Language and Culture Amalgamation

Abstract

For centuries, language researchers, theorists, linguists, educational psychologists, and an ocean of scholars have agreed that language and culture are closely related and affect each other in so many ways. They support each other in so many sensitive situations, they complement each other on many occasions, they reflect each other on many aspects, and they protect each other through conflicts and wars. Above all, for centuries, they somehow managed to survive by being inseparable; ‘like the skin and flesh of our body’. The meanings of a particular language anywhere in the world represent the culture of a particular social group. Therefore, without having direct access to its language, it is impossible to understand its culture, tradition, beliefs, values and customs of that particular social group. This is because of their intimate connection or bond they have singularly and together. Learning a language, therefore, is not only learning the alphabet, the letter sounds and the shapes, the meaning, the grammar rules, and the structure or arrangement of words, but it is also learning the behavior of the society and its cultural customs. Thus, language teaching should always contain some references to the culture. On the one hand, we are thankful to the language that provides us with important tools we use to express and communicate our thoughts and ideas on a daily basis. On the other hand, we are also thankful to the values and customs of our culture in the countries we live and grow up in the shape or construct the way in which we think and behave to a certain degree. The main purpose of this paper is to identify some of the characteristic relations or bonds that exist between any language and culture in anywhere in the world, with reference to Pashto Language and culture.