Language is based on Culture. I thought I already understood that. However, I realized I did not really clearly understand it. Currently I’m reading “Don’t sleep. There are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle” by Daniel L. Everett. He (1)held up some very good examples on the close relationship of language and culture. We can read the story of the native indigenous Brazilian tribe of Pirahá. Everett’s aim was to create a translated version of the Bible for the Pirahá. He is a linguist and had lived for several years with his wife and 3 children in the Pirahá village located deep in the Amazon near the beautiful river. He found several good teachers and he (3)imposed upon their help to figure out their language. I empathized with his struggles which was caused because English and Pirahá are completely different. Because Japanese is my mother tongue, I’ve gone through many struggles in learning English. There were many interesting examples in this book. Piraha is intonation-based language similar to Chinese. They can distinguish meaning depending different intonations, strong sound stresses even if the word is technically the same. At first, Dan couldn’t figure everything out (4)out of the blue and had to go through man trials before he could (2)iron out the difficulties.
Before the Revision
Title: Language is based on Culture.
Language is based on Culture. I thought I’ve already understood that. However, I realized I did not understand clearly in real. Now I’m reading “Don’t sleep. There are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle” by Daniel L. Everett. It (1)holds up good example the relationship of language and culture closely. We can read the story that native Brazilian: Pirahá who is indigenous people. Everett’s aim was creating a translated version Bible for Pirahá. He is a linguist. He had been lived several years with his wife and 3 children in Pirahá village located deep Amazon near the beautiful river. He found several good teachers and he needed (3)imposing on their help to figure out their language. I empathized his many struggles which was caused English and Pirahá are completely different language. Because Japanese is my mother tongue, I’ve feeling many struggles about learning English. There were many interesting examples in this book. Piraha is intonation language like as Chinese. They can distinguish meaning by how they use different intonation, strong stress sound even same pronounce a word. At first, Dan couldn’t figure out that (4)out of the blue. He tried to (2)iron out the difficulties.
homework:
(1) hold up: Show as an example.
(e.g.) “The teacher held up the diagram for all to see.”
(2)iron out: Resolve by discussion; eliminate differences.
(e.g.) “The meeting tomorrow will be an opportunity to iron out difficulties.”
(3)impose on/upon: Ask too much of someone.
(e.g.) “Is it alright if I stay? I don’t want to impose upon your hospitality.”
(4)out of the blue: If something happens out of the blue, it happens very unexpectedly.
(e.g.) I had nearly given up hope when out of the blue I was offered a job.
notice
In this article, I try to appropriate use 4 phrasal verbs(No.1~4) in this article which I write my daily life and thoughts because I’m learning English. This is one of writing training.