3。2 Necessity of the cultivation of intercultural awareness论文网

Different from china, where there are four kinds of addresses in peer relatives, “表哥”, “表姐”, “堂哥”, “堂姐”。 In western countries, the culture of appellation is quite condensed。 These four kinds of relatives are included to the word “cousin”。 When it comes to “uncle” and “aunt”, it is also the same。 Besides, if you want to show your respect to someone, in china, you will call him Mr。 Zhang。 But in western countries, it may be more respectable to be called Doctor Zhang。 The fundamental reason of above phenomenon is the culture。 Chinese attaches more importance to family values。 Ethic, affection and blood relationship root in their brain, all of which lead the family to the first place。 However, western people pay more attention to their social status。 Thus, they will feel much more esteemed to be related with their oppositions。 

German linguist Herder believes that to understand a nation, we must first understand its language。 The cultural spirit and cultural psychology of the nation are spread through the language。 In a word, language is the carrier of culture, is to display the culture。 Throughout the history, language is the earliest and the most frequent tool to communicate and transmit messages, to record our history of development and civilization。 We use language to describe our blueprint, to think and express ourselves。 To learn other cultures, the best way is to live with the native, and the most vital method is to talk with the native。 From your communication, you can know how they live and how they feel just like you have experienced。 During the period of your learning, you are familiar with their culture subliminally。 Learning a language is learning a kind of culture, learning a kind of way to think of the world。 

Thus, to be concluded, language and culture are like branches and root of a tree。 Without the root, the tree will wither, letting alone the branches。 Equally, without these branches, you cannot find how vigorous and exuberant the root is。 Language and culture are complementary and unpided。 Namely, intercultural awareness should be fostered  in English classes。

3。3 Request of the development of intercultural competence

There are so many kinds of cultures and languages in the world。 Because of the differences between culture and language, it is not very simple to develop deep communication with people from different cultures。 Owning to the persity of culture, even though the language is completely the same, mistakes are often very frequent to be seen。 The same word or the same expression can have very different meanings。 A serious topic may make people laugh so hard, even double up with laughter; or an opinion without any hostility would make others unpleasant or even offended。 All of these are the reasons why should we strengthen the teaching of cross cultures。 

English is used to communicate。 If you have a dinner with foreign people, but you are late on occasion, and when you turn up, you will hear someone saying: speaking of the devil。 Maybe you would be confused why I am related with the devil, I am just late for several minutes。 But if you are familiar with the culture, you will realize that the devil here, to some degree, is the same to the person Cao Cao in china。 They are all wicked images。 Similarly, this sentence means that when you talk about someone, the person shows up just in time。 文献综述

Unknowing culture would cause confusion, and also, embarrassment is unavoidable。 In china, if we get presents from others, we usually try to refuse and accept finally。 Also, we seldom open the present to his eyes, because we hold it impolite。 However, in western, it is discourteous not to open the present face to face and show your appreciation (Hu 203)。 This phenomenon can be contributed to the culture。 Chinese are not used to saying “thank you” to their close friends and family members。 If so, they would suspect whether there is something wrong between them。 To the contrary, western people often say” thank you”, no matter you are strangers or friends, and no matter you help him or not。