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1、A Study on the Differences of Sino-English Thinking Modes in Cross-cultural Communication摘要英汉思维差异的形成是由其语言本身以及其使用的文化背景和主体产生的。忽视这种差异会导致跨文化交际的失误，从而加深文化冲突，因此，有必要了解这种差异性并找到处理跨文化交际差异性的方法，从而避免交际中的语用失误和文化冲突。所谓跨文化交际即指“同一主流文化中不同亚文化群体或个人之间的交际”，也指“东西方这样文化差异极大的人之间的交际。”(贾玉新，1974)。跨文化交际学是美国20世纪60年代中期兴起的一门边缘学科，它着重研
2、究了文化与交际的关系以及文化对交际过程的影响。然而，面对来自陌生的文化背景和国家、思维方式，生活习惯和行为方式与我们迥然不同的人，在与之交往的过程中，由于文化的明显差异，不可避免地会出现交往冲突。 由此，在全球化背景下，探求中西文化差异及其深层原因，寻求差异中的有效沟通途径，对加强国际文化交流意义重大。关键词：思维模式;跨文化交际；文化； 语言 AbstractThe differences of thinking modes are caused by the languages themselves and the usages in particular cultural backgro
3、und and main social body. Ignoring these differences would lead to cross-cultural communicational faults and deepen cultural conflicts. We ought to know these differences and look for a way to eliminate them to avoid linguistic errors and cultural conflicts. Cross-cultural communication is an interd
4、isciplinary subject which grew up in the United States during the mid-60s of 20th century. The so-called cross-cultural communication refers to the communication between different subculture groups or individuals in the same dominant culture”; it also means “communication between people from East-We
5、st cultural (Jia Yuxin, 1974). It focuses on studies of the relationship between culture and communication, and the influence that culture exerts on the process of communication. However, when facing those who have an unfamiliar cultural background or come from different countries, whose modes of th
6、inking, living habits and behavior patterns are completely different from us. Conflicts are inevitable during communication due to the obvious cultural differences. For this reason, in the context of globalization, it is significant to explore cultural differences strengthen the international cultur
7、al exchanges, underly causes for the differences, and look for an effective method of communication in diversity.Keywords：modes of thinking; cross-culture; communication; culture; language Table of ContentsOutline1Introduction 3Chapter I Thinking Modes 41.1. Determinant of Thinking Modes41.2. Reason
8、s of the Differences 41.3. Thinking Modes and Cross-cultural Communication51.3.1. Pragmatic Failure 51.3.2. Cultural Collision6Chapter II Aspects of the Differences72.1 Daily Communication72.1.1 Address Terms72.1.2 Greetings82.2 Taboo Words 92.3 A Matter of Face 102.3.1 Chinese View of Face 112.3.2
9、Westerners View of Face 122.4 International Corporate Events 132.4.1 View of Time 132.4.2 View of Space 15Chapter Methods to Eliminate Differences174.1. Foreign Language Teaching and Learning System 174.2. The Learning Law184.3. Cultural Cultivation184.4. Western Cultural Materials194.5. Nonverbal C
10、ommunication Ability20Conclusion22Bibliography 23Acknowledgements25OutlineThesis statement: Thinking modes affect the cross-cultural communication as they are produced by the living environments and cultural backgrounds of the language speakers.I. IntroductionII. What is thinking mode?A. What determ
11、ine modes of thinking?B. Why thinking modes are different?C. There are connection between thinking modes and cross-cultural communication. III. Some aspects of the differences of thinking modes that are common. A. Thinking modes influence social contact.1. Address terms have an important social func
12、tion. 2. Different greetings are used in China and English speaking countries.B. There are many taboos in both Chinese and western culture.C. Face theories exist in China and English-speaking countries. 1. View of face in China. 2. View of face in Western countries.D. Factors affect international co
13、rporate events.1. Different views of time exist in China and English-speaking countries.2. Different views of space exist in China and English-speaking countries.IV. It is meaningful to understand the thinking modes. A. It unveils the differences of thought supplement.B. It enhances cultural communi
14、cation by understanding the learning law. C. Knowing the cultural cultivation is helpful D. Making full use of Western cultural materials.E. The nonverbal communication ability is also important.V. Conclusion: Thinking modes can easily affect our communication with foreigners in the aspects of socia
15、l contact, taboos, face theories, and different views of time and space in China and English-speaking countries. We should use some effective ways to decrease those differences. It is difficult to eliminate those faults until we realize them. Time is needed to adapt to those differences, analyze the
16、 reasons, and solve them. Language is the basic method in international communication, what we should do when learning foreign languages is to study the native speakers thinking modes and culture to make the world truly close.IntroductionThinking is abstract, untouchable and invisible, and internati
17、onal through some forms. And language is an important carrier of thought which is called thinking mode. They differ because of the cultural backgrounds and display some cultural conflicts, such as the address terms in daily life, greeting words, taboo words, face problems etc. It is also shown in in
18、ternational corporations as different people from different cultures have different views in time and space. For example, English belongs to the Western language system, which has a distinctive feature of analysis within the users; Chinese belongs to Eastern language system, which has the greatest c
19、haracteristic of holism and strong logicality. The users hold different world views, values views and cultural backgrounds, and their methods and veracity of expression will be different. When dealing with these problems, people are not required to change their existing modes of thinking, value view
20、s, world views, but through the mastery of the languages avoid negative transfer which construct another set of thinking mode. In this paper, the author also gives some effective methods to solve those conflicts. Both learning system and teaching system should be improved. We also show our attention
21、 to nonverbal communication ability which would influence our habits.Chapter I. Thinking ModesThought is the thing that human brain reflects cognitive activity outside of things. A particular mode of thinking has some social features, such as, stability, structure, stylized in a particular filed. Th
22、erefore, the so-called modes of thinking is the universal and stable structure and program of thinking within the cognitive process of human beings, which is the law and means of thinking combined by a unified way. Difference of thinking mode is one important reason that results in cultural differen
23、ce. Understanding cultural differences and modes of thinking can help us to cross the resulting barriers, and effectively communicate and cooperate in the international cultural environments.1.1. Determinant of Thinking ModesCultural model determines the modes of thinking. Each nation lives in a spe
24、cific natural and geographical environment and has formed its own historical background, cultural traditions, and its own thinking modes, which results in the cultural differences. Modes of thinking vary with different cultural backgrounds. People are used to thinking problems in their own cultural
25、understanding. For example, when we write the address, the order must be: the country name - province name - town names - street names - residential house number recipient, but the Americans do it just the reverse. This shows differences between two thinking modes.1.2. Reasons of the DifferencesPeop
26、le of different cultures have different cognitive models to the outside world, and the thinking modes must be different, too, especially between East and West cultures. Western culture is characterized by logical thinking and analysis while the oriental is intuitively holistic thinking, a typical Ch
27、inese culture. Living in this culture, Chinese people attach great importance to things with intuitive feeling, which result in cognition, perception and experience. And following this experience and feeling, Chinese people often “measure another mans foot by ones own last. Such mode of thinking, wh
28、ich constitutes their core of knowledge and communication, has an obvious generality and vagueness. This thinking mode, in time, develops a mental set which can be interpreted as the process of perception and identification of things outside. In essence, the mental set is too generalized. We usually
29、 ignore the individual differences and exaggerate the cognitive addition of a social group. Frequently this set is emotionally accompanied by a fixed creed. It will affect the cross-cultural communication directly and result in communication failure because our prediction of the behavior is based on
30、 a fixed view of their culture. 1.3. Thinking Modes and Cross-cultural Communication Since the existence of differences between Chinese and Western thinking modes, barriers in cross-cultural communication often occur. This involves not only spelling, grammar, vocabulary and so on but also pragmatic
31、failure and cultural collision. 1.3.1. Pragmatic failurePragmatic failure does not mean the misapplication that appears in the general wording of sentences, but malapropos mistake of speaking, or wrong way of expression and unidiomatic expressions. The errors will make communication can not achieve
32、the expectant results. Thomas (1983) divided cross-cultural communication failures into pragmatic failure and social usage failure. Pragmatic language expression includes idioms mistakes, errors in the forms of address, greeting blunders; social pragmatic failure includes differences in customs, dif
33、ferences of sense of worth and mistakes which result from unique cultural factors. 1.3.2. Cultural collisionCultural collision specially refers to people from a culture interact with other people of different cultures and who finds oneself in a strange, uncomfortable, awkward situation, that is, whe
34、n a person is looking forward to a kind of behavior but confronts a completely different one, the cultural collision happens. Because of the differences of geographical position, natural environment, ethnic origin, transition of history, religious beliefs and level of economic development, all natio
35、nalities have shaped their own culture, and cross-cultural communication is actually a process of language blending and cultural integrating. When we are inputting western culture, we are also outputting the broad and profound Chinese culture. This requires us to have a keen sensibility of language
36、and superb presentation skills. Chapter II Some Aspects of the DifferencesWhat we think is a function of our cultureWhat we think about and how we think about it also affect our cultureLarry ASamovar Richard E. Porter &Lisa A. Stefani2.1. Daily Communication Chinese always attach great importance to
37、 polite language in daily communication. The politeness phenomena in the East and West have both commons and differences. Similarities could be expressed in the following four points: the gradability, conflict, appropriateness and finalitat (Leech, 1983 and HeZiRan, 1988); and in specific standards,
38、 principles of eastern and western manners have various and close relations, such as the western sympathy maxim has some common with Chinese criteria of seeking the same. Commons are easily understood, but differences may cause the failure of communication by slightly inattention. Differences mainly
39、 embody in the following three aspects: address terms, compliment and compliment response and taboo words.2.1.1. Address termsAddress terms have an important social function as an identification of addressees identity, status, roles and relationships and play an important role in keeping and strengt
40、hening in every kind of social interaction. Western and eastern address terms have some commons as well as differences. Kinship Terms in Chinese are much more complicated than in English and also we can affectionately call other unrelated person. Children can unceremoniously call strangers grandmoth
41、er, uncle, brother, sister, and even the leaders can be kindly called, such as Grandpa Deng Xiaoping. If we call English speakers in Chinese way they will be embarrassed, even offensive. Meanwhile, Chinese usually use surname + position to refer to people who have status, such as a Secretary, a dire
42、ctor, to show respect. In English, in addition to the president, professor and a few other titles which can be used as address terms, the vast majority of job titles cannot be used as an address term. Generally speaking, English speakers only use Mr. Mrs. Ms. or Miss before surname. For those who ha
43、ve higher social status, they often address them by name. This difference reflects that most important values in their cultural are private freedom and individual honor. Therefore, this interpersonal communication is based on regardless of rates and assuming equal. Chinese traditional culture is the
44、 culture which highlights the general interest and attends to all situations based on its family. The collective benefit, in any case, is higher than the individual interest. Therefore, we pay great attention to the relationship with the person we are talking to. It also reflects the thinking modes
45、of Chinese.2.1.2. Greetings The whole world shares a ceremonial behavior of greeting each other when fiends or colleagues meet, but the content, words and expressions may be different. Chinese common greeting has great differences from that of English. English use “Good morning, “Good afternoon and
46、“Good evening . Chinese use “eat yet?. Wherere you going? to greet an acquaintance, and the general response is “Just eaten.” Not yet, or “Out for a trip”, no matter how you answer it does not matter because the questioner does not want to know whether you have eaten or not, where your destination i
47、s, it is just a greeting. But if we go this way to greet Westerners, certainly, there will be misleading. Westerners may think that this greeting means an invitation for a meal. And Wherere you going? may displease them because that is their personal business, and you cant interfere with it. Similar
48、ly, foreigners may talk about the weather to greet others and Chinese are not accustomed. Chinese people also talk about the weather, but that is just a subject more than at the beginning of the greeting. In English, the universal greetings are: “Hi! “, “Hello! “, “How do you do?”, “How are you? , “How are you going on?, “How is everything with you?” and “Whats up!”. They choose different greetings on different occasions. From the greeting words we can infer that they are just met or old friends, but difficult to dist
