10. .Politeness conventions in different cultures?

Conventions of politeness vary considerably between language communities, not least in their linguistic form. In most societies, however, there appears to be a correlation between more formal styles and a higher level of overt politeness. Politeness may be defined in a number of ways and will depend on a variety of factors, including the relative age and social distance between speakers, the context, and how well the speakers know one another.

The underlying principle of politeness is to preserve harmony by showing good intentions and consideration for the feelings of others. Every culture and every language has developed certain mechanisms to signal that speakers are or are not attempting to be polite.

Cultural Differences

Different culture causes different views of values, which affects the criteria of politeness and leads to differences in various aspects.

1 Ways to greet each others and farewells

The westerners often greet others with a cheerful “Hello!” or something like “How are you?” If they are talking with a stranger, they tend to talk about the weather as a way of greeting. But to Chinese people, they like to ask “ Have you eaten?”, “where are you going ?” , “ What brings you here?” or “ What are you doing here?” All these would be considered as interferences to privacy for westerners.

When parting, Chinese seldom say “goodbye” as farewells that would be too formal or somewhat distant. Before they leave, Chinese guests like to say “I have to go now.” “I am going.” or “Stay where you are”, and the hosts are used to

say “Go slowly”, “Come again.” to see them off. While two friends departing after they meet on the road, one of them may say “ I’ve got to leave.” and the other may say “ Let” s chat next time”, “ Come to see me when you are free.” Or

“I would visit you if I can.” As for westerners, they often say “Goodbye!”,“See you!” when they part

2 Addressing terms

Chinese often use one’s occupation to address him to show respect, either in formal or informal occasions when their social status is considered to be high or respectful. e.g. Professor Li ,Teacher Zhang , Dean Sun, etc. If their social

statuses are considered to be low, such as barber, cleaner, technical worker, cook, plumber and most people in service profession, people will often call them “shifu” instead of their occupations to be polite. To westerners, this is not the

same. In formal situations, they often address people who hold high social status with their professions as: Professor Green, Chairman Johnson etc. But they never address people with “teacher or manager”. In informal occasions, even a

professor or a chairman prefers himself to be called with his given name to show intimacy to others. And they tend to call others like this while a Chinese may feel unpleasant to be called in such a term by unfamiliar person. For example,

if a girl named “Yang Liyuan” is called as “ Liyuan” or “ yuan” by an ordinary friend, she will look on it as an insult. Besides, in China, “little+surname” or “old+surname” is an address to show intimacy but we cannot address foreigners

in such a way.