Went through the various speech acts and how different culture groups respond to the different speech acts eg. compliments and such.
One thing that still bothers me is the lost of meaning through translation of the different languages. To want to observe intercultural speech acts across language, i guess it is still important that the observer must know the language?? If not, how can you describe and actualy understand what they say?
About the DCT on the compliments, i think that my answers would have differed greatly if the compliment was done in Japanese. I remembered Pam complimenting me with "I f**king love your watch" and I would just go "Of course. Why do you think i bought it?"
But if it were in Japanese "腕時計が素敵" my reply would be "そんなことないっスよ". A clear rejection of the compliment. Then again, the person i am speaking to will also greatly affect my answer.
Just a "thank you" from me would usually mean that i'm just patronizing you and i don't actually give a sh*t about what you think. (￣へ ￣ )
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Good observation. I would agree with you on this: language to a great extent is the carrier of culture.
ReplyDeleteHi Magdalene,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that many things can be lost in translation.
A very simple example can be seen in the word "love". In Egnlish, we use love practically for everything, "Oh, I love your dress!", "I love that movie.", "I love Hugh Jackman." etc.
However, if we were to say this to a German, they would be utterly perplexed! Because the word "love" is used only for very specific circumstances, like to express love for someone, like a person whom they actually know, i.e. parents or spouse.
Imagine in a study, and these English sentences have been directly translated to German, it wouldn't make much sense to a German who is studying this issue of cross cultural communication.
So I agree whole-heartedly with you that the observer must also know the language, to fully grasp the meaning behind what is being said.
Cheers,
Eileen
I am terrible with languages but I wish I wasn't cuz I find it super hilarious when I know about meanings lost in translation.
ReplyDeleteCheck out http://engrish.com/ !! :p