Abstract: Politeness is not only observed as a phenomenon, the symbol of the civilization and development of society, but also is readily understood as a means to help people achieve and maintain good interpersonal There’re differences on politeness expression between Chinese and western countries in the aspects of greeting and parting, terms of addressing, compliments and responses, Key words:Politeness language; cultural differences; cross-cultural communication 1 Introduction First of all politeness can be observed as a phenomenon and now it has become the symbol of the civilization and development of For example, after accepting one’s help, you’d better say “Thank you”, which is considered to be polite; entering one’s private room without knocking at the door is thought to be impolite; to offer the old or the disabled your seat is polite, Then politeness is readily understood as a The reason why people act politely is that they want to show their wish to start a friendly relationship with someone, “or to maintain it if it already exists, or to mend it if it is being threatened for some Politeness can also be regarded as a restraint, some kind of social norm imposed by the conventions of the community of which we are ” 2 Cultural differences on politeness 1 Greeting and parting In English, people often employ the following expressions to greet each other “Fine day, isn’t it?” “How are you?” “How is everything going?” On the contrary, Chinese always greet each other with questions such as “Have you eaten yet?” “What are you going to do?” “You are back from you work?” Westerners treat them as real While in China, we always say such questions to show our consideration and However, a westerner may think, “Why do you ask me such questions? It’s none of your ” In western society, during the closing phase of an encounter, reasons for ending the encounter are presented in mitigating comments from “I” perspective, such as “I am afraid I must be off” or “I have another appointment, so I must go now” They always try to make the leaving sound reluctant through finding some reasons and apologizing for it to make the leaving acceptable for both In China reasons for ending the encounter are set forth in mitigating expressions from “you” perspective, which include “你挺忙的,我就不多打扰了。