Language and Culture in Society

Language and Culture in SocietyAbstract: This paper presents an analytical study of the relation between language and culture in English study. First the writer introduces the problems aroused by different cultural Backgrounds and then also shows some difficulties in communication caused by Different cultural backgrounds. The paper put emphasis on the illustration of the relationship between language and culture, and analyzes the English study according to this relationship in several parts: reading, speaking, translation, writing etc. There are lots of examples in it .All the samples are the daily accumulation in English study. It is hoped that the study can shed light on culture and language and also provide help to study the language.Keyword: language, culture, read, talk, translation, write1. IntroductionOnce, an American was visiting the home of a Chinese. As the visitor saw the host‘s wife, he said,―Your wife is very beautiful‖, the host smiled and said: ―Where? Where?‖----Which caused Americans s urprise, but still he answered: Eyes, hair, nose…‖---an answer that the host found a bit puzzling. The surprising was caused by different cultures. ―Where? Where?‖ means ―哪里！哪里！‖In Chinese is a kind of humble saying, but the American understood it as ―which parts of the body‖. Events like these are fairly common when people of different languages and cultures communicate. Because of cultural differences, misunderstandings may arise, although the language used in communication may be faultless. The same words or expressions may not mean the same thing to different peoples. Because of cultural differences, a serious question may cause amusement or laugh; a harmless statement may cause displeasure or anger. Because of cultural differences, jokes by a foreign speaker maybe received with blank faces and stony silence. Yet the same stories in the speaker‘s own country would leave audiences holding their sides with laughter.Language is a part of culture and plays a very important role in it. On the one hand, without language, culture would not be possible. On the other hand, language is influenced and shaped by culture; it reflects culture. In the broadest sense, language is the symbolic representation of a people, and it comprises their historical and cultural backgrounds as well as their approach to life and their ways of living and thinking.2. Culture PhenomenonLanguage and culture interact and understanding of one requires understanding of the other. Cultures differ from one another. Each culture is unique. Learning a foreign language well means more than merely mastering the pronunciation, grammar, words and idioms. It means learning also to see the world as native speakers of that language see it, learning the ways in which their language reflects the ideas, customs, and behavior of their society, learning to understand their ―language of the mind‖. Learning a language, in fact, is inseparable from learning its culture.Maybe we have this experience: when we are listening to something familiar to us, no matter what is concerned, usually we are easy to understand. Even if there are some new words in the material, we are able to guess their meanings according to its context. However, when we encounter some unfamiliar material or something closely related to cultural background, we may feel rather difficult. Even if the material is easy, we only know the literal meaning, but can‘t understand connotation, because we lack knowledge of cultural background.Here is a sentence from a report: The path to November is uphill all the way. ―November‖ literally means ‖the eleventh month of year‖. Another example is red-letter days---which is a simple phrase and is easy to hear, meaning holidays such as Christmas and other special days. But students are often unable to understand.Below are two jokes often talked about by Americans:1. A: Where are you from? B: My name is Li Hong.A: How old are you? B: I‘m twenty.A: Where do you come from? B: I come from Nanjing.2. A: Where are you going? B: I‘m going to the library.3. A: Are you writing a letter to your parents? B: Yes, I am.A: How often do you write to your parents? B: About once a week.All the above dialogues are roughly the combination of Chinese thinking and English form. Although such forms are correct, they are not appropriate. Except for hospitals, immigration offices and such places, it‘s unimaginable for someone to ask a string of questions like: ―what is your name? ―How old are you?‖―Where do you come from?‖ The natural reaction of English – speaking people to the greetings like: ―Where are you going?‖ would mostly likely be ―Why do you ask?‖ or ―It is none of your business‖. Questions like‖ Are you writing to your parents?‖ would be though to intrude on one‘s privacy.In our daily life, many students complain that much time has been used in listening, but little achievement has been acquired. In order to improve competence of listening comprehension, some students specially buy tape recorders for listening and spend quite a few hours every day on it, but once they meet new materials, still, they fail to understand. What is the reason? On the one hand, maybe some students‘ English is very poor and they haven‘t grasped enough vocabularies, clear grammar or correct pronunciation, or may be the material is rather difficult, etc. On the other hand, an important reason is that they are unfamiliar with cultural background of the USA and England. Aural comprehension, which is closely related to the knowledge of American and British culture, politics and economy, in fact, is an examination of one‘s comprehensive competence which includes one‘s English level, range of knowledge, competence of analysis and imaginative power.B: I‘ll ask her. (Alaska) A: Why do you ask her? A: Where are you from?B: How are you. (Hawaii) A may think B has given an irrelevant answer.But if A knew something about geographical knowledge of the USA, and the names of two states of the USA---Alaska and Hawaii, he would not regards ―Alaska‖ as ―I‘ll ask her‖, or ―Hawaii‖ as ―How are you. ―. Likewise, speaking is not merely concerned with pronunciation and intonation.3. The culture in different language3.1. Reading and talikingStudents can only improve their oral English and reach the aim of communication by means of enormous reading, mastering rich language material and acquaintance of western culture. Otherwise, misunderstanding and displeasure are inevitably aroused. Let us look some examples. Many fixed English ways of expression cannot be changed randomly. For example, the answer to ‖How do you do?‖ is‖ How do you do?‖ When asking price, people usually say,‖How much, please?‖ instead of:‖How much do you charge me? Or‖ How much do I owe you‖; when paying bill,‖Waiter, bill please.‖Instead Of ―Excuse me, sir. We are finished eating. How much is it, please?‖ when ask the other one‘s name on the telephone,‖ who is speaking, please?‖ or ―Who is it, please?‖ instead of ―Who are you?‖ ―What is your name?‖In English, there are so man y euphemisms that sometimes it‘s hard to know the other one‘s actual mood. So we should pay attention to our answer. For example, when one ask : ―How do you like the film?‖ and the other answer: ‖I think it‘s very interesting‖ it shows he doesn‘t like it v ery much instead of the literal meaning ‖very interesting‖. When one asks:‖What do you think of my new coat?‖ and the other answers:‖I think the pocket is very nice‖, it also shows his dislike. In America and England, usually people don‘t say unpleasant words to one‘s face, they always say pleasant words to the full or evade direct answering, saying ‖I don‘t know.‖ For example, when one asks, ‖Do you like our teacher‖, you may answer: ‖Well, I don‘t know him very well.‖ Sometimes out of his politeness, when meeting unfamiliar people, he may conceal his true feelings. For example, A asked B: ‖How are you?‖ Although B had got a bad cold, his answer was ‖Fine, thank you‖, but not ‖Not very well, I‘m afraid ‖, or other similar answers. During oral communication, speakers need standard pronunciation and intonation, as well as the suitable use of language for the occasion. There are numerous examples that we could cite of expressions that are correct according to grammatical rules, but unsuitable for the occasion.Once, after a student gave a lecture, he asked a foreign visitor for his advice. He said like this,‖I am desirous of exploring your feeling on the lecture‖---which caused the foreign visitor‘s surprise. He said:‖You English is too beautiful to be true.‖ But the student refused to accept the comment. He said the sentence was extracted from the book. The visitor explained that phrases like ‖desirous of exploring your feelings‖ were not fit for spoken language, which should be replaced by ‖I‘d like to hea r your views on the lecture‖ or ―May I have your views on the lecture?‖A person comforted a bereaved young wife, ‖I‘ m terribly sorry to hear that your husband has just died, but don‘t let it up set to you too much. You are an attractive young woman I‘m sure you will find someone else soon‖ Although the words accordwith grammatical rules, they cannot be applied in communication, and at the same time, they betray the social customs.As peoples are diverse, customs are diverse. It is only natural then that with differences in customs, differences often arise in using of language. For example, when someone praise your English is very good, American and Chinese replies to compliments are different. According to Chinese customs, they generally murmur some reply about not being worthy of the praise, while according to American customs, they tend to accept the compliment with the pleasure. The reply like ‖No, I don‘t speak good English‖—Americans think which seems to criticize the other side is impolite.Reading English articles requires a certain language basis, but the competence of reading comprehension is not entirely related to one‘ language level. Knowledge of cultural background is also important. Reading is a process affected by integration of one‘s language knowledge, cultural background knowledge and other professional knowledge, and a process of continuous guesses and corrections according to available language material, cultural background and logical reasoning. Generally speaking, Chinese people study Chinese without the difficulties aroused by cultural background. Chinese proverbs like ‖只许州官放火，不许百姓点灯‖, ‖平时不烧香,临时抱佛脚‖, ‖差之毫厘,失之千里‖ will not influence our understanding of article. The connotation of such new words as ‖改革开放‖ ‖大腕‖ ‖追星族‖ are ea sily understand, too. However, when we read English articles, differences between Chinese and western cultures often bring us many difficulties.Following, effect of cultural background on reading will be discussed, with some common terms or expressions in reading material, which is often not understood by Chinese learners unfamiliar with western culture, as illustration.Many allusions drawn from history, religion, literature etc., often appear in English works and have become common household terms. But without the knowledge of western culture and history, such allusions are not always easy to understand, and without understanding there can be little appreciation .For example: a Herculean task—task requiring great power of body or mind. Hercules was a powerfully built hero of ancient Greek David and Goliath (from Bible)— David was a shepherd boy; he killed the Philistine giant Goliath with a shot from his sling and later became king of the Hebrews; in metaphorical use, David and Goliath stand for a contest between two persons, enterprises, countries, etc., in which one is much smaller and/or weaker, but in which the smaller/weaker one wins out. A Horatio Alger story—any ‖success story‖, often considered a myth, of a poor boy who works hard and finally rises to the top, becoming rich, successful, famous; Horatio Alger was a writer whose stories generally had the same such plot. His best-known books are the Ragged Dick series and the Tattered Tom series.Some of these allusions may be looked up in the dictionary, but with the continuous development of society and language, new allusions have appeared. Unless one is well acquainted with developments of a certain country, one would be at a loss about the meaning and connotations of terms or expressions such as those below: a Rambo—Rambo is the character made famous by American movies around the mid-1980s. He is a tough soldier of the Vietnam War, resourceful, taciturn, lonely, somewhat ―odd‖. Rambo gets involved in numerous risky adventures or in one violent situation after another. He makes miraculous escapes from impossible situations by shooting, knifing, bombing or burning his way out. Unbelievable as his feats may seem, and repugnant as some of his violent actions may appear, he is the current hero of many American boys and young men. A Pepsodent smile—A smile showing beautiful white teeth; from advertisements for Pepsodent tooth paste, one of the better-known brands in the USA. Idiom is an important part of the language and culture of a society. They are often hard to understand and hard to use correctly. They are almost impossible to understand from the meanings of the individual words. And with English idioms, even the same words may have different meanings as in the examples blow: So, first of all, a student should learn not to look down on such idioms just because they are made up of such simple and easy words. He should look out for identical phrases with different meanings and look them up in a dictionary if he‘s not sure. He‘s bound to runi nto a lot of trouble when he first uses them, but he shouldn‘t give in ,much less give up. If he keepstrying and keeps at it long enough he will make out and things will turn out well in the end .3.2. Translation and writingThough the passage is short, it includes ten idioms: look down, made up of, look out for, look up, run into, give in, give up, keep at it, make out and turn out (well). It is thus clear that difficulties in reading cannot be completely solved by one‘s language knowledge, because w orks of a people cannot be separated from the people‘s cultural tradition. Similarly, writing and translating cannot be separated from cultural background knowledge. In translation, even the very simple expressions cannot be dealt with without any consider ation of specific context and customs. We shall take the word ‖dog‖ as an example. To English-speaking people, the dog does not carry the same associations as it does to Chinese. The dog is considered to be derogatory, for example, ‖癞皮狗‖ ‖丧家之犬‖ ―狗急跳墙‖ ―狗头军师―etc. are often used to describe disgusting people.But dog in English, especially in proverbs. has a good meaning.1. Every dog has his day.2. You are, indeed, a lucky dog.,3. Last night my father came home dog-tired.Because some learners are not well aware of the cultural differences, they take itfor granted that the three sentences should be translated into the following:1.每条狗都有自己的节日。