Challenge in Learning New Languages
by Learning language is a complex art that should never be seen as replacing words from one languages with words from the other. Words from two languages widely believed to have the same meanings, may actually have different meanings because of cultural factors.
Different Cultural Factor
While language teachers who tell their students that certain word in one language have the same meaning with other word in other language are right in their own way, we have to realize that each language may be spoken by society with different culture. Different culture have different rule about when certain word should be used and when it should never be mentioned.
The Chinese word “xie-xie (谢谢)” for example is a synonym of “thank you” in English. However, the way Chinese use “xie-xie” is different from the way Westerners use “thank you”. Chinese never use “xie-xie” when receiving something from family member or close friends. Such use could be considered an act distancing themselves or in some cases outright rude.
In Japan, “ohayou gozaimazu” (good morning) is considered more polite than simply “ohayou” and the concept social hierarchy is quite strong in Japanese society. It is considered impolite to say “ohayou” to your teachers or to someone substantially older than the speaker. From my observation, the Japanese keep carrying this practice even when the learn to speak Indonesian. Almost no Indonesian I know say “Selamat Pagi” (also mean good morning) even to people substantially older than they are. Most Indonesian simply say “pagi” which is considered more concise and less time consuming. I observe that Japaneses working as expatriate in Indonesia often say “Selamat Pagi”, perhaps because they think it is more polite. For Indonesian both “selamat pagi” and “pagi” are considered equally polite.
Teachers
Unless you happen to have teachers who are themselves linguists, you are going to be taught by new teachers. Language teachers teaching different languages are subject to different cultural exposure. You can expect that your teachers are going to have some bias (usually good) toward the culture speaking the language they are going to teach. These biases are natural since no one is going to learn a languages in depth and detail if they never like the culture speaking said language.
Additionally, each cultures have their own unique approach towards education. The way they teach the language to you is going to be affected. Cultural effect aside, if you want to be good at it you have to learn from different teachers whose teaching methods are going to vary anyway. You have to adapt your learning method to match your teacher’s teaching method.
Never ever think that you can speak a new language only by reading a single book or learning from a single teacher. We don’t even do that when we learn our first language. Linguistic skills can only be developed by constant exchange of semantic with natives language speakers.
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