Language (is) a symbolic guide to culture. Vocabulary
is a very sensitive index of the culture of a people. (Edward Sapir taken from
Wierzbicka, 1997: p1)
Understanding culture
according to experts:
Culture indicates all aspects that members of a group
share together. Children learn ways of doing things, ways of talking, smiling,
laughing, liking, and disliking things. Culture determines people’s action, their social relationship, and
their morality (Gurito, 2003: p 1).
Culture is that which the language learner needs to
know in order to understand the meaning of the message in another language
other than the formal properties of the language code (syntax, morphology, and
phonology) (Dwyer, 1996: p.3).
In
our daily life, whatever we do is a representation of our culture. The way we
talk to friends, parents, teachers, or even strangers shows our culture. The
way we dress, cook, eat, drink is also a representation of our culture.
For the example:
Karapan Sapi
as one of celebration in Madura can also be considered as a representation of Madura’s culture.
Rodeo is sometimes
considered as representation of
American culture, whereas Halloween
is considered as western culture (not only American but also British
culture).
A value is the importance that we attach to something. For instance, Americans highly value independence and self-reliance. So independence and self-reliance are important
values for American
culture. (Gurito, 2003: p.4)
Norms are standard rules and they are accepted by the
members of the community. Norms
consist of folkways and mores. Folkways, are the way of the people, the customs of the community
which, when broken,
do not have fatal consequences. The
norms concerned are actively enforced by the
community, either through a legal action or a social sanction. (Gurito, 2003: p.
5).
examples of
Indonesian values.
Indonesians really
value family and community, tend to live and do many things with family and
neighbors, live with or close to family, parents, grandparents, uncles and
aunts, get to know neighbors and also their families. often visit each other,
help each other's neighbors.
Usually Indonesian
cultural norms are a combination of culture and religion. For example, in
Indonesia, living together between two unmarried people, a boy and a girl, is
against the norm. Even though this phenomenon is common in western countries
because it does not contradict their norms.
Taboo is the prohibitions or avoidance in any society
of behavior believed to be harmful to its members in
that it would cause the anxiety, embarrassment, or shame
and euphemism is to avoid mentioning
certain matters directly
(Wardhaugh, 1998: p. 234).
Suyitno wrote that there are many ways to express
„no‟, to reject, or to decline an offer or a request. Here are some of the ways
people from various cultural background say ‟no‟
In Japan and Korea, people offer food and drink by
using negative expression, like “Wouldn’t you like some more tea?” If the
answer for this offer is “no” then it means the offer is accepted.
In France, the answer for that kind of offer is “Merci” which means
“Thanks”. But in this context “merci” means “No, thanks” which in American would be meant “Yes please”
(Suyitno, 2000: p. 154)
Suyitno also mentioned about the way people rejecting
something that have a very close relation with their cultural background. In
American culture, people tend to be direct when they are rejecting a request or
an offer. They will use an explicit words to express their rejection, such as:
A: “Can I help you?”
B: “No, thank you. I can manage by myself‟
A: “Would
you like something to drink?”
B: “No, thanks”
Unlike the Americans
who are straightforward in expressing their rejection, the
Javanese tend to avoid expressing their rejection openly. It is related to their culture in which it is
considered impolite to say ‟no‟. Here are some
expressions that are commonly used by Javanese people to reject a request
or an offer:
A: “Apakah kamu bisa
mengambilkan buku itu?”
B: “Bukunya jauh, saya
sedang mengerjakan tugas”
Although I am
Javanese, I have also rejected people's requests by using the word
"no".
Anna Wierzbicka
believes that there is a very close link between the life of a society and the
lexicon of the language spoken by it. (Wierzbicka, 1997, p.1). She found many
words in one language that are difficult to be translated into other language
due to its strong cultural value. She did some studies on the relation between
emotion words and culture. According to her, different culture encourages
different attitudes towards emotions, and these different attitudes are
reflected in the lexicon and the grammar of the language associated with the
culture. (Wierzbicka, 1994).
Language is a symbol
or word to communicate between people and between regions or between countries.
Culture is a way of
life, customs, language, clothing that is passed down from previous generations
to future generations.
References
Riyanti, Rahayu
Dwi and Darminah, and Chandrawati,
Titi and Arifin, Tajul (2013) Cross Cultural Understanding. In:
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Austen, Jane, 1987, Pride and Prejudice, Galley Press, Leicester.
Adams, Penny, Brian Heaton and Peter Howarth, 1989, Socio-Cultural issues in English for Academic Purposes, MacMillan Pub, London
Byram, Michael, 1997, Cultural Studies and Foreign Language Teaching, in Susan Bassnett (ed), Studying British Cultures, Routledge, London.
Dwyer, Davis, Antonia Schleicher and Lioba Moshi, 1996, The role of culture: In the language classroom, __
Goddard, Cliff, 1996, The “Social Emotions” of Malay (Bahasa Melayu. Ethos 24 (3): 426-464.
____________, 1997, Congtrastive Semantics and Cultural Psychology: „Surprise‟ in Malay and English. Culture and Psychology Vol 3 (2):153-181.
Gurito, A, 2003, Culture, unpublished paper.
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Suyitno, Imam, 2000, Pemahaman Aspek Budaya dalam Tindak Berbahasa, Bahasa dan Seni 28 (2): 147-159.
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Wierzbicka, Anna, 1992, Emotion, Language , and Cultural Script, in Shinobu Kitayama and Hazel Rose Markus, Emotion and Culture: empirical studies of mutual influence, American Psychological Association, Washington.
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