Cultural Differences

Each culture has idioms. Idioms are effected by the culture of the country. For example while rice is very important food in Chinese people, for western people bread and butter are very important foods (Yang, 2010). Thus, their idioms contain such words. For instance, “hope is poor man’s bread which means if someone want to go on living, he or she should not lose his/her hope toward life. He/she should be hopeful. As an another example, butter up. This means to praise someone excessively to try to change his/her mind (Yang, 2010). As it can be seen in these examples, idioms are change from a culture to culture. Because they are effected even culture’s cuisine, daily life and more.

In almost every language, there are heteronym words. So a joke which is made in one language cannot be understood in another language if it is translated. Because in latter language, its heteronym meaning will not be the same like in the former one. For instance, the word “yüz” in Turkish has three different meaning. The first one is face, the second one, swim and the last one is a hundred. So if it is made a joke in Turkish by using this word, when we translate it in another language for example English, it will not be understood. Moreover, if it is not known pronunciation of any language, understanding jokes will be hard. For example, “why number six, scared of number eight? Because number seven eight (ate) number nine (English with Alex, 2013). To understand this joke, it should be known that the past form of eat (ate) has the same pronunciation with number eight.

Some behaviors or communication styles can be seen polite in one culture, while it is seen mean. Like in idioms or jokes, culture determine the politeness. For example in Moscow, giving even number flowers is rude, because even number flowers are given to death people (Galloway, 2015). However, this is not true for Turkish people.

Greetings is changeable from culture to culture, too. And also in a culture there can be differences. Formal, informal, super informal, etc. For example, native English speakers, in formal greetings, say “hello, how are you?”, in informal greetings they say “hey, how’s it going?”(Vince, 2020).

To know other cultures is quite important for language learners. Firstly, if they know other cultures when they read a text, they can understand some words easier. And when students know the cultural differences, they learn to see the world from a different point of view, and they discover different ways of living in different societies. The point is, in my opinion, besides learning a language, students will learn cultural knowledge, and how culture has an impact on the way they express themselves, how society evolves constantly changing the perfection of the way we talk. While they are learning, they will also learn different vocabularies and sentence structures. In addition to these, ones who know different languages have more chances to visit different countries. Building stronger connections with the language's native speakers and their classmates who are also learning it is made possible by learning about its cultural background. When students travel to the target nation, culture shock is less severe if culture is taken into account. Students can develop a deeper awareness of the world and more empathy and regard for others by learning about various cultures and customs.

Knowing cultural differences is also important because we discover new perspectives. Language is defined by our personality, our tone, our state of mind and culture encompasses each of the aspects mentioned, if we understand how culture affects the lives of students, society, and the same university life we ​​will understand the use that students give it in their daily life. It is important to break the cultural barrier, understand that language is the key to knowledge and that it shapes the social relationships that enrich our vocabulary, gives us a wide repertoire of tools, sociability, flexibility, and adaptability when speaking with confidence outside our comfort zone. You can watch the video above to learn more.