Thread: Hi! Russia Bound

jcfromga

I think Medved just wanted to say that culture and language are not one and the same entity. Sure they both develop in concert and have a ton of influence on each other, but at the end of the day, we simply can't deny that there are many more factors that affect a culture's development than just language. Just remember a quite famous or imfamous, depending on which way you want to look at that, "Two nations divided by a common language".

About the proper usage of the word superstition... I would think you would know that people just love playing with words, using them in creative ways and effectively giving them new meanings. That said I really like how Medved applied the word in there. Superstitions are not about black cats, broken mirrors and whatnot, they're about beliefs that have little to no rationale behind them and saying that "culture is about learning the language" is one of such beliefs in my opinion and that opinion, much like Medved's, is derived from many years of experience. Not to say that I'm all superior because I have big baggage of learning, it's just a conclusion I've come to and the path wasn't exactly a straightforward one. Talking about language and culture, you sure can learn one without the other if you want to, moreover you can actually get quite good at your targeted object of interest, although, I do believe that you must eventually expend your effort on both to become great at one

Staying more on-topic, I wish you the best of luck with your Russian adventure. Learning a language can be quite an entertaining ride and an illuminating one, which I'm sure you'd agree on.

Originally Posted by iCake

jcfromga

I think Medved just wanted to say that culture and language are not one and the same entity. Sure they both develop in concert and have a ton of influence on each other, but at the end of the day, we simply can't deny that there are many more factors that affect a culture's development than just language. Just remember a quite famous or imfamous, depending on which way you want to look at that, "Two nations divided by a common language".

About the proper usage of the word superstition... I would think you would know that people just love playing with words, using them in creative ways and effectively giving them new meanings. That said I really like how Medved applied the word in there.

I can appreciate the feedback, but will just say as a native speaker... using that word in that manner was confusing.. because it wasn't correct and is not used in that way. English has lots of words that seem like synonyms but only in certain circumstances.

MedVed, I actually thought about what you said and later thought that perhaps you meant 'misconception'. I would have replied sooner, but alas, I was super busy with work yesterday.

So, just a small example.. And I think there may be a bit of confusion about what I'm saying.. but this is a highly researched area for us who work in the linguist world. I see lots of people who do not speak English as a native language offend English speakers.. and the difference really gets down to the culture influences of the native language. English is not always the most direct language. It can be evasive (which creates a lot of misunderstanding for non natives). We play with words a lot to share only what we want to. There is no gender, no marker for subjective. So, I've seen foreigners ask questions for clarification but the English speaker often could find that invasive or reflective of a lack of trust.. one of the obvious is when my Russian friend would ask her girlfriend about who she was by manipulating the pronoun his/her because she would say something like 'I went to lunch with a friend.' That is completely acceptable for English speakers... and when he would say something like 'what does SHE do for a living?' it came off to the girl that he didn't trust her and was fishing for information. That would cause a lot of problems.. when he could have just been clarifying because gender is a marker for him and he is still learning English... also, when foreigners speak very directly, it comes off as highly offensive.. and many languages are much more direct than English. That's where I see the biggest issue... but anyways, I would love to continue on this vein, but alas, I have another busy day with my company.

I look forward to my time in Russia.. I'm working on not smiling on the streets but it is super hard for us Americans. I hope the day is treating everyone well.