CULTURE
SHOCK AND LANGUAGE LEARNERS
Facing
totally different thing in new environment might cause both exciting and
stressful for some people. It is commonly happened when the one who learns a
new language will face some cases. According to Stern (1983), language learning
is a process that can be traumatic and lead to language shock and culture shock,
furthermore, Hofstede (1997, p.207) culture shock can be caused by the fact
that appropriate behavior, language, underlying beliefs,values, and attitudes[1]. However,
when the one learns a language, it doesn’t mean the one learns only a language
itself. But since the time, the one has unconciously affected by culture shock.
They learn many things else beyond it. That’s why a language learner has
something special dealing with culture shock. So that the writer briefly would
like to state some ideas about the
relationship betwen culture and language learners also how the culture effects the language learners.
Whoever
they are, wherever they live, and no matter what their belief are, when they come to a new circumtances, they
will absolutely get such a shock feeling
that is usually called Culture shocked. It is the phenomenon individual commonly experience when they are
confronted with the realities of the different cultural environment. The phrase
of culture shocked is used to describe the feeling of individuals when they are
encounter different social norms, values, belief, and way of doing[2].
This kind of things happened to every single person in the world who face the
new thing for the first time in their life. In addition, the stage of culture
shock has different level for everyone. The more people deal with the culture,
the more people adjust to it. According to Shary, a girl from Tobaggo Island,
“she said that, it’s hard to learn a language without understanding the
culture, when someone learns a language, it means that someone learns its
culture unconciously, and try to get used to it. As this indonesian language learner’s example when she first came to indonesia she
got shocked to see some of Indonesian having chit chat with their family by
unfolded the mat on the floor and then sat down on it. “ Actually it was quite
strange for me, but that’s indonesian
culture and I have to try to understand”. she replied. Also as she has traveled
alot, she had more comprehension toward cultures in such a way that she never
tries to compere among them. So, by understanding the culture more, it
will get us easier to understand the
language.
There
are many theories about language and culture, according to Konjaranigrat in his
sociolinguistic, language is apart of culture, language and culture are two
system that adhere to a human. If a language is a system that coordinate
human’s interaction in the society, so that a language is a system that
functioning the interaction ongoing[3].
It’s totally not false to state that it’s impossible to be a good language
learner without understanding its
culture, because language and culture are like two side of a coin.
furthermore, when a language learner learn a target language without
understanding its culture it will be tasteless,
why I said so, because learning a language needs “sense”. It is used to
choose the words properly based on the context or to state the idea according
to the target language means, eventhough a language has very strong
relationship with the culture, it doesn’t mean that a good language learner will not effected
by culture shock when they are coming to the area of target language. Nevertheless,
according to Stern, A good language learners are often believed not to have to
face culture shock[4].
In my mind, there is a question displayed about what kind of a good learner
that should not face a culture shock. Perhaps, this statement would be
appropriate if we have another
assumption Such as the language learner has
experiencing different aspects of culture while they learn a language, or the
language learner has dealing with many kinds of culture in the world that means
they do not focus on one language only, but they put a head on several of
languages that they are having much knowledge about cultures so that they can
look something from different perspective and might understand the differences
among others.
In
conclution, there isn’t any of a good language learner who doesn’t get a culture shock eventhough the one has
already known the culture very well.
Because the process of teaching-learning in the classroom itself has
immersed the target language environment creating affective problems and triggering such a language shock, stress and
culture shock. But at least, as being a language learner the stage of culture
shock the one gets can be manageable and handled, and is able to go beyond the
comparison of similarities and differences and think to construct something new
by taking the positive things to understand the diversity and accept
dissimilarity.
written by : Mutia Elviani
project paper of EAP class
project paper of EAP class
submitted on november 27, 2012
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