Culture, according to the definition given by Hofstede, is the collective mental programming of the people in an environment, conditioned by the same education and life experience. Therefore, there are differences between various nations or regions, because people are affected by education, society and work experience. Take the cultural difference between the East and the West as the example, China is a country that endures high power distance while America endures lower power distance. Therefore, status symbol is very important for Chinese and a superior having the privilege is a matter of course. But people in America think that they are all equal. Besides, the westerns are individualistic while the easterners are more collectivistic. In individualistic societies, people focus on their【英语翻译学习网（enfanyi.com）第一英语学习门户，提高英语能力就上英语翻译学习网】 own values and needs, relying on individual efforts to serve their interests. In the collectivistic nations, people combine themselves into one or several communities, finding their own place in the group and they mentally rely on the community, so harmony seems important in those nations. There are three main differences between the East and the West, namely uncertainty avoidance index, masculine versus femininity and long vs. short term orientation.
根据霍夫斯泰德对文化所下的定义，文化是在同一个环境中的人们所具有的“共同的心理程序”，是由相同的教育背景和生活经历所决定的。因此，各个不同的民族或地域之前会存在文化差异，因为其中的人会受到教育、社会和工作经验的影响。以东西方的文化差异为例，中国是一个崇尚大权力距离的国家，而美国是权力距离相对较小的国家。因此，地位象征对中国人来说尤为重要，认为上级所拥有的特权是理所当然的；而美国人则认为人与人之间是平等的。此外，西方人相对比较个人主义而东方人则更看重集体主义。在个人主义的社会中，人们重视自身的价值和需要，依靠个人的努力来为自己谋取利益，而在集体主义国家，人们把自己融入到一个或几个集体中，在这些集体中找到属于自己的位置，人们在精神上依赖于集体，因此，和谐在这些国家中显得尤为重要。在东西方文化中，还存在以下三个主要的文化差异，即不确定性规避、男性度与女性度以及长期取向与短期取向。
