In the last journal post about Communicative Competence, I talked about how communication involves behavioral factors and interpretation. The sociocultural article discusses the cultural factors in language. Culture is a major factor in determining how people behave and interpret certain things; therefore, culture is a crucial factor in language learning. Culture and language are what we use to identify ourselves. The way we interpret events can be attributed to our cultural backgrounds. In the article, Matsumoto defines culture as a dynamic system of rules established by groups in order to insure their survival. I find that language has the same purpose - to provide a means of communication to insure certain groups of safety, etc. I found it interesting that the article pointed out that no society exists without culture. This means that no culture exists with a way of communicating.
Perceptions also play a role in our communication and interpretation. Our cultural perceptions of others determine how interpret the nature of their language. The article mentions how sometimes we perceive other cultures to be "loud", "quiet", or "conservative", etc. For example, when I performed in UR's student production Things Fall Apart, I studied and practiced Nigerian culture. It was necessary for me to understand how to speak like someone from the country. I noticed when even speaking English, how different the nature of communication is. Nigerians are very expressive in their communication, unlike in American culture and many English-speaking cultures.
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