Introduction to language and culture - task1

Introduction to language and culture

Language and culture play a vital role in any teaching and learning process, therefore, it is for us who study a degree in English, to understand how one depends on the other. When teaching a language, you must also teach about the culture behind it. Not only can we not teach language without culture but we must also deepen this culture. Due to the growing change in today's world, the possibility of traveling is becoming easier, those of us who know the language can immerse ourselves in the culture. It is a thing of the past just to imagine a culture, within the reach of a click or with a trip we can go and see first hand how language and culture interact with each other in a given territory or country.

Essay: 

“Culture as a language modeler”

Language has a great influence within the culture in which one lives and vice versa. One of the determining factors of this statement is the fact that all language is given within a culture and transmits that culture. The specific way of communicating is linked by culture. The expressions used by language reflect those cultural values ​​that are characteristic of a specific place. Yassine (2006) makes it clear that culture is defined by the relationships and social practices characteristic of the behaviors of different individuals. The whole way of living is directly related to

Culture is so important in language that we define a person and his culture by his way of speaking; We can know where it comes from, its origin and all those aspects of its own culture. A person can be easily recognized, all their culture, belonging and background with just knowing their language. We are all tied to put it in some way, to a culture. For example, in the field of music, much of the culture is reflected in what words and language say and we relate it directly to music. All these patterns are easily identified by their use of language.

Each society develops in its own way and under the parameters that it rejects or accepts, that is how culture is linked to language. Also the words and expressions of language reflect the things that are seen in the culture. Each country where a language is the main one, reflects in its lexicon, in its sayings and words things that are seen within society, for example the word Otsukaresama1 is related to the idea of ​​being tired. But how can this word be used in other contexts if it is related to physical exhaustion? The reason is that recognizing that someone is tired can be understood as “you are tired because you have worked hard, so I thank you” This way it is used as a greeting, farewell or in the office to thank for something that someone did for me. Thus the Japanese culture that is characterized by being addicted to work and having high value for others, in its words it is able to reflect what we can observe in our own culture.

All Japanese culture constantly reflects this fact that the Japanese are a respectful person of their ancestors for example. The word 敬 語 (Keigo) literally means 'the respectful word'. The goal of Keigo is to show your consideration and respect when speaking to a person older than you or with a different position or experience in a company or society. Due to the appreciation that the Japanese have for the elders, these words also convey that cultural idea that the elderly and the elderly deserve respect. Everyone who wants to learn Japanese not only learns grammar, morphology, syntax and others, but also must understand the culture in order to understand language. Moving away from this aspect of Japanese society will make the student not know the reasons and therefore learn half this language.

So it is impossible for us to consider that language can be separated from culture. All behaviors are reflected in the language, the ideas of the people, the traditions that have been preserved for centuries in a certain country and their customs are embodied there. Every teacher of English or any other language should never forget this if he wants his students to learn a language correctly, he may know in theory all aspects of that language but when it comes to developing in another culture it will be more difficult if he does not understand her