dampingwire wrote: plus the German for "a face badly in need of a fist" (which I'm sure I've been told exists although I cannot find it right now and I'm somewhat surprised doesn't exist in more cultures)
That would be a "Backpfeifengesicht", although this isn't a very common word. I can't recall ever having actually used it, so probably it's a dated expression.
Regarding the discussion, I'd like to add that language doesn't shape a culture, but culture may shape language. If we take a look at all the Asian honorifics and social registers, they tell us something about Asian culture where politeness and respect is very important. You will find them in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai, and probably more languages.
I can only really talk about the Japanese honorific system, but it reflects a culture where it is absolutely vital to be polite to strangers and superiors while linguistic intimacy is reserved for close relations, friends, and even inferior persons. So, a shop clerk will always use polite language with customers, while they in turn will use informal language with him or her. It's not the language that made Japanese culture this way, it's the culture that formed the language.
After all, language follows social rules or may even be seen as the means by which society is organized. In this regard, Wittgenstein talked about the "Sprachspiel" (language game) which follows certain rules that are formed by society. Getting back to Japanese, the language has been called very "socially aware", meaning it expresses social relations in a very subtle and nuanced way.
However, it would be wrong to think it was the language which formed the culture of this society. On the contrary, it was the culture which formed the language through the centuries. Of course, some cultural codes are engrained into the language now and transferred this way, but ultimately language only reflects culture.
Other example, a lot of European languages used to have a T-V distinction, which is nowadays virtually lost. I think of Dutch and the Scandinavian languages. The reason is a loss of formality in the related cultures, which made it superfluous to refer to someone with a special respectful pronoun. I even remember that former forum member Solfrid Cristin, who is Norwegian, was virtually shocked by the degree of politeness of German business letters. And yes, German still keeps the T-V distinction.
So, is German a more formal language or is German culture itself more formal? I think the latter is true, as people from the Netherlands or Scandinavia are often regarded as very relaxed and informal compared to Germans. So, once more, it's the language that reflects cultural values and rules and not the other way round.