Exploring cultural difference is an interesting thing, and you may encounter people and situations that really amuse you.
It seems to most of us (and to me as well) that cultural difference shown in communication is mostly in terms of courtesy. People in one country may find it ok to point at people with thire thumb while this may be offensive in another culture. When people meet each other, Japanese bow and westerners shake their hands. I have been wondering wether there is a set manner for the Chinese people follow while we meet each other. Being a Chinese myself, it is difficult for me to realize our own behavior. Last summer holiday, I met a foreigner in my home country who reminded me how people think of Chinese culture.
My province is just next door to Russia and that's why it is common to see Russian people on a street. One day, while I was taking a walk and watch some squirrels in a park, a blond girl came to me and asked me:" ni chi le ma?( have you eaten)" I was shocked and then deeply amused. She was and exchange student who studies English but was interested in Chinese as well. I explained to her that Chinese people no longer use such greetings. She asked me some other interesting questions like do we eat Jiao Zi very often, why do people like to add a word "Xiao(little)" to their surname and how I think of China's fast development. I suddenly realized that even with so much publications in various kinds of media, misunderstanding still exists. We have been taught to "when in Rome, do as the Romans do", however, the "Romans' way of behave may not be the same as we have learnt.
I remembered that when I was in JC, I suffered a lot in writing essays. The teacher said I did not fully explain me arguments, which I think was clear enough. The teacher said that there are lot of information hidden in my argument that could have been illustrated further. Last time when we had the peer teaching , one of my classmates mentioned that because Chinese is a very resourceful language, Chinese people like to assume that others have caught their hidden information. This is exactly what I have encountered and suffered a lot from.
From then onward, I learned not to assume that people understand you and not to assume that you understand others because that may not be the case. Asking more is a good habit to avoid misunderstanding in inter-cultural communication.
