Cross-Cultural Communication Vol. 9, No. 2, 2013, pp. 31-35 doi

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 ISSN 1712-8358[Print]

ISSN 1923-6700[Online]

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Cross-Cultural Communication

Vol. 9, No. 2, 2013, pp. 31-35

DOI:10.3968/j.ccc.1923670020130902.1346

Proverbs Reveal Culture Diversity

HOU Rong

[a],*

[a]

Shanxi Normal University, China.

* Corresponding author. 

Received 8 February 2013; accepted 16 April 2013

Abstract

Through the analysis of property of culture and proverb, 

it can be known that proverb can help one to understand 

a culture. The way proverb reveals culture diversity can 

be connected with the patterns of value dimension, which 

conveys the information of a culture’s deep meaning. 

From the perspective of uncertainty-avoidance, it can 

be seen that although Ireland and America both are low-

uncertainty-avoidance cultures, they mainly have different 

life attitudes, because that Americans put more emphasis 

on competition. From the perspective of high-context 

and low-context, the text provides the concepts of non-

verbal communication and two layers of meaning of 

silence. And under this background, the paper analyzes 

several culture patterns, especially America and Japan. 

From the perspective of power-distance, it reveals the 

different views on equality between Arab and America, 

and analyzes the reasons of culture tradition. However, 

although culture diversity mainly reveals the culture 

difference, there are common aspects between cultures.

Key words: 

Culture and proverb; Culture tradition; 

Culture diversity

HOU Rong (2013). Proverbs Reveal Culture Diversity. Cross-

Cultural Communication, 9(2),  31-35. Available from:http://www.

cscanada.net/index.php/ccc/article/view/j.ccc.1923670020130902.1346 

DOI: http//dx.doi.org/10.3698/j.ccc.1923670020130902.1346

INTRODUCTION

A lot of efforts have been made towards the role of 

proverbs in intercultural communication study. And 

among all the papers and books which are written to 

reveal the relationships between proverbs and cultures, 

much more emphasis were put upon the role of proverbs 

either in the sphere of comparative study between two 

specific cultures or the translation field, while there is 

relatively few study on the general role of proverbs in 

revealing culture diversity. This paper tries to show the 

role of proverbs in revealing culture diversity through the 

analysis of proverbs in different cultures. Thus it provides 

perspective to know the specific characteristics in different 

cultures and may stimulate the interests of people who are 

curious in culture diversity and get a better way in cross-

cultural communication.