A Comparative Study Of Sino-US People’s Time Orientations

With the rapid development of globalization, people from different culturalbackgrounds interact with each other in a never experienced level. Interculturalcommunication becomes an extremely important topic. As an important aspect inintercultural communication, people‘s time orientation has great influence on theirintercultural behaviors and activities, just as American anthropologist Hall mentioned:―Time can talk. It speaks more plainly than words. The messages it convey comethrough loud and clear. Because it manipulates less consciously, it is subject to lessdistortion than the spoken language. It can shout truth when words lie.‖This thesis starts with the introduction to the background of this study, thesignificance of the study as well as the general structure of this thesis. Then it presentsthe literature review with regard to culture, time as well as time orientations. In orderto clearly explore the differences of time orientations between China and America,this thesis adopts3frameworks of time orientation variations to make a contrastbetween Chinese and Americans. The frameworks are centered on monochronic andpolychronic system, linear and circular time orientation as well as past and future timeorientation. On the basis of the contrast, this thesis analyzes the cultural roots whichcause two different time orientations, including: beliefs, cultural values, economicsituations as well as thinking patterns. At last, the thesis gives several suggestionsabout how to promote effective communication skills in intercultural settingsconcerning time orientation.As an important part in people‘s daily life, time influences a lot on people‘sbehaviors and communication. In order to make intercommunication between Chineseand Americans go on smoothly, it is very necessary to analyze their respective timeorientations.