In our school society, we all predominantly use English to communication. We do this for a variety of reasons, we grew up with the language, it is the language we're taught in, its the language our friends speak. Whatever the reason, we all use it. However, our language changes depending on who we speak to.
For example, lots of people in the world play online role-playing games, or MMORPG's, as they are colloquially known. This stands for Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Games. This is how they are known to people outside the group that plays the games. The style of speech that is used to express yourselves is very different to a linguist. This sentence: 'We need more dps on this boss. His enrage timer is going to tick soon. Tank, get the adds, and lock's pile on the dots. Heals are needed on group 1' means nothing to somebody that is outside of the MMO culture. It just sounds like odd words thrown into a fragmented sentence. However, to somebody that is well ingrained into that culture, the sentence means something very important. The same is true of a scientist. They could talk about variables, and molecule changes, reactions and data tables to another scientist, and they will understand this completely. A MMO player wouldn't understand at all.
However, there can be overlap. If somebody belonged to both cultures, they would be able to converse with both types of people. This can occur in many, many different cultures, with the way of speaking changing depending on who you are speaking to. I wouldn't speak to my English teacher the way that I talk to my guild in World of Warcraft, who I wouldn't talk to the same way as my girlfriend, who I wouldn't talk to the same was I speak to my parents.
An extension of this is macro-cultures: In the United Kingdom, we speak in a very different way to people in the United States. In the UK, there is a lot more irony in the speech, while in the US the style of humour in sentences is a lot more direct. This is reflected in all aspects of the culture, and is just shown predominantly in the speech. Advertisements are modified to reflect this, election campaigns and such. These change again in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Because we all speak slightly different dialects of English, we all have different things that appeal to us. The different amounts of people that speak these different dialects, and their different ways of thinking twists the language even more, so that each person has their own dialect, their own way of speaking. This special way of speaking is what makes people unique, and people being unique is what what makes cultures grow.
For example, lots of people in the world play online role-playing games, or MMORPG's, as they are colloquially known. This stands for Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Games. This is how they are known to people outside the group that plays the games. The style of speech that is used to express yourselves is very different to a linguist. This sentence: 'We need more dps on this boss. His enrage timer is going to tick soon. Tank, get the adds, and lock's pile on the dots. Heals are needed on group 1' means nothing to somebody that is outside of the MMO culture. It just sounds like odd words thrown into a fragmented sentence. However, to somebody that is well ingrained into that culture, the sentence means something very important. The same is true of a scientist. They could talk about variables, and molecule changes, reactions and data tables to another scientist, and they will understand this completely. A MMO player wouldn't understand at all.
However, there can be overlap. If somebody belonged to both cultures, they would be able to converse with both types of people. This can occur in many, many different cultures, with the way of speaking changing depending on who you are speaking to. I wouldn't speak to my English teacher the way that I talk to my guild in World of Warcraft, who I wouldn't talk to the same way as my girlfriend, who I wouldn't talk to the same was I speak to my parents.
An extension of this is macro-cultures: In the United Kingdom, we speak in a very different way to people in the United States. In the UK, there is a lot more irony in the speech, while in the US the style of humour in sentences is a lot more direct. This is reflected in all aspects of the culture, and is just shown predominantly in the speech. Advertisements are modified to reflect this, election campaigns and such. These change again in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Because we all speak slightly different dialects of English, we all have different things that appeal to us. The different amounts of people that speak these different dialects, and their different ways of thinking twists the language even more, so that each person has their own dialect, their own way of speaking. This special way of speaking is what makes people unique, and people being unique is what what makes cultures grow.
No comments:
Post a Comment