文档介绍：Introduction
With entering WTO and the acceleration of economical globalization, China’s international contact is developingrapidly. The international contact is a kind of inter-cultural human relations, in which both sides want to reach a munication. But in fact, setbacks or failures of munication usually occur. Consequently, the relationships between nations sometimes even get worse. People often blame the situation on language itself and neglect the misunderstanding caused by lacking the knowledge of culture and custom. Therefore, it is essential to acquire the knowledge of different customs for enhancing the efficiency in the inter-munication.
1 Customs and international contact
Customs can be defined as habit and habitude which are the result of constant cultural accumulation and established usage (Han Yangmin, 1998:150). It originates from specific geographical and civil environment and is developed by a certain society or a nation. Besides what’s mentioned above, it is a typical phenomenon of history and culture.
Many writers have defined customs, among whom, Wu Xiaoning (2005) said:“customs refer to the fixed way of thinking”. When people follow “custom”, they put emphasis on conventional behavior, the rules of daily life and the characteristics of the culture reflected by their repaeated behavior, as well as the distinguished point among the whole culture. For exampel, when Chinese people meet each other, the mon greeting is
“Have you got eaten?”The Americans often say “How are things setting on?”While the British often use the counterpart“It has been very cold these days?”
The custom is the basic content of ethnologists’ research, and is similar to “folk custom”. The two frequently replace each other. The custom manifests each nationality’s traditional cultural values, and has the nature of historical inheritance and aberrance.
Another definition on custom (Han Yangmin, 1990:150) is : The custom which is gradually formed and observed in munity is