Language and Culture

"- What are you going to do today ?
- I have to work
- No way! you have a job ?
- Of course not, I have an exam !
- Ok..."

Here is a classical misunderstanding I encountered a lot
This is a discussion between an English and a French
The Italian don't understand why the French says "I have to work" instead of "I have to study"
The explanation is that in French we use the same word to say "work" and "study" : the verb "travailler", so classically a French who is not perfectly fluent will say "I have to work" instead of "I have to study for my exam". "I have to work" means in English that you have to work for your job...

"Many foreign students on American campuses experience discomfort in communicating with Americans due to;
- Lack fluency in paralinguistic patterns e.g.
- Accent, intonation and placement of pauses
- Inappropriate or awkward kinesic patterns e.g.
- Facial expressions, eye behaviour, hand gestures,
- Body posture, body movement
- Interpersonal spatial behaviour"

Why are we not able to practice perfectly another language than our mother language ?

Nowadays, we do not know yet all the brain mechanisms which are in root of our language practicing. But we know that the language leads to the socialization of everybody, we learn it during our childhood and keep it for the life. By the language the human access to the knowledges, norms, skills and so on.

The language is also a proof of our origin, even within a country. We can easily recognize by hearing the voice of a person, from which part of France he is, even from which part of Paris and its suburb !
Indeed, as we said the language is the proof of socialization, consequently it is a proof of culture and even subculture. A person from the 16th district of Paris (richest district) will not have at all the same language than a young from the north suburb of Paris though they are separated by only several dozens of kilometers !

A language can also be a terrible barrier to the adaptation. I had a friend who traveled from Europe to New-York, he was so confused with his English that he spent all the plane trip without asking any water glass because he was afraid to be confronted to the air hostess !

But I think that we can not know the entire culture without knowing the entire language. The culture is so complex and very few people are able to know two or more culture very well...