正式英语和非正式英语的区别。

在英国我们能比较容易听懂导师和教授所授的课程，因为他们主要运用正式英语，发音和用词比较规范，但是我们几乎听不懂大街上或有些电视节目上的有些语言，因为他们通常所说的是非正式语言，不但他们的用词不规范，而且他们的语音语调和语速完全不同，由于语速快，有时也很难听懂。第一次见面时，英国人常问这两句话，How long have you been here? (你来这多长时间了)？ How long will you be here?（你将在这呆多长时间）？笔者经常被混淆，因为英国人通常句子中的情态动词和助动词发的很轻、很快。有一天，一位老人看到笔者，他说了几句话，笔者一个字也没有听懂，笔者多次问：“你说什么？”但还是听不懂，于是这个老人指了指天空，笔者明白他说的是关于天气的话题，但对他所说的笔者一点也不懂，这令笔者感到非常吃惊。

英国人作肯定回答时的说法。

当我们作肯定回答时我们一般总是 “yes”(是)。 “yes"这个词在中国我们总是教我们的学生发[jes], 然而英国人通常说[je] 或[ja]，甚至在一些正式场合。另外一词是“exactly”(确实是)。当我们完全同意别人的说法和观点，我们通常说“right”(对)或 “true”（真的），在英国“exactly”这个词的运用场合比我们所想象的要多，例如：A: The boy is quite clever.(这个男孩很聪明)。 B: Exactly.（一点不错）。在口语当中，当你表达了对方所要想说的，英国人也经常说：“That’s it”(就是这样)。他们还常说“Have you got it?”（你明白了吗?）。

英国人表达感谢和谦意的方式。

英国人非常礼貌，到处你可以听到他们在说：“Thank you”（谢谢），“Sorry”(对不起)，“Excuse me”（劳驾）和“Pardon me”（请原谅）。这些说法比我们想象的用得多。笔者有时对他们用的方式感到迷惑不解，比如有一天，笔者从邻居这借了一把钳子修自行车，当笔者还钳子时，笔者说：“Thank you very much.”(非常感谢) 但是邻居也说:“Thank you”(谢谢)， 笔者不知道他为什么他这样说，因为说谢谢的应该是笔者，笔者不知道他感谢的是笔者还他的工具，还是这只是一种礼貌的表示。另外，英国人说“thank you"(感谢)时，用不同的语调，我们从书本上学到用升调说“Thank you.”(谢谢)时，表明不肯定或不真诚的态度，然而笔者发现英国人经常用升调说“Thank you.”(谢谢)，笔者不知道哪种方式更合适。另外一种情况是表达谦意的说法，有一天笔者在大街上走，不小心撞到了一个人，还没等笔者开口说话，这个人首先说对不起，我不明白为什么？这是笔者的过错，说对不起的应该是笔者，好象英国人“Thank you”( 谢谢)和 “Sorry”（对不起）总不离口。

关于打招呼和称呼的形式。

我们从书本上学到英国人在见面时常谈论天气，确实是这样，但是笔者发现比我们想象的说的少，一般在上午人们见面时说："Good morning"(早上好)，有时相互之间并不一定认识。他们打招呼时，笔者听到的一句话使笔者吃惊，当他们见面时有时说：“Have you found your job?”(你找到工作了吗)？笔者不知道这是否与当前的经济不景气有关，还是通常的情况或者是因为英国人经常变换工作的缘故。在打招呼时有时他们用“lovely”(很好)个词，笔者感到很新奇，有时你会听到“It is lovely to see you”(见到你真高兴)。如果不是听到这个词这样用，笔者还不敢这样说。还有，当你到商店买东西时，你给售货员钱，正好不用找钱，他们会说：“It is lovely.”(太好了)。 因为我们学的这个词通常指的是天气和人。我们知道英国人在相互亲密地称呼时用这两个词：“dear”(亲爱的)和 “darling”（亲爱的），我们通常认为它们用在家庭成员，特别是在夫妻之间，然而，有时在大街上你会听到英国人用它们，有时他们用在不熟悉的人之间，同辈年轻人之间或老人之间，甚至不同辈年轻人和老人之间。笔者有时在街上也听到人们说:“duck”(亲爱的)作为称呼，别人告诉笔者这是诺丁汉的方言。英国人通常相互间只称其名，很少用全名，甚至家庭成员之间或学生和导师之间。例如：我们的导师叫Kate Catherine, 我们叫她Kate。 另外一个词是“cheerio”(再见)，人们分别时通常用它，当笔者在商店卖东西付完钱之后离开时，经常听到售货员用这个词。

那些强烈的赞美词的运用。

通常我们用“wonderful”（太好了），“excellent”（好极了），“beautiful”（漂亮）和“great”（真棒）这些词表达我们对一些事情的赞美，但英国人用的赞美词比我们想象的要多，象“gorgeous”(极好)，“terrific”（极妙），“fabulous”（极好）和“fantastic”（极妙），你会听到这样的说法，You look fabulous at the party yesterday.（昨天你在聚会看起来太漂亮了）。He bought a gorgeous suit from the shop.(他从这个商店买了一套特别漂亮的衣服)。I saw a terrific film yesterday.（昨天我看了一个特别棒的电影）。还有另外一个词“bloody”(非常)，我们知道用它时有贬意的意思，但好象英国人现在用它表达一种强调的意思，甚至出现在比较正式的场合，你会听到：Don’t bloody phone me again.(一定不要再给我打电话了)。”The people don’t use English properly because it is so bloody taught.(人们英语用的不恰当，因为教师教的很糟糕)。后一个句子是笔者从诺丁汉大学一个很有名的教授的讲座中听到的。我们知道英国人当表达吃惊时，他们通常说:“Dear me！ My God！ 和Oh, dear！等，但笔者更多地听他们说：“My gosh”！

英国人说话时停顿的用词。

在说话中人们有时停顿进行措辞，这时人们用一些语气词，我们知道英国人常用这样的词，象“er”，“mm”和“erm”，然而，笔者发现相当一部分英国人在他们谈话中却常用“you know”这两个词，有些人甚至每说一句话都重复这两个词。笔者也发现英国人用不定冠词“a” 作为停顿时措辞，而不定冠词的发言变成了[ei], 例如：I don’t think he treats me in aaa… right way. (我认为他不是很…公正对待我) 。

大写和缩写的运用。

在英国人们用大写和缩写形式比我们想象的要多。你会发现他们在一些表格、广告和海报等中常用大写或缩写形式，笔者不知道他们为什么这样，是引起人们的注意或给予强调，还是让人们读起来更容易，对笔者来说，这些都很难看懂，在报纸上，甚至在人们的说话当中，也用缩写形式，有时笔者不知道是什么意思，甚至字典上也查不到。下面是报纸上的一条广告: C/H（central heating） radiate, complete, ex(excellent) condition £1650 S/S(stainless steel) sink, all fittings £ 18,50 both V.G.C..(very good condition) (中央循环暖气，全套，质量很好，£1650，不锈钢水槽，全套配件，£1850，两套都质量良好)

Greeting by Asking Your Meal in China

It is a very common practice we Chinese people say "Have you had your meal?" when they meet each other around the time before or after meals. Sometimes they even ask this question everywhere even in toilets. In fact, it is a kind of greeting to communicate with each other. But foreigners cannot understand that because they think why you ask me this. They tend to think you want to invite me to dinner or I am not rich enough to feed myself regularly but that is my business not yours. Chinese think food is very important and essential to people so it shows some care and concern about you.
Everything is eatable in China
It seems that we eat everything and everything can be eatable in Chinese food, whether it comes from land or from the sky or from the sea or whether it is wild or domestic or whether it is inside or outside. Foreigners cannot imagine we eat the food like snakes, dogs and even frogs. When we sell the meat from the animal and poultry, we normally sell it as a whole or cut it from the whole body. I know a woman American teacher didn't want to buy and eat pork when she first came to China because she saw the meat cut from a certain part of the pig. In English, we know the animals and their meat are used different words because the words of the meat from animals originally come from French and they are used by upper class while the words of animals are Anglo Saxon, which are used by the farmer of lower class. So there are pig and pork, sheep and mutton and cattle and beef in English but it is not the case in Chinese.

Name of Dishes is Implicit in Chinese Food

Very often it puzzles foreigners a lot that we ask and talk so much when we order our food in the restaurant. One reason is we ask what the food or the dish is and try to clarify it because you sometimes never know what the food is just according the name of the food until it is put on your table in the restaurant just. Sometimes the food is very simple but the name is very obscure. For example one of the dishes is called " Ants Climb the Trees." But the food is simple potato noodles and bits of meat in it, while most of western food has a simple and clear name and you know what it is when you hear the name. For instance, there is a traditional food call "fish and chips" in the UK. You see it is very obvious it is fried fish and potato chips. The reason for this in China is on the one hand to try to tell you the way it cooks such as cook, fry, grill and broil in the name and on the other it has beautiful good names so that you have a good imagination and association to let you have a good appetite.

Too Much Food to Eat at meals

We Chinese think it very disgraceful if we don't cook the food enough for the guests so we normally cook more food than guests eat. If you finish your food at meal, the host and hostess usually add more and more food in your dish or bowl without asking you whether you want it or not so as to show they are polite to the guests. They will keep saying, "eat more" and in English we have the expression "help yourself". Westerners never force you to eat more. If you stop eating, they tend to think you are full. So sometime foreigners feel very helpless when the host and hostess to put more food in their dishes and bowls and they can do nothing but eat more and more until they are completely full. So some foreigners learn to know they always leave some food in their bowls or dishes in order to avoid more food to be added when are invited to dinner in Chinese family. That is the differences in food culture between China and the West.
Tableware Is Simple in Chinese Meals
Generally speaking, we don't use much tableware when we have our meal in China. Mainly we have bowl, dishes, chopsticks and spoons, which we don't use very often. In serving English meals, they use so much tableware with different kinds and sizes. The Chinese do not know how to use them properly when they are invited to dinner in English family. For example there are different kinds of names for glasses in English, such as wine glass, cherry glass, brandy glass, beer glass, snifter glass, champion flute and high bowl. You can see tableware also show the food culture of different countries.

Food is Most Important in China

As the saying goes " food is the essentials to people" and "Man is iron and food is steel." You can see Chinese think food it very important. One reason is China has big population so food is the first problem that faces us. Most of people are not well off now. That is why the government is very much concerned about the food problem, which we call it "vegetable basket projects." We first make people have enough food and then make them feed well. One the other food shows a kind of hospitality and sincerity. The more and better food you offer to your friends and relatives. The more generous and hospitable you are. In Chinese mind, we say food is important because we also use food as a way to solve problems. People often say no matter how poor a company is, it has the money to treat people guests because they can solve many problems when they are talking and exchanging ideas with each other at meals. In the west countries, they don't normally talk about business at meals and also they think it is a waste of money and time if more food and very expensive food are ordered for dinner. But we Chinese think it is an honor to treat quests in this way.Chinese food is well-known in the world and the Chinese food culture is not all the same with that in the west countries. We cannot say it is right or wrong and it reflects the practice, custom and conventions of the peoples.