings in laughter. For examples,

36、 in Chinese there are many types of laugh. Not all the laughs convey the information of happiness, satisfactory or confident. When people are in a pensive smile, she could be in a nonsense mode or just do it formally. 1.2.2 Gesture and postureGestures are movements of one hands and arms, which indic

37、ate general emotional arousal and produces, diffuse bodily activity when the counterparts express particular emotion. According to my own experience, American gestures are different as Chinese. When I raise my clasped hands in a sort of handshake over my head to show my expression of greeting and fr

38、iendship, my American friend did not response as I expected. After that I check the internet and find that the gesture in USA always shows victory after a boxer has defeated his opponent. And when Chinese beckon other to come, he always shake his hand with the palm turning downward However, US may r

39、egard that a waving goodbye or asking them to get away. And the meaning of come on in gestures always shows in shaking the fingers toward themselves with the palm turning upward.1.2.3 Eye Contact and Physical Contact There is a saying going like this Eyes are the window of ones soul. According to th

40、is proverb, we could find that eye contact is a important way in non-verbal communication. People in western country expect the person they are interacting to look into their eyes, which is showing confidence and honesty. However, in China, because of the hierarchy of more than 2 thousands years his

41、tory, Chinese people always avoid eye contact in communication to show their respect and modesty. However, Chinese is a people who are fond of physical contact. On the contrary, American people hate it when Chinese guests always fondle their childrens head. That is to say, in English-speaking countr

42、ies, physical contact is generally avoided in conversation among ordinary friends or acquaintances.1.2.4 Personal appearanceWhatever the culture a person is, he must be careful to his personal appearance and looking. Everyone likes person with good looking, male and female, old and young. Almost eve

43、ry culture regard it beauty when people has well-proportioned body and limbs. However there is also a difference existing. In China, most people like the girls with big eyes and white skin. However, in USA, people with single-edge eyelid will be seemed as beautiful easterners. And referred to the na

44、ked part, Chinese has little body part to be naked However; Americans could do more research on their own body to show the beauty of gender or fascinating. 2 The Way to Distinguish the Non-verbal Communication according to Edward Twitchell HallWhen in daily life, people always express their affectio

45、ns by non-verbal communication, especially in certain conditions. After deliberation by many foreign researchers, it is said that 65 percent of information is conveyed by non-verbal communication and the other 35 percent of information is conveyed via verbal communication. And the researchers of non

46、-verbal communication according to the phenomenon of contact summarize two culture categories: touch culture and non-touch culture. Arabic, South European, West European, Jews and the people speaking Latin language are belonging to the former. And Americans, North Europeans and Easterners are belong

47、ing to the latter. However, though Chinese and Americans are in a kind of culture according to the behavior of touch. There are a lot differences between them. And the according to different cultures, Edward Hall divided the social distance into 4 parts. They are personal distance, intimate distance

48、, social distance and public distance (Dan O'Hair. 2002: 30).2.1 Personal Distance The definition of personal distance is that it is a portable territory with invisible boundaries that expand or contract depending on the situation. That is to say, there is an invisible boundary surrounding us wh

49、en in communication. And the talker, as the owners of this area, could decide who may enter or who may not. When this area is invaded, we react in a variety of ways. We may back up and retreat, or we may even react violently. Our response could play a manifest role of both ones personality and cultu

50、re background. According to Halls theory that personal distance is arranged from 5-120 cm which is used for more impersonal talk with friends and relatives. Activities such as chatting, gossiping, playing cards and casual interactions usually take place. People who related to personal distance always are in the situation for small-group discussion that always employs this personal distance.2.2 Social DistanceAccording to Halls theory that social distance is arranged from 120-360