Crossing the Sea英语演讲稿 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. The title of my speech today is Crossing the Sea . An English poet by the name of Rudyard Kipling once wrote in this poem We and They :All the people like us are Weand everyone else is TheyWe live over the seaWhile They live over the wayWe eat pork and beef with cow horn-handled knivesThey who gobble their rice off a leafAre horrified out of their lives.When these lines first caught my eyes, I was shocked-how could two people remain so isolated and ignorant of each other in the past? Todays society, of course, is an entirely different picture. Those people who used to eat with gobble their rice might be as well have taken to fish and chips.Indeed, just take China as example; Our modern life has been influenced by Western style of living in so many ways that its no longer surprising to see teenagers going crazy about rock-and-roll, whole families dining out at McDonalds and even rather elderly people dressed in Apple Jeans.However, these are only some expressions of the cultural changes taking place in our society today. What is really going on is a subtle but significant restructuring of the nations mentality. Just look around.How many college graduates are ready to compete aggressively for every job opportunity, whereas not long ago they were asked just to sit idle and wait for whatever was to be assigned to them by the government?How many young people are now eager to seek for an independent life whereas only two decades ago they would rely totally on their parents to arrange for their future? Ask anyone who participates in todays speech contest. Who has not come with a will to fight and who has not come determined to achieve self-fulfillment in winning the game? And Im quite certain that if Confucius had lived to see todays China, he would have been horrified to see young lovers kissing each other in public places in an unreserved expression of their passion.It is therefore evident that we as descendants of an ancient Eastern civilization are already living under strong influence of the Western culture. But it is not only in China that we find the incorporation of the two cultures.Take the United States as an example: During the 1980s, in face of the overwhelming competition from Japan, many American companies such as the Ford began to adopt a teamwork management from their rivals, the essence of which, lay at the very core of Eastern culture.Take the Chinese acupuncture as another example: This traditional treatment of diseases is finally finding its way to the West and hence the underlying notion that illness is resulted from the imbalance between yin and yang within the body-an idea which would strike any Westerner as incredible in the past!Ladies and Gentlemen, we live in a great epoch when the global integration of economy and the information revolution have brought cultures of the world closer than ever before. We live in a particular era when countries, East and West, find themselves in need of readjusting their traditional values. We live, at the same time, at a critical juncture of our evolution because such problems as ethnic conflicts and regional unrest are increasingly posing a threat to the peace and happiness of the whole human cope with such an era and to embrace an evenbrighter future, we need to learn to live more harmoniously in a world community which is becoming smaller and smaller. My dear fellow students, our command of the English language render sit possible for us to gain an insight into Western culture while retaining our own cultural identity.Therefore, it is our sacred responsibility to promote the cultural exchanges and hence the mutual understanding between China and the rest of the world.It is my happiest dream that new generation of Chinese will not only grow up drinking Coca cola and watching Hollywood, but also be blessed with the far-reaching benefits of multiple cultures; benefits that our forefathers had never, ever dreamed of.To end my speech, I would like to quote Rudyard Kipling again:All the people like us are WeAnd everyone else is TheyBut once you cross over the seaYou will end by looking on WeAs only a sort of They.Thank you.女士们、先生们，晚上好。今天，我演讲的题目是:穿越海洋。英国诗人罗得雅德吉卜林曾写过一首诗，名叫我们和她们，其中写道:像我们的人是我们其它的人是她们我们生活在海这边她们生活在路那边我们用牛角柄的刀叉吃猪牛肉吞吃粽叶包饭的她们吓得要死。第一次读到这首诗，我很震惊过去两个民族何以如此疏离、相互陌生?当然今日的社会展现出完全不一样的情景:那些过去吃米饭的大家也开始喜爱吃鱼和薯条。确实如此，就拿中国来说，西方的生活方法已经广泛地影响了我们的现代生活，以致对于年轻人对摇滚乐着迷，全家去吃麦当劳，老年人穿苹果牌牛仔裤，大家全部已习认为常。 然而，这不过是我们当今社会中所发生的文化变迁的表面现象而已，真正发生的却是我们的民族心理开始了微妙而又有重大意义的重建，大家只要看看周围就会清楚。很快以前，大学生还只是束手空坐，等候政府给她们分配工作;现在，又有多少大学生正在做充分准备，为争取任何工作机会而猛烈角逐?20年前年轻人还完全依靠父母为她们安排未来，今天又有多少年轻人在急切地寻求一个独立的生活?试问今天参加演讲比赛的诸位，谁不是带着志在一搏的心情来到这里?谁不是铁下心来赢得这场比赛以实现自我?现在年轻人毫无顾忌地宣泄情感当众亲吻，我确信，倘若孔子在世，她必被吓坏。很显著，我们这些东方古老文明的后代们早已生活在西方文化的强烈影响之下，然而出现这种异质文化合流的现象不止是在中国。以美国为例，20世纪80年代，面对来自日