Language and culture 1567 comments What is the relationship between language and culture?

Language and culture

1567 comments

What is the relationship between language and culture?

When we talk about language and language learning, we usually talk about four skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening.

Some people however add a fifth skill, culture. They say that communication with people from other countries is about more than just language. If you go to live or work in another country you need to think about more than just language – you need to think about culture too.

This article by Barry Tomalin identifies four ways of thinking about culture:

• 
  cultural knowledge. How do things work in the other culture?
  

Who leads the country? 
How do new laws get made?

• 
  cultural values. What do people think is important?
  

How are guests looked after? 
How important is family?

• 
  cultural behaviour
  

What time do people have dinner? 
Do people form a queue at bus stops?

• 
  cultural skills
  

How often should you say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’? 
What questions should you not ask people?

Think about these questions:

• 
  How important do you think it is to understand the culture of the language you are learning?
  
• 
  If you have some cultural knowledge of the United Kingdom you probably know that the UK is in the process of leaving the European Union (‘Brexit’). Do you think this will change the way you feel about learning English? Why/Why not?