What's the difference between the culture of China and that of the West?

Re-analysis of western culture. Re-induction of oriental culture.

A simple example of agricultural research: you gave the same field to scholars in the East and the West.

Let them grow different foods separately. Then ask them to report their experiences.

Western scholars will give you a growth data of different foods.

Oriental scholars usually tell you directly what kind of food is most suitable for this field.

The disadvantage of western culture is that it often complicates simple things.

The shortcoming of oriental culture is often to simplify complex things.

However, the boundaries between modern eastern and western cultures are not obvious after exchanges.

Linguistic differences between Chinese and western cultures

First, the relationship between language and culture:

To understand and master the differences between two communication cultures, we must start with culture. Obviously, the word "culture" here is different from the word "culture" in "he has no culture", and the meaning of the word "culture" in English is also different. What we call "culture" here has a broader meaning. This is a social term. According to the definition of "culture" by sociologists and anthropologists, what we call "culture" refers to the general pattern of beliefs, habits, systems, goals and technologies unique to a society. "Culture includes all products enjoyed by human society". It includes not only material things such as cities, organizations and schools, but also immaterial things such as thoughts, habits, family patterns and languages. Simply put, culture refers to the whole lifestyle of a society, "the whole lifestyle of a nation".

Language is a part of culture and plays an important role in cultural teaching. As Goodnow, a famous American anthropologist, pointed out in The Cultural Man and Language: "The language of a society is an aspect of its culture, and language and culture are the relationship between parts and the whole. As an integral part of culture, language is unique in that it is the main tool for learning culture, and people acquire the whole culture in the process of learning and using it. " Therefore, language and culture influence and interact with each other; To understand language, we must understand culture, and to understand culture, we must understand language. Therefore, learning a language means understanding the social culture of the people who use it. Ignoring the unity of language teaching and social and cultural background knowledge teaching will not only affect the understanding and mastery of language, but also often lead to the misuse of language in communication. Foreign language teaching should not only introduce language knowledge and train the skills of "four skills", but also pay attention to this kind of learning and training under the background of cultural teaching, so as to finally enable students to have the ability to use. Our vocational high school students should pay more attention to the practicality of foreign language life than ordinary high school students, because for these students, proper language use will be very important for their future work.

Second, communicative cultural differences and the purpose of foreign language teaching:

Because language is the expression and bearing form of a national culture, you can't really learn the language of this nation without understanding its culture. Usually, people are used to reward culture and divide it into two categories. One is knowledge culture. Including social, political, economic, literary, artistic, historical, philosophical, scientific and technological achievements. The other is to spread culture. Including social customs, living habits, ways of thinking, codes of conduct, etc. Communicative culture covers a wide range of languages, from greeting, farewell, praise, thanks and apology in daily conversation to understanding and mastering euphemism to body language. In other words, as long as we learn a language, we will inevitably come into contact with the communicative culture of the language learning country. Of course, a lot of cultural information can be transmitted equally, and culture has its own characteristics, so as a part of culture, different languages also have extensive characteristics. For example, China people said, "This is heartbreaking; , and the British say heartbreak; The Chinese metaphor "He is a fox" can be translated into English "He is a fox", which can be said to be very appropriate, because both the East and the West associate foxes with cunning and will not cause misunderstanding; Another example is red. Whether in English-speaking countries or in China, red is usually associated with celebrations or festivals. There are red-letter days in English, which generally refers to Christmas or other festivals in the west. Because these days are marked in red on the calendar, the escape of red letters means "memorable" and "festive". In many cultures, * * * is the absolute majority, so I don't want to describe it here. However, * * * does not represent differences, and it is the special phenomena of different cultures and languages that hinder cultural and inter-language communication. This is the difference in historical and cultural background, geographical environment, traditional habits and ways of thinking of people of all ethnic groups, which is reflected in language expression in many places, especially in communication culture. Here are a few examples to talk about the cultural differences between China and the West.

As we all know, the weekend in China is equivalent to the weekend in England. All English-Chinese dictionaries annotate "weekend" with "weekend". However, due to differences in historical and cultural backgrounds, China students have problems in choosing the following questions.

For example, what day is it? It is.

A, Tuesday B, Wednesday C, Thursday D, Friday

The vast majority of China students choose C, because Monday to Sunday and Thursday are right in the middle, which is how our TV preview program is arranged. As we all know, the British always regard Sunday as the first day of the week, and British and American TV preview programs always start on Sunday. If British and American students do this problem, there will be no dispute, but China students will be in trouble for doing this hypocritical problem. This is caused by cultural differences in communication.

Because of the different geographical environment and climatic conditions, what China people call "west wind" or "northwest wind" refers to cold wind, while British people associate it with warm wind. Because Britain is an island country, influenced by the North Atlantic warm current, the wind blowing from the west is always warm. The poet Shelley once wrote a famous ode to the west wind. If a China person doesn't know the above background knowledge, it's hard to understand the British feelings about ode to the west wind.

When friends meet, people in China like to say, "Have you eaten?" "Where have you been?" As soon as these words that seem suitable to us become English, they are: "Have you eaten?" "Where are you going?" "Where have you been?" For people in Britain and the United States, this somewhat violates their right to privacy. Even if I give you a reply reluctantly, I will whisper in my heart and ask if I have eaten. What's the purpose? He'll think you want to invite him out to dinner. In the face of unmarried young people, this question also means wanting to be friends with each other. Similarly, say "Where are you going?" And "Where have you been?" When greeting with these two sentences, most English speakers will be unhappy, and their reaction may be: It's none of your business! Do you care! ) Don't I have any freedom? No wonder foreign friends are angry. They didn't find "where are you going?" in China. It's a greeting. In fact, the questioner doesn't want to know where the respondent is going, just out of courtesy. On this occasion, westerners just say hello or hi. When we meet our friends for the first time, we will say "Nice to meet you", which can be translated into English, because I am lucky to meet you. The other person thinks you are insincere and flattering, but he thinks you are trying to play some tricks on him. In this case, English speakers will only say, "Nice to meet you." Nice to meet you. ) When you break up, you will also say "Nice to meet you or goodbye, bye-bye". (Nice to meet you, goodbye) and so on. In China, if a distinguished guest or an unfamiliar person visits, when the guest leaves, according to the custom of China, the host should send the guest to the door, and the guest should say "please stay" to the host, and finally the host should say "walk slowly" and "walk well". None of these statements can be directly translated into English. If you say stay here. Walking slowly or walkslow, it sounds stiff. In fact, just smile and make a goodbye gesture.

The China characteristic of address standards does not mean that there is no such standard in other cultures, but lies in address terms. For example, "You are old, Xiao Wang, etc." In English culture, polite address in Chinese may be impolite. For example, "Xiao+surname" is a kind of address in Chinese. But it is very impolite to talk to Americans here. On the other hand, Americans like to call each other by their first names as a sign of friendship. Not only people of similar age are called this, but people of different ages are also called this. There is no disrespect for each other, and the son even calls his father by his first name. But in China, it is disrespectful to call children by their first names on many occasions, and it is even more taboo for children to call their parents by their first names. Others will think that children don't know the rules. Register differences caused by different cultures here. When people in China address others, they sometimes add surnames before their positions, such as "Manager Zhang", "President Wang", "Teacher Liu", "Aunt Zhao" and "Uncle Li", which becomes English (Manager Zhang, President Wang, Teacher Liu, Aunt Zhao and Uncle Li). Such a title belongs to the "imitation" of understanding British and American culture. In fact, in most cases, it is enough for British and American people to address men as Mr and women as Mrs or Miss. Only a few occupations or positions can be called. For example, a doctor or a person with a doctorate is called a doctor, and a person who has the right to preside over a court trial can be called a judge.

When accepting others' praise, China people tend to deny others' praise and belittle themselves, while westerners generally don't belittle others. When they hear praise, they often express their happiness and tell their feelings truthfully. For example, a young woman from China is wearing a beautiful dress in the United States. When someone told her that this dress is really elegant and the color is beautiful. The woman in China was very happy, but a little embarrassed, so she replied according to China's habit: "No, it's just a very orderly dress." This is an ordinary dress. In this case, the young woman's answer is incomprehensible. Others may think that the young woman's answer is that the other person doesn't know the goods, and making such a fuss about an ordinary dress shows that there is something wrong with American women's appreciation ability. For another example, when people in China treat people, no matter how rich the dishes are, they will always say, "There is nothing delicious today, just make some.". This is a courtesy, but westerners think that you don't cook good food for me, which shows that you are insincere and that you don't respect me. Similarly, China students hear foreigners say, "You speak English very well!" After that, I often answer "no, no, I can't speak English well" to show my modesty. I wonder if the guests will be angry after listening to this answer. Because English is his mother tongue, he has the ability to judge the quality of the language. The student's answer is equivalent to saying that he doesn't know what good English is. On the contrary, when a westerner is praised, he first expresses his gratitude and tells his feelings. For example:

"Your Chinese is really beautiful."

"Thank you very much." Or "Do you really think so?" "Oh, really? Thank you very much. "

In addition, due to the differences in cultural patterns and psychological factors between the East and the West, people's ideas and ways of expressing advantages and disadvantages are also very different. In China, calling people over middle age "old" is a sign of respect, but in the United States and other western countries, social competition is fierce, and young people are competitive, while older people are often rejected. Therefore, "old" means that the wind is alone, and there are not many winds. People are afraid of the word "old". For example, a student from a college accompanied a foreign teacher on a bus trip. As soon as I got on the bus, some students enthusiastically offered their seats to the foreign teacher and said in English, "You are so old, don't be tired ..." The foreign teacher was very unhappy after hearing this, thinking that he was only over 50, and China people regarded him as a useless old man. This is due to the cultural differences between East and West.

For most Americans, it is inappropriate to ask strangers or unfamiliar people about their age, income, marriage, political orientation, religious beliefs, etc. Therefore, when talking with English-speaking foreigners, we should also avoid the following problems, although China people don't think it is bad to do so.

How old are you? How old are you? )

how much money do you earn? how much money do you earn? )

Are you married? are you married )

Do you go to church? Are you religious? )

If you must know this situation, you can explain the reason in the question. For example, in a hotel, hospital or when filling out a form, you can say, "I need to know something in order to register." Can you tell me your-(age, whether you are married, etc.)? )? "Or these people want to know about you, can you tell me?

Cultural differences in communication are also reflected in the way of thinking. Traditional China people seem to stand facing the past, taking what has happened as the front and putting what will happen behind. The British and Americans say the opposite. For example, a foreign teacher in a university borrows books from the reference room. When he left, he solemnly said to the librarian in Chinese, "I returned these books to you the day before yesterday." This made several teachers in China laugh and told him to say "the day after tomorrow". The foreign teacher is very confused. For another example, when telling a story, China people will say, "But we are ahead of the story", while the British and Americans will say, "But we are ahead of the story." This shows the difference of western culture's way of thinking and view of time in China.

To sum up, what is the purpose of foreign language teaching? Is it to learn and study the language itself or to master the language as a tool? It is clearly pointed out in the English Teaching Syllabus for Full-time Middle Schools that the purpose of foreign language teaching is to lay a solid foundation of language knowledge, and to cultivate the ability to communicate in a foreign language on the basis of serious and strict training in listening, speaking, reading and writing. Communicative ability is inseparable from the understanding of the culture of the language you have learned, and learning a language requires learning the culture represented by the language (the basic idea has been reflected in the elaboration of the relationship between language knowledge teaching and practical ability training, language teaching and culture in the new high school syllabus). Therefore, to learn a language, we must master the social and cultural background knowledge of China and the West. If we don't master this knowledge, we can't really have communicative competence, which is determined by the fundamental purpose of our independent teaching. However, this does not mean that the cultivation of English language knowledge is neglected while emphasizing English application ability. Because language knowledge is the basic material for using language in communication activities, it is difficult to realize communication activities without basic materials. Cultivating language knowledge for communication is based on mastering language knowledge. Therefore, language knowledge can only be consolidated and mastered through application, and conversely, the ability to use English can be improved by systematically mastering the laws of language knowledge. Since cultivating students' communicative competence is the fundamental goal of foreign language teaching, all our teaching activities must focus on this goal. Therefore, for English teachers in our vocational high schools, sometimes it is more important to teach students to use the language correctly than to teach them language knowledge. This requires that our foreign language teachers should always pay attention to let students know and master the differences between the two communicative cultures from the first day, and keep this identification and introduction in step with language teaching. Only in this way can we cultivate students' real communicative competence.