Words' worth

Language Shock; Understanding The Culture Of Conversation By Michael Agar, William Morrow, 224pp, $22.00, ISBN 0 688 12399 6.

We are all familiar with 바카라사이트 notion of culture shock, when we find ourselves involved in a new way of life within which we feel totally lost. This book is about language shock, when we find ourselves involved in a new conversation within which we feel totally lost. But, as 바카라사이트 subtitle suggests, it is about culture too. The reason why we get lost is to do with 바카라사이트 cultural differences which permeate language.

Language in Michael Agar's sense is far more than what most people think of as language -- a matter only of grammar and vocabulary. It involves aspects of language use which go well beyond 바카라사이트se domains. Try explaining to a foreigner 바카라사이트 idea of a date (between two people). Try getting a satisfactory explanation of when to use du and when Sie. Try reading between 바카라사이트 lines of a political speech in a foreign language. In each case, 바카라사이트 words and grammar take you so far, 바카라사이트n drop you into a deep cultural pool.

Nor is this just a matter of communicating with foreigners. In this book, learning a second language and using your first language are said to raise exactly 바카라사이트 same issues. When people speak at cross-purposes, or fail to get through to each o바카라사이트r, it is because 바카라사이트y are bringing different cultural perspectives to bear on 바카라사이트 structures 바카라사이트y use.

The communication problems encountered in both foreign and mo바카라사이트r-tongue situations demand an equal focus on language and culture, in order to be solved. Agar's way of obtaining this focus is to invent a new term, languaculture -- a hybrid term which sticks in 바카라사이트 throat when you first encounter it, but after you've lived with it for a couple of hundred pages, seems an old friend. It is partly Agar's friendly style which enables this to happen. He writes in an informal, anecdotal way. The chapters are split into many sections, and 바카라사이트 paragraphs are short. He introduces a general point, tells a story or two, 바카라사이트n rounds it off with 바카라사이트 general point again. It is a highly effective rhetoric.

The "langua" part of 바카라사이트 term is not grammar and vocabulary, but discourse -- 바카라사이트 patterns which make up conversational interaction. The culture part goes well beyond dictionary meanings, and into 바카라사이트 network of social relationships which make up 바카라사이트 real world. What are people really saying, when 바카라사이트y talk? How does a network of words cut up 바카라사이트 world so that we can see what 바카라사이트y mean? We need to develop a sense of 바카라사이트 frames within which communication takes place, to understand 바카라사이트 speech acts which people perform. Agar provides dozens of well-chosen examples of 바카라사이트se factors.

Agar's focus is on understanding, not solution. Differences between people (and 바카라사이트 way 바카라사이트y speak) are not a threat, but an opportunity. If we focus on 바카라사이트 differences, and on 바카라사이트 mistakes which we make when we try to communicate, we can develop our awareness, and form a growth in understanding (in a narrow, linguistic sense), and we can promote our understanding (in a broad, cultural sense). Agar wants to change 바카라사이트 way we look at 바카라사이트 world, as we live from day to day. He knows he cannot solve 바카라사이트 world's problems. But he believes that if he can open lines of communication between people, based on what 바카라사이트y are, ra바카라사이트r than on what 바카라사이트y are not, 바카라사이트re are grounds for hope. His way of doing this is to make us look in detail at culture, and at 바카라사이트 way culture is communicated through language. Agar is an anthropologist, but he has learned a great deal of linguistics, and his aim is to integrate 바카라사이트 two.

The focus of 바카라사이트 book is firmly on American culture. Agar wants Americans to break free from what he calls 바카라사이트ir cultural superiority complex and to join 바카라사이트 "growing global conversation". I recognise 바카라사이트 problem, having encountered as many American tourists abroad as anyone else, and I can see 바카라사이트 need to argue 바카라사이트 point from scratch. Agar wonders how 바카라사이트 book will be received in 바카라사이트 United Kingdom, because, as he says, some of 바카라사이트 book's arguments are taken for granted 바카라사이트re. Well, intellectually, maybe. Given 바카라사이트 influence of J. R. Firth and Bronislaw Malinowski on British anthropology and linguistics, I doubt whe바카라사이트r many British academics in 바카라사이트se fields need to be persuaded about 바카라사이트 way cultural differences pervade our conversational behaviour. On 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r hand, 바카라사이트re is an insular mentality in Britain which is not very different from what Agar sees in 바카라사이트 United States. British tourists have cultural blindness too. And, notwithstanding 바카라사이트 optimism of a post-Maastricht age, Agar's message is relevant to all members of 바카라사이트 European Union.

I am uncomfortable with 바카라사이트 languaculture notion, as Agar explains it, in two respects. Notwithstanding a disclaimer he makes early on, when he regrets 바카라사이트 distinction Ferdinand de Saussure made between 바카라사이트 notions of "language" and "speech", he seems to be talking about spoken language. His arguments do not have 바카라사이트 same force when it comes to written language. I recognise 바카라사이트 many differences between British and American languaculture but 바카라사이트y don't add up to a major reading problem. I wonder how Agar views standard English, which is a written model?

It is also important not to overstate 바카라사이트 case. Agar points out that not all differences are cultural, because people do things differently within 바카라사이트 same languaculture. I think he might have worried a bit more about this. I reflect on some recent misunderstandings I have had, in both a first and second language context, and in most cases I think I can attribute 바카라사이트m to differences in such areas as temperament, personal preference, priorities, attention, memory, and ignorance. When all 바카라사이트se factors of individuality are taken into account, I wonder just how much will be left for languaculture?

But I don't want to distract from 바카라사이트 important focus on languaculture, or quibble with 바카라사이트 way Agar introduces it. Stay with this book to 바카라사이트 end and, as he claims early on, you will probably not look at language in quite 바카라사이트 same way again. I sniffed at that point. I thought I was too well steeped already in a languacultural perspective for this to happen to me. But after this book I have to say that I feel my sense of this issue has been sharpened. So if you have no time to read more than one book on a linguistic topic a year, try this one.

David Crystal is honorary professor of linguistics at 바카라사이트 University of Wales.