[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.But the interesting aspect of outdoormarkets is the manner in which people line up for purchases.It is commonamong monochronic cultures for people to line up in a linear fashion, usuallyon a first-come first-serve basis.There is no appearance of randomness, or ofserving whoever happens to be the first to squeeze their way to the front of theline.Similar patterns of time are found at airports, grocers, and schools, or any Deepest Dimensions of Culture 41place in which groups of people converge.All of these queuing patterns reflectmonochronic orientations toward time.2.5.2 PolychronicPolychronic cultures are oriented toward people instead of clocks.Being ontime in polychronic cultures is different from monochronic cultures, sincetardiness is often expected.It is entirely normal in polychronic cultures to belate for appointments.And in the case of some countries in Africa and SouthAmerica, being on time may simply mean showing up within a couple of hoursof the target time.People-oriented cultures are unlikely to shuffle visitors awaybecause of a scheduled appointment.The notion of being whisked away ispotentially offensive because it reduces the person to something less impor-tant than a clock point within the day.Similarly, projects and deliverables arenot held to strict timetables.A late project does not indicate incompetence andmay even reflect a desire to go above and beyond basic requirements.Outdoor markets among many of the world s polychronic cultures areinclined to serve those who are first to reach the front of the line.This meansthat structured linear lines are more or less absent in polychronic markets.Thepace seems frenetic, the process unfair, and the overall picture one of ensuingchaos.Such a perspective is most vivid to people from monochronic cultures.But polychronic markets are not unorganized.In fact, they operate rathereffectively for people with a fluid sense of time. 3Language and CultureChapter Outline3.1 Language and thought 433.2 Attitude toward language 453.3 Digital and analog 473.4 Clarity and ambiguity 483.5 Formality and informality 513.6 Emotion and writing 543.7 Negative statements 55Overviewconnects language, culture, and thoughtexamines clarity, emotion, and writingLanguage is a vehicle for communication.While language has the power totransform the mundane into the magnificent, it also fails in unexpected ways.One of the reasons for miscommunication is culture itself, the core values andbeliefs one brings to the task.Some people value clarity and concision whileother people value fancy formality.Personal differences account for someerrors in communication, but deeper values are often at the heart of its mis-firing across cultures. Language and Culture 43The goal of this chapter is to connect the role of language with culture,thereby providing a deeper sense of how and why cultures communicate intheir particular patterns.A brief and incomplete visit will be paid to languageand thought, an area of contention for well over the past century.Some peoplefeel that language structures thought while others believe that thought andlanguage are disconnected.A great majority of people, however, feel that someinterplay between language and culture is most realistic.The next section addresses attitudes toward language.Again, individual dif-ferences surface when discussing clear communication.But equally compel-ling are the differences and explanations into why culture matters with regardto language attitudes.Such attitudes are revealed through the distinctionbetween digital and analog forms of communication.This section gives aslightly more in-depth perspective into the nature of language and communi-cation, thereby shedding additional light onto the problem of interculturalwriting.The final section of this chapter focuses on four additional factors betweenlanguage and culture.Clarity and ambiguity, formality and informality, therelationship between emotion and writing, and negative statements areaddressed.Each of these aspects of language and culture increase our under-standing of effective communication and intercultural writing.3.1 Language and thoughtIt is difficult to write a book on writing around the world without grapplingwith the overarching problem of language and thought.There has been con-siderable debate about the interaction between language and thought, rangingbetween innate and learned theories.At one end of the spectrum is extremenativism, which claims that all of language is innate.At the other end of thespectrum is the Whorfian hypothesis, which claims that language determineshow a person thinks.Few people hold these extreme perspectives, which isgood because language and thought must surely combine elements of bothinnate and learned traits.The extreme nativism view of language was first proposed by the philoso-pher Jerry Fodor.According to Fodor, all of language is innate, includingeach individual word in our vocabulary.This means that pencils and pineapples are not learned from the environment but exist as predefineditems in a mental database.If extreme nativism is correct then every person isborn with an inventory of terms installed at birth, long before their exposure 44 Writing Around the Worldinto the environment.Extreme nativism appears to have few followers and islargely dismissed as a serious theory for understanding how the mind useslanguage, or whether language impacts the mind [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.But the interesting aspect of outdoormarkets is the manner in which people line up for purchases.It is commonamong monochronic cultures for people to line up in a linear fashion, usuallyon a first-come first-serve basis.There is no appearance of randomness, or ofserving whoever happens to be the first to squeeze their way to the front of theline.Similar patterns of time are found at airports, grocers, and schools, or any Deepest Dimensions of Culture 41place in which groups of people converge.All of these queuing patterns reflectmonochronic orientations toward time.2.5.2 PolychronicPolychronic cultures are oriented toward people instead of clocks.Being ontime in polychronic cultures is different from monochronic cultures, sincetardiness is often expected.It is entirely normal in polychronic cultures to belate for appointments.And in the case of some countries in Africa and SouthAmerica, being on time may simply mean showing up within a couple of hoursof the target time.People-oriented cultures are unlikely to shuffle visitors awaybecause of a scheduled appointment.The notion of being whisked away ispotentially offensive because it reduces the person to something less impor-tant than a clock point within the day.Similarly, projects and deliverables arenot held to strict timetables.A late project does not indicate incompetence andmay even reflect a desire to go above and beyond basic requirements.Outdoor markets among many of the world s polychronic cultures areinclined to serve those who are first to reach the front of the line.This meansthat structured linear lines are more or less absent in polychronic markets.Thepace seems frenetic, the process unfair, and the overall picture one of ensuingchaos.Such a perspective is most vivid to people from monochronic cultures.But polychronic markets are not unorganized.In fact, they operate rathereffectively for people with a fluid sense of time. 3Language and CultureChapter Outline3.1 Language and thought 433.2 Attitude toward language 453.3 Digital and analog 473.4 Clarity and ambiguity 483.5 Formality and informality 513.6 Emotion and writing 543.7 Negative statements 55Overviewconnects language, culture, and thoughtexamines clarity, emotion, and writingLanguage is a vehicle for communication.While language has the power totransform the mundane into the magnificent, it also fails in unexpected ways.One of the reasons for miscommunication is culture itself, the core values andbeliefs one brings to the task.Some people value clarity and concision whileother people value fancy formality.Personal differences account for someerrors in communication, but deeper values are often at the heart of its mis-firing across cultures. Language and Culture 43The goal of this chapter is to connect the role of language with culture,thereby providing a deeper sense of how and why cultures communicate intheir particular patterns.A brief and incomplete visit will be paid to languageand thought, an area of contention for well over the past century.Some peoplefeel that language structures thought while others believe that thought andlanguage are disconnected.A great majority of people, however, feel that someinterplay between language and culture is most realistic.The next section addresses attitudes toward language.Again, individual dif-ferences surface when discussing clear communication.But equally compel-ling are the differences and explanations into why culture matters with regardto language attitudes.Such attitudes are revealed through the distinctionbetween digital and analog forms of communication.This section gives aslightly more in-depth perspective into the nature of language and communi-cation, thereby shedding additional light onto the problem of interculturalwriting.The final section of this chapter focuses on four additional factors betweenlanguage and culture.Clarity and ambiguity, formality and informality, therelationship between emotion and writing, and negative statements areaddressed.Each of these aspects of language and culture increase our under-standing of effective communication and intercultural writing.3.1 Language and thoughtIt is difficult to write a book on writing around the world without grapplingwith the overarching problem of language and thought.There has been con-siderable debate about the interaction between language and thought, rangingbetween innate and learned theories.At one end of the spectrum is extremenativism, which claims that all of language is innate.At the other end of thespectrum is the Whorfian hypothesis, which claims that language determineshow a person thinks.Few people hold these extreme perspectives, which isgood because language and thought must surely combine elements of bothinnate and learned traits.The extreme nativism view of language was first proposed by the philoso-pher Jerry Fodor.According to Fodor, all of language is innate, includingeach individual word in our vocabulary.This means that pencils and pineapples are not learned from the environment but exist as predefineditems in a mental database.If extreme nativism is correct then every person isborn with an inventory of terms installed at birth, long before their exposure 44 Writing Around the Worldinto the environment.Extreme nativism appears to have few followers and islargely dismissed as a serious theory for understanding how the mind useslanguage, or whether language impacts the mind [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]