Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
I hereby state that I: Đỗ Thị Minh Ngọc, 061E10, being a candidate for the
degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College
relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited
in the library.
Signature
May, 2010
Graduation Paper
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
ABSTRACT
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. ………………………………………………………………..15
Components of Culture
Figure 2. ………………………………………………………………..53
The number of English weather proverbs and Vietnamese weather proverbs
in three categories
Figure 3. ………………………………………………………………...54
The proportion of English proverbs in three categories
Figure 4. ………………………………………………………………..55
The proportion of Vietnamese weather proverbs in three categories
Figure 5…………………………………………………………………56
Weather proverbs that anticipate weather changes
Figure 6. ………………………………………………………………..58
Weather proverbs that represent weather’s influence on production
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ................................................................................... i
ABSTRACT..........................................................................................................ii
LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................... iii
REFERENCES ......................................................................................................
APPENDIX .............................................................................................................
Chapter I: INTRODUCTION
I.1. Rationale
Never should learning a language be separated from learning its
culture. There is such a statement that “Language is Culture and Culture is
Language” which emphasizes the complex homologous relationship between
language and culture. As Franz Boas, a German American anthropologist,
stated, one could not really understand another culture without having an
access to its language because of the intimate connection between them. In
other words, the relation between language and culture is so inextricable that
we could not understand or appreciate the one without the knowledge of the
other (To M.T., 2000). It can be said that learning the culture of the
countries in which the target language is spoken as the first language is
indispensable part of the learning process. “We cannot really learn a second-
language – or more precisely, learn the uses of that language unless we learn
about the culture because many of the meanings constructed in the language
are culture specific.” (Pollock, 1990 in To M.T. 2000). Thus, to language
learners, understanding and exploring the culture of the target language is of
vital and unprecedented importance, especially in the context of
globalization as these days. Learning the language and its culture
simultaneously has become nearly a “should”, or to be more strongly
emphasized, a “must”; otherwise, learners might stand a great chance of
suffering from embarrassment and culture shock when they take part in
every daily life cross-culture communication.
Thirdly, the study is to equip both those learning English and those
learning Vietnamese as their foreign language with rich knowledge on
Vietnamese proverbs and English proverbs in general and on weather
proverbs in particular. At the same time, it will help them to link the
knowledge they already have about their culture with the newly learned
foreign one, from which they build cross-cultural knowledge that afterwards
effectively serve their communicative purposes in daily-life and
international contexts.
To achieve the above aims, the following research questions are put
forward:
1. What cultural values and beliefs are reflected in the weather
proverbs in both English and Vietnamese?
2. What are the cultural similarities and differences between
Vietnamese culture and English culture that weather proverbs can convey?
What factors lead to such differences?
2000 proverbs. After being selected, these proverbs are compared and
analyzed. Collating proverbs is indeed a hard job; therefore, the researcher
only put an emphasis on two bases: first, based on a quantitative comparison
of the number of proverbs, and second, based on the analysis of typical
images used in proverbs. The main focus of the study is to find out the
similarities and differences in cultural values that are reflected through
weather proverbs.
analyzed in the comparison and contrast with each other in order to highlight
their similarities and differences.
II.1. Culture
Culture is selective
Every culture represents a limited choice of behavior patterns from the
infinite patterns of human experience. “Culture is selective in that among the
gamut of human possibilities it chooses some options rather then others for
its bearers” (Charles Tabor - quoted by Dr. Curt Watke, 2003). This
selection is made according to the basic assumption and values that are
meaningful to each culture. Therefore, culture helps to defines the
boundaries of different groups.
According to Dr. Curt Watke, this characteristic is important to all
students of intercultural communication for two reasons. First, it reminds us
that a culture selects to tell each succeeding generation is a reflection of
what that culture deems important. Second, the notion of selectivity also
suggests that cultures tend to separate one group from another. If one culture
selects work as an end (Japan), while another emphasize work as a means to
an end (Mexico), so we have a cultural separation.
Culture is not static
Culture is not static but it keeps on changing over time. “All cultural
knowledge does not perpetually accumulate. At the same time that new
cultural traits are added, some old ones are lost because they are no longer
useful”. One cultural trait that is changed will have an impact on other traits
because they are functionally interconnected. As a result, there commonly is
a resistance to major changes. For example, many men in North America
and Europe resisted the increase in economic and political opportunities for
women over the last century because of the far ranging consequences. It
inevitably changed the nature of marriage, the family, and the lives of all
men. It also significantly altered the workplace as well as the legal system
and the decisions made by the governments.
One more point to notice is that culture influences people‟s beliefs,
attitudes and values. Cultures throughout the world share many similarities,
but are marked by considerable differences. For example, while people of all
cultures experiences happiness, how this feeling is expressed varies from
one culture to the next. One more example that can be observed is whereas
table manner or eating etiquette exists in every culture, it is never the same
but very unique and distinctive. It can be calculated that only one third of the
world population uses tableware to eat, another third uses chopsticks, and
the rest enjoys their meals with their own fingers. Even in the same country,
these differences are still so apparent. With just a look at the South and the
North of Vietnam, we can see such differences in eating practices. While
Northerners consider the act of inviting the others, especially older people,
before meals nearly a must which shows the respect, Southerners tend to be
more easy-going and they seldom or never practise this action.
Components of Culture
Lifestyle
Plastic arts Lifestyle
photography and photography and
Religions cinema cinema
Habits and customs literature literature
Mass media
Audio arts Mass media
Information & Signals
Festivals Information &
Signals Architecture
Dramma Architecture
Performing arts
Handicrafts Performing arts
Language Language
Handicrafts
Dramma
Festivals
Figure 1. Components of CultureAudio arts
(Adopted from the textbook “Cơ sở văn hóa Habits
Việt Nam”
and customs
binds you to your parents, but just as importantly, it binds you to your
grandparents. Your grandparents are your link to understanding two major
questions in life: Where did we come from? And Where are we now?
Answering these important questions life asks you: Who am I? and Who will
I become? The link that language provides to family, group identity, and
individual identity makes it a major component of culture” (Dean
Papadopoulos, PhD).
As shown above, language is the major component of culture. It is
also the focus of this research. Further background knowledge related to
language will be given in the next part.
Individuals have the ultimate duty to carry out with the utmost dignity
in all circumstances so as not to bring shame to oneself and the family. The
duties and roles of each family member are well defined. They govern the
actions of the individual and are the sacrifices one makes to one‟s family.
For example, the role of parents is to raise and educate children, instill them
with moral values. The children‟s duty is to obey their parents and never to
question their authority or teaching.
Respect
This is the guiding principle of all relationships. It is conveyed
through language and demeanor. At home, one is expected to show respect
to parents and family members. Outside the home, it is shown to elderly
people, teachers, and other authority figures. By showing respect to others,
individuals indicate their expectation that they will also be treated with the
respect.
Education
Education, valued more than material wealth and success, is the pillar
of the culture and begins at home. An uneducated rich person is regarded as
inferior to a learned person who is poor. In the traditional social system, the
scholar is at the top of the social hierarchy, followed by the farmer, the
artisan, and the tradesman.
Family
Traditionally, children were taught to forsake and make sacrifices to
ensure the family‟s welfare and harmony. Allegiance to one‟s family was
absolute and included fulfilling one‟s responsibilities and proper conduct
(i.e., modesty, self-control, moderation). Traditionally, the father has been
responsible for the wellbeing of family members and the ultimate decision-
maker and provider. Grandparents and elder relatives within the household
often share authority with the father. Hierarchy of authority also exists
among siblings. The oldest son of the family has the most authority and it is
his duty to look after the siblings if the parents are deceased. Familial duties
and obligations extend to the extended family and beyond. Ancestor
worship, for example, is a form of filial piety and children are responsible
for the maintenance of the ancestral tombs and pay homage to ancestor‟s
spirit at home.
The family
English culture put an emphasis on the crucial role played by properly
functioning families in civilizing children‟s natural barbarity, and in
socializing them to the disciplines and ambitions of the world of work
(Dennis, 1993). The family is where morals are learned and also where the
necessary psychological infrastructure of freedom is laid down (David
Marsland, 1995). Therefore, children are always encouraged by their parents
to lead their independent lives when they are still young.
II.2. Language
1
Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language
Cockney that make them distinguishable from those in the Western part of
London.
In Vietnam, although Vietnamese is spoken throughout the country,
there is still a slight difference between the North and the South with regard
to certain words and pronunciations. For instance, the word “ao dai” is
pronounced “ao yai” by the Southerners but “ao zai” by Northerners.
Northerners tend to have a slightly clipped accent and have a tendency to
switch the „l‟ and „n‟ sounds around in Vietnamese words. “If you speak
Vietnamese, it just means that it is easy to tell which part of the country a
Vietnamese comes from.” (Claire Ellis)
a. Micro functions
example, where the beginning Dear Sir/ Madam and ending Your faithfully
also serve that purpose.
Recording function: Recording function denotes using language to
make a durable record of things that ought to be remembered. Owing to its
omnipresence, writing is probably the most significant function of language.
Identifying function: Language is used to identify the objects and
events in the world we live in. Without this function language would be
almost useless, as it is thanks to the names of things that we know what is
talked about. We use names to classify different types of things, whether we
call a car an automobile, a lorry, a van or a truck makes a big difference.
Reasoning function: language is said to be the instrument of thought.
In most cases it is extremely difficult to think about anything without any
use of words. In fact, it is also difficult not to think for a longer period of
time as human brains work all the time processing information, thus
providing us with concepts formulated by means of language.
Communicating function: We use language to communicate our
ideas, feelings, and thoughts. Requesting, apologizing, informing, ordering
as well as promising and refusing are all reasons for communicating our
ideas.
Pleasure functions: Depending on the sounds of languages some are
perceived as being mild as English, for example, or as being crude as
German. People also derive pleasure from unusual use of syntactic rules, as
well as novelties of word meanings which are often used by skilful writers.
b. Macro function
greeting. With that way, it helps them to start a conversation and to maintain
the relationship.
Richard assumes that the expressive and social functions of language
particularly overlap. When a waiter says to the customer “What can I do for
you, sir?” he more or less wants to show his respect to the guest. In
Vietnamese, it is very easy to see the expressive and social functions overlap
in addressing form. For example, if a person is addressed as “ngài/ ông”, it
means that in the eye of the speaker, he is in a higher social position in terms
of age or economic status. The speaker expresses an attitude of respect to the
hearer, and at the same time, aims at establishing and maintaining a good
social relationship which is based on mutual respect. In contrast, if a speaker
calls anyone “thằng/ mày”, this way of addressing can be interpreted as an
expression of either disrespect and hatred or a closeness in relationship
between two friends. If the former is applied, this way of addressing tends to
result in a breakdown of a social relationship. And if the latter is applied, on
the contrary, it helps to reinforce or improve the closeness and friendliness
between two people.
“…It is through the mother tongue that the child learns about himself, his family
and environment. Through it, he is also exposed to the songs, the heroic tales,
poetic description of the landscape, and the traditional wisdom and achievements
of his people. The child cherishes the authentic evidence of greatness of his
people and cultural achievements; he quite naturally develops a sentimental
attachment and also loyalty which he feels his duty to protect…”
“The background linguistic system (in other words, the grammar) of each
language is not merely a reproducing instrument for voicing ideas but rather it
itself the shape of ideas, the program and guide for the individual‟s mental
activity, for his analysis of impressions, for his synthesis of his mental stock in
trade. Formulation of ideas is not an independent process, strictly rational in the
old sense, but is part of a particular grammar, and differ, from slightly to greatly,
as between different grammar. Grammatical categories available in a particular
language not only help the users of that language to perceive the world in a
certain way but also at the same time limit such perception. They act as blinkers:
you perceive only what your language allows you or predisposes you to perceive.
language, culture would not be possible and would hardly be passed from
one generation to the next (Emmitt and Pollock, 1997). On the other hand,
language is influenced and shaped by culture. Cultural differences are the
most serious areas causing misunderstanding, unpleasantness and even
conflict in cross-cultural communication.
Therefore, just like a child when he learns his native language, he is
learning his own culture, when we learn a foreign language, we are also
coming to contact its culture, and the learning of this new culture can never
be separated from the process of learning the language.
II.4. Proverbs
One will either enjoy or suffer from the consequences of his earlier
actions. Therefore, for the peace of your mind, it is advisable that you do
good things to others. No one can escape from punishment after their
immoral actions.
People should have affection for others and help each other to
overcome difficulties. Giving other people your support and assistance is as
important as your receiving help from them. Therefore, we should be kind
and not be mercenary or selfish.
When raising and educating children, parents should not “wrap their
children in cotton wool”. A pampered children can be easily become spoilt.
Gentleness is necessary but seriousness and discipline are important, too. If
you are ignorant of your child‟s mistake, you will fail to fulfill the educating
function of a parent and you will indirectly spoil your child. Therefore,
punishment at proper time and proper place is vital for the sake of a good
education.
Proverbs are a kind of oral folklores which are passed down from old
generations to young generations. Before being recorded in written form,
they were transmitted orally. Children listened to and learned proverbs in
their parents‟ and grandparents‟ speech. It is people who created proverbs,
used them in speech, and then taught them to their descendants. Therefore,
as time passes by, the stock of idioms is also enriched.
Like words in a language, proverbs are units created a long time ago.
They are used widely especially in everyday language. Most proverbs people
frequently use today make use of simple and common images and plain
words that were ever-used by ancient generations. That is the reason why
sometimes we can pick from proverbs some words which sound unfamiliar
as they are no longer used in daily conversations these days.
Nevertheless, the traditional characteristic of proverbs is not only
shown in the use of old-fashioned words but also expressed in the deep
cultural and social content they carry. For example, the proverb “con dại cái
mang” is considered to appear a long time ago, maybe in matriarchal period.
They have traditionality because they reflect philosophy, morality, social
struggles, social behaviors, production experience from generations to
generations which still have been valuable in our society nowadays.
proverbs. Some of them are: “Thương người như thể thương thân” in Gia
huấn ca (assumedly attributed to Nguyen Trai), “Khi nên trời cũng chiều
lòng người” or “Chữ tài liền với chữ tai một vần” in “Truyện Kiều” by
Nguyen Du.
2
Retrieved from http://www.worldweatherpost.com/2009/05/06/weather-proverbs-true-or-false/
proverbs that exist in the stock or through the use of some specific
expressive words in the proverbs. For example, in Vietnamese proverbs, the
word “lạy trời…” expresses the feeling of being inferior and afraid as well
as an attitude of respect and worship toward the nature.
Third, weather proverbs can give implication of human cognition
level. It answers the question whether the experience about weather
embodied in weather proverbs are the results of scientific studies or only of a
pure observation followed with some explanations based on deification and
superstition.
Above are three main cultural values of weather proverbs which are
also what the researcher needs to clarify during his research through the
process of analyzing and comparing weather proverbs in English and in
Vietnamese.
the authors are still alive, the researcher can conduct “member checks” to
determine the perspective for the interpretation of the data. However, in the
case of proverbs, this solution can hardly apply. There are several reasons
for this. First, proverbs are common inventions attributed to a large group of
people in a community, not a particular individual. Second, most of them
were fabricated a long time ago, but new proverbs have still continued to be
created so far. Third, proverbs are culturally specific units which represent
the cultures of a particular group or community defined by geographic
borders and within a specific period of time in human development history.
For all the reasons above, it is essential that materials to be reviewed
be selected carefully and seriously. They must be reliable enough and must
contain profound contents, rich source of information, and hold unbiased
viewpoints. Bearing these notes in mind, the researcher has conducted an
extensive data search in some Vietnamese and English proverb dictionaries,
academic writings which were accomplished by some worldwide famous
anthropologists and uploaded to reliable educational websites. The
researcher has also consulted a number of publications written by both
Vietnamese and foreign anthropologists and researchers to avoid the biased
and/or prejudiced viewpoints that may accidentally be included in the
research.
websites which contain a list of proverbs in order to pick out all the weather
proverbs needed for the study.
Step 2 is carried out with the aim of collecting necessary background
knowledge for the research. A large amount of academic articles are
consulted so that the researcher can obtain a full concept of all the items she
is studying. Added to this, the researcher studies several available cultural
books to detect the cultural values and beliefs of the two countries. Last but
not least, many of the previously conducted researches are referred to so that
the researcher can find out what has been studied, what results have been
drawn, and what is more and what is new she can contribute in her own
research.
are gathered. They are gradually “emerge” from the data through some types
of mystical relationship between the researcher and the data sources
(Bogdan & Biken, 2003; Paton, 2002; Wolcott, 2001 in Merterns 2005).
Therefore, the qualitative method is suitable for in-depth studies whose
results does not depend on fixed figures and statistics obtained from tests or
surveys piloted among a particular population but can vary and even
unexpectedly rise above the initial intention of the researcher.
Secondly, qualitative data analysis is not mechanistic. As far as the
researcher is concerned, not every type of data can be clearly counted up,
converted to percentage, and illustrated in a telegraph. Some of them need
an in-depth eliciting process together with repeated and continuous studying.
Cultural data is not a machine to be broken up, separated from others and
investigated as an independent unit. With qualitative method, the arbitrary
associations between cultural items are shown.
For all the reasons above, the qualitative analytic strategies are chosen
as the basic data analysis method in this research. The quantitative method is
applied to the synthesis of the total number of weather proverbs included in
each proverb stock only.
Stage 1: Classification – The researcher reads all the data and then
divides them into smaller units.
In this stage, an effort is made to classify the weather proverbs into
three categories. The first category is proverbs anticipating weather changes.
Stage 2: Comparison
This is the main analytic stage. First, the researcher count up the total
number of weather proverbs in English and Vietnamese, demonstrated it on
the graphs to make a pure comparison on the quantity. Next, the researcher
sifts through the materials to identify the similarities and differences
between English proverbs and Vietnamese proverbs in terms of images that
are frequently used. For example, in the category of weather proverbs
pertaining to animals‟ behaviors, the researcher will list out all the common
animal images used in English proverbs and Vietnamese proverbs to see
what images are shared between the two countries and what images are
typical of each culture.
required to study the factors that lead to such similarities and differences and
investigate how these factors are influenced by cultural perspectives.
Or:
In English, some examples of this type can also be found, such as:
And:
In English:
The majority of weather proverbs fall into the first group which
anticipates weather changes with the figure showing 84% in Vietnamese and
94% in English. It is followed by the category of weather proverbs
expressing the impact imposed by weather conditions on production with the
figure standing at 12% and 3% in Vietnamese and English respectively. The
final category also the one with the smallest number of proverbs (only 3% in
English and 4% in Vietnamese) is about the weather‟s influence on human
life.
All in all, it can be concluded from the statistic that both Vietnamese
people and English people tend to create more proverbs to describe weather
changes or its influence on production rather than to talk about its impact on
their own life. An effort to clarify the reasons leading to this fact will be
made in the later chapter.
Taking an overall look at the whole graph, it can be realized that the
majority of weather proverbs, in both English and Vietnamese, are created
based on the observation on climatic phenomena. In Vietnamese, these
proverbs count up to 31 out of 41 weather proverbs, which approximately
equals 75.6%, whereas in English, the statistic shows 16 cases out of the
total 28, which means 57.14%.
The sub-group of proverbs pertaining to climatic phenomena is
followed by the group with proverbs developed thanks to the observation on
animals‟ behaviors in the natural world, with 9 proverbs in English and 9 in
Vietnamese, which can be converted into 32.14% and 21.95% respectively.
The last group with the smallest number of weather proverbs is the one
holding the weather proverbs built based on the experience in observing
vegetation‟s conditions. In this group, there are only three English proverbs
and one Vietnamese proverb, which indicates that vegetation‟s conditions
seem not to be a reliable hints for the forecast of a change in the weather, so
the people in both countries rarely look at them to guess the forth-coming
climatic situations.
All in all, from the statistics, the researcher can draw that both English
people and Vietnamese people often refer to natural phenomena such as the
movement of wind, the color of cloud, the unusual behaviors of animals and
the changing conditions of plants, and so on, in order to predict a climatic
change. Therefore, the proverbs built from the observations of such things
are included in both languages. However, the climatic phenomena are the
most frequently consulted, followed by animals‟ behaviors, and then
vegetative reactions.
“When March blows its horn, your barn will be filled with hay and corn”
(Sấm tháng Ba báo hiệu kho thóc nhà bạn sẽ chất đầy ngũ cốc và cỏ kho)
“Gió đông là chồng lúa chiêm, gió bấc là duyên lúa mùa”
(East wind signifies the suitable weather condition for summer rice whereas
north wind - for winter rice)
said that when this star cluster is in its highest position and appears brightest,
the yield of this kind of rice will be good)
Overall, this category contains very few proverbs. It seems that people
in the past did not pay as much attention to the effects weather imposed on
their living as to its effect on their working life.
occurring, and thus often have local names, too. In Vietnamese, to call a
rainbow, for example, we have various names such as “mống” (partial
rainbow), “vống”, “vồng” in addition to the official one “cầu vồng”
(rainbows) as in:
“Mống bên đông, vồng bên tây, chẳng mưa rây, cũng bão giật”
(when there is both a partial rainbow in the east and a full rainbow in the
west, it is a sure sign of either a prolonged rain or a severe storm)
Or:
“Mống dài trời lụt, móng cụt trời mưa”
(A long rainbow warns us about a flood while a short rainbow indicates
rainy weather)
And:
“Vồng rạp mưa rào, vồng cao gió táp”
(When the rainbow is low, there will be a shower; when the rainbow is high,
there will be a strong wind)
Besides the common climatic images such as wind and rain, there are
also such images that are typical of the country‟s climate pattern as snow in
England (Snow like cotton, soon forgotten/ Snow like meal, it'll snow a great
deal) and “gió nồm” (a kind of wind from the south that carries with it a
high degree of humidity) in Vietnam (Đầu năm sương muối, cuối năm gió
nồm). The climatic images, though not telling us much about cultural
aspects, they help the process of examining how weather pattern determines
the cultural type of each country.
“Rồng đen lấy nước thì nắng, rồng trắng lấy nước thì mưa”
They observe the behaviors of ants, bees, dogs and cats because they
are such close and familiar animals that can be seen in any place and at any
time of their daily life. They also refer to the image of cows as this kind of
animal are very acquainted with English farmers. It is one kind of cattle that
is usually bred in herb:
“A cow with its tail to the West makes the weather best,
A cow with its tail to the East makes the weather least”
(Khi bò quay đuôi về phía Tây, thời tiết thuân lợi
Khi nó quay đuôi về phía Đông, thời tiết trở nên tồi tệ)
“If cows are standing in a field it will be fine, but if they are lying down it is
going to rain”
(Nếu bò đứng trên cánh đồng, thời tiết sẽ đẹp. Những hễ chúng nằm xuống
nghĩa là trời sắp mưa)
“Gió đông là chồng lúa chiêm, gió bấc là duyên lúa mùa”
(Eastern winds are good for summer rice, while northern winds are good for
winter rice)
“When March blows its horn, your barn will be filled with hay and corn”
And:
“If corn husks are thicker than usual, a cold winter is ahead”
Due to the difference in eating habit, corn and other kinds of cereal
are more popular to English people than rice is. Corn, therefore, becomes
one of the most commonly planted trees in England. It is the rare
representative of planting agriculture that exists in English weather proverbs.
In conclusion, while making a comparison between commonly used
images in English weather proverbs and those in Vietnamese weather
proverbs, it is found out that most of the images in Vietnamese ones are
related to agriculture while those in English present an association with
castle breeding and fishing. What cultural aspects can be revealed through
the analysis of these images will be clarified in the next chapter.
delta and developed water rice culture which was the foundation of Dai Viet
Civilization. Vietnamese ancient people crucially depended on the
cultivation of wet rice to earn their livings. They lived on land, worked on
land, and even lay down forever in their mother land. They led a stable life
usually in a small farming village. Their grandparents, their parents, they
themselves, and then their children and ever descendants tend to grow a fond
of the plots passed down by their ancestors. Hundreds of years have passed
by and Vietnam nowadays is undergoing rapid changes, following the
orientation of industrializing and modernizing the whole country. However,
agriculture has always been the cornerstone of the economy. Nearly 70 % of
the population still lives dependently off the land and many more lead a rural
life in small villages. Therefore, agriculture still has a big influence on the
shaping of Vietnamese people‟s ways of life and ways of thinking. Although
it now has come to the era of information technology, thanks to the
availability of radar and weather satellites, people, even those living in
remote areas, are able to get a good access to the weather forecast,
Vietnamese farmers, yet, still consult the traditional weather proverbs as a
good source for the anticipation of weather conditions. It is not merely a
habit derived from the past. More than that, it has become a custom, a holy
part of their soul, and an obvious manifestation of the nation‟s culture.
Different from Vietnam, England is the world‟s first industrialized
nation, with the Industrial Revolution taking place in the late 18 th century. In
medieval time (from 11th to 15th century), when Vietnam was just a
completely self-reliant and self-sufficient agricultural country, England had
developed a dynamic navigational commercial and trading sector, importing
and exporting its products from and to Europe. As a matter of course,
“Bao giờ đom đóm bay ra, hoa gạo rụng xuống thì tra hạt vừng”
(When seeing the firefly fly out and “gao” flowers fall down, we
know that it is time to sow sesame seeds)
Or:
“Tháng Hai trồng cà, tháng Ba trồng đỗ”
(In February we plant eggplants. In March we plant beans)
And:
“Gió đông là chồng lúa chiêm, gió bấc là duyên lúa mùa”
(Eastern winds are good for summer rice while northern winds are
good for winter rice)
Due to the close relation between the weather conditions and the crop
results, understanding their decisive impacts, Vietnamese peasants see a
need to observe every climatic change to predict how it is going to be. They
know that an accurate determination on sowing time, stabilization of yields,
full control over water resources for the sake of irrigation and drainage,
preventive measures against storms and floods and the infiltration of salt
water in dry seasons, and so on, are prerequisites for the development of
agriculture. Consequently, they take notice of all climatic elements for the
peace of their mind as in the following folk song:
Vietnamese peasants are under constant worries because they are well
aware of the weather‟s impacts as well as the consequences of the ignorance
of the weather conditions. Just as Vietnamese people do, English people also
fully understand how the weather conditions affect their lives. In the early
stages of its history, England had a primary rural and maritime economy;
therefore, to them, weather was consequently of life and death importance.
As we have known, a rather big proportion of English weather proverbs has
an association with the performance of fishing and sailing activities, such as:
Rain supplies dry paddies with all the necessary amount of water
which is the most important and indispensable factor for the growth of wet-
rice trees (“nhất nước, nhì phân, tam cần, tứ giống” – water is the most
important factor, then comes fertilizer, industriousness and breeds).
What about English people‟s opinions towards rainy weather?
Expressed in their weather proverbs, rain normally signifies as a warning for
sailors to postpone their trip:
and determined by the main economic courses that are practiced in each
country.
(Trời nóng hay lạnh mặc trời, chính chúng ta sẽ làm thay đổi thời tiết,
bất kể loại thời tiết nào, dẫu ta có muốn hay không)
amount of sun, a high rate of rainfall, and high humidity. On one hand, the
monsoon tropical climate with long periods of sunshine and rain provides
the favorable conditions for the development of vegetation. On the other
hand, the extremeness and uncertainty of this climate pattern troubles the
farmers very much. In Vietnam, some years, for example, are marked by
heavy rains and big floods, and many others are featured with prolonged
periods of drought. Under the influence of monsoon, and further because of
the complicated topography, the climate in Vietnam always changes
between the years, and even within one year. No one can know for sure how
the weather is getting on. The uncertainty of the weather has been expressed
in many Vietnamese proverbs, as in “Sáng gió may, tối quay gió nồm”. The
weather was so ruthless that it sometimes makes farmers empty-handed even
when they have supposed to be getting a very good crop. A heavy rain
overnight can completely destroy a paddy which is nearly to be harvested.
Additionally, Vietnamese climate is usually under the influence of weather,
such as typhoons, floods and droughts which seriously threaten the peasants‟
lives. These natural disasters are not only terrifying in their destructive
powers but also very unexpected, which make damages even worse.
Therefore, Vietnamese farmers‟ utmost desire is to correctly anticipate the
coming of any calamity for a good precaution.
Meanwhile, England has a totally different climate pattern. Positioned
on the western seaboard of Eurasia, the world‟s largest land mass, English is
featured as having the boundary conditions which allow convergence
between moist maritime air and dry continental air. In this area, “the large
temperature variation creates instability and this is a major that influences
the often unsettled weather the country experiences, where many types of
weather can be experienced in a single day”.3
Therefore, English climate is not only famous for its changeability but
also characterized by a lack of extremes. There is even a saying that it “does
not have a climate; it only has weather. It may not rain very much altogether,
but you can never be sure of a dry day” (James O‟Driscoll, 1995). Even
though extreme weather does appear from time to time in England, “it
happens so rarely that it is not worth organizing life to be ready for them”
(James O‟Driscoll, 1995).
The second factor that leads to the difference in attitude towards
weather between English people and Vietnamese people is the nation‟s
prevalent economic activities. As discussed in the previous section,
Vietnamese people in the past lived mainly on land. They held a conception
that “dĩ nông vi bản”, which means as living in an agricultural country,
people had to put agricultural work as their priority. Their primary focus was
on agricultural work, especially planting, which in turns depended to a large
extent on the weather conditions. If the weather was favorable with enough
amount of sunshine and rainfall, a bumper crop might be obtained;
otherwise, the farmers‟ families would have to suffer from a great loss and,
even more serious, might be left at the brink of starvation. On the contrary,
English economy traditionally concentrated on cattle breeding more than
planting. With the nomadic origin, they kept on traveling here and there to
look for good new grasslands to feed their herds of cattle. No matter what
the weather was like, it did not matter to them as they were never confined
3
Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_the_United_Kingdom#England
to a particular area for quite a long time. Therefore, “their life did not
depend much upon natural weather conditions” (Tran Ngoc Them, 2000).
Overall, due to the difference in the climate pattern and the primary
economic activities, English people and Vietnamese people have developed
different attitude towards the weather in particular and the natural
environment in general. Whereas Vietnamese people pay an enormous
attention to every weather change, how the weather is getting on seems not
to be deeply concerned about by Englishmen. The distinctive attitudes reveal
much of the cultural beliefs and values that each culture embraces.
After analyzed, it has been proved that weather proverbs carry such a
large number of cultural values and beliefs. Each culture attaches great
values to its proverbs in particular and all kinds of folklore in general. This
point is so important that it has been concluded learning a language without
studying its culture will be a big flaw. As teachers and learners of English,
we necessarily take notice of the teaching and learning of proverbs in the
target language.
meanings of particular words. Second, the use of proverbs can add colors to
their lessons, making them more interesting and attractive to students. Third,
as proverbs are never easy to understand, if a teacher wants to apply some
specific proverbs into his teaching, it will require a process of probing their
meanings and their cultural values. Therefore, to some extent, it helps that
teacher to broaden his cultural knowledge.
Moreover, learners are also benefited when studying proverbs in other
language. First and foremost, the learning of proverbs can be a key element
in the language acquisition process. Second, proverbs can provide a snapshot
of other cultures that allows a more thorough understanding of both
language and culture. “Without grasping the meaning of these types of
sayings [idioms and proverbs…] we are limited to a unilateral
understanding, providing fertile ground toward the development of cultural
and linguistic ethnocentrism” (Sudiran, 2007). Once we have obtained a
profound knowledge of English proverbs, it will help to increase the mutual
understanding in a conversation between us and our friends from English-
speaking countries; thus, misunderstanding and communication breakdown
will be avoided. Last but not least, learning the proverbs of the target
language enables a further examining of authentic texts and helps us really
enjoy our reading. It is really frustrating if we have to constantly stop and
check for the meaning of a proverb that we come across in the process of
reading an English novel which may make use of a full range of idioms and
proverbs. It is obvious that in this case the pre-learning of English proverbs
is extremely beneficial to our achieving the full pleasure and understanding.
To sum up, both teachers and learners can gain a lot of benefits thanks
to the teaching and learning of proverbs. The idea of teaching and learning
of such words as “snow, rain, flood, storm.” Additionally, the teacher can
also use other proverbs containing these words to reinforce the students‟
memory of new words at the end of the lesson.
Besides their use in teaching vocabulary, proverbs can also be applied
to teaching grammar. They can serve as examples for some particular
structures, for instance double comparatives as in: “The higher the clouds,
the better the weather”. The teacher can modify the original sentence a little
bit in order to make it fit the accurate structure. So, the above proverb may
be changed to “The higher the clouds are, the better the weather is”. Instead
of spending much time and effort fabricating some examples, proverbs are
available fixed structures for teachers to employ. Also, they often appear to
be rather impressive thanks to their rhythm, and impression tends to make
the memorizing process proceed faster and last longer.
Analyzing the words and images used in these proverbs, finding out
the reasons for the anticipation of weather, it is easily proven that fishing in
the eye of Englishmen in the past was of great importance.
the cultural pattern of each country. Through this, it can be realized that
Vietnam is a country with agricultural origin while English has nomadic
origin. It is the different root that results in such great differences in their
attitudes towards nature and in their conception of nature-working life and
nature-human relationships. In case of Vietnamese people, as being strictly
governed by weather conditions which are full of extremes and very
unexpected, has developed an attitude of fear and worship toward the nature.
Human lives, especially the working lives, in their eyes, are strongly
affected and regulated by the law of nature. Man is just inferior beings in
comparison with the nature. In contrast, English people spend time
observing weather with a strong desire to discover it and conquer it. They
are not afraid of natural forces; instead, these forces make emerge in them
the ambition to become master of the whole.
Finding out the cultural values of weather proverbs, the researcher
realized that it would be of great values if these proverbs could be applied
into teaching. From then, some suggestions on the ways of employing
proverbs as a special kind of teaching aids were made, which recommended
that proverbs could not only be used to teach vocabulary or to exemplify
grammatical structures but also be used as the topic for a further practice
when teaching language skills and as authentic illustrations of cultural
values and beliefs in every course of culture and cross-culture.
Due to limited time, the researcher could only conduct the data
collection process on around 2000 proverbs in each language. This
obviously does not guarantee that a full collection of weather proverbs is
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Hội nghiên cứu và giảng dạy khoa học
Production method 1. Trăng mờ tốt lúa nỏ, trăng tỏ tốt lúa sâu