On Cultural Differences Between Chinese And English-Speaking Peoples

The study of cultural differences began from Sapir-Whorf's "Linguistic Relativity". With the development of foreign culture learning, the exploration of cultural differences has been deepening constantly.This paper starts with the cultural differences between China and English countries and enumerates some examples about the communicative failures which are caused by the cultural differences. Meanwhile, it further analyzes the cultural differences between China and English countries in meaning, grammar, discourse, pragmatics, body language and linguistic attitude by numerous actual examples. Some of the examples are on the basis of group investigation in a given range and some are the analysis of individual or comparison between individuals. These examples show the cultural differences from a deeper level.The paper also discusses various barriers which are caused by cultural differences in intercultural communication and analyzes the barriers which are caused by pragmatic failures and nonverbal behaviors.Finally, the paper emphasizes the concrete methods to understand and transcend the cultural differences and especially proposes the cultivation of cultural creativity on the basis of fostering cultural awareness and cognitive competence. Therefore, this paper is based on the premise of Chinese culture, aims at motivating the learners' innovative force in the interaction between native culture and target culture, thereby induces the internal variety of the learner and strengthens their power in dealing with the realities. This is also the key to transcend the cultural differences.