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Eventslike those are fairly common in different cultural contexts in communication.Because of cultural differences，misunderstanding may arise，although the language used incommunication may be faultless. The same words or expressions may not mean thesame things to different people. Because of the cultural differences，a serious question maylead to displeasure or anger. We all agree that language helps a lot incommunicating with people from different backgrounds. However，we may less aware of thatcultural literacy is necessary to understand the language being used. If weselect language without being aware of the cultural implications，we may not communicatewell and send the wrong message exactly. copyright paper51.com 3.2 Cultural differencesand language differences copyright paper51.com Itis easy to lead to misunderstanding and unpleasant because of the ignorance ofcultural difference. Some cultural differences in language should be emphasizedin English education. Here are some illustrations, which students may comeacross in their daily life. http://www.paper51.com
3.2.1 In addressing 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com InChinese students’ homework and papers, we can see such words: Director Song （宋局长），Manager Gao（高经理），and Teacher Lui（刘老师）. These words are not idiomatic usage of English and sound odd to Englishnative speakers. Chinese prefer to address others by using their titles oroccupations. They think the surname comes last in order to show respect for theperson concerned. However，this custom is not totally applicable in English in that only a fewoccupations or titles are used before a person’s last name：Dr.（Doctor）is used to address medicaldoctors and university professors who have earned a doctorate degree；Mrs. to address a marriedwoman（teacher，director，etc）；Miss to an unmarried woman（teacher，business woman etc）; Ms for an unmarried ormarried woman（teacher，housewife，professional，etc）；Mr. for man（teacher，businessman，etc）；Judge for those authorizedto try cases in a law court and Governor and Mayor for those who hold suchoffices，although often usedwithout the surname. 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 3.2.2 Inapology http://www.paper51.com Inour daily life，a timely apology can preventthe deterioration of the good relationship between people or states. The Chinese，however，are less frequent and moreflexible in making apologies. This is to say the Chinese do not make as manyapologies as English speakers，but they are more flexible in giving and responding to apologies. paper51.com |