【正文】 the language and system of belief which makes it more difficult to deal with. Pragmatic linguistic failures may only make others think that you are “speaking badly”, but social pragmatic failure may probably leave others the impression of “behaving badly” and cause great embarrassment and misunderstandings during intercultural munication. Therefore, we’d better try our best to avoid the social pragmatic failures and interact with people from different cultures as actively as possible. Only in this way can we achieve an effective munication result.3 Typical AnalysesBecause of the negative transfer of native culture to target culture, social pragmatic failures have bee one of main factors lead to the munication barriers. Here I list six aspects of reflecting social pragmatic failures and the pares are presented between china and western countries. Form of AddressEvery country has its own way to address people. In the process of crosscultural munication, we have to be cautious enough to choose the right form of address according to other people’s culture. Case (1) (A Chinese student greets his foreign teacher)Student: “Hello, Teacher Hedges.”Analyses: In china, it’s quite natural for students to call their teachers by bing the title of the profession and the first name. But in western countries, especially in American, “teacher” is just a profession but not a form of address. The right way to greet teachers is to add Mr/Mrs/Miss in front of one’s family name, or call their name straightforwardly.Case (2) (A child in china met an American in a park and tried to speak to him courteously)A: Uncle, how do you do?B: Please call me John。 they usually avoid this word by using some euphemisms. For instance, people are more likely to use the term “senior citizen” rather than “old people” when they refer to someone with an old age. So we should try to avoid those cultural taboos and respect other’s cultures. In this way, we would keep our munication going smoothly and some embarrassing situations can be avoided effectively.4 The Causes of Social Pragmatic Failures There are many reasons of the social pragmatic failures. This problem can be analyzed from different view angles. Because of its diversity and plexity, here, only three of the most brief and easily understood causes are listed below. Attitude Towards the Relationships of Humans to NatureChina is a country which holds a view that man should be harmonious with nature and seek for peacefulness. We believe that nature would treat us well if we treat nature well, so the relationship between humans and nature is respect and fear. Since our culture teaches integration with nature, harmony and balance, we are likely to seek harmony and balance in social relationship as well. What’s more, the substance of Confucianism in china is peace. Confucianism advocates that people should be modest and keep a balanced relationship with the outside world.On the contrary, westerners, especially Americans see a clear separation between man and nature and man is clearly held to be in charge. Thus, they usually have an insatiable drive to subdue, dominate, and control their natural environment. Because of this, they think they are separate from others and can use scientific methods to control people and events. That’s the reason why westerners are so progressive and pay much attention to selfdevelopment and place privacy on a very high level. Therefore, the social pragmatic failures can be aroused easily in crosscultural munication. Sense of TimeThe majority of Chinese people hold the belief of both future and past orientation. Our cultural memories are rich and deep, people usually look back to a period when they want to make changes for the sake of absorbing the past experience. In china, old people had been greatly respected by youngsters. In traditional Chinese family, important decisions have to be agreed by the oldest people in the family. But in western countries, old people don’t enjoy a status as high as Chinese old people do. Most westerners are dominated by a belief in progress. They are future oriented, and they have an optimistic faith in the future. They tend to equate “change” with “improvement” and consider a rapid rate of change as normal. So it is not unmon to find out that westerners usually have a negative feeling towards old people. They are trying to avoid referring to the word “old” in their daily convers