I. The Language-Culture Link, continued

Shared experiences & mental maps

Throughout a person’s lifetime, language “provides the most complex system of the classification of experience,” and is “the most flexible and most powerful tool developed by humans” (Duranti, 1997). This system of classification includes non-verbal ways of knowing and being that take particular form in specific settings and involve subtleties of meaning. This is of particular importance in health and mental health care experiences that can be emotionally laden.

To communicate most effectively with others, people need to understand how others view and talk about health, illness, physical and mental or emotional status. This system of classification is a mental map that links words to their context and meaning.

Similar points of reference (or associations) can arise from common experiences. Because of shared experiences, mental maps can take on similarities that allow shortcuts in how people speak. Frequent contact may enable people to build on past conversations and develop a shared vocabulary; through work or play, people communicate with others with whom they have shared experiences. For example, work environments often have a culture of their own. People become accustomed to communicating as if word meanings, systems of classifying experience, or mental maps are the same—so much so, that when gaps occur in communication, they often go unnoticed.

Over time, people living together in proximity, sharing a history, a common worldview, and a common language, are said to form a distinct identity or culture that distinguishes them from other groups. Just as all English or Spanish speakers, for example, do not speak their language in exactly the same way, all persons within a cultural group do not live their lives in exactly the same way. There are myriad differences in both language and culture (e.g., regional, occupational, and class—just to name a few). Although people with common experiences are likely to form similar mental maps, none are identical. For example, there may be variations in the meaning of 9/11 to people in New York City when compared with those in Chicago.

Diversity as a product of sociocultural processes

In Speaking of Health: Assessing Health Communication Strategies for Diverse Populations (2002), an IOM subcommittee examined how culture and ethnicity are defined and operationalized. The report asserts that cultural processes and life experiences are durable influences in shaping both individuals and groups. Moreover, the IOM views diversity as a product of sociocultural processes. Historically, in the United States, diversity has been narrowly viewed as only race and ethnicity. Regrettably, in many instances, race and ethnicity continue to be the primary basis by which groups of people are perceived, classified, and defined.

Contrary to this view, there are numerous cultural factors that influence diversity among individuals and groups. Such factors include, but are not limited to: geographic location; population density; population stability (e.g., rates of in-migration, out-migration, interstate migration, and immigration), see Campbell (1997); age distribution of the population; social history; inter-group relationships; and social, political, and economic climates. Still other factors influence diversity among individuals and groups, such as language, nationality, acculturation, assimilation, age, gender, sexual orientation/ identity, education, literacy, socioeconomic status, political affiliation, religious/spiritual beliefs, and health and mental health beliefs and practices.

A thorough understanding of these factors and their dynamics is essential for effective communication among this nation’s diverse populations (Goode, 2001).