Language and Culture

There are thousands of languages in the world, and each of them represents an unique culture. Language is the carrier of culture, and also a part of culture. They depend on each other, and impact on each other.

If languages are not existed, the culture would not survive. During the evolution of human, people gradually created language, and they use language to express their culture. In our lives, we use language to spread culture, to tell stories to others. The words we read and write, the conversation between people, and our gestures and actions, are all parts of language. Language is a mirror which can reflect a culture of a nation, and it is an indispensable element in our lives. Without it, people cannot communicate, we cannot record the precious knowledge and traditions, and our lives would be boring and monotonous.

We use language to create our culture, but language is a part of the culture, and it is influenced by cultures. This is the reason why there are plenty of different languages in different places. For example, most Hong Kong people can speak English fluently, because Hong Kong used to be a colony of Britain for more than a hundred years, and many people there were influenced by western culture. Cultures are special and particular in various places, which cause certain language have its certain way of expression. In Chinese, people use different names to call their father’s brother, mother’s brother, father’s sister’s husband, mother’ sister’s husband and so on, but in English, people use “uncle” to represent all of them. And moreover, some countries’ culture causes people to speak to others in different ways. Japanese use different forms of expressions while speaking with people of different ages.

Furthermore, culture also promotes the development of language. Nowadays, more and more new words appear in our lives, and many of them come from the recent events. People today uses novel ways to communicate. Americans like to send messages by using abbreviations these days. For instance, “ASAP” stands for “as soon as possible,” and “LOL” means “laugh out loud.” Therefore, the development of one culture creates progression of their language.

Language creates culture, and culture enriches language. Both of them are crucial to our society.