Abstract:
In cross-cultural communication, Chinese and English people often encounter difficulties in communication because they are from different cultural background. People are influenced by different cultures, social norms and values, so people often make some ridiculous jokes and meet with the circumstances which make them embarrassed. If people want to gain a deeper insight into the essence of cross-cultural communication, they should have some cross-culture knowledge and learn some skills, which let us know what we should say and behave under certain circumstances. This paper tries to show some conflicts in cross-cultural communication relate to privacy, time, nonverbal communication, complimentary remarks, different values and different thinking backgrounds. It puts forward some suggestions to avoid the conflicts and to find the ways to help students to learn foreign cultures well. It also aims at helping the English learners to understand English culture better and communicate in English more effectively.

Key words: cross-cultural communication; cultural differences; cultural conflict

摘  要：
在跨文化交际中，由于不同的文化背景，来自中西方的人们常常会遇到语言不通和交流困难的问题。因为受到不同文化，社会规范和价值观的影响，人们时常会闹出笑话，出现很多让人难堪的尴尬境地。要深入理解跨文化交际的实质，就要懂得在什么场合下说些什么、该怎么做的原因以及方法。本文对跨文化交流中常常涉及冲突的情况，如个人隐私、时间观、肢体语言、问候,以及不同的价值观和不同的思维背景进行分析，论述了冲突的原因，并指出了如何避免这些冲突的方法，如何帮助学生学习国外文化。旨在帮助英语学习者更好的了解英美文化，能够用英语进行有效的交际。

关键词：跨文化交际；文化差异；文化冲突

1. Introduction
With the further development of the reform in China, more and more Westerners and their culture come to China together with cross-domain, cross-ethic, cross-culture economic and social contacts. This provides Chinese people many opportunities for exchanges with West and to understand the Western cultures. However this is not a simple matter, because we need to deal with something unfamiliar from different countries and cultures, such as the way of thinking, habits and behavior. Therefore, the cultural conflict is inevitable.
In this paper some researches are conducted in the following aspects: some conflicts in the cross-cultural communication, such as privacy, time, nonverbal communication, and the complimentary remarks. The paper makes an analysis of the cause of the conflicts, such as different values and different thinking backgrounds, which result in the conflicts all the time. Then specific skills are taken to avoid the awkward situation and unnecessary trouble. The aim of the paper is to help people to avoid discrepancies resulting from culture difference, so as to smooth misunderstanding or avoid conflict as far as possible in cross-cultural communications.