Comparing The Cultural Content Of Chinese And German Traditional Holidays

Learning a second language does not merely imply learning its words and grammar,but also means learning the cultural background of its native speakers.One excellent way of learning about a foreign culture is through its holidays.Traditional holidays,through their long history and yearly repetition,shape and reinforce a multitude of beliefs and ideologies of a society.Through careful analysis,a learner can understand many aspects of the target language's cultural background,increasing their proficiency of social interaction using the target language.This paper carries out a detailed comparison between Chinese and German traditional holidays,focusing on two pairs of holidays:First,Chinese New Year and Christmas;second,the Dragon Boat Festival and Easter.The comparison focuses on the cultural content of said holidays,hoping to help educators fully understand the similarities and differences between the two countries'holidays,thereby giving them a medium to effectively teach Chinese festivals and culture to German native speakers.Since meaningful comparative teaching requires a firm grasp of both native and target culture,but most literature tends to generalize "Western Culture",this research will be especially useful for educators teaching Chinese in Germany,where classes will be very homogenous.The paper ends with an exemplary teaching plan for the Chinese Spring Festival,drawing upon the conclusions of the preceding comparisons.The teaching style is,for the most part,focuse d on comparison and on letting the students experience the target culture by themselves.The comparison reveals a multitude of reasons why Chinese traditional holidays are very suitable for culture teaching.First,there are many activities during Chinese festivals.These do not only make students interested in the holiday,but also allow students to personally experience the culture in the classroom.Second,there are a multitude of main themes during Chinese holidays,underlining Chinese views and ideologies,like family focus,filial piety and love for one's homeland.This means that Chinese holidays are very suitable for teaching different aspects of culture.Third,Chinese festival's activities reveal many habits and customs of Chinese people in their daily life,for example the story of Chinese New Year explains why the color red is so popular in China,and the sacrifice during Chinese New Year hints at the high status of older people in society.