Analyze Book Book Review Sample

The book describes how communication works living in the age that Alvin Toffler had predicted. The world that people move a lot and are exposed to different linguistic and cultural systems, conversation can be a problem but there is always the urge of problem solving to find a language that we can all understand. There are over 100 cultures in the world and in different countries. They speak in different language but in this world we live I today, we can only survive if we are able to communicate with others. Talk of businesspersons for example; they have to travel across the world so that they can be able to earn as many profits as possible. They have to learn about the culture and languages as well as they are vital. You may learn just the language but never be able to interact with the people smoothly because you do not understand their culture.
According to the author, it with the language that we speak we express the people we really are and the important things that are there in our world. Language is rooted deeply in culture, and vice versa, that the author calls it languacalture. Doing a lot of research on languaculture is very important because the world that we live in filled with weapons. The author further demonstrates how to find the culture in language and how to pursue a different point of view. He explains some of the experiences that he has gone through his life in different cultures. First, he explains how he had to pay an electricity bill in Austria, handling a bank account in Mexico and acquiring a parking ticket in the United States. The three countries have different cultures and languages and everything is handled differently from the other.
When in a Greek island, Agar is told by a Swiss friend that “Americans have trouble with culture” (22). He does some research and concludes that, “starts when you realize that you’ve got a problem with language and the problem has to do with who you are”. The awareness by people that they have difficulties in other cultures is enough for them to negotiate between the two cultures that prove to be very hard for them to understand. One has to comfortably understand that they have a problem when it comes to a certain culture and start working on it. When we pretend that, we understand some cultures it just becomes difficult for us to understand them and negotiate between the two. We might never get to understand these cultures as we know the languages and are satisfied with the fact that we tell ourselves that we understand the people. It will not be possible to communicate efficiently with people from these cultures, as they will always try to communicate how they do in their culture that we do not understand. This is what Agar referred to as Languaculture a term borrowed from Linguaculture.
Agar states that language is guided by the culture and while a person is speaking even in a foreign language, it is easy to know whom they are. We can also tell through how they behave while speaking and when doing other normal things. The culture expresses itself in the language they speak. In an individual country, it is easy to tell which part the person comes through the way he speaks. For example in China, people in the south will speak differently from their north counterparts as they have developed different cultures. They will also behave differently while speaking due to how they express their views in their culture. If we speak to them in the same way, they might have a different understanding to what we are saying.
This is the reason as to why Agar, insists that it will be very helpful to learn the culture and if possible many cultures. He has travelled around the world and found that the different cultures have different ways in which they represent themselves. How he handled a bank in the United States was not the same as in Mexico. The processes were similar but culture and language makes them seem different. We have to understand them and embrace them so that we can avoid different things that can be brought upon by the lack of these cultures. A little misinterpretation can cause big chaos that might turn to being personal and directed to a whole culture. An example is the Swiss friend who stated that Americans have a problem in understanding culture. He might have met a few people that did not understand the culture and therefore stereotyped the whole group due to the people he has met in his life. If the group that he has met before in life had learned the cultures then he would have noticed that Americans do not have trouble learning a new culture.
In the modern world, it is important that we learn about other languages so that we can be able to interact with each other. With the presence of dangerous weapons, we never know when a war is going to start and we will be left out, as we do not understand the culture of the other people. We should therefore not only understand the language but the culture as they will help us in different ways.

Conclusion

Michael Agar is one of the world’s renowned linguists. He has travelled across the globe studying different cultures and languages. His knowledge of different culture has helped many people understand what language and culture mean and their importance. In this book, he explains how culture and language are related. The book describes how communication works living in the age that Alvin Toffler had predicted. The world that people move a lot and are exposed to different linguistic and cultural systems, conversation can be a problem but there is always the urge of problem solving to find a language that we can all understand. There are over 100 cultures in the world and in different countries. According to the author, it with the language that we speak we express the people we really are and the important things that are there in our world. Language is rooted deeply in culture, and vice versa, that the author calls it languacalture. A lot of research needs to be done on languaculture due to the world that we live in filled with weapons. People who love travelling, businesspersons and people interested in new languages can use this book.

Work Cited

Agar, Michael. Language Shock: Understanding the Culture of Conversation. New York: Harper Collins, 1994.