Cultural Differences between East and West I. Factors leading

Cultural Differences between East and West
   Good morning, everyone. Today I’d like to share with you one interesting topic, that is: cultural differences between East and West. But before we start, we have to look at an important question: What leads to the cultural differences?
   The cultures of the East and the West really distinguish each other a lot. This is because the culture systems are two separate systems on the whole. The origin of the Eastern cultures is mainly from two countries: China and India. Both of the two cultures are gestated by rivers. In China, the mother river is the Yellow River while the Indian one is the Hindu River. These two cultures were developed for several thousand years and formed their own styles. Then in the Tang Dynasty of China, the Chinese culture gradually went overseas to Japan, mixed into the Japanese society and shaped the Japanese culture nowadays. Though a bit different from the Chinese one, it belongs to the same system.
   When the two mother rivers gave birth to the Eastern culture, another famous culture was brought up on the Mesopotamian Plain—the Mesopotamian Civilization. This civilization later on developed into the cultures of the Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. And these two are well-known as the base of European culture. Like the Chinese culture, the European one also crossed waters. When the colonists of England settled down in America, their culture went with them over the Atlantic Ocean. So the American culture doesn’t distinguish from the European one a lot. At the same time, the difference of the language systems adds to the cultural differences. In the East, most languages belong to the pictographic language while the Western languages are mostly based on the Latin system, for example, the one I’m using to write this paper. Other factors like human race difference count as well. But what’s more, due to the far distance and the steep areas between the East and the West, the two cultures seldom communicate until recent centuries. So they grew up totally in their own ways with almost no interference from the other.
   Now, I’d like to discuss with you another question, that is: how differently do people behave in daily life? The differences are everywhere. They affect people’s ways of thinking and their views of the world. Even in everyday life, the cultural differences show up from the moment the eyes are opened to the minute the dreams are invited.
   In the following, I’ll give some typical examples of the differences. First example: greeting. Greeting is the first step to form a culture, because people begin to communicate with others. The individuals become a community. How do we Chinese greet each other? Informally, if we meet a friend in the street, we are used to saying: "Hi, have you had your meal?" or "Where are you going?" When it is the case of two gentlemen, they tend to shake hands. However, in western countries, the above questions are just questions, not greetings at all. They may think you’re inviting them to dinner if you ask about their meals. Usually, they’ll just give each other a smile or greet with a "Hi." They’ll shake hands only in some formal situations. By the way, Westerners can leave a party or meeting hall without a formal conge, nor should they shake hands with every attendee like most of us will do here.
   Second example: expressing gratitude. Think of the situations below. Your mother is busy in the kitchen. She suddenly asks you to fetch a bowl for her. You do so. What’ll your mother’s response be? Probably she’ll just continue doing the cooking. After a while, the dinner is ready. Your mother hands you your bowl of rice. What’s your response? Probably just begin to eat. That’s what I want to say. In Chinese families, we rarely say "Thank you" to other family members for receiving help or service. Neither will we say so between good friends. It’s such an unpopular response that if you say it, the counterpart will think you are treating him as a stranger, otherwise you are lacking intimacy. But in the West, "thank you" is one of the most frequently used sentences. Teachers will thank a student for answering the question: husbands will thank his wife for making a coffee. However, as an interesting phenomenon, it’s a custom to say "thank you" in Japan. No matter in family or among friends, Japanese chronically use it all day. This is probably the aberrance of the culture.
   After the above discussions, now there is another question, that is: what can we do to treat the culture gap? Now we have seen that there exists such a huge gap between eastern culture and western one. Then what should we do to face this gap in the gradually globalizing world?
   Firstly, we cannot deny any of the cultures. Every nation has its own characteristics and it’s mainly through its culture that we first begin to know the nation and its characteristics. So we cannot say that this culture or custom is right and that is wrong. Equal respect should be attached to every culture in the world, even to those that are not in existence any more.
   Next, we should get to learn how to coordinate the different cultures. We say the world is becoming smaller and smaller. More foreigners come and go everyday. When it is in the same country, the same city, the same neighborhood, the cultural collision is expected to be more serious. So we should try to avoid this happening. One important thing is to get some basic knowledge about the other cultures so as not to misunderstand some actions or habits of the foreigners.
   When the above two are done, we can start to communicate. I mean we can take in some strong points from the foreign cultures. Though there doesn’t exist correctness in terms of culture, it does have the terms of more advanced or more suitable for the world nowadays. Of course, we cannot throw away our own culture and accept another one totally. Every culture is a treasure to the history of the Earth, so we should only pick out those we lack to perfect our own.
   To conclude what we have discussed today: first we have provided you with the underlying reasons of cultural differences, after that, we have presented you with several specific examples to further prove this. Finally we have explained the differences from several perspectives. Last but not least, we should remember that different cultures add the most colorful element to the world of the 21st century. The cultural gap should not be the obstacle to the civilization of human beings. It ought to be the motivation of going farther.