By Valentin Pradelou
There are as many varieties of language as there are customs attached to these languages. It is easy to note, when learning a new language, that some representations of the world may differ and ways to express certain significations might be very different.
Through my linguistic degree and some of the travels I have had the chance to take, I have made a little list. It maybe could pave the way to be a list of articles as well. Coming from a French cultural background, I took it as a base of comparison with all customs related to the cultures, which I encountered directly or read about.
Thus, I’d like to present a few of them, as I was really surprised when finding out about them, especially when compared to the customs from where we belong. It seems important to talk about different cultures, in order to claim that every society and their related culture has their own way to behave and express things with language, and every way is as beautiful and interesting as the other.
We’ll go with different elements, such as ways to mean “thank you” in Albania, means to be polite in Uganda, in the USA or in France, among other things. We will also discover it can be related to actual linguistic utterances or be attached to non-verbal interactions.
Some verbal facts attached to the culture
I’ll show here two different points, going first with politeness in the USA and in France, and then we will study how to say “thanks” in Albania and in France. Just as a reminder, these are coming from my own experience: I just want to show things I’ve read or seen, but it’s not to be considered exhaustive.
An example of politeness in USA and in France
To the scholars Brown and Levinson, there is a politeness theory, explaining that people, within the scope of social interactions, will try to claim positive social values in order to respect people’s self-esteem. Then, they explain that 'positive face' refers to one’s self esteem.
In the USA, as it’s kind of notorious, people can most of the time say “Hello” or “Hi” and then ask how you’re doing, in a shop for example, and this would be a particular example of 'positive face'. We can surely think a cashier doesn’t really want to know how you’re doing, but they're asking to create a contact, thus respect the 'positive face'.
However, as I live in France, I can tell that this is impossible here: actually, in a regular context of talking to a cashier, for example, asking them how’s they're doing will have a strongly negative value. In fact, you’re supposed to only ask anyone you know at least a little bit, so that they do not feel trespassed.
You’re only supposed, on a cultural basis, to ask how somebody’s doing when you know the individual, not somebody you don’t know at all. Politeness just goes with a “hello” in France, in this kind of contexts.
Saying thanks in Albania
I had the chance to do an Albanian course during my linguistic degree, and I happen to have learnt numerous interesting cultural elements, as much as this language is beautiful. Among these elements, one really surprised me: the way of saying thanks, as explained by the professor.
In the UK, the USA, France or Spain, we would use the word “Thanks”, Merci, Gracias for any action made to you, even the tiniest one, that deserves a verbal reward: serving you a glass of water, holding a door, congratulating you, etc. In the Albanian language, there is a word for Thanks, semantically equivalent (it is Faleminderit).
But it seems that it’s only used in particular occasions, such as really important things to your advantage. Our professor told that: “if someone gives you a thousand euros, you’ll say faleminderit, not if he serves you a glass of water”. It makes a big difference to some customs in France, for example, where politeness necessitates a verbal reward for any tiny act done for you.
Some non-verbal facts attached to the culture
We have just seen some examples of verbal facts in relation to cultures. Here, still in relation to linguistics, we’ll see some examples of how non-verbal behaviors can create sense and how it can be interpreted.
Hands' negative answer in Bohemia and in France
In a very interesting article by Milena Srapvo published in 1995, we can read that there are some differences in expressing negation with hands in Bohemia (a historical region in what is now the Czech Republic) and France.
In France, negation with the hand will go with the index pointed in the air, waving from left to right. In Bohemia, negation will go with an open hand, palm parallel to the ground, fingers spread, with a rotation of the wrist from left to right. It is even more interesting to note that this particular movement of saying no with the hand in Bohemia has another meaning in France: hesitation.
These ways of expressing things with hands are thus connected, yet different. Following the evolution of words and their meaning is easier. As it is possible to write them down. This is not the case for non-verbal communication, which can be very mysterious and interesting.
House interactions in Uganda and in France
In the same article as cited before, we have pieces of information about non-verbal politeness around interaction, which is related to the house. Let’s make it clear with some examples.
First, in France, if someone comes unexpectedly to someone else’s house, it’ll be considered bothering most of the time, and even unpolite or rude (it can be accepted if the individual is a really close friend of the owner, for example, but most of the time, it remains unpolite).
In Uganda, it is considered kind of regular: as said in the article, it is neither marked positively, nor negatively.
Now let’s imagine that some French people, after having been embarrassed by this unexpected visit, make it into the house. The house’s owner can bring a drink to his/her guest, and it’ll be seen as polite, thus positive. It’s not the case in Uganda!
In this central African country, the guest will feel embarrassed if you bring them something to drink. It is even the same in case of asking him if they want to drink something, they’ll feel unsettled and can even refuse. It’s utterly normal in France though.
One last interesting element: let’s now imagine the owner makes his guest look round the house. In France, when it’s the first time coming to a new house, the tour is considered normal and neither marked positively nor negatively (it’ll be weird if you show your guest around after they have been before though). However, in Uganda, the owner is going to be seen as a vain person acting in a cocky way as if he would like to show off his wealth.
Conclusion
It’s always interesting to see how culture works in the other countries. When I was younger, as did my friends, I believed that our customs were almost universal and could only shift a little bit from place to place, from country to country.
It actually seems that they are very different, beautiful and interesting to know in order to dodge any form of ethnocentrism.
I hope you guys enjoyed this article, and thanks for reading!