Low and High Context Cultures
A Very Helpful Clarification
This Substack is about life in Việt Nam from the viewpoint of a 10-year expat who spent his first 60 years in a low-context culture.
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In a few of my previous posts, I’ve referenced low context (e.g. the US, Germany) and high context (e.g. Việt Nam, Mexico) cultures.
I just now came across this clarification by Hiroko Yoda about Japan that also applies to Vietnam. It is worthy of a special post.
Speaking very broadly, linguists divide languages into “high context” and “low context” varieties. High context languages tend to rely heavily on shared cultural knowledge; low context ones less so. Japanese is considered high context, which means that fluency in the language from a linguistic standpoint isn’t necessarily enough to make one “fluent” in social communication. There are many unstated assumptions about manners and etiquitte in Japan. You may agree or disagree with them, but if you don’t understand them, you will have a hard time conveying your intentions to others.
The entire article goes into exquisite detail, letting us from low context cultures know how much we don’t know. It is here.
I hope you like it.
I keep telling my Alkebulanian people here on The Island that linguistics are the vehicle by which the oppression, and indeed the apartheid, is carried out which is why they continue to have inferior schools and it was illegal to teach them to read and write...
A foreign language.