【正文】 Case (3) (A Chinese visiting scholar to American is praised by her American friend)American friend: That’s a lovely dress you have on.Chinese scholar: No, no, it’s just a very ordinary dress.Analyses: In traditional Chinese culture, being modest and prudent has been highly appreciated. People tend to depreciate themselves and put a higher value on other people. But in western countries, it’s quite natural for people to praise others, and it’s just a way of greeting. The different attitudes towards pliment response may certainly cause social pragmatic failures or munication barriers. Gratitude Response Case (4) (After a Chinese host acpanied a foreign businessman)Foreign businessman: Thank you for acpanying me.Chinese host: Don’t mention it. It’s my duty to do so.Analyses: Here, what the second speaker says makes the foreigner feel embarrassed, because he misunderstands the meaning of “duty”what one must do either because of one’s job or because one thinks it right. Instead, the Chinese host should say, “It’s a pleasure!” PolitenessBeing polite is one of the main signals of human civilization. Different cultures have different ways of showing politeness to others. In china, people pay much attention to behaviors and tend to express courtesy in an indirect way. But for westerners, they are likely to use language to express their politeness orally in a very direct way. They are often saying “Hello”, “Nice to meet you”, “You are so pretty” or “You are so cute” to strangers even without thinking about it. Chinese people would feel confused about their words and think that they are so flippant. In the contrary, westerners would consider Chinese people as conservative and stubborn. Imagine that, if an American young boy saw a beautiful girl in the street, and he said loudly to the girl, “you are so pretty today!” The girl must be quite unfortable and feel bashful. This is one of the most typical instances about social pragmatic failures. PrivacyCase (5) many foreigners who came to china for the first time often feel unfortable about some questions asked by Chinese people, such as “Where are you going?”, “Are you married?”, “Have you had your dinner?”.Analyses: People must live and interact together to survive. In dong so, they must develop a way of relating that strikes a balance between showing concern for themselves and concern for others. Hofstede has put forth the individualismcollectivism dimension. Unlike those western countries which tend to hold the individual orientation, Chinese people prefer a collectivist orientation. Thus, privacy in china has not been placed in a position as high as in western cultures. Westerners have a much stronger sense of privacy than Chinese people do. That’s why some foreigners feel quite unfortable and embarrassed about those “intruded” questions. Actually, Chinese people who ask those questions didn’t mean to offend them. It’s only a way of showing care and affection to the foreign friends. Therefore, we’d better choose some public topics when we municate and interact with people from different cultures, such as “weather”, “sports”, or “news”. It would certainly do a great help to our success of intercultural munication. TaboosEvery culture has its own taboos。The Social Pragmatic Failures in Crosscultural Communication1 IntroductionRecently, there is a wave of globalization due to factors including mass access to internet, globalization of industry, and expansion of educational exchanges and so on. New technologies, growth of the world’s population, and shift in the global economic area have all contributed to the increase in crosscultural munication. Therefore, crosscultural munication has bee indispensable today. Language used by human beings is the most basic tool for munication, which plays a crucial role in the process of human historical development. We use words to persuade, to exchange ideas, to express views, to seek information, and to express feelings. We made cultural choices when we are using human language to municate with other people. Culture shapes our ideas and plays a crucial role on influencing our way of using language. At the same time, language can also be considered as a window to the culture. They are closely connected with each other and can never be separated. Therefore, we should not only learn linguistic skills well but also know much knowledge about foreign culture