Language is a reflection of culture, and by the same token culture is a reflection of language. The Czechs have a saying that, roughly translated, says "learn a new language and adopt a new culture".
Most everyone hs heard the old joke: What to you call a person that speaks three languages? "Tri-lingual". What do you call a person that speaks two languages? "Bi-lingual". Then what do you call a person that speaks only one language? "American".
Indeed! But so what?
English (and for that matter German) is a language that is content oriented. Give me the facts, and I can work with them. I would argue that American culture is also content oriented. Look no farther than the comsumerism that permeates all facets of American life. New car, new clothes, 80 pairs of shoes. All the trappings and toys we seldom get to use or enjoy beyond the day that they arrived home. My stuff.
Spanish (and French and Italian as examples) have a diferent basic structure from English. These languages are context oriented. And so are their respective cultures. An explaination of why the plumber did not arrive as scheduled inside the Latino culture involves a, yes, detailed description of the entire context of the situation. This might include some people that have no apparent direct connection to the events. But it is important to lay clear the context of the no-show. Two examples: first, you arrive to your Mexican friends house and admire a piece of pottery on display. Don't be suprised that the vase leaves with you at the end of the evening! Friends are important. Second, lunch in Mexico City starts at 2 pm, or 3 pm, or sometime there abouts, and will continue until it finishes. Hey, I am doing lunch with my: business partners, clients, mistress, etc., and when we are finished enjoying lunch we will finish lunch! Meanwhile, the office and everthing and everyone else can wait. Context.
That is why "mañana" does not mean "tomorrow". It means "not today". Put it into context and forget the content.
When we are outside looking in, we have a different context. Even if we are in Berlin. This should be Lesson 101.
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One personal experience: Some time ago, I was one month in Cuernavaca in an academic event. I was taking a lunch with a Ph.D. physics student from Texas (who probably was in his later 20's. He was a man), when he finished he ask me: "may I go out?" (I don´t remember the exact phrase). I tried to be polite and traduced literally one common phrase in Spanish: "si tienes mucho trabajo que hacer puedes irte", and so I said: "if you have many work to do you can go". He gets a little angry and said: "yes, I have many work to do!" and left. I felt embarrassed that time. Now I understand that I must said "yes sure", "yes of curse”, or something like that. In my opinion, the English language is more specific than Spanish, maybe due to these that you mention: the romance languages are context oriented and the Germanic languages: content oriented. I remember also that I knew a German physics professor that was confused with the fact that in Spanish language exist several ways to say exactly the same thing, for example: "no hay de qué", "de nada", "por nada" for say "you welcome".
ReplyDelete(Please, correct my writing style or orthography).
Greetings.