东西方文化的对比comparison and contrast between eastern and western culture

对比东西方文化之间的不同。英语写作作文。

Compare and contrast eastern and western culture

The cultures of the East and the West really distinguish each other a lot. The differences can be seen everywhere, and they even show up from the moment the eyes are opened to the minute the dreams are invited.

For example, westerners would like to take shower in the morning, while easterners are at night; westerners tend to think and act things straightly as well as directly, while easterners like to use mild and roundabout ways to express themselves. Some of the differences between cultures are enforced by internal rules (such as legal age of marriage) whereas others just happen through many years of development towards a certain way over another (e.g. eating with knives and forks). They are both results of geographical and historic factors.

Of all the differences, the biggest one may be westerner’s individualism and easterner’s collectivism. As is known, individualism is the basic principle of the western capitalist moral values and the moral core of the modern bourgeoisie. Taking America as an example, according to a survey by Greet Hofstede about individualism orientation degree, America ranks the first among over forty countries and areas. Individualism plays such an important role in American values that it is even considered to be “I” culture. There are many words in American English begin with “self-”, such as, self-control, self-respect, self-dependence, self-confidence, etc. Besides, in written English, “I” should be capital all the time, while other Personal pronouns like “we” or “you” needn’t. From this what is quite obvious is that American consider individual to be the most important one. On the contrary,

对比东西方文化之间的不同。英语写作作文。

easterners emphasize on collectivism, especially Chinese people. It is always insisted that the interests of the nation, society and family are more important than individual’s. Therefore, Chinese tend to be self-depressive and conservative. That may be part of the reason why Chinese culture is regarded as “I-less culture” by some foreign experts. As the saying goes, “The nail that sticks out is hit”; while American would say, “It’s the squeaky wheel that gets the oil”.

As far as I am concerned, different cultures have their pros and cons, so we can absorb advantages of others to perfect our own. Though there doesn’t exist correctness in terms of culture, it does have the terms of more advanced or more suitable for the world nowadays. Just as what are discussed above, individualism and collectivism, we cannot say that this is right and that is wrong, because every nation has its own characteristics and it’s mainly through its culture that we first begin to know the nation and its characteristics. But for our Chinese, it would be better to pay more attention and respect individual on the basic of collectivism.

Of course, our own culture is the earth where we stand on and grow up; we cannot throw it away and accept another one totally.

In a conclusion, we should accept and at the same time understand the differences exist between eastern and western ones. It is certainly the differences that make our world more colorful. What’s more, we can learn from other cultures and develop our own.

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