Florentino, JeraMae
Some author claim that language is a culture. Culture is also more than language. We, who are working with another culture, particularly in China or African, we need to reflect on the interrelationship between language and culture. We may learn the language of the people we deal with. This will help us to grasp more of their culture.
Language is a narrative that people made up to communicate with each other (verbally or written) but all people don’t speak the same language because they are from different places, they speak different languages and that’s we see language’s relatively with our culture.
Do you believe that languages form cultures or do cultures form language? I believe that languages form cultures and hold a group of people together, interacting. Example, when we look at our history we see big civilization occur after the invention of language. Cultures occur through interaction and agreeing on common ideas, beliefs, ethics, mores and others. We know that culture can’t make a language but they can affect languages. An example to this is the word “Bundok” bundok here in Philippine is mountain, right? But because our culture degenerate, new words will enter and bundok is now use in American and in other places who knows the meaning of it.
According to Anthropology B.A (2002), language and culture influence one another. Example for this if a group lives in a cool area with heavy, constant fall; they may have different, specific words for snow, whereas a group living in a warm climate may have only had one. For a society whose language has no word for “got” specifically in Malaysia, they may as a culture consider got and have to be the same meaning.
It is generally agreed that language and culture are closely related. Language can be viewed as a verbal expression of culture. It is used to maintain and convey culture and cultural ties. Language provides us with many of the categories we use for expression of our thoughts, so it is therefore natural to assume that our thinking is influenced by the language we use. Here in Philippine, a lot of us imitate the line from the movie or from their idol. The values and the customs in the country we grow up in shape the way which we think to a certain extent.
Enabling children to use their mother tongue to obtain literacy does not only have to do with retaining cultural identity. It also has to do with facilitating the process of learning to read and write. Language is more than culture. And culture is also more than language. Many African educationists have for many years been concerned about the fact that using African languages in education makes children learn better. In 1980 Pai Obanya, who was then the Director of the UNESCO office in West-Africa.
BREDA, in Senegal noted that:
It has always been felt by African educationists that the African child’s major learning problem is linguistic. Instruction is given in a language that is not normally used in his immediate environment, a language which neither the learner nor the teacher understands and uses well enough. The implications of language being completely entwined in culture, in regards for language policy are far reaching. Language teachers must instruct their students on the cultural background of language usage, choose culturally appropriate teaching styles, and explore culturally based linguistic differences to promote understanding instead of miss consumptions or prejudices. Language policy must be used to create awareness and understanding cultural differences, and written to incorporate the cultural values of those being taught.
exegesis 