Cross Cultural Understanding Spring 2013

March 2nd, 2014 Module 1 : What is Culture? Paramitha Mansoer

Universitas Terbuka
Korea Selatan

MODUL 1 : WHAT IS CULTURE??

 Gurito: Culture indicates all aspects that members of a group share together. Children learn ways of doing things, ways of talking, smiling, liking and disliking things. Culture determines peoples action, their social relationship and their morality Dwyer: Culture is what 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 The Collins Dictionary:

The total of inherited ideas, beliefs, values and knowledge which constitute the shared bases of social activities.

Guess where is the picture from?

Culture can be represents by traditional dances or ceremonies and also by daily life activities.

Mention the cultural differences between Korean and Indonesian on daily life activities!

Cultural Value? Cultural Norms?

Value: The importance that we attached to something Value concerned about what is good and desirable and what is bad and undesirable. Example: Americans highly value independence and self reliance Norms: Standard rules that accepted by the member of community Divided into folkways (kebiasaan) and mores (adat istiadat). Folkways are the customs of community which, when broken, do not have fatal consequences Mores are concerned with behaviors of vital importance in community and represents the basic moral value of community Example: Bigamy is unacceptable in america

Cultural Value and Norm

Americans A: How are you? B: Im fine/Great/Very well Australians A: How are you? B: Not bad/Cant complain

What can you conclude from the two interactions?

Americans A: Wow, your dress is pretty B: Thank you Indonesians A: Wah, bajunya bagus sekali B: Ah, ini baju jelek dan murah kok

What can you conclude from all of them? There are relations between language and culture

Language and Culture

In this section, we will learn about relation between culture and language, as been described by Edward Sapir, Benjamin Lee Whorf, Ronald Wardhaugh, Imam Suyitno, Anna Wierzbicka, and Cliff Goddard.

Edward Sapir
Language is a symbolic guide to culture. Vocabulary is a very sensitive index of the culture of people Sapir described that there is close relationship between culture and language and it will be difficult to understand other peoples culture without having knowledge of the language and vice versa.

Benjamin Lee Whorf

There is a connection between cultural norms and linguistic pattern. The way people see the world is reflected in the language Example:
Indonesian Padi Beras Nasi English Rice Rice Rice

Ronald Wardhaugh
Wardhaugh stated that relation between language and culture can be seen in kinship (kekeluargaan) system, color terminology, taboo and euphemism.
Indonesian Kinship Taboo Pakde, Pakle Color terminology ?? English Uncle Blond

Prohibitions of behavior believed to be harmful that it would cause anxiety, embarrassment, or shame

Euphemism

To avoid mentioning certain matters directly

Imam Suyitno
Bahasa adalah bagian interal dari budaya suatu kelompok. Karena itu unsur budaya seperti aturan, kebiasaan, dan cara hidup kelompok dapat diekspresikan melalui bahasa.
Example 1 Question Answer Example 2 Question Answer What do you thing about this idea? American: I dont think itll works Javanese: Itu ide yang bagus, tapi maaf saya kurang setuju Wouldnt you like more tea? Korean: No Means the offer accepted France: Mercy Means the offer declined

Anna Wierzbicka
There is a close link between life of society and lexicon (kosakata) of the language According to her, different culture encourages different attitudes towards emotions and there different attitudes are reflected in the lexicon and the grammar of the language associated with the culture. Example: Javanese word isin

Cliff Goddard
He studied the relation between culture and language in particular emotion words. For example the words amazed and surprised do not have exact meaning in Indonesian words.

Culture and Foreign Language Teaching

Why should we consider cultural study in teaching foreign language? 1. Because there is a close relation between cultural study and foreign language teaching or learning. Those who study foreign language need to know the culture of the society in which the language is spoken and so the other way. Example: see page 1.20 In the last conversation, the American woman might feel offended because the dress she thought beautiful is considered ugly by the owner 2. To gasp a better understanding when talking to native speakers Example: see page 1.21. Can you guess the topic of the conversation?

 In teaching foreign language, we have to consider the listener culture as well as the target language culture. When we applied the listener culture with the foreign language, the text will become unnatural. Please refer to page 1.22 Many experts believe that authentic materials such as, newspapers, TV, books, etc should be introduced to the student. By doing this way the culture will be transmitted to the language classroom, though we may not aware of it.

Read Excerpt 2 page 1.26! What kind of cultural information you can get from the text??