A Study Of Time Orientation Differences Between Chinese And Americans

With the development of globalization, the world today is characterized by an ever-growing number of contacts resulting in communications between people with different linguistic and cultural background. People's different time orientation is one important aspect in intercultural communication. Time, as one main component of human activity, has great influence on the communication activities. Just as American anthropologist Hall states: "Time can talk. It speaks more plainly than words. The messages it convey come through loud and clear. Because it manipulates less consciously, it is subject to less distortion than the spoken language. It can shout truth when words lie." Different time orientations are important factors that lead to intercultural cultural misunderstanding and failure, and it is very necessary to study the cultural differences between different cultural groups.China and America have obvious features on the time orientations and can be compared. Through the study of Chinese and American time orientations, the conflict and misunderstanding that arouse from the communication concerning time orientations between the two cultures can be successfully overcome.This paper attempts to make a comparative study on people's different time orientations between China and America by analyzing the differences of time-orientated perceptions and behaviors between the Chinese and Americans and exploring the cultural roots of these differences with a purpose to improve effective communication skills in cross-cultural setting concerning time orientations. Several frameworks for viewing time orientation variations are used to develop a chart on cultural communication preferences by the Chinese and Americans. The frameworks are centered on monochronic and polychronic system, linear and circular time view and past and future time orientation.The thesis contains six parts. The first part is an introduction of the rationale of the study, the possible significance of the study as well as the general structure of the thesis. The second part is the literature review, which first defines culture, culture pattern, time and time orientation, then introduces the relationship between time and culture, and finally discusses the western and Chinese perspectives of time related to based on the theories of Edward Hall, Florence Kluckhohn, Fred Strodbeck, and other scholars in this field. Based on the theories of the second part, the third part of the thesis compares the time orientation differences between the Chinese and Americans in three aspects respectively, which contains monochronic and polychronic system, linear and circular, past and future orientation. Also using the theories from the second part, the fourth part explores the cultural roots of different time orientation between the Chinese and Americans, including beliefs, cultural values, high and low context cultures, agriculture and industry cultures. The fifth part of the paper provides some constructive suggestions including learning cultural knowledge, reinforcing cultural empathy, and being time orientation adapter with a view of promoting effective communication skills in cross-cultural setting concerning time orientation .The last part is the conclusion which summarizes this paper, presents its implications for intercultural communication, addresses its limitations and expects its further in the future.