Culture

Introduction

It goes without saying that language is the carrier of culture. Culture defines who we are. Peoples, G. (1999:36) argue that often each society which share a particular set of customs and cultural tradition speak the same language.Because a language develops according to the particular needs of the people who live in a certain location at a certain period of time, who share a way of life and culture, it is clear that language is strongly intertwined with culture and identity(Hofstede, G. 2001).In other words, language ,culture and identity are closely related with each other. Identity in its most rudimentary form cannot easily be defined since there are numerous factors (such as language, traditions, culture, religion, belief systems and perhaps even ones position in society).When we speak of one's individual identity we speak as what makes us the person that we are.Our identity consists of what makes us unique and different as an individual and from others. As Chinese, we share some characteristics that just belong to us. In this paper, I am going to analyze the relationship between my language Chinese and my self- identity and try to figure out how my language affects who I am in my life.

When I was a kid, I was always instilled the value of Confucius. Our language helps mould our way of thinking and consequently, different languages may probably express speaker's unique ways of understanding the world .Chinese and English belong to different types of language and linguistic systems, which means different language systems can determine distinct thinking patterns and identities(Hofstede, G. 2001).I would like to talk about who I am by referring a famous figure in China's history. As it well known that Confucius is a Chinese philosopher who exerted huge influences on every aspect of Chinese people,such as education,values,beliefs and so on. His ideas is so influential that still has strong influence on Chinese society from around 100 BC till the early 20th century. The core value of Confucianism is teach people to love and respect each other,encourage life-long learning and to be modest all the time. However, Confucianism also instills the idea of following the specific social institution and obey the authority with heart and soul,etc. (Spence, J. 1990). By talking about Confucianism,what I want to express here is that I am also one of Chinese people who is influenced by Confucius and we share similar identity. China is a country with a long and unique history. Unlike European people, a lot of Chinese people have religious adherence to Buddhism and a philosophical leaning toward Confucianism and Taoism(Liu, P.2005). In light of this culture, Chinese people are modest and sometimes even quite shy in public. Our language and culture shape our values,beliefs as well as identities. Because Confucius taught us to show great respect for our teachers, as a normal Chinese student, unlike students in the West who like to pose questions in class and discuss actively, I tend to sit quietly and listen to lectures without the courage to ask questions or challenge my teacher's ideas to show my respect.To put it in another way, I learn my lesson passively and lack of independent as well as critical thinking. In the meantime, our language also imposed the idea of obedience to authority absolutely. As a result, it is understandable why most people can tolerate Chinese government's policy of blocking the use of