如何和美國人保持“距離”？
Body distance varies from culture to culture. In some cultures, it is quite normal for people to stand close together. While Americans talk about invasion of their space.
身體的接觸距離，預示着人與人關係的親近度，及人和人之間親近到了什麼程度。美國人很注重這種身體上的接觸距離，如果站得距離不得當，美國人會認爲你侵犯了他們的隱私空間範圍。下圖揭示了四種距離，這些距離在老美眼裏代表什麼呢？
1 intimate distance: ranging from direct contact to about 45 cm, which applies to the closest relationships such as husband and wife
2 personal distance: ranging from 45 to 80 cm, which is usually maintained for conversations between friends and relatives
3 social distance: ranging from 1.3 to 2 metres, which covers people who work together or are meeting at social gatherings
4 public distance: which is beyond social distance, such as that kept between a lecturer and his audience
可見，老美把人與人間的距離劃歸爲四類： intimate, personal, social and public。
Body distance varies from culture to culture. 典型的例子就是美國人和阿拉伯人之間的差異。Arabs tend to maintain a closer physical distance between individuals than Americans.
The desert conditions have driven the Arabs into cities where they get used to living in crowds. Because of the high population density, pushing and shoving is unavoidable in public places and people have already grown accustomed to it. Public is public: no one has the right to demand a private zone around himself as a European or American does . So it is quite natural that people do not have any concept of a private zone outside the body . The emotional closeness of the Arabs means people are deeply involved with each other and do not like to be alone. As for face-to-face communication, the distance between two persons can be so close that both can smell eahand in handch other. This is not something unpleasant, but a way of showing involvement .地理環境潛移默化地影響着阿拉伯國家的文化。 惡劣的生存環境致使大批阿拉伯人涌入城市。習慣了擁擠喧囂，人與人的親密無間令他們感到踏實舒心，這一點上阿拉伯文化同歐美文化是截然相反的。
有趣的是， 即便是同一個國家，不同年代的人身體接觸的距離也是有差別的。比如英國的年輕人就比老人擁抱朋友的次數多。
許多英語說法都和"arm", "hand" and "finger" 有關，下面就爲大家介紹一些。其中有些用法一看就能明白它們的意思，比如 "keep somebody at arm's length" 和 "hand in hand"。然而，有些說法卻可能是你想不通的。沒關係，我們會告訴你答案。
