Culture and identity
LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL IDENTITY
WORLD ENGLISHES WTUC DEC 2006
 Understanding others makes possible a
better knowledge of oneself:
 any form of identity is complex, for
individuals are defined in relation to other
people - both individually and collectively and the various groups to which they owe
allegiance, in a constantly shifting pattern.
 Understanding and valuing cultural diversity are the keys
to countering racism.
 All individuals must feel free to explore the uniqueness
of their culture and identity while developing
understandings of the cultural diversity that exists in the
world around them.
 Denying cultural expression means limiting the
expression of unique perspectives on life and the
transmission of knowledge from generation to
generation.
 Culture refers to the customs, practices, languages,
values and world views that define social groups such
as those based on nationality, ethnicity, region or
common interests.
 Cultural identity is important for people’s
sense of self and how they relate to others. A
strong cultural identity can contribute to
people’s overall wellbeing.
 Cultural identity based on ethnicity is not necessarily
exclusive. They may also identify with more than one
culture.
 Culture is a defining feature of a person & a person’s
identity, contributing to how they see themselves and the
groups with which they identify.
 Culture may be broadly defined as the sum total of ways
of living built up by a group of human beings, which is
transmitted from one generation to another. Every
community, cultural group or ethnic group has its own
values, beliefs and ways of living.
 Language is intrinsic to the expression of culture.
 As a means of communicating values, beliefs and
customs, it has an important social function and
fosters feelings of group identity and solidarity.
 It is the means by which culture and its traditions
and shared values may be conveyed and preserved.
 Language is fundamental to cultural identity.
 For this reason, it is important that people keep their
own language alive.
 As languages disappear, cultures die. The world
becomes inherently a less interesting place, but we
also sacrifice raw knowledge and the intellectual
achievements of millennia.
 An individual & a person’s sense of identity is
grounded in their cultural identity .
 “I have... come to the conclusion that my identity
does not have to be static. Sometimes, I feel Spanish
and I like to identify with the Spanish culture while
at other times I choose to reinforce my German,
Irish-Anglo background”.
 “In many ways the two identities have become
interwoven. A part of me is expressed through
speaking Spanish and singing Spanish songs which is
not expressed through speaking English or playing
classical music... each language I speak and each
music tradition I engage in carries with it a different
world of meanings”.
 Cultural identity may be clearer to some people than
it may be to others .
 Although many Americans, for example, identify
with their Irish, West African, Chinese, or Mexican
roots (among many others), they may still know
themselves to be American.
 Once we have moved away from the place of our
original culture and begun the process of adapting to
another culture, we broaden our perceptions ,
noticing things that are done differently or similarly
between the two cultures.
 We learn a whole new set of culturally and
linguistically defined rules and value systems with
the result that our own perception of the culturally
induced life experience is expanded.
 “… I have found that once people have started to
adapt to a second culture, they are able to adapt
more quickly to a third culture and begin to feel
more part of a multicultural construct than citizens
of only one culture” .
 Exceptions to this rule have been found in people
who have not yet returned to live in the original
country; the country that they still feel a complete
citizen of.
 If they do go back and stay long enough, they might
notice that they are no longer the same person
culturally as they were when they left originally and
they also might notice that people are seeing them as
being influenced by the other culture in some way.
 These returnees can sometimes feel like outsiders in
the country that all along, they may have felt was
home.
 “Who cares if it was unfortunate or not, but I have
grown up with more than two cultures in my life
history. When I was abroad, I thought of myself as
representing the Japanese. Everyone told me that I
was a Japanese, and without doubt, I was one. When
I came back to Japan, though, I was a stranger”.
 “I had to be a Japanese, but the Japanese around me
seemed to have thought of me as a foreigner.
Somehow, what I did and thought seemed to have
been different from others. In class, when the
teacher was accusing us of some mischief that the
class had done, I was the only one to meet the gaze of
the teacher; everybody else were looking down at the
desk and quiet, but I was arguing with the teacher.
Sometimes, I couldn’t help but notice that I was the
only one in class with a raised hand. In English
classes there was always a strange uproar when I was
assigned to read the textbook.
 I didn’t make much of these incidents, but it seems I
was the queer fish among them. The Japanese would
not look at me as an ordinary Japanese”.
 “As I kept on living in Japan, I noticed that I was
criticizing the ways of Japan, its people, and its
society: the infamous entrance examination system,
group orientedness, conformism, etc. I never got
used to doing things & “everybody all together” ,
nobody standing out, and in harmony ”. Sometimes
it seemed easier to get along with foreigners. But I’m
not a foreigner, am I?”.
 “Then, what am I? When I started to work, and had
chances to visit other countries, there were always
times when I would not want to go back to Japan.
But when I remembered the faces of the friends that
I got to know while living in Japan, I would think
that however hard it is to work and live there, I
would go back”.
 Then came the day when I noticed that the question
“what am I?”I had somehow turned into the question
“who am I?” No longer did I need to think in terms of
nationality, or being a Japanese or a foreigner, or
whatever. All I had to question was how am I going
to live? what am I going to do and with whom?
where am I going to have a place to live? for what am
I going to be living?
 I am here, alive. That was the answer. Day after day,
I meet people. I work. I have fun. I rest. I am well. No
doubt, I have a plural number of cultural heritages in
my background. It still seems that my thoughts and
actions are not exactly like “ordinary Japanese”. But
so what, I am myself. I came to want to get together
with those people who have multiple cultures within
themselves. Both in Japan and abroad, there are
people with plurality: Those foreigners who have
grown up in Japan. Those who went on studies
abroad. Those whose father and mother have
different heritages.
 Not even across national borders. If you think of
cultures as not relevant to nationalities, there are
huge differences even within Japan: Tokyo and
Osaka. Rural and metropolitan. Even within Tokyo:
Uptown and downtown. Broadway and offBroadway. Cultural differences can be found
anywhere: Between men and women. Even you and I
have cultural differences in between. Anytime when
one meets another, the two will live in a cultural
diversity. Everybody is a singular culture by
him/herself.
 Therefore, I want to be myself. I want you to
be yourself. An expert in being oneself, that’s
what I want to be.