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1、Cultural differences in everyday conversationsCultural differences on politeness between western and Chinese can be found in many aspects of daily communication, including addressing, greeting and parting, compliments, apologies, thanks, etc.1. Greeting and PartingWhen people meet acquaintances or f
2、riends, people usually greet each other. The purpose of greeting is to establish or maintain social contact. So formulaic expressions are often used, but such formulaic expressions often causes conflict because of the great cultural differences between Chinese and native English speakers. In English
3、, people often employ the following expressions to greet each other “Good morning/evening/afternoon. “Fine day, isnt it? ” “Hows everything going?” “Have you eaten yet?” What are you going to do?” “Where have you been?” etc. Westerners treat them as real question. While in Chinese, we always say “你吃
4、了吗?”“你上哪里去?”“你干什么去?” to show our consideration. Parting may be divided into two steps. Before the final prating, there is usual a leave-taking. Western and Chinese cultures have diverse ways to deal with leave-takings. Firstly, in English society, during the closing phase of an encounter, from” I” p
5、erspective, reasons for terminating the encounter are presented in mediatory comments. Typical comments are associated with expressions of apology, such as “I” am afraid I must be off, I have to relieve the baby-sitter” etc. Western people believe that to be willing to visit and converse with someon
6、e is to have respect for him.; to terminate the visiting is not of ones own free will, but because of some other arrangements, therefore they always try to make their leaving sound reluctant by finding some reasons and apologize for it to make the leaving acceptable for both parties. English speaker
7、s often signal several times before leaving. “Well, its been nice to see you again. I do enjoy our talk and the lovely dinner, but I must be going soon”. Thank you very much for asking me over. I hope well be able to get together again before long” Consolidation in a wider range of common acquaintan
8、ces also occurs, in expressions such as “Say hello to Jack for me” or “Remember me to John”. In Chinese society, during the closing phase of and encounter, usually, from a “you” perspective, reasons for ending the encounter are set forth in mediatory expressions. Such expressions include“你挺忙的，我就不多打扰
9、了。”“你一定累了，早点休息吧，我要告辞了。”, etc. With this word, they may stand up from their seats. Chinese leave-taking is very short and quick. Western people think it so abrupt that they have not prepared for it. While moving to the door, Chinese employ expressions of apology like“对不起没，打扰了。”“对不起，占用你不少时间。”It should
10、 be noted that these expressions employed by Chinese guests to show concern for their hosts can only be appropriate for business visits in the English environment2.AddressingBoth western and Chinese people have two kinds of personal names-a surname and a given name. But the order and the use of thes
11、e names in the two languages are somewhat different. In Chinese, the surname comes first and then the given name. And people like add“小”before their family name. Such as“小王”、“小郑”、“小李”、“小徐”and so on. While westerners names are written and spoken with the given name first and the family name last. So
12、John Smiths family name is Smith, not John. In a formal setting, address men as Mister (abbreviated as Mr.), married women as Misses (abbreviated as Mrs.), and unmarried women as “Miss (abbreviated as Ms.). These days many women prefer to be addressed using the abbreviations Ms. or M., pronounced mi
13、ss. If the person has an M.D. or Ph.D., they will often be addressed as Doctor (abbreviated as Dr.). Faculty are addressed as Professor (abbreviated as Prof.).In an informal situation, westerners will introduce each other by first name, without titles, and occasionally by just the last name. If you
14、are introduced to somebody by first name, you can address him or her by first name the next time you meet. The only exception would be for someone who holds an important position, such as the university president or provost. Unless they tell you otherwise, faculty should be addressed using their tit
15、le and last name (e.g., Professor Smith). When in Doubt, use the formal manner of address, since it is better to err on the side of formality. It is also appropriate to ask how they prefer to be addressed. Children should always address adults in the formal fashion, using their title and last name.A
16、nother difference is about the form of addressing. From the viewpoint of sociolinguistics, forms of addressing can serve as an indication of the relationship of power and solidarity in the society. In calling their superiors or elders, the Chinese are accustomed to the nonreciprocal or asymmetrical addressing, in other words. They use “title +surname” to address their superior or elders rather than call them surnames, while the superior or e
