Re: Does it make sense to separate a language from the culture it belongs to?
Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2019 7:53 pm
Personally I am of the opinion that it is actually impossible to learn a language without also learning something about the culture of that language.
It doesn't matter if you don't talk to native speakers or visit the places where it is spoken, the very association of meanings to existing words reflects a culture, the very distinctions made in the grammar reflect a culture, the very choices in pronunciation reflect a certain contextual attitude of native speakers whether you're aware of them or not.
If you try to separate any of these things from a culture, you simply end up with a highly vague and imperfect knowledge of the language as you assign meaningless labels to words, grammatical distinctions and differences in pronunciation.
Imagine you're learning Spanish. Spanish distinguishes informal 2nd person pronouns (tú / vos) from formal ones (usted), with corresponding verbal conjugations. You can try simply assigning the label "informal" to the former and "formal" to the latter, but in terms of understanding how these are used in an actual sentence, whether you hear the sentence or you create it for other speakers, you need to know where the line of formality is drawn in the dialects, and that involves culture.
In Spain, usted is so rarely used that it is barely heard when addressing a police officer or a judge at court. Getting to know who counts as a "police officer" or a "judge" in Spain at all involves quite a bit of cultural knowledge by itself. In El Salvador, if someone is older than you by about 40 years you must use usted, even if it's your uncle (what about someone who is older by only 20 years?). In Costa Rica, it is perfectly normal to talk to your classmates of a similar age at school with usted much to the horror of Spaniards and Salvadorans (and who counts as a "classmate"?). If you don't know anything about these cultures, the labels "informal" and "formal" are practically meaningless!
Spanish distinguishes two nouns meaning 'dance': el baile for informal dances and la danza for formal dances. You can try, once again, to just use the labels "informal" and "formal", but what if you want to use it in a sentence? Does salsa count as a danza? (No.) Does ballet count? (Yes.) Does a carefully choreographed, traditional joropo Colombian-Venezuelan dance count? (No.) Does a carefully choreographed, traditional Chinese dance count? (Yes!)
Spanish varies on whether the letter s corresponds to the sound "s", "h" or in some positions nothing. What happens if you as a learner pronounce pescado 'fish (as food)' with an "h" sound for that s? Most Mexicans would think you're simply trying to learn a non-Mexican dialect. In Spain, many northerners would think it's alright but it'd be preferrable if you used an "s" sound instead, while southerners would think nothing of it. In El Salvador and Argentina, you could even hear the president pronounce it like that while reading the script of a formal Address to the Nation on TV!
If you didn't know any of these cultural things, wouldn't your knowledge of Spanish be so much worse and inaccurate, whether you're reading a text or speaking to another Spanish speaker?
It doesn't matter if you don't talk to native speakers or visit the places where it is spoken, the very association of meanings to existing words reflects a culture, the very distinctions made in the grammar reflect a culture, the very choices in pronunciation reflect a certain contextual attitude of native speakers whether you're aware of them or not.
If you try to separate any of these things from a culture, you simply end up with a highly vague and imperfect knowledge of the language as you assign meaningless labels to words, grammatical distinctions and differences in pronunciation.
Imagine you're learning Spanish. Spanish distinguishes informal 2nd person pronouns (tú / vos) from formal ones (usted), with corresponding verbal conjugations. You can try simply assigning the label "informal" to the former and "formal" to the latter, but in terms of understanding how these are used in an actual sentence, whether you hear the sentence or you create it for other speakers, you need to know where the line of formality is drawn in the dialects, and that involves culture.
In Spain, usted is so rarely used that it is barely heard when addressing a police officer or a judge at court. Getting to know who counts as a "police officer" or a "judge" in Spain at all involves quite a bit of cultural knowledge by itself. In El Salvador, if someone is older than you by about 40 years you must use usted, even if it's your uncle (what about someone who is older by only 20 years?). In Costa Rica, it is perfectly normal to talk to your classmates of a similar age at school with usted much to the horror of Spaniards and Salvadorans (and who counts as a "classmate"?). If you don't know anything about these cultures, the labels "informal" and "formal" are practically meaningless!
Spanish distinguishes two nouns meaning 'dance': el baile for informal dances and la danza for formal dances. You can try, once again, to just use the labels "informal" and "formal", but what if you want to use it in a sentence? Does salsa count as a danza? (No.) Does ballet count? (Yes.) Does a carefully choreographed, traditional joropo Colombian-Venezuelan dance count? (No.) Does a carefully choreographed, traditional Chinese dance count? (Yes!)
Spanish varies on whether the letter s corresponds to the sound "s", "h" or in some positions nothing. What happens if you as a learner pronounce pescado 'fish (as food)' with an "h" sound for that s? Most Mexicans would think you're simply trying to learn a non-Mexican dialect. In Spain, many northerners would think it's alright but it'd be preferrable if you used an "s" sound instead, while southerners would think nothing of it. In El Salvador and Argentina, you could even hear the president pronounce it like that while reading the script of a formal Address to the Nation on TV!
If you didn't know any of these cultural things, wouldn't your knowledge of Spanish be so much worse and inaccurate, whether you're reading a text or speaking to another Spanish speaker?