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Cross Cultural Understanding Thursday, 19 March 2020: Ulture 2. Language 3. Relationship Between Culture and Language

Culture can be defined as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, customs and habits of a particular society. Language is a method of communicating ideas and is closely tied to culture. There is a reciprocal relationship between culture and language - language reflects and shapes culture, while culture influences language. Language plays a key role in developing, elaborating and transmitting culture between generations. Learning a language involves learning the associated culture, and cultural differences can lead to misunderstandings in cross-cultural communication.

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Andi Hikma
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53 views12 pages

Cross Cultural Understanding Thursday, 19 March 2020: Ulture 2. Language 3. Relationship Between Culture and Language

Culture can be defined as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, customs and habits of a particular society. Language is a method of communicating ideas and is closely tied to culture. There is a reciprocal relationship between culture and language - language reflects and shapes culture, while culture influences language. Language plays a key role in developing, elaborating and transmitting culture between generations. Learning a language involves learning the associated culture, and cultural differences can lead to misunderstandings in cross-cultural communication.

Uploaded by

Andi Hikma
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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fiCross Cultural Understanding

Thursday, 19 March 2020


1. Culture
2. Language
3. Relationship between Culture and Language
Background
Cross-cultural understanding is concerned with
understanding people from different cultural
backgrounds/culture of the people so we can
construct our attitudes and world view, more tolerable
and generous toward strange ways that may be shown
by other citizen of another country. If a person from
an alien culture misinterprets a complex pattern of
culture, then cross cultural misunderstanding arise.
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What do sociolinguists study?


Objectives of the study are :
1. To know the definition of Culture
2. To Know the definition of Language
3. To know the relationship between Culture and
language in society.
•
a. The definition of culture
Culture comes from Latin cultura, means cultivation.
British anthropologist Edward Tylor first gave the
definition of culture which is widely quoted: ―Culture
is that complex whole which includes knowledge,
beliefs, arts, morals, law, custom and any other
capacities and habits acquired by man as a member of
society.

Clifford Geertz stated that culture is a symbolic


meaning system. It is semiotic system in which symbols
function to communicate meaning from one mind to
another
In general, culture can be divided into three categories:

1. Material culture as the product of human manufacture

2. Social culture as the people‘s form of social organization

3. Ideological culture including people‘s belief and values.


Culture itself is like an iceberg. The tip of the iceberg is the smallest part. 1
Most of the iceberg is submerged.

The same is true for a culture. That which we can easily see, the external part of a culture including
behavior, clothing, food, is the smallest part. Meanwhile the internal part, including beliefs, values,
norms, and attitude, is beneath the water level of awareness. It is inside people‘s heads.
In every society there is a set of cultural beliefs which in large measure defines the implicit culture of that
society and set if off from another society. The belief system of a society includes all the cognition namely
ideas, knowledge, superstitions, myths, and legend, shared by most members of society.
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Types of Culture

The word ―culture‖ doesn‘t mean just national culture, but the whole range of
different types of culture. These include:
1. Corporate culture (for example, the culture of Apple, Microsoft)
2. Professional culture (for example, the culture of doctors, lawyers)
3. Gender (different cultures of men and women)
4. Age ( the different cultures of young, middle-aged, and old-people)
5. Religious culture (for example, Catholicism, Islam, Budha)
6. Regional culture (for example, Western, Eastern)
7. Class culture (for example, working class, middle class, upper class)
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Behaviour Pattern of Culture

George Peter Murdock in Tomasow (1986) mentions seven cultural patterns of


behavior, namely:
1. They originate in the human mind.
2. They facilitate human and environmental interactions.
3. They satisfy human basic needs.
4. They are cumulative and adjust to changes in external and internal conditions.
5. They tend to form a consistent structure.
6. They are learned and shared by all members of the society.
7. They are transmitted to new generations.
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What is Language
According to Sapir (1921), ―language is a purely human and non-
instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desire by
means of voluntarily produced symbols.‖ Language is a part of culture
and a part of human behavior. It is often held that the function of
language is to express thought and to communicate information.
Language also fulfills many other tasks such as greeting people,
conducting religious service, etc.
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Language and culture are intertwined because language is an
outcome or result of a culture as a whole and also a vehicle by
which the other aspects of culture are shaped and communicate.
Three major functions of language are:
1. Language is the primary vehicle/ tools of communication;
2. Language reflects both the personality of the individual and
the culture of his history. In turn, it helps shape both
personality and culture;
3. Language makes possible the growth and transmission of
culture, the continuity of societies, and the effective
functioning and control of social group.
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The relationship between language and culture
It is obvious that language plays a paramount role in developing, elaborating and
transmitting culture and language, enabling us to store meanings and experience to
facilitate communication. We can summarize the relationship between culture and
language as the following:
- language is a key component of culture. It is the primary medium for transmitting
much of culture. Without language, culture would not be possible.
- Children learning their native language are learning their own culture; learning a
second language also involves learning a second culture to varying degrees.
- Language is influenced and shaped by culture. It reflects culture.
- Cultural differences are the most serious areas causing misunderstanding,
unpleasantness and even conflict in cross-cultural communication.
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