阅读理解

　　There are many things that we do in our own culture and we never ask questions about．We do things without thinking about them because we have always done them in the same way．When we are in another culture or with people from a different culture, we see that people do things in many different ways．The first difference we notice is the forms of address that are used in the culture．The language that people use to address(向…讲话)each other tells us many things about a culture．

　　There are many ways of addressing teachers and students and of introducing oneself in other cultures．In many parts of the world, students must show politeness and respect for teachers; one way of doing this is not to use the teacher’s name．Some teachers in the US don’t think it is rude if their students call them by their first names．This may be their way of having a close informal relationship with students．In the US, one way to show closeness and friendliness is to use a person’s first name．

　　When Americans greet each other, introduce each other, and have conversations, they usually stand about an arm’s distance(about eighteen inches)to two feet(twenty-four inches)apart．This is not always a comfortable distance for people from other cultures, who may prefer less or more distance．

　　Every language has rules about speaking and every culture has rules about how people should communicate with each other．These rules are not usually written down, but are learned by people living together in one culture．When you learn about other cultural ways of doing things, you start to think about what you’ve been doing in your own language and culture．