CULTURAL ADAPTATION AND LANGUAGE
by Anton Antonio
July 7, 2015
Cultural adaptation is the process of ensuring your message,
whether translated into another language or not, is presented using cultural
references and role models that your intended audience will identify with. Does this sound too technical? Well… here’s something less technical: Cultural adaptation is the revolutionary
process by which an individual modifies his personal habits to fit in to a
particular culture. It can also refer to
gradual changes within a culture or society that occur as people from different
backgrounds participate in the culture and share their perspectives and
practices.
If things are not yet too clear, let’s simplify cultural
adaptation further. Cultural adaptation
is nothing more that adaptations by which human beings cope with or adjust
to. In this context, adjustments are
characteristically made with the existing and developing elements in his
environment. Adaptation refers to
accommodation, change and evolution.
Culture embraces the areas of language, history, dress, food, holiday,
traditions, religion, music and other forms of art. Culture is simply the way we do life and adapting
our culture, we change our way of life in subtle or more drastic ways.
The most significant driver of cultural adaptation is
language. Languages can also undergo
cultural adaptation. The coinage and use
of words like “selfie”, “dabarkads”, “meme”, “peg”, “netizens”, “pabebe”, etc.
is part of the evolution of language. These
seemingly colloquial (meaning: used in ordinary or familiar conversation but
not formal or literary) words, unknown and misunderstood at first, eventually
develop to be part of the conversational and communications language. Even older folks, who find it uncomfortable
at first, eventually speak it too.
Cultural adaptation and language are concepts and important
elements in the study of environmental science for the reason that these enrich
our culture… and culture is an integral part of our environment. This is very evident in the Generation “Y” or
“millenials” who are competent at social media communications. Although cultural purists argue that this
could lead to the loss of cultural identity, adding new words/language will
eventually prove to be good in enhancing traditional and indigenous
language. This is the function of
cultural adaptation and language.
Just my
little thoughts…
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