Language and Culture

I personally believe that, as a tool, language is created for human beings to communicate with each other in order to maximize productive efficiency. If we are atoms, language will resemble the bonds between individual atoms and atoms are interconnected by bonds to form objects. Without languages, we are no longer able to understand other people’s thoughts and intentions and, in turn, we will lose the ability to cooperate with each other. However, for social animals like us, we have neither absolute strength of tigers nor staggering speed of cheetahs, but what we have is intelligence that surpasses any other species, allowing us to work collectively like one mind and achieve greatness.

Prior to discuss the relationship between language and culture, I would like to define the term “culture” first. I reckon that the culture of a country represents the characteristics and shared knowledge of the society. Also, I believe that the traits of one specific culture can be found within one specific language because the sound and the writing of a language is definitely related to the culture which the language is belonged since it is people who share similar value and believe created a language collectively. In other words, cultural elements are rooted in languages.

To elaborate on my point of view, Chinese is perfect example showing how culture is related to language. As Chinese culture is very restrained and emphasizes connotation, a very simple character is able to contain complex meanings. Also, four-character idioms are used very often, which are consist of only four characters but can represent meanings that need to be explained in sentences. These idioms were originated from ancient China and most of them have historical stories behind. As they are the condensed version of those intellectual stories happened in the past, they are also the condensed version of the magnificence of Chinese culture.