I live in an area of Virginia that has a high population of recent immigrants, especially Hispanics. Today, during a program at a local women's group meeting the speaker discussed cultural differences and how to better communicate with people who are not born and raised in America.
One of the most thought-provoking statements she made was, "Do you know that the English language is the only one in which the word for 'I' is a capital letter?" She attributed this to the fact that Americans are centered on ourselves whereas people from other cultures think of themselves as "we" (part of a group, family, etc.).
Everyone at the meeting found this quite enlightening. What do you think?
Related Stories: | Topics:Work/Life, customer experience, Virginia, United States, Culture and Lifestyle, Hispanic and Latino Issues, Special Interest Groups |
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Recent Comments | 7 Total
August 12, 2004 at 9:50pm by Steve Portigal
There's some element of QED in your post since it implies that Americans are the only ones that speak English.
August 12, 2004 at 10:11pm by Lois Carter Fay
Sorry, I don't know what QED means. But I didn't mean to imply that only Americans speak English. What I meant is that it is one reason we Americans are misunderstood by people from other countries, and why we don't seem to understand the nuances of other cultures.
There are many other factors as well, of course.
August 13, 2004 at 12:58am by Evelyn Rodriguez
Here are two posts that speak about identity, relationships and also states Anglo-Saxon cultures are primarily individualistic while others are more familial societies.
The second references Fukuyama's book Trust.
http://www.emergic.org/archives/indi/008552.php
http://evelynrodriguez.typepad.com/crossroads_dispatches/2004/05/index.h...
August 13, 2004 at 8:14am by Lois Carter Fay
Very interesting. Thanks Evelyn.
August 13, 2004 at 10:51am by Valeria Maltoni
Some other thoughts for consideration:
English contains more immediate, practical ways to express concepts and actions vs. more phonetic languages, like Italian for example. It translates into shorter, more direct language in comparison with others.
It is more flexible and evolves constantly because it developed orally for longer than many romance languages originating from Latin.