Comparison of the Thinking Patterns between Chinese and Western Countries

刘晓荣

（昌吉学院外语系，新疆 昌吉 831100）

0 Introduction

With the arrival of the Internet and mass media，people throughout the world would acquire information and news less than a minute.At the same time，these changes would bring some challenges for people who live in the global village.They need to know how to communicate with those who are different from themselves and how to survive in the global village.However，in the process of intercultural communication，people may confront various obstacles and troubles，which are caused by the differences among different cultures，such as：thinking patterns，language，and cultural values，etc.

1 Different patterns of thinking between Chinese and western countries

Chinese and western countries have sharply different patterns of thinking.Now it will focus on a detailed comparison of thinking patterns between Chinese and western countries.

1.1 Perceptual and intuitive thinking ＆ rational and analytical thinking

Culture can influence people’s attitude and recognition towards the outside world.Thinking styles of Chinese people tend to be perceptual，intuitive and holistic，which is the characteristics of traditional cultural thought，while westerners characterize their mode of thinking as logic and analytic.Under the influence of traditional culture，Chinese people are more likely to stress intuition，and pay much attention to the experience and perception in the stage of cognition，which enables them to create a friendly rapport with others.

1.2 Past-orientation ＆ future-orientation

China belongs to past-oriented societies.Chinese people place a high value on tradition.They claim that they can gain new insight and make continuous improvement through recalling the past.On the contrary，westerners live in a future-oriented culture.It is quite common that they would use“what if…”question in their daily conversation.They speak highly of changes.

2 Causes of the differences between Chinese and westerners’thinking patterns

2.1 Different cultural values

The differences between Chinese and western cultural values are mainly on the difference between individualism and collectivism.Western culture values individuality highly.Westerners are more concerned with independence and self-reliance and lay stress on self-achievement.Individualism favors the individual freedom and equality.While Chinese people advocate collectivism，and maintain that the individual subordinates his own interest to the overall interests.They praise selfsacrifice and restrain themselves in order to be loyal to the group.They have strong group consciousness and group identification.

2.2 Different beliefs

In the history of human beings，religion exerts great influences on science，history，culture，and art.Chinese culture propagates Confucianism，whose essence is humanity and courtesy.Humanity is the core of Confucianism and courtesy is the norm of behavior，both of which clarifies the obligation and duty of the social members to keep a harmonious society.Based on the development of western history，western culture is the combination of Jewish religion and Greek philosophy，which emphasizes morals logic.

3 Suggestions on how to improve intercultural communication

The differences of thinking modes lie in the way of language use，the different world views and cultural background between the users.To deal with this problem is not to change and discard learners’own cultural values，but to construct another kind of thinking patterns and familiarize the background of the target culture.

3.1 Reform the foreign language teaching and learning method

Since foreign language teaching can not only impart knowledge，but also develop learners’communicative competence and cross-cultural communication competence with the help of language use，it is essential to combine the training of cross-cultural communication competence with foreign language teaching.

3.2 Master the learning strategies

For language learners，it is vital to find out the solution to avoid negative transfer and make full use of positive transfer.Teachers should create second language learning environment and help second language learners work out the thinking patterns of the target language.

3.3 Comprehend cultural background and have a good mastery of culture

As we all know，common knowledge is not a universal law，and it may differ from culture to culture.Some people would equate crosscultural communication competence with listening，speaking，reading，writing and translating skills.But they are by no means the same.Teachers should recommend some western literary works，newspapers and magazines，and commentaries on current affairs to learners.Learners could absorb knowledge，broaden their horizon and improve cross-cultural communication competence by exchanging with foreigners and attending lectures.

4 Conclusion

For native speakers，the patterns of thinking are accretion of culture over time;but for foreign language learners，it can be formed by accumulating knowledge and culture contact.Only if learners can transfer these two kinds of thinking patterns freely，they would communicate effectively.

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