Abstract: Because of the differences in culture, history, customs and national character, there are a lot of differences on table manners between China and America. A good knowledge of these differences can help us avoid conflicts when dining with foreign people, and can also increase the efficiency of cross-cultural communication. This paper will make a comparison of the table manners between China and America , and will mainly focuses on the differences in the arrangement of seats, clothes， menu，the use of dinner set，the atmosphere of dinner，the rule of dinner，the payment of meal and the concluding remarks . It then puts forward some suggestions on how to deal with the differences and give some inspiration on the cross-culture communication..
Key words: table manners，cultural difference，cross-culture communication
摘要：由于不同的文化、历史、习俗和民族特色，中西餐桌礼仪存在很多差异。了解中美餐桌礼仪差异不仅能避免在与外国朋友就餐过程中引起矛盾，还能提高跨文化交际效率。本文主要从安排座位、服装、菜单、使用餐具、餐桌气氛、餐桌规则、买单和结束语这些方面研究中美文化的差异。本文将对比中美文化差异并在提出应对差异的建议的同时还给出一些跨文化交际的启发。
关键词: 餐桌礼仪、文化差异、跨文化交际
