Chapter 4

Language in Culture

Language and culture are two concepts thata are fused toguether. Language cannot be separated from products, practices, perspectives, communities and people of a culture either. However, to learn and understand both, one needs to be able to deal with them separately and together.

It is said that language is a window to the culture. In fact it is a cultural product that the members of a culture create in order to be able to name and refer to products and perspectives, carry out practices; and that is why it plays a distinctive role in it. All the same, language's expressions, structures, sounds and scripts reflect culture, just as cultural products and practices reflect language. 

To practice the culture and interact with its members, we need language. But not only that, it has to be used in the right way, according to the expectations of the members of the culture. This is the language of self-expression, communication, and social interaction. 

When language and culture are one...

1. Language and cultural products

Many cultural products are made up in whole or in part, of language. For example we have directories, instructions, invitations, books and passports, just to mention a few. Language is also used by the members of a culture to manipulate or interact with the cultural products.

2. Language and cultural practice

Cultural practices require the language of perticipation, and it is in this application where the most obvious use of language in culture occurs. Tha language used during the interactions may be simple or complicated, depending of the practice in question. One must take into account that words need to be said in the right way, at the right time.

3. Language and cultural perspectives

Language is necesary to name and understand perceptions, values, attitudes and beliefs that govern our way of life. For example, idioms and common phrases are influenced by the language that is used, according to the cultural perspectives of a society.

If you are looking for a real life application... think about bumper stickers for a minute or two: their messages can be straightforward and easy to understand, but sometimes they can be not immediately obvious, specially to outsiders of the culture.

Marine Corps bumper stickers: Military humor

It might be difficult to find the humorous side in some of these for us, because we don´t have a marine corps or military in our country. 

4. Language and cultural communities

Variations in forms, use  and meanings are seen in different social settings and circumstances. Communities develop special language in order to describe and carry out particular practices and products associated with their group and its activities.When combined with cultural practices communities also define norms for language use. The appropriate use of language is essential and it has to be done according to the context .

For example: Legal terminology, medical or scientific vocabulary, slang.

If you click on this link you´ll find many worksheets and activities about words with multiple meanings, and you'll learn more about the meaning of them according to the context :)

A functional view of language

Language has many communicative and expressive purposes such as survival, social, self-expressive and cognitive. Its functions help us managing conversations (greeting, complimenting, storytelling or thanking). Language´s purposes and functions can be used in three different communicative modes: interpersonal, presentational and interpretative.

The four functions of language-participation,description,interpretation and response- not only point to cultural content areas (products, practices, perspectives, communities, persons), they indicate language content areas as well. Language participation requires communicative exchanges and expressions involved in social interactions of participants in the practices in question. Language of description calls for specific vocabulary and expressions related to literal and figurative description. The language of interpretation, encompasses the vocabulary and expressions associated with critical thinking or rigorous inquiry into perceptions values, beliefs and attitudes. Tha languageof response involves words and expressions needed to voice one´s oppinions, feelings, intentionsand other reponses to the cultural phenomena under study.

Language to describe cultural phenomena

It allows the user to describe what is observed. It doesn´t make judgements, and that is what distinguishes it from the language of interpretation. Knowledge, comprehension, description, cognitive functions are asociated to description through language.

Language to interpret cultural phenomena

It's the kind of language used to develop and substantiate cultural interpretations, based on cultural information obtained during descriptions. It is the abstract interpretation from visible to invisible culture. Rational inquiry and exposition, analysis, cognitive functions are associated to interpretation through language.

Language used to respond to cultural phenomena

This is the language used to evaluate, express emotions and inquire about things, The focus is knowing oneself and self-awareness.

When language and culture are separated...

Language has to be separated from culture in order to learn it using the stages of the experiential learning cycle and the cultural knowing as a pedagogical guide. It is the central means of learning culture in the classroom. It is in textbooks, audiobooks, audiotapes, videos, books, newspapers, magazines, and in words exchanged between students and teachers. Due to the context in the classroom, language and culture tend to be distinct and treated separately: 

Disadvantage: provides an incomplete portrait of language-and-culture.

Advantages: it can be separated for pedagogical reasons. Learners benefit by focusing only in mastering linguistic forms. The language used to learn culture is specialized.

Language to participate in the cultural experience

"Cultural text: defines any representation of the culture that is presented in the language classroom: reading a passage, watching a film, preparing or eating food, role-playing, writing a language journal, folk dance, anecdote listening".

Practices may be considered as cultural texts. The language used to participate in the classroom is modified, according to the curriculum, background, knowledge, level of proficiency, and other factors. Activities that replicate social interactions in culture such as dialogues, roleplays, interviews, games and other activities that feature communication in the manner of members of the culture.

Language skills are part of the culture learning process. The way people express their feelings in another language is going to be dependent from the communicative skills that  the student has in that language.

Stages in the use of language to learn culture

1. Participation (knowing how): language used to participate in the cultural experience.
2. Description(knowing about): used to describe the cultural experience.
3. Interpretation(knowing why): identify, explain, justify cultural perspectives and to compare and contrast these with perspectives from the individual´s own culture and other cultures.
4. Responding (knowing one-self): used to express individual thoughts, feelings questions, decisions, strategies and plans to the culture

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 Relationships Between Language and Culture

Language and culture are definitely related. As described in the textbook, language is a product of the culture, and its nature and the way it´s used, is dependent on the culture in question and the context in which it is applied.

I also agree with the fact that you learn the real and proper use of a language once you start speaking and interacting with people from that culture. Even if you have studied everything textbooks have to say, many of the uses and interpretations of language depend on the context, there are no rules written in stone... 

Nevertheless, one must study the language separately from the culture at first, because doing both at the same time may be confusing and overwhelming. That can happen particularly if the learner has low proficiency on the language, he/she can get frustrated for not being able to express him/herself as fully or as properly as if he/she had better competences.

Language inside a culture

People are involved in activities that require language to be completed. Some examples of language inside a culture mentioned in the text are:

• Socializing: greeting and addressing people, taking leave, introducing and meeting people

• Establishing and maintaining relationships: getting to know each other by sharing, etc.
• Giving and responding to feedback: expressing and acknowledging compliments
• Arguing: agreeing, disagreeing, disputing, persuading, convincing, threatening, negotiating
• Avoiding trouble: denying guilt or responsability, explaining, making excuses, etc.

Other real life uses of language in culture include "memes". 

Memes

According with Wikipedia, a is meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. Memes. They act as units that carry cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. 

Internet memes used in social networks have been a boom these last few years. They are usually created by using images of well-known movie or t.v. show characters, but any catchy picture can become a good meme. Generally they creatively combine the picture with text, and they are used to highlight social, cultural or political situations. The statements are made by mocking about them, or by the use of sarcasm.

Using them in conversations has even been considered to be “in”, but it can also be an annoying resource when used excessively.  They have become so popular, that there are webpages dedicated to them… they classify them by topic or even by character. For example we have 9gag.com. 

Similarities and Differences Between Spanish and English 

As english students, we can identify similarities and differences between english and spanish. 

Maybe the most obvious differences between both languages are spelling, grammar and vocabulary. Pronunciation of both is very different too.

Spanish is a phonetic language, this means that every letter represents one sound always; english is not a phonetic language. For example, say these words out loud and you'll see what I mean: Barry, berry, bury; or good, food, flood.

Another difference is that spanish words have masculine and femenine forms, and any article or adjective must agree in gender; meanwhile in english, gender is used for personal pronouns, and some irregular words such as waiter and waitress; headmaster and headmistress and so forth.

As it also happens in french (like the example described at the beginning of the chapter), spanish has different ways of saying "you". There is the formal (usted) and the informal (tu, vos) way of doing it.  Here in Costa Rica, we mostly use the informal “vos”, unlike other Latin-American countries in which “tu” is more common. “Usted” can even be used as an informal you, depending of where the speaker is from, this is heard mostly from the Central Valley inhabitants, whilst people from Puntarenas, Guanacaste and Limón use “vos”. English doesn´t make that differentiation.

In Spanish, we tend to be less straightforward than in English, when we talk, and we usually use the diminutive form of words. For example, we won’t say “the old lady”, it will be more common to hear “the little old lady”. I think this is done because it sounds “softer” and more delicate.

We both speak very fast, and both languages are very rich in vocabulary. 

A little helping hand for a North American friend...

If I had to give advice to a North American that wants to learn Spanish, I’d tell him to take into account all the details that have been mentioned before, and to read my blog, which is based on a great textbook on the subject.

In addition, I would tell him that once he knows the basics, he starts talking to any native speaker he finds, to practice what he has learned. In that way, he’ll test himself, and also will have a glimpse of the language and the influence of the culture in how it is used.

I would also advice to look for idioms and commons sayings in Spanish, because we native Spanish speakers tend to use them all the time, and they are not literally translated. I would highly recomend to watch the "Gringo Pinto Video", if he can understand what it means, he's ready for anything, at least he´ll know lot´s of costa rican idioms...

 And also, to talk to someone that will give him a list of words that are used to curse or that are considered inappropriate, and a list of taboo subjects (taboos are not the same in every culture), not because I want to encourage their use, but so he knows what to avoid talking about.

That way, speaking "Costa Rican" spanish and understanding our culture will be a lot easier for him!

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