摘要

在咖啡馆里消磨时间已经成为美国人生活中的一部分，这一点已经在“老友记”中得到了清楚的印证。“老友记”中的主人公每周四都会在“Central Perk”咖啡馆消磨时间，所有的故事都是从这间小小的咖啡馆开始，足见咖啡馆在“老友记”中老友生活中的重要性。从这间咖啡馆中折射出的，却是更为深刻的东西---美国人的“咖啡馆式”社交文化，即一种根植在美国人性格中的随性自然，愿意与人亲近的特色。这种性格特色是如何引导美国人进行社交的？我们又如何能从这些性格特色中得到启示，从而能够更好的和美国人更好的无障碍的社交？这些都将是极为有现实意义的问题。
本文试图以一个全新的视角来研究美国人的社交文化。首先，本文会引入目前西方国家以及中国对美国礼仪文化的研究，建立起目前美国社交礼仪文化的理论框架。以内容分析和案例分析为研究方法通过“Central Perk”在“老友记”中所扮演的重要角色，来引出新的关于美国社交文化的观点，从而为以后美国人礼仪文化研究提供参考。最后通过案例分析，即Facebook的出现，以及其完全不同于“咖啡馆式”社交文化的社交方式，来比较美国社交方式的变化。
本文不仅是美国社交理论或行为模式分析，而且会从实际的角度为与美国人进行交往提供全新的视角。

关键词：老友记, 美国文化, 社交礼仪, 咖啡馆文化

Abstract

Hanging out in Cafés has already become a part of American life. This can be clearly confirmed by the TV series “Friends”, because protagonists of it spend every Thursday on “Central Perk”, which is a café where all the stories get started and a place that the protagonists share everything. That is pretty much showing what an important role has “Central Perk” played in the TV series. But there is something which also reflected by the show much more profoundly, that is a “Café” sociality style, which is rooted in American characteristics, a natural and close relationship that all Americans seek for. How do the characteristics lead to sociality? What can we absorb from those characteristics? All of these are significant and have great influence on reality.
This article tries to analyze the American social behavior through a new direction. Firstly, the foregoing study of American etiquette both from the western world and China will be introduced in the thesis to reflect American social life. Then using “Friends” as an example, analyzing the content and the crucial role it has played, new ideas about American sociality will be brought forward. Those ideas, therefore, will be strong backup for the study of American social life. At last a new sociable tool, “Facebook”, which totally differs from Café sociality, will be analyzed as well to clarify the changes of American sociality style.
The thesis is far more than just analyze theories of American sociality; it will offer a new insight into inter-communication with Americans in a more practical way.

Key words: “Friends”, American culture sociality, Café culture