Abstract

Language is the main expression for humans to communicate, it is the most important vehicle of communication for human beings, and people achieve their purpose of preserving and delivering human civilization achievements with the help of language. Under the tendency of economic globalization and educational internationalization, the internationalization of our culture is growing day by day, the diplomatic communication is becoming more and more frequent, intercultural communication has become the common interpersonal activities between the people of the whole world. Because of the differences between English and Chinese, the phenomenon of culture shock often occurs due to the different expressions in intercultural communication, and which directly impacts the communicative effect. The comparative study of the differences between Chinese and Western people has contributed to eliminating the barriers of intercultural communication, it is helpful to the communicative ability of language learners and users, and it can avoid the occurrence of communication failure eventually. Therefore, this thesis primarily introduces the culture and intercultural communication, the cultural characteristics of Chinese and Western, and performs research on the differences between Chinese and western culture, verbal communication and so on.

The thesis can be divided into six parts: The first part is about the introduction. The second part will introduce culture and intercultural communication. The third part will introduce Chinese culture and Western culture. The fourth part is the comparative analysis of Chinese and Western cultures. The fifth part is the analysis of the differences in verbal communication. Lastly, a conclusion will be made for the whole thesis. 

Keywords: language; culture; intercultural communication; cultural difference

Contents

摘要

Abstract

1. Introduction-4

2. The definitions of culture and intercultural communication-4

2.1 Definition of culture related-4

2.2 Definition of intercultural communication related-6

3. Chinese culture and Western culture-7

3.1 The features of Chinese culture-7

3.1.1 Seeking goodness-7

3.1.2 Collectivism-8

3.2 The features of Western culture-8

3.2.1 Seeking truth-8

3.2.2 Individualism-9

4. The comparative analysis of Chinese and Western cultures-9

4.1 Differences in making greetings-9

4.2 Differences in showing compliments-10

4.3 Differences in giving thanks-11

4.4 Differences in showing opinions-12

5. Analysis of the differences in verbal communication-12

5.1 Analysis of the causes of linguistic differences-12

5.1.1 Analysis of the causes of appellation differences-12

5.1.2 Analysis of the causes of taboo language differences-13

5.2 Analysis of the causes of cultural differences-14

5.2.1 Differences of religious belief in culture-14

5.2.2 Differences of geographical environment in culture-15

5.2.3 Differences of social system in culture-15

6. Conclusion-16

References-

Acknowledgements-