Interpretations of the World Around Us - Intro
For me, one of the most interesting things about comparing different cultures is the variations in interpretation of the world around these groups of people that is evident in their languages. These interpretations offer insights not only into the local environment of a particular culture, but also (to varying degrees) a unique logic in assigning names to things and a reflection of the culture’s attitudes and values.
Even in similar or neighbouring cultures there are often radically different perceptions of the same things found in their lexicons, so comparing two culturally and historically disparate languages like English and Japanese - languages that evolved on islands located off opposite ends of the Eurasian landmass under the influence of very different continental languages and cultures - naturally yields some interesting differences.
In this series I’ll be analysing these differences between interpretations of the world around us found in English and Japanese and will add the links below when I post each part on Big On Japan.
- Part 1 - Cultural Significance in Numbers of Words
- Part 2 - Direct Translations and Word Associations
- Part 3 - Onomatopoeia
- Part 4 - English Around the World