After reading this passage, it's come to my notice that culture affects our personality and also our languages, and becuase of that people have different ways to express their thoughts and ideas. However, becuase of the distingusing of cultures, people often misunderstood each others languages. Most Americans think that Chinese people don't have any particular words for yes and no. However, Amy Tan disagree with this statement. She believes, the reason why a Chinese person cannot say, No straightly becuase of their modesty and politeness, in addition to feeling shy. However, Americans don't have enough time being so polite is becuase of their limited- schedule. Due to this reason, they are so straight-forward than chinese.
According to Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, every person gets influenced by their cultures and language, as a result, it also affects on their personality. For instances, if anybody asks a chinese whether they have eaten or not, they are going to answer it differently such as eaten already, have not and later; however, these are the things often unknow to an American. They complain that chinese language is so difficult to understand because it provides so many various tones.
However, if we have excuse to each other languages, we will never get any solution to understand them. So, Any Tan wants people to know a language better before making any compliment.
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14 years ago
i think it is not only about concerning about Yes or No, it is also about their characteristic. you might notice that she talked about their way of daily talking or the way they have been bringing up by the family. actually, family teach Chinese children how to behave as they grow older. they are taught to obey the elder person. so, they are kind of not allowed to say no at any situation. Therefor, they never needed a word to say no. you can find a example about that in these short essay.
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