中西方文化差异

A Comparative Analysis of Different Culture Values in China and the West through the Use of Oral Words

Abstract

A variety of oral words in Chinese and English are widely used by people. These words show different meanings in different situation.We can learn more about through these words and have a better of differences of values, religions, national characters and the sense of philosophy between China and the western world.

摘要

在中英口语中有很多口头语经常被使用到，这些话语在不同的场合下会具有不同的意思。我们可以通过对此的学习和研究了解中西方文化之间价值观，宗教信仰，人民性格以及哲学观的不同。

I. Introduction

“Culture” is an abstract concept which is the combination material fortune and spiritual fortune

of human history. In English, culture is a word with a lot of meanings. It mainly including the native history of the English-spoken countries, the geography, the customs and original life style of the people, the traditional conventions, literature and arts, social rules and their values, and so on. Language is the carrier of culture, it can not spread without culture; at the same time, culture need to be preserved、conveyed and carried forward by the language. Both of these two parts make a big difference in different countries and different races. As a result, people from different parts of the world may not have a understanding of each other. Today, we will focus on differences of western and eastern culture, thorough this way, we will try to find out the influence of these two different cultures.

II. The Differences of Culture Background and Meaning

First of all, culture differences influence the ways of getting of the information. In our daily life,

we can see the characters of different culture. In China, there is an old saying “ common people takes eating as the most important thing in the world”, through this old word, it is easy for us to find out that eating is very important in Chinese people’s life. However, in America, hot-dog,hamburgers,bread,butter is very common in people’s daily life. Even you are at the family feast of Thanksgiving Day, all the family members are just “fire” on only turkey. What makes Chinese confused is that, even though at the banquet held by state government, on the menu, there is only a course of meat, two or three kinds of vegetables, a course of dessert and a cup of coffee. In the thoughts of Chinese, it is hard to imagine. If the banquet is held by the Chinese people, it can be “huge”, huge may be an appropriate description of Chinese banquet, it will including all kinds food, vegetable and dessert, different drinkings, ,you will have many choices as you like. Secondly, culture difference will mistaken the ways of getting information. In western world, people take dog as their faithful friend not only their pets. While, in China, people do not hold the same opinion as the western people. Feeding a dog is not so approved in the society, some people from other regions have the habit of eating dog. In western world, eating dog is a crazy behavior

2009级4班 姓名：吴崇德 学号：0961062

which can not be accepted or it can not be forgiven--you are eating your friend! That is too cruel to imagine. For example, in Chinese language, most idioms about the dog have derogatory scenes. But it is totally different in English language. For instance, if they want to show their admiration to you, they will say “ you are a lucky dog” which does not mean you are dog with good luck and can be looked down upon the others. When it comes to the dragon, Chinese people have a very special emotion for the dragon. In Chinese culture, dragon symbolizes the success,energy,dignity and feudal monarchy. When you are talking to a western people, remember not mention his income,weight, age, marriage, religion and some other similar private issues. It is impolite to ask all these things except that you are accepted to do that.

III.The Differences of Concept in Culture

What’s more, culture difference is the obstacle in communication. Here, we take Chinese language as an example. People who speak Chinese have established the steadfast language system in their minds.So, when they learn to speak or think in English, they will always comes to Chinese language system and then demonstrates their thoughts in English. That is the cause of Chingish in our daily life. Such as, “I will give you some color see see” (我要给你点颜色看看）；“Good good study, day day up” ( 好好学习，天天向上）。This kind of instance is the typical Chinglish.

IV. Conclusion

In order to avoid this kind of misunderstanding happen in our daily talking with people from

western, we need to know the thinking pattern between eastern and western world. Chinese people emphasizes the forms of understanding the universe. On the contrary, English language focus on abstract aspects of the nature, they emphasize on the logical inference. We still need to learn more about culture differences between eastern and western, it is better for us to know more about the different cultures.

Works Cited

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