As an art student, one core focus of our study is the relationship between culture and language. The universally believed connection between the two engenders certain vocabs and expressions that exists exclusively in a specific culture, and these unique language features often leave linguisticians clueless when they attempt to find corresponding expressions in other languages.
The most commonly cited example is 「孝」in Chinese, which approximately refers to the virtue of obedience to parents. While this definition is abstract enough, there are way more elements surrounding just this word, which are as genuine as he/she/it for all of us, but caused huge headache to foreign Chinese learners.
Throughout the whole course of Chinese history, this term had gained as much exposure across all literacy genres as terms like “justice”, “love” or “wisdom” of which most Western literature consists since Renaissance. Put aside the fact that the word in its origination was already intended to convey a considerably involved concept, the rigorous expansion through which the word went was intense enough to easily make it one of the few untranslatable words.
In addition, the progression of meaning which the word underwent did not take place in a perpetual cultural context, but a multitude of unique cultural and social norms cultivated by different dynasties and regimes. As a result, the word alone serves as the conclusion of a set of commonly accepted kinship values while embodies its everlasting evolvement over a timespan measured by millenniums. You can then easily imagine how obscure it is for the new comers to the ravishing Chinese culture. On the flip side, as the Western culture did not lay commensurate emphasis on family relationship, there is almost not a single word in English carries explicitly values and norms of family. While the Chinese felt frustrated searching for just such an English expression, the westerners often wonder why we want one in the first place.
When it comes to a new language, a history book can be just as useful as a grammar book. Language and culture is always bread and butter to each other, that it is not possible to master one without mastering the other at the same time. Without this being in mind, no textbooks or classes can save you from embarrassing yourself in practical dialogues.
By Guest Contributor
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