The role of language in understanding a culture

Dennis Schrader
Sep 2, 2018 · 4 min read

Following the definition of culture of the “Center for Advanced Research in Language” of the University of Minnesota, “culture is defined as the shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization. These shared patterns identify the members of a culture group while also distinguishing those of another group.

There is a few persectives in which language can be seen in this concept.

First of all understanding a culture deeply most likely involves some form of communication with people native to that culture. This assumes that “understanding” can not be achieved just by literature about the culture.

To possibly communicate with those people, there needs to be a common language to do so. Therefor just for the purpose of exchanging information, proficiency in a mutual language is necessary. Yet, if its just for the sole purpose of information exchange, there is no reason why this language could not be a secondary language that both individuals speak, such as english.

Another way to look at the role of language in a culture is the one of language being a part of culture itself.

Before talking about the language as a pillar of culture itself, I will dig deeper into the role and the necessities that language as the communication tool between two strangers of different cultures needs to fullfill.

Using English as the language of choice as an example, there are a few problems that come to mind

  1. The level of proficiency in the language of choice determines the depth of connection that can be made. The words are the limits of our thoughts being expressed and therefore they are the limits of verbal connections. Not having the vocabulary to precisely express ideas and thoughts makes the overall painted picture less exact and less real.
  2. There is the chance of people actually changing their character and atitude to a certain degree when they change the language. That might be due to insecurity for not havin their full arsenal of words at their disposal, it might be out of habit because the use of english might be connected to be on travels or special occasions. Those things also change the perception of the person that talks and therefor the feeling and nuances that help “understand” and relate to a culture.
  3. Similar to the issue of 2. , not using the native language of a person often has another impact, which is missing out on the reaction that would happen, if you´d speak their native language. People open up faster and deeper, when they are being confronted with “their” language because they feel like you are “one of them”. That is impossible to achieve if you do not use the native language

So now, lets talk about the role of language as a pillar of culture itself.

In many languages, there are words that are not easily translatable because of their deep or somewhat “imprecise” meaning. The history of certain words might be specific to the cultural region such as “Alsterwasser” in Hamburg; The nuances in meaning that developed during the socialization of any given culture. Words represent concepts, meanings and not always is the meaning described by the literal word that would make “the most sense” but by terms that developed culturally and therefor offer a deeper knowledge into a culture.

That presents another challenge, because learning a language in classrooms or online or through books does not always give insight into cultural slang and the meaning of it. You won´t get as much of a “feel” of the language and people as if you´d learn in real life, making mistakes and talking to actual people in their own country.

As people get increasingly “worldly”, its easier to establish surface-level connections and get a feeling of a people without the need to know their language. There just needs to be any kind of common language to transport information. Yet this way lacks the nuances given through specific word choices. Language proficiency barreers make the image of the culture less detailed and defined. There is just data points missing that you can only gather when you talk in the native language on a perfect level.

As well, the more “worldly” people get, the more you could consider them less being a typical example of their native culture in which you grew up. This is the result of the influences of other cultures to which people get exposed to, when they travel or spend a lot of time with international people.

The question that comes up is not if language plays a role in understanding other cultures or even if its a big role. The question is more how big is the role it plays?

I consider it necessary to earn proficiency in a language in order to understand a culture as much as possible. There are too many details and nuances that would stay in the dark if the communication just happens in a third, shared language as english. Even if it would be possible to reach similar depth of connection, it certainly would take significantly more time to get there.

Language can also work as the door opener to new cultures in the sense that its not seen as merely a translation tool but as the topic of interest that enables access to a whole new world of beliefs, habits and perspectives.

Dennis Schrader

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I always said that I needed to write more, so…

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