Abstract

Nowadays, cross-cultural communication becomes more and more frequent and important. People establish deep friendship in this process while someone may cause misunderstanding and disputes because people from different countries have different understanding of friendship. This thesis which is based on cross-cultural communication theory mainly analyzes the differences of friendship values between Chinese and American culture. It analyzes the differences of friendship values in five aspects: different types, different definitions, different ways, different definitions and different liabilities, states some reasons for such differences, in order that people can better understand the differences of Chinese and American friendship values, reduce misunderstanding and actively participate in cross-cultural communication. Then it is easier for people from different cultural backgrounds to establish friendship and the quality of cross-cultural communication will be improved.

Keywords: cross-cultural communication; friendship values; differences;  reasons

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-1

2. Literature Review-2

3. An Introduction to Cross-cultural Communication-3

4. Differences between Chinese and American Friendship Values-4

4.1 Different types of friendship-4

4.2 Different definitions of friendship-5

4.3 Different ways of establishing and maintaining friendship-6

4.4 Different purposes of making friends-8

4.5 Different liabilities of friends-8

5. Reasons for the Differences between Chinese and American Friendship Values-9

5.1 Different economic bases-9

5.2 Different traditional cultures-10

5.3 Different ways of thinking and different mentalities-11

5.4 Other reasons-11

6. Conclusion-12

Works Cited-13