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Culturally neutral

od sudanglo, 07. maj 2012

Sporočila: 20

Jezik: English

sudanglo (Prikaži profil) 07. maj 2012 08:57:12

How many times have you heard Esperanto described in this way? Pretty frequently, I would guess.

But what does this actually mean? A recent article in the 'New Scientist' on bilingualism set me thinking.

An experiment was reported with Japanese/English bilinguals, in which the subjects were required to complete a partial sentence like Real friends should ... or its equivalent in Japanese.

When the incomplete sentence was presented in Japanese, a typical response was ...help each other out. But when presented in English (maybe American) the choice was quite different, like ...be very frank.

Now if Esperanto is culturally neutral then Japanese Esperantists should react to Vera amiko estas tiu, kiu.. in a way reflective of Japanese values, and English or American Esperantists should complete the sentence in a way that reflects the values in their cultures.

On the other hand if Esperanto carries its own cultural values then the responses to such incomplete sentences should reflect that.

This experimental approach also provides a way of testing whether Esperanto is saturated with shared European values.

hebda999 (Prikaži profil) 07. maj 2012 12:19:25

The language is neutral, its users are not.

Michaelmoore (Prikaži profil) 07. maj 2012 15:48:36

Sudanglo, that's only assuming that Esperanto speakers represent the average person of which ever culture they come from. Previous studies have already shown that such is not case. Among the Esperanto community there are more vegetarians, more pacifists, etc. Esperanto tends to attract a certain group of people. I would expect the study you propose to confirm that.

razlem (Prikaži profil) 07. maj 2012 17:18:23

Do you have the link to the article?

Hyperboreus (Prikaži profil) 07. maj 2012 17:34:27

Forigite

sudanglo (Prikaži profil) 07. maj 2012 19:58:54

Among the Esperanto community there are more vegetarians, more pacifists, etc
Whilst it is true that we have a greater incidence of assorted stranguloj in Esperantujo, it would almost certainly be the case that certain cultural values would be common to Esperantists from a certain country.

What we mean by a cultural value is an assumption, belief, or value judgement adopted by most and characteristic of that culture, not a point of view held by a certain subgroup within that culture.

For pacificism or vegetarianism, to be cultural values associated with the speakers of X, this would have to be the prevailing view in X-land.

sudanglo (Prikaži profil) 07. maj 2012 20:28:47

The users aren't culturally neutral, because no human being can possibly be culturally neutral.
The interesting point about the experiment HB is not that it demonstrated that the bilinguals were culturally neutral (neither answering in ways typical of a Japanese monolingual nor of an English monolingual) but that which language was used in the question made a difference on the expression of cultural bias, bringing out an expression of a typical Japanese point of view or of a typical English/American point of view.

It was as though the subjects were culturally schizophrenic.

If Esperanto has its own culture (as is often asserted) then some interesting differences in answers should arise from this sort of experiment analogous to the biases expressed with bilinguals in the shift from one language to another.

If Esperanto is totally culturally neutral (producing no modulation of cultural bias) then English Esperantists should be just as English when speaking Esperanto, as French Esperantists, when speaking Esperanto, are French.

One of the principal arguments used by Esperantists that it brings together people on a culturally neutral ground may be ill-founded .

Evildela (Prikaži profil) 07. maj 2012 21:38:31

I think your looking into this wrong. By culturally neutral we mean that it hasn't got the historical baggage (cultures) attached other languages have. Languages are associated with historical powers, Esperanto has never been a historical power that's tried to suppress other peoples. That's what culturally neutral means to me, we as Esperantists have never enforced our culture.

sudanglo (Prikaži profil) 08. maj 2012 08:23:52

The truth is, of course, that the experiment reported in the New Scientist was incorrectly described. The bilinguals weren't asked the same question in both languages, so it is not surprising that they gave different answers.

As soon as the question what constitutes a true friendship is translated into Japanese, it becomes a different question.

What constitutes a good breakfast is not the same question as C'est quoi, un bon petit déjeuner.

Of course, you will get different answers from an English Esperantist and a French Esperantist if you ask 'El kio konsistas bona matenmanĝo?'

However, the question of what we mean when we describe Esperanto as a culturally neutral language is worth considering and especially whether there may be scientific techniques to explore the issue.

Edit: I am informed that the French believe only a madman would eat fish for breakfast, though an Englishman will happily tuck into kippers (or even fish fingers)at that hour. What the French think of devilled kidneys or fried black pudding in the morning, I have no idea.

sudanglo (Prikaži profil) 08. maj 2012 08:33:27

Razlem, go to newscientist.com and look for:

Bilingual brain boost: Two tongues, two minds
COVER STORY: 08:00 08 May 2012 speaking a second language can change everything from problem-solving skills to personality – almost as if you are two people.

It seems you have to register to gain access, but it looks as though after that it is free (senpaga).

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