An Analysis of Cross—cultural Consciousness from the Perspective of Individual Development

Song+Dan

Abstract：When the world enters 21century， the trends of globalization enhances in all regions， which bring about frequent intercultural communications at individual as well as national levels for economic， political， cultural and educational needs. There is no denying that cultivating the cross-cultural consciousness is imperative nowadays.

Key words：Cross-cultural consciousness； Individual development； Case study

Nowadays cross-cultural communication has already become more and more important for the sake of further communication. Because of different social backgrounds， social systems， ways of thinking， standards of behaviors and customs， people have lots of difficulties and obstacles in understanding each other and communicating with one another. As we all know， language plays a decisive role when we communicate with each other but the diversity in language and culture makes cross-communication a highly risky mission. Thus in order to overcome and solve these problems， at the same time， to further enrich our knowledge in cross-cultural communication and enhance our strategic performance in cross-cultural communication， we have collected some and report them here as case studies.

When in Rome do as the Romans do. For instance， how to choose greeting forms in cross-cultural communication. When two British people meet， they may greet each other by saying something about the weather. “It is a nice day， isnt it？” However， Chinese people may greet each other in this way： “Where are you going？” or “Have you eaten？” For most westerners， these lines sound far too person or private， if not nosy. If this happens in a cross-cultural context and is not taken culturally， it may bring about unhappiness and misunderstanding. Secondly， put yourself in others shoes. Successful communication in a cross-cultural setting depends much on a sensible interpretation and prediction of what the other party will think， feel， and behave when some crucial things occur. But how to acquire this sensitivity is a great challenge. Reasons for this difficulty are multiple. Your linguistic knowledge in the target language is one. Your understanding of the target culture is another. Your consciousness of the nature of the target nation is a third. Your caution to the occurrence of rash and risky assumption is a fourth. For example， retelling of a bad story in history suggests that real communication is based on a holistic understanding of the target language， culture， and society.

Cross-cultural communication becomes inevitable in the “global village”. The coexistence of interdependence and cultural conflicts demands all cultures and nations to go beyond their own cultural bondage and learn to appreciate different ideas and different ways of life， to share with limited world recourses， and celebrate diversity （Song Li， 2009： 261）. Thus cultural globalization is not only one major part of the process but also the aim and result of globalization in other regions， which gradually shifts its role from a “context” to a “text” for cross-cultural communication （Jia， Yuxin， 2009： 4）.

As a special and the most important phase， college English teaching possesses its unique privilege in intercultural education. As the National English Curriculum Standard emphasizes， we should develop students learning and research capabilities in English language. And we should care for their feelings in order to motivate them to learn. As a result， college English teaching should stick to the principle of Students Body， Teachers Guide. At the same time， college English teaching should turn language teaching to content teaching. In addition， teachers can add multi-cultural education model and intercultural education model to English teaching classroom with the purpose of the contrast between Chinese and Western culture. Then like that students can better understand the formation and development of culture.

Successful communication in a cross-culture setting depends much on a sensible interpretation and prediction of what the other party will think， feel， and behave when some crucial things occur. But the key to acquire this sensitivity is to improve the cross-cultural consciousness especially for the English majors. Different cultural backgrounds create different cross-cultural consciousness. So it becomes more and more important that improve our English majors cross-culture consciousness.

There are many words in English and Chinese languages which appear to be the same meaning when used but actually very different. For example， materialism， we often connect it with the Chinese meaning “wei wu zhu yi”， and think it is a commendatory word. Then the sentence “It is a word full of shallow materialism” may puzzled us because we dont think the materialism is associated with shallow. Although materialism is regarded as a conception of philosophy， its main meaning is that “the belief that money and possessions are more important than art， religion and moral beliefs etc”. So it is not a surprise to us if we know the true meaning. Another example， the yellow journalism， most Chinese people may think it is pornographic magazine， actually， yellow journalism came from the earliest known for its emotional socialist New York world ， it used yellow ink to print the cartoon “the yellow kid”. If we knew the historical background， such a mistake would not happen again. It means anger in English. And red flag means the symbol of wrongness and danger. And green means youth and lace of experience， so the green hand means new learner. Both in Chinese and English cultures， people commonly use color refers to people's moral character， emotional and view on things， to help us to grasp the meaning of words.

【作者簡介】

宋丹（1993—），女，汉族，四川宣汉人，本科学历，单位：成都理工大学外国语学院，主要研究方向：英语文化。