Us and Them; Investigating Languaculture

Abstract

Now more than ever do people come in contact with people from different cultural backgrounds. These people might speak a different language and might have different customs, traditions, and rituals. Michael Agar in Language Shock (1994) argues that language and culture are not to be separated and that people will only ever be able to understand the Other when language and culture are fused together in a new term: languaculture. Argar suggest that this new term is needed to approach the differences between people from different cultural backgrounds. However, Agar omits certain important negative implications that this term might have for immigrants, members of a host culture, and language learners. This thesis aims to convince the reader that the adoption of languaculture should not be considered too lightly.