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How Culture and Language Influence Our Identity
What role does language play in cultural identity? Scientists guess that language influences the way we think because it shapes our thoughts in a different forms. If we imagine the language as a puzzle, we will have to create our speech from small matching pieces. However, for the other language, pieces will be different, and we will create a different picture. This way, language can influence our behavior and word choice. Some studies suggest that our personality may change depending on the language we speak. We connect the language with the culture associated with it, which impacts us greatly.
Intercultural communication is an example of this phenomenon. When people from different cultures meet and try to speak each other’s languages, they broaden their horizons by borrowing and sharing culture. Intercultural interactions are especially strong in the globalization age because they enrichen each of the participants and mutually change each other’s worldview. Culture and languages tell us how to interact with other people, and also tell us which ethics and values we spread. We do not say this with the help of words, but language helps us shape what we have to tell. It is easy for us to translate our intrinsic values dictated by culture. A blend of culture and language determines how we speak, think, and interact with other people.
Importantly, culture makes us differentiate socially. It is a part of our personality, but personality can change over time. Language and culture are intertwined and can change, too. For example, people from Europe who immigrated to the United States, started to speak American English because they wanted to be a part of a big American community. However, they also lived in closely-knit groups of the same origin, for example, the Irish settled and lived together. They continued to speak their native language at home to avoid assimilation.
Such behavior gave interesting results, for example, the best pharmaceutical or technical translation company could start from family-owned businesses by members of a certain nationality. Indeed, culture defines who we are, and losing even the smallest part of our personality is painful.
Read also: The oldest language in the world and its historical value.
Culture and Language Diversity
From the first sign, culture and language unify the community. However, there are signs of them otherwise. Within the same culture and language group, people of different ages may have different beliefs and ways of speaking. Younger people usually have different interests, they more eagerly adopt something new, including neologisms and terms from abroad. Older people are more set in their ways and use more standardized, sometimes archaic language. Moreover, several nations can bear the same culture.
In the globalization age, cultural and linguistic diversity is especially important. Cultures may spread worldwide and make people learn new languages, do business, and travel. The more languages the person learns, the more they become the “citizens of the world” who know about many countries and mindsets of people there. However, each culture may be assimilated if more mainstream and popular cultures capture the minds of people. This presents cultural issues and language learning which can influence them. That’s why ethnic groups need to share and safeguard their linguistic and cultural diversity.
Many countries of the Arab world differ, but they have certain shared values and language features for their geographical region. These national traits always stay and help people distinguish strangers and members of the community. Moreover, within each country, there exist dialects that reflect the realities of people living in different conditions. If the country encompasses several geographical zones, people are likely to develop several dialects. That happens because they live in a closed space far from other groups and start to develop neologisms even if they are in the same country. Germany may be an example of such a country because there are two distinct dialects that sometimes sound like two different languages for foreigners. Is language a part of culture in these cases? Surely, yes.
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