Essay The Cultural Context of Language

Language is the way people communicate with each other. It allows us/them to express their thoughts and impart information through writing or speech. However, this exchange is not necessarily always objective as words and their meaning can/may be tainted by the speaker’s intentions. In politics, language is not only a powerful tool to conceal the truth and influence the public’s opinion but also a weapon against their opponents.

A debate ensures on a proper definition of Africana and it extends to culture. There are discrepancies between various Africana Studies scholars on the exact definition. Wade Nobles, defined culture as “a general design for living and patterns for interpreting reality.” Based on the Kawaida Theory of culture, he describes culture as a “scientific construct” and explains it in a tertiary model. In the first two levels, it includes behaviors or patterns that are developed in reality. Furthermore, he defines the two levels; the primary consist of what he calls “cultural factors” and the secondary level as “cultural aspects”. The third level involves expressing the behaviors such as language or ideas. That is where the differences in culture can

In our world of expanding technology and shrinking geography, people of different cultures have increasing frequency of contact and need for effective communication on a daily basis. Whether through travel, immigration, or international business, having the ability to communicate across many different cultures is an advantage in and of itself. Speaking a different language is an obvious obstacle to intercultural communication, but a greater and more difficult hurdle is to “speak” a different culture. To understand and comprehend and even apply these tiniest

Language is a communication method that makes everything easy to communicate with others. The language barrier is the biggest challenge and hurdle of most people whom their English is a second language. Growing up in a family with parents that only speak another language could be viewed very similarly to a double-edged sword. This challenge with society forces people to learn the English language. Although there a lot of difficulties with the second language, eventually the transition between both languages would become easier by time and more practice. Starting to be able to comprehend the English language is the best way overcomes this barrier. Although these challenges were not easy to overcome, persistence, dedication and hard work would facilitate everything. Despite the fact that language is considered the biggest barrier, culture comes as a second harder barrier in means of communication. Effective communication with people of different cultures is especially challenging. Culture on the other hand, provides people with ways of thinking, seeing and hearing and, then understands the things around. Thus, the same word can mean different things to people from different cultures, even when they talk the same language. Stella Ting-Toomey describes how culture involves with cultural understanding where ach culture has its own rules about proper behavior which affect verbal and nonverbal communication. How close the people stand to each

Culture has its important in comprehending communication since culture is figurative communication, and the connotations of the symbols can be learned and continued through establishments of a specific society.

During this cultural observation, the anthropological concepts that will be examined will be: culture, society, language and communication and finally kinship. For the purpose of the observation, the concepts are defined as: culture is ideas and behaviors that are learned and transmitted and are not a genetic means of adaptation. Along with the understanding that society is the learned behavior patterns and thought that help a group adapt to its surroundings (Park 2015, p.G2). Language and communication being defined as the human communication by means of shared symbols in the form of sounds or representations of sounds (Park 2015, p.271). Last of the

My writing will show how my cultural knowledge will facilitate the communication, and my experiences influences and shapes my and other’s identity in the ways in which communication happened.

Today, society has become a boisterous world of communication. From telephone conversations to live Internet chat and e-mail, the world has never before been quite so in touch. In the novel Obasan, by Joy Kogawa, Naomi Nakane does not have technology to communicate. Instead, she faces the dilemma of communicating at all. From her family, Naomi is shown the many faceted truths of speech and communication. From strong, silent Obasan, to stubborn, resolute Aunt Emily, Naomi finds that one can correspond with others through silence as well as through speech. As a child, Naomi spends much of her life in non-communicative silence, only to help further the distance between herself and her mother. As Naomi grows

Although there is no official language in the United States, the English language is the most widely spoken. Language helps to shape our identities, define and limit our expectations of the world around us and who we are. You might ask yourself, how does our language shape our identities and influence our perceptions of the world? Through language, we are able to make meaning, understand, and define ourselves. We are able to communicate what we feel, our ideas, our hopes, and our dreams with others who can respond to our feelings and thoughts. However, our choice of words cannot always capture what we are feeling to the full extent.

The way in which people communicate is as varied as the languages spoken throughout the world. People cannot just exchange a few words, there must be an understanding and acceptance of these variations or there will be a breakdown in the communication process. This is shown in the interactions between men and women, people of different cultures and even when exposed to a new environment.

In Intercultural Communication: A Discourse Approach, Scollon, Scollon, and Jones presents and develops the notion of ‘discourse systems’ as a way to get beyond the culture and the idea that culture is a person’s background. Rather than depending on ‘culture’ it is advised that it is the different discourse systems into which we have been socialised into should be a guidance to our interpersonal communication ‘Each definition of culture can lead us down a different pathway, and all of these pathways are potentially fruitful’ (Scollon, Scollon, Jones 2011).

United States was built on immigrants and some of the immigrants were pushed from their homeland because of some reasons while other reasons such as America dream pulled them to the United States. Most of these immigrants came from China in 1949, when the communist party took over. These immigrants came with their cultures and languages which are significant in everyone's lives because they play a major role in the development of individual’s characteristics. Many observers

Language is the universal connection that brings all humans together. We share this common ground to communicate. The three major points that I would like to focus on are: How does language influence our culture? Does it define us, or does it refine us? And lastly, the impact that language has on our societies.

Most young children develop language rapidly, moving from crying and cooing in infancy to using hundreds of words and understanding their meanings by the time they are ready to enter kindergarten. Language development is a major accomplishment and is one of the most rewarding experiences for anyone to share with a child. Children learn to speak and understand words by being around adults and peers who communicate with them and encourage their efforts to talk.

Cross-cultural communication is the process of exchanging meaningful and unambiguous information across cultural boundaries, in a way that preserves mutual respect and minimizes antagonism, that is, it looks at how people from differing cultural backgrounds endeavour to communicate. The study of cross-cultural communication was originally found within businesses and the government both seeking to expand globally. Communication is interactive, so an important influence on its effectiveness is our relationship with others. All communication is cultural -- it draws on ways we have learned to speak and give nonverbal messages. We do not always