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November 25, 2005
Cultural and Language Differences Over Break
I was fortunate enough to be able to come home for Thanksgiving and to visit one of my neighbors. She is one of my best friends. She is from Serbia and was forced from her home in Serbia when she was young and traveled to the United States, without any knowledge of the English language. Her time here has been very difficult, especially in terms of cultural differences. She still does not understand the American way of life, even after living here for seven years. She has this thick accent. You can barely understand her, but she is so intelligent, it almost scares me. When she speaks, she says some profound statements, but she says them with about 200 words instead of just one since she still does not have a complete grasp on the English language. I just remember listening to her this past vacation and thinking, “o my goodness..I know the word for what she is trying to say”, but yet, I couldn’t stop her because her message was so powerful. When I did say the word for what she was trying to explain, it didn’t really matter. She preferred explaining the concept, or her idea to me. I just thought that this was such an incredible difference in language or difference in personality. In the end, though, when I don’t know a specific word in French, I try to beat around the bush and explain it from any other way possible, but my French does not sound as profound as her English. Lastly, I can never repeat any American phrases or quote anyone really with her because she does not understand. This has occurred many times when I had to back off from my American expressions and fully explain what I was trying to say. I am intrigued when I see my friend because I learn something new about language and culture every time we meet. -Christina
Posted by lcisgancarz at November 25, 2005 05:18 PM
Comments
Christina-- I really enjoyed your entry!! English is my best friend's second language, she grew up speaking Urdu. Although I do not want to downplay her fabulous command of and fluency in English, she has alot of trouble with expressions and can never use them appropriately or understand their meaning. (Of course I cannot think of one right now!) Similarily, I had a Turkish exchange student stay with me last year and she could not master expressions either. She would ask me why I said them and what they meant, and of course, I had trouble explaining them to her. Great post!!
Posted by: Brenna at November 27, 2005 12:00 AM
Hi Christina, I think your entry was very interesting. Especially, the part when your friend was trying to explain something to you and you knew what it was but she kept on going. I also agree with Brenna that it is difficult to acquire that "native expression" because some concepts and words are deeply rooted in our minds and some English words don't express the same meaning to us (L2ers) as they do to you, the native speakers. I think it has something to do with people from different country/culture have different lexicons and words don't catch the exact meaning of what we try to say. :)
Posted by: Zaya at November 27, 2005 05:19 PM