discussion post #2

[Chester Hunter]

One interesting thing I thought about when looking through the readings and playing with the culture comparison tool was how this affects (or is affected by) the development of language. It seems that in cultures with a high power distance such as Russia or China language is built to have forms of address delegated to one's established place in that culture, like the difference between zdrastvui and zdrastvuite in Russian (not sure how to spell in English) or ni hao vs nin hao. Both second forms are used to address someone who societies see as above the speaker. Countries with a comparatively low power distance such as the US or Israel don't have words that fulfill the same role - both (American) English and Hebrew use the casual "you" to address elders or superiors. Also interesting is the emphasis placed on given and last names. In Russian the patronymic name derived from the first name of the father is an important part of introductions showing that family connections and history is important in societal interactions. Similarly in Chinese the family name is placed before the given name possibly indicating the presumed importance of the family over the individual, whereas in English first names are used with extreme frequency. On the west coast some adults prefer to be called by their first name only, even if the speaker is younger than them and would normally call them Mr. or Ms. In modern Hebrew a formal address doesn't exist, and even when older than you many adults introduce themselves by their first name and expect a casual address moving forwards. These four cultures scored similarly on the collectivism and individuality scale as well, which may be another factor.