跨文化交际论文

发布时间：2014-07-17 17:03:01 来源：文档文库

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Body Language and

Cross-cultural Communication

姓名：周静雯

学号：41004097

班级：10级英语3班

Body language and cross-cultural communication

Body language refers to the way that we can communicate with each other through the head, eyes, neck, hands, elbow, arms, body, hip, foot and so on to convey the thoughts of the characters. Generally speaking, body language also includes the facial expressions of the foregoing. In a narrow way to say, body language only includes the meaning of body and limbs of expression. However, in this paper, I mainly discussed the relationship between body language and intercultural communication. So after knowing the general meaning and the narrow meaning of the body language, we should learn: what is intercultural communication.

The concept of cross-cultural communication comes from the Chinese form of intercultural communication, which refers to the different cultural backgrounds of communication between individuals, namely, the interaction between people of different cultural background. I learned that the basic content of the cross-cultural communication has three points. 1. The research of world outlook, values. 2. Research on the cultural characteristics of language behavior. 3. Nonverbal communication research. So, body language is one of the nonverbal communications. When it comes to emotions expressed by the body, we will naturally think about some meaning of the action, for example, Applaud expresses excitement, stamping your foot means you are angry, rubbing hands means you are anxious, putting down your head means you are depressed and so on. People express their mood in these physical activities; others can also identify the state of the others’ minds.

So, how to combine the body language and the intercultural communication? My understanding is: Actions is not only a kind of behavior but also a kind of language, and in the different cultural background each action will produce different significance and reaction. So understanding the application of body language in different cultures is very important for us as a foreign language student. Among these, the most important is the application of body language in Chinese and western culture.

So now I am going to give an example which we often hear, that is, the same body movements will have different reactions between different western cultures.

Americans are naturally open and they think that to have a communication we should stand closely to each other, while British people think the should keep a certain distance when they talk to somebody who are not so close. So when an American communicates with an Englishman, you can see the American is constantly moving forward, but the British man is in constant distance, finally the communication is forced to stop. So when people who are from different countries communicate with each other, they have different opinions of how long the distance they should keep, however, this is caused by the lack of cultural background.

Again let’s see the early attitude of Chinese culture (refers to the early period of reform and openness) to the western cultures. I think that most people have already know when French people meet their friends they all like to kiss each other’s cheeks. However, on one hand, the attitude of Chinese is that kissing cheeks is not only dirty but also an impolite behavior. Chinese believe that the behavior of kissing should be the privilege of very close people. It is very different on location and time for this privilege to be taken place. On the other hand, the attitude of western culture towards Chinese culture is also different. We may often hear about western women complain that the Chinese people touch their babies and small children. Whether touching, clapping, accepting or kissing the child, these behaviors all make the western mother uncomfortable. Although the Chinese mother has no malicious opinions, this action will be considered rude according to their own culture. Having talked about touching, next, of course, we should have a discussion on the idea of embracing in different countries. Basically in most countries, a couple who are reunited, friends or relatives hug with each other is very normal. However, after I refer to some material I find that several years ago, there was such a thing: At that time, the prime minister of Japanese Fukuda was on the visit to the United States. He got off at the front of the White House, and the president of the United States came forward to hug and welcome. The prime minister was frightened; the members who represent Japan were also stunned. Many Americans also felt strange. If the President of the United States just bowed according to the habit of Japanese, it won’t be a surprise. However neither in the United States nor Japan welcomes people in this way. So no matter in the process of dealing state affairs, or learning a foreign language in our daily life, it is very important to understand the cultural background of body language. Examples are filled in our life, especially those people who are often on a business trip abroad, settle down abroad or learn a foreign language can deeply realize that every body language is closely related to the local culture. Once, my American teacher had a sudden idea to see a Chinese traditional doctor on Shi Da Lu. When the Chinese traditional see you, they will first look, then smell, next ask, and finally diagnose. When we went to see the Chinese traditional doctor we will automatically put our hands on the towel, and let the doctor diagnose. However my foreign teacher didn’t understand at all, and just asked "why". This happened in our life which related to the body language and different cultures.

Again, we come to see another body language, -----gestures.

First of all, I would like to give you an example which I saw in a magazine. A Japanese man asked a passenger in the United States whether the airport has the baggage service. The American wanted to tell him, the airport not only provided the baggage service, but also it was free, so he used the gesture "OK" that everyone should know. But for that Japanese people, this gesture means "money". Therefore, the Japanese thought that the baggage service was expensive. At this time, a Tunisian who was next to them saw the scene, so he thought that that man who was from the United States was suggesting the Japanese that " He is a thief", let him be careful, or he would kill him.

So the same gestures in different cultural background are also an alternative.

Let’s see another body language------sight.

After contacting with foreign teachers in the past two years, I found that when they communicate with you they all liked to look straight into your eyes. Whether you are a new member or intimate friends, they seem to penetrate your heart and see if you are honest. Among our communications of the Chinese people, however, the opportunity of looking directly into each other’s eyes when two people first meet is very limited because of the shyness. They only do that thing when the relationship is close. Again, I believe we all have such an experience that is to see the beautiful girl or the handsome boy on the street. They always attract people's eyes. This kind of thing can be seen everywhere in China, but in western countries, staring at people is very impolite.

Americans shake hands when they greet, Arab kiss your cheeks to greet, Japanese bow when they greet, Mexico often hugs each other. In Turkey, people think that touching tears can get a typhoid fever; In southern Italy, this gesture is used to laugh at people; In India, it is remorse or sincere. In most Middle East and the Far East countries, using index finger is impolite. In Thailand, making someone come over is to do the behavior of handing down and moving the fingers towards himself; In the United States, to make a person come over, one should let palms up and move fingers towards himself; In Vietnam, this gesture in the United States is used to call the dog……

In our daily life, there are a lot of body languages, which is closely linked with the culture; here we have no time to make a list one by one. However, the only thing we can be sure is that all body languages should be put in a certain cultural scene. If we ignore this, the misunderstanding will happen. As a foreign language learner, we should not only learn the knowledge but also know more about foreign body language, so as to reach a better communication. Although the cultural communication of the contradiction and the impact is inevitable, with the development of economic globalization, adapting to the environment is the way of existence, so study the course of cross-cultural communication well is very important.