Cultural differences are obstacles to cross-cultural communication. For example, at present, the "dragon" is our spiritual totem, a symbol of good fortune and strength, and China people are proud to be descendants of the dragon. However, in the eyes of westerners, there is no such special feeling for the "dragon", and even the "dragon" is understood as a terrible monster with its teeth bared.
Cultural education is the key to communication by using language. Cultivating communicative competence is the ultimate goal of English teaching. Language ability is the basis of communicative competence, but having language ability does not mean having communicative competence. Try a few examples:
1. address format
The students know that the teacher means "teacher", so they call "Miss Wang" Miss Wang accordingly.
In fact, English teachers are just a profession; People in China have a tradition of respecting teachers and valuing morality. "Teacher" is not only a profession, but also a kind of respect for people. Because of this cultural difference, students have a simple understanding: Miss Wang = Teacher.
Wang. In addition, "Nurse Zhang", which is customarily called Nurse Zhang in Chinese, sounds incredible to people in English-speaking countries. In English, people usually address themselves as Mr., Ms. and Mrs..
praise
In English-speaking countries, compliments are often used as the opening remarks of conversations. Compliment others, the most common answer is: "Thank you.
You .. "For example:
Your skirt looks beautiful.
B: Thank you.
However, in our traditional concept of China, this question still needs to be answered with modest language.
3. Privacy
When people meet for the first time, they are concerned about age, marriage and income, but foreigners are disgusted with this and think that these all involve personal privacy. For example, China people care about "Where are you going?" Where are you going? ) and "What are you doing?" What are you doing? ) in English, it has become an interrogation of spying on others' privacy and listening to others' words, which is unpopular.
send/give one's regards to
China people are used to asking, "Have you eaten?" Have you eaten?
Dinner? If you say this to people in English-speaking countries, they will think you want to invite them to dinner. People in English-speaking countries usually talk about weather, health, hobbies and hobbies.
5. festivals
Cultural differences between China and English-speaking countries are also obvious in festivals. Besides festivals in China and English-speaking countries (such as New Year's Day), both sides also have their own unique festivals, such as Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival. In China; English-speaking countries include Valentine's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. During festivals, people in China and English-speaking countries also show different attitudes towards gifts given by others. People in China can only reluctantly refuse and accept it, and generally will not open it face to face after accepting it. If you open it in person and smile, you may be suspected of "greedy for money." However, in British culture, people usually open gifts to others in person, praise them and thank them happily.
Therefore, we should strengthen the comparison between Chinese and western cultures in teaching and consciously and naturally infiltrate the differences between Chinese and western cultures into English teaching. Use various channels and means to absorb and experience foreign cultures. We should not only pay attention to language teaching, but also pay attention to language and cultural differences. Only in this way can we use language correctly in practice.