苏州马小云-
The culture differences between the East and West
As we know ,there are so many differences between culture of the East and West that I can not list all of their different aspects.I will focus on the differences of diet custom and teaching system.For your better understanding ,I will set examples of China and America.
It is no doubt that it is a tradition to use chopsticks for Chinese.But people in America prefer to forks and knives.This different result is based on different food they like .Americans choose to eat beefsteak,bread,and salad,while Chinese people choose noodles ,pancakes and rice.What is more,the custom of drinking tea in China and drinking coffee in America are stand out particularly.However,there is a trend that the food in both countries has been mixture.For example,the coffee and bread have introduced to China.The famous KFC is very popular at children.
The gap of teaching system between China and America is big.Chinese students always complain about their homework.Too much homework has limited the time to exercise and relax.They have to recite many things as to get a high mark.Homework comes the first to them.
In my opinion,the study in America is more interesting .Teachers pay attentions to training students skills in thinking in realastic life not to emphasis on the importances of memories.In a addition,the rate of going to school ,the salary of teaching ,and the job of gruduates are quite different,too.I should say that Chima government should make great efforts to improve its teaching syetem.I am also expect to be one day ,the West give more cheersto our country.
另一个：
Any answer between two very varied groups of people has to be purposefully vague even if you limit it to just the English rather than all the British peoples.
On the whole, without going into the murky area of the English idea of class there are only two huge generalisations that come to mind.
1. Americans are polite, the English are proper.
2. An American will tell you they are good, an English person would rather you not.
I would take point 1 to encompass more generally an American liking of rules and regulations while the English preference for unwritten common sense in appropriate action.
For point 2, American society is more self cantered, combatitive and for want of better words “egotistical”. An American will come in and say I know you should do it this way and fall flat on their face if they get it wrong. The English would rather show appropriate “respect” to other peoples positions as it is likely that someone else will know best (even if their position is good). This can lead to American thinking that Brits are snobs for not giving time to their opinions and the Brits thinking Americans are just being loud and self important, not realising that person X over there is an expert in it. You can often find this in conversation that an American will be quite happy to give their views and sound knowledgeable on many subjects. You will have to prise any detailed POV from an Englishman after much questioning but they will generally know a whole lot more than they first let on.
I would disagree that any answer is a result of age of civilisation or perceived American multiculturalism. Middle American Main Street is very similar to the English town high street in terms of cultural variation. Some will point out large cultural differences in the big cities but Major English cities have this too. London is at least as multicultural as New York. The US maybe founded on immigrants but the UK has be trading people with Europe for millennia, has local cultures (e.g. the Cornish) running back over centuries and had huge waves of immigration from the Empire. Both cultures as they are perceived today are a result of the industrial revolution creating the modern metropolis and the subsequent universal suffrage and institutions that this produced. Modern England was created out of the English Civil War which is not far removed from the first major US colonisations and the Declaration of independence.
Basically, England and America have a lot in common (ancestry, language, some traditional practices), primarily because America used to be a British colony. Some of the differences are: the British are more formal in their manners and language, they"re more traditional than Americans, they have one of the oldest monarchy in the world and some still practice ancient religion (Druids, Wiccans).
The British lean more on the whimsical (Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland) the classical(Jane Austen, Henry James, E.M. Forster, Lewis Carroll), and their food is more adventurous than American fare. Whereas Americans, since it"s a younger nation, are more into modern ways (manners, etc.).
另一个
So you are ready to move to the US: You"ve been to the states a few times, maybe longer; you"ve dated or are married to an American; you"ve studied up on US history, or read every story written last year by every newspaper in the UK about America; you"re a big fan of American movies. And after all, it"s the same language. Simply put--you know America, and you are ready to come over!
You are in for a big surprise.
There are tremendous cultural differences between the US and the UK, despite having many similarities. People talk different, and not just in the accent or the words, but the general tone and meaning. They have different ways of making friends, finding jobs, interacting at the office. The social system is vastly different from what you know, and religious differences may come as a bit of a shock.
And when all this comes together as part of a big move, you can find yourself wondering "what have I done???"
In some ways, try to envision being an expat in rural Mongolia, with a different language, culture, climate, time zone--in essence, nearly everything vastly changed from what you accustom to. You go in knowing it is going to be an adventure--there will be things that don"t make sense and things that seem strange. Approach your trip to the United States in a similar way, something radically different from what you expect, and you may find the transition goes a little more smoothly than those who think it is just a simple "hop across a big lake".
Now, as for some specifics...you could write a book, or several, on some of the differences. Without trying to get into stereotypes, a few observations:
1) Americans are outwardly very friendly, they will talk to strangers in a store, laugh with someone at a bar, and help their neighbours in a pinch. That said, many ex-pats have reported difficulty in making "really close friends" like they had back in the UK. The friendliness is only on the surface, so many report.
2) Americans generally do not like / "get" satire. Some ex-pats claim "they just don"t understand it" while many Americans think it "is just a waste of time by those who have nothing substantive to say." Satirical comments in the workplace are almost always misunderstood, and generally not done in social settings either.
3) Many Americans are very family-oriented (at least those with families). Family life is an endless parade of school musicals, extracurricular sports, birthday parties and the like. Many new ex-pats report exhaustion trying to keep up with all the things to do with the kids when they come to the states.
4) The majority of Americans have never been abroad. They may have heard of Spain but have no clue about Ibiza for example. American media does not speak much about Europe, let alone the rest of the world, and the issues facing "Brussels" and the "EU" are of absolutely no interest whatsoever to 99.999% of Americans (in fact, polls indicated that a majority has negative feelings toward the UN). On the converse, the United States is a huge country. You could fit most of Europe in only 1/2 of the area of the United States. If you want a more direct comparison--the entire land mass of the United Kingdom could fit within the state of Michigan. Go look at a map of the US to get an idea. Many Americans feel they simply haven"t seen enough of their own country to warrant travelling abroad to see another country. Just as Americans are made fun of for not seeing the world, many ex-pats are ridiculed for seeing only New York and Florida or other large "tourist" cities without seeing the vast expanses in between.
To add, many people just don"t get enough holiday time to make it financially worthwhile travelling abroad, with holiday - "vacation" time often being as low as 7-10 days a year, and in some instances that includes sick days, the norm being that you have worked for a year before really getting any holiday entitlement...because of that, you"ll see a live to work rather than a work to live outlook on life.
5) Most Americans are "hyphenated-Americans" and proud to boast of Scottish or Irish or German or Italian ancestry, even if it has been centuries since anyone in their family lived overseas. It is said that Europeans do genealogy to prove who they are whereas Americans do it to see who they were and what they"ve become. Many Americans like to remember this not because "they like the Old Country" but they like to show that their family was once immigrants who dreamed of a better life "in America". By pointing out that fact (and hopefully living a good and successful life), many feel they are honouring and meeting their ancestors wishes and dreams.
6) Americans will joke about English people"s teeth, for what it is worth. If you ever get into an insult match, expect some dentistry comments. Monty Python and the "Killer Rabbit" with "Big Gnarly Teeth" is as much to blame as any British dentist.
7) Making friends can be daunting. While for someone in their 20s they can reach out to folks who are also "just starting out" and eventually form some lifelong bonds, for some who are older, in their 30s and 40s, with kids and a family and their own way of doing things, meeting others can be difficult. Some put it down to Americans being somewhat cold to newcomers, but others note that the older you go, the harder it becomes to make friends in nearly every culture. Don"t expect that the people you meet in your first few months are going to be as close as the ones you went to school and university with back in the UK. It will take time, and as it was back in the UK, cannot be rushed.
CarieVinne-
对楼上表示万分的佩服！