1、Reflections of Time Concept,Linear extension and circular rotation线伸环旋,Western:extension,sense of time shortage,future valuedChinese:rotation,sense of time abundance,past cherished,Time is a river,a torrent,a waterfall.Time is marching,flying and flowing.,Time is compared to water,Time and tide wait
2、 for no man,Time lost is never found again,“Time is the devourer of everything.”Ovid,Roman Poet43 B.C.,English Poet(1608 1674),English Playwright(1564 1616),时间是一切事物的吞食者。奥维特,“Time is the subtle thief of youth.”-Milton,“Time is most brisk and giddy-paced.”-Shakespeare,时间是窃走青春的神秘盗贼。弥尔顿,时间步伐如此迅疾，令人眼花缭乱。
3、莎士比亚,Quotations from Poets,昨天,今天,明天,Times PacesWhen I was a babe and wept and slept,Time crept;When I was a boy and laughed and talked,Time walked.Then when the years saw me a man,Time ran.But as I older grew,Time flew.Soon,as I journey on,Ill find time gone.May Christ have saved my soul,by then,Ame
4、n.,Guy Pentreath(1902-1985),春与秋其代序。（屈原：离骚）Spring alternates with autumn.,日月光华，旦复旦兮。(尚书大传上卷）The sun alternates with the moon;Days come one after another soon.,Time is like a circle,失之东隅，收之桑榆。What is lost at sunrise can be regained at sunset.冯异,Idiom:时来运转 The favor of the time cycle brings good luck.,
5、After extreme bad luck,comes good luck,枯木逢春犹再发A withered tree comes to life again,Americans believe time is a limited resource,they try to conserve and manage it.People do all they can to squeeze more life out of their time.,Do you love life?Then do not waste time,for that is the stuff life is made
6、of.,Subjective time and objective time Americans see time as a valuable resource.Maybe thats why they are fond of the expression,Time is money.,American sense of time shortage,deadlines,plans,appointments,pocket planners,calendars,accountings,on time,in time,time managements,time tables,agendas,sche
7、dules,Americans seem tied to the clock.,The Blockbuster,American lifestyles show how much people respect the time of others.When people plan an event,they often set the time days or weeks in advance.Once the time is fixed,it takes almost an emergency to change it.If people want to come to your house
8、 for a friendly visit,they will usually call first to make sure it is convenient.,To outsiders,Americans seem tied to the clock.People in other cultures value relationships more than schedules.In these societies,people dont try to control time,but to experience it.Chinese,for example,view time as a
9、cycle.They find it easier to go with the flow than Americans,who like plans to be fixed and unchangeable.,Linear time concept,Time is marching forward,Lost time is never found again,Time is a limited resource,Time is money,value it,Punctuality,Respect,Lifestyle,Cause and Effect,Chinese sense of time
10、 abundance,The Chinese nations concept of time is rooted in the culture of farming time;time has a close relation with the nature.Time is really fleeting,but it also circle like the constantly changing of four seasons,and the sun and the moon cycle alternately,it will come back soon;so people usuall
11、y think that the lost time could be back.This kind of view of time shaped people a sense that time is rich,and also nurtured a habit of leisure and slow living habit.,Cases,Time for Chinese is more flexible and more human-centered.They usually schedule several activities at the same timeThey usually
12、 put interpersonal relations above the scheduleThe big shot usually is late,慢走,慢用,慢慢看,慢慢做,慢慢商量,慢慢欣赏,慢慢来,American future orientation,the westerners(especially the Americans)were influenced by the Christian“original sin”,tending to believe“men at their birth,are naturally evil.So most of them choose t
13、he futuristic time orientation.Such as:A.“跟上时代”(keeping up with the time)B.“关注未来”(keeping an eye on the future)as the action guidance.C.It was widely believed that equality in opportunities for everybody,insignificance in history.If they work hard,it will be successful;Change means progress,and new
14、things are always better than the old things.,Chinese past orientation,China as the representative of Asians choose to look back in the time orientationCultural factors:Asians(especially the Chinese)was influenced by traditional Confucian culture,so tending to believe“Men at their birth are naturall
15、y good”.And social guidance incline to tradition.Expressions:A.considering whether this matter has been done over the past and what the successful experience and lessons from failures is.B.worshipping of ancestors,respecting the elderly and teachers,attaching importance to experience,age,which has r
16、elation with the past.,The word“Lao”in China used to show respect to those who are more experienced and usually older,like“Lao Li”,“Lao Wang”.In this way we show respect and amity to the old people,which indicates a past time orientation.,Chinese belong to the“past time orientation”,and the Chinese
17、nation have a long history for five thousand years,so people in China attach great importance to history and tradition.Although contemporary Chinese people also pay attention to look forward,“past”also take an important role in peoples deep heart.On the other hand,people hold a different attitude on
18、 the predecessors.This is because the clear difference in the attitude to the word“old”.So you must use some euphemism,such as“senior”,“aged”,“veteran”，“citizen”,”golden ager”,“elder”,etc.All these reflect the Americans“future-oriented”conception of time indirectly.They think that past thing are jus
19、t the past,they never treat past thing as a good thing.,Old means maturity,full of wisdom and experience,“old”means“useless”,“hopeless”,Old means useless,hopeless,fragile,approaching to death,昨天,今天,明天,In The Silent Language,Hall lays emphasis on the voices of time.“Time talks.It speaks more plainly
20、than words.The message it conveys comes through loud and clear.Because it is manipulated less consciously,it is subject to less distortion than the spoken language.It can shout the truth where words lie.”,Edward Twitchell Hall,Changes,With the acceleration of the Chinas modernization,and the increas
21、e of foreign exchange,we are constantly absorbing in the essence of the foreign culture,and the concept of time also gradually changed.The linear sense of time gradually engaged into the Chinese culture.Meanwhile,westerners understanding and acceptance degree to traditional Chinese culture is consta
22、ntly improving,with the increase of various cultural communication,the phenomenon of cultural fusion also increased,Chinese and westerners respective increasing exchange their original traditional concept of time gradually.As for the above phenomenon,we can do as follows:,Respect for cultural differ
23、ences and reducing communication barriers.,Respect cultural customs mutually.,Abandon national center-cultural ideas,Purposes,To help us to understand these two kinds of cultural mainstream tendency better;To overcome the communication barriers and misunderstandings in cross-cultural communication;To learn from each and seek mutual promotion and accommodation,昨天,今天,明天,HOURGLASS,The flow of sand in an hourglass can be used to keep track of elapsed time.It also concretely represents the present as being between the past and the future.,
