A common theme throughout discussions of globalization and language is the link between language and culture. Language, it is often assumed or implied, is inextricably linked to the culture of the place it comes from. When Native Americans or members of the Academie Francaise lament what they see as the encroachment of English, they are simultaneously lamenting the encroachment of a foreign culture on theirs. Not only is the language seen as part of its originating culture, it is often seen as the key to understanding a culture. Conversely, we often see learning a language as a way to bridge cultural difference and increase understanding between people of different cultures.
Min Byoung-chul, a South Korean professor has been studying the link between cultural differences and language differences between Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and English speakers. He has found that language alone does not allow people to comprehensively understand each other. In fact, though language can go a long way toward helping people understand each other, cultural norms that differ between cultures can often cause misunderstandings to continue. Standards of eye contact, facial expressions, manners at the table, and aggressiveness can vary drastically between countries. Min has extensively studied and documented situations where immigrants or vacationers, though they spoke the local language, were still misunderstood because of their adherence to their own cultural expectations. He cites an example of a Korean dishwasher who smiled when he broke dishes. His boss fired him because he thought he did not take his job seriously, not understanding that in Korea, smiling is a sign of embarrassment.
A series of commentators on the freakonomics blog of The New York Times explains the economic and political reasons for the increased spread of certain languages, particularly English. However, the blog interestingly points out that with the increasing use of languages like English, language are simultaneously becoming increasingly decoupled from the cultures in which they originated. It seems that language can only go so far to assimilate one culture into another. It also seems that the traditional view that language and culture go hand in hand is now somewhat outdated. It is true that there is often a link between people learning a language and consequently, reading the literature and being exposed to the media and culture of the language's native speakers. However, with lingua franca languages like English being used between two people who, natively, might not speak English, we can not immediately assume that speaking a language immediately aligns people with the culture and ideology of its originating countries.
No comments:
Post a Comment