Different Cultural Backgrounds: Understandings toward Our Surroundings - Essay Example

Different Cultural Backgrounds: Understandings toward Our Surroundings “We see and understand things not as they are but as we are.” Discuss this claim in relation to at least two ways of knowing Most of us come from different cultural backgrounds with different perceptions, values and understandings toward our surroundings. The diversity in the cultural backgrounds we come from allows us to develop a unique perception in the way we view the world around us. The way we perceive the world could be broken down into three extraneous factors: the influences from our perceptions, including emotions, our unique backgrounds, and our different languages. These influences, in turn, make us understand things not as they are but as we are. These factors also lead us to the questions: do people with different cultural or linguistic backgrounds live, in some sense, in different worlds or perceive the world differently? And, more widely, what role do aspects such as language, perceptual process and emotions play when we are interpreting the aspects of the world? Perception is hereby defined as the way in which we see or perceive the world surrounding us. Perception also involves the viewpoints originating from our individual perspectives. Every human being has his own unique perception and his own individual way of understanding a phenomenon. This unique perception is based on, among other things, the development of our personal character, which, in turn, is developed by our cultural background and emotions. These factors are the major compounds of our perceptions and influence the way we perceive the world. Thus, we see and understand things not as they are but as we are. For example, a colour blind person would not call the colour blue, “blue”, simply because it is what normal sited people see. He would name and describe this colour based on his own observations, however limited by his disability, about the colour. Due to the unique nature of our cultural and personal backgrounds, we tend to interpret and perceive things based on what we are used to, but not how they actually are. For example, a U.S. citizen would not claim a large coke in the McDonalds in Europe to be big, considering that the large cokes in the U.S. are much bigger. Our emotions also tend to influence the way we perceive a phenomenon. For example, when we are happy, we tend to interpret things from a more optimistic view, and vice versa. This shows that sometimes we are irrational and tend to interpret a phenomenon based on our own identity and what we feel rather than what it truly is. Every culture has its own expressions, whether emotional or linguistic, and dialect. We all have very different level of understandings towards certain action, movement and tone, mainly because of the cultural and perceptional differences that are present among us. Language reflects the messages from our senses; we could think that just like when it comes to expressing emotions (happiness, anger, sadness, etc.), there should be a universal action or some similar symbols for our language as well: laughter, tears, etc. are universal forms of expressing some of our emotions, but, then again, we can see how language is not neutral like our emotions, and culture can, and often does, affect it. Moreover, some of our emotions are not universal either, and our cultural backgrounds have an affect in interpreting them. For example, speaking loudly can be taken as a sign of either enthusiasm or anger in Western countries, whereas in China this is not necessarily the case always. Moreover, the same loudness can be considered rude in many countries, for example in India where it is considered bad manners to talk loudly to an elder, but because of the tonal nature of Mandarin, it does not carry that implication in China. So, when these cultural codes differ, and, therefore, when there is a different meaning assigned to the same situation, we have, as a consequence, conflicts in interpretation and perception. This shows that we interpret and perceive aspects of our world based on the influences from our cultural and perceptual background, and not on what they truly represent. However, it is interesting to note, as stated earlier, that certain emotions are expressed universally throughout various cultures, we cry when we are overwhelmed, for example, and a chuckle is a universal response to something funny. Coming back to the effects of language on perception, Stafford states that “…A personal experience in the confines of one language may actually physically be the same as one occurring in another language group, and although both people are fully aware cognitively of what is happening, their interpretation and value of what happened may be completely different based on the cultural guidelines set forth by their languages” (Stafford, 2009). If the language differs, and if this has an effect on the way we think, it can be assumed that it also has an effect on the way we interpret what is being told to us. So, the preconceptions we have, which have been influenced by language, will come into action when trying to ‘read’ what we are being told. In one of Lera Boroditsky’s experiments she asked if the presence of gender in grammar, in relation to things, made people from divergent cultures perceive things differently, “In one study, we asked German and Spanish speakers to describe objects having opposite gender assignment in those two languages. The descriptions they gave differed in a way predicted by grammatical gender. For example, when asked to describe a ‘key’ – a word that is masculine in German and feminine in Spanish – the German speakers were more likely to use words like ‘hard’, ‘heavy’, ‘jagged’, ‘metal’, ‘serrated’, and ‘useful’, whereas Spanish speakers were more likely to say ‘golden’, ‘intricate’, ‘little’, ‘lovely’, ‘shiny’, and ‘tiny’.” (Boroditsky, 2009) This finding lays out that the differences within our language also affect the manner in which we perceive things; therefore, we can say that it illustrates that we see things not as what they objectively are, but define them according to who we are, or, as in this case, what language we speak. This goes on to show that people speaking different languages think differently, with even their language grammar affecting their perceptions. Another example in this regard can be the language we use to refer to time, something that is different in different cultures, and which, in turn, effects the idea of time itself; English speakers are liable to talk about time using ‘horizontal spatial metaphors’ (“the past is behind you”, “look ahead at the future”), whereas Mandarin speakers use ‘vertical spatial metaphors’ (the next week is the "down week”). This led Lera Boroditsky to wonder if this difference was also present in thought. “Imagine this simple experiment. I stand next to you, point to a spot in space directly in front of you, and tell you, ‘This spot, here, is today. Where would you put yesterday? And where would you put tomorrow?’ When English speakers are asked to do this, they nearly always point horizontally. But Mandarin speakers often point vertically, about seven or eight times more often than do English speakers” (Boroditsky, 2009). This, in essence, shows that the language we speak affects the way we perceive things; in essence we see things as who we are and not as they are. It is possible to say that language and emotions, and, therefore, perception are subjective, we interpret them depending on who we are, or as the saying go where we are coming from. Can two people ever really agree on what they perceive when they see something? If not, would it be safe to assume that people coming from different cultures are always living in different worlds? Amy Strafford states that according to the Sapir Whorf Hypothesis language is not just a mean to voice ideas, but it is something which shapes those ideas for us. We are confined by our language which results in “many different world views by speakers of different languages.” Though this approach to language seems quite pertinent, however, we have to ask ourselves if language is really that deterministic when it comes to our perceptions. If language did, indeed, influence our perceptions so completely that we had completely different worldviews, then there would be no successful cross-cultural interactions, like, for example, marriages, joint ventures and trade agreements, present around us. For such cross-cultural interactions to take place, a certain commonality in our beliefs is required. This shows that we do not live in completely different worlds, and that there are certain beliefs we do share, despite the language barrier; we see some things as they are, and not just who we are. Keeping all this in mind, we can assume with some certainty that people do tend to perceive and understand aspects of the world differently based on their own identity and cultural background, including their emotions and language. These factors influence us to perceive and understand things as we are, and not as the things themselves are. However, it cannot be ignored that this is not always true; there are times when such barriers either do not exist, or are easily overcome by us, whether it is when all of us smile when we are happy and cry when we are sad, or when people from different cultures interact with another to form, for example, business or personal contracts. Works Cited Abram, David. The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World. New York: Vintage, 1997. Print. Alchin, Nicholas. Theory of Knowledge. London: John Murray Publishers, 2003. Print. Boroditsky, Lera “How does Language Shape the Way We Think?” Edge. n.p. 12 June 2009. Web. 19 January 2010. Lagemaat, Richard Van de. Theory of Knowledge for the IB Diploma. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Print. Stafford, Amy. “Sapir Whorf Hypothesis.” EMuseum, Cultural Anthropology. Minnesota State University Mankato, n.d. Web. 18 January 2010. Read More