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Chu-Hsuan Kuo

May 30th, 2012


Honors 212B
Mini-Project #5 Emotions: Universal or Culture-Specific?
A picture is worth a thousand words.
If one were to view the human facethe entire human body, evenas a
blank canvas, waiting to be filled with color by the possessors thoughts, actions,
and movements derived from his or her emotions, then this quote would be quite
fitting. When it comes down to it, the debate of whether all humans experience
emotions similarly or not really depends on this exact notion of how we perceive
each others portrayal of their own feelings.
Suppose you were walking down the street, and a person was speaking,
perhaps even yelling, very loudly to another person in a language you do not speak.
Instinctively, a person of Anglo-American decent might see these two people as
annoyed and angry, perhaps at each other, and are arguing because of that. First
impressions are made in the first five seconds of contact, so this possibility is not
farfetched at all. However, as accurate as these impressions may be in certain
contexts, in others they can be dead wrong. For instance, one does not usually stop
to consider the deeper explanations for why other people behave the way to do.
Therefore, it might be surprising to the person walking down the street that
the two people were not angry at all. Perhaps they were simply expressing their
excitement and delight towards a certain passing of event, and were too ecstatic to
keep their voices down.
The fact that one would expect other people to talk quietly in public is no
more than a construct of whatever culture and society he or she belongs to, in this

case Anglo-American culture. These immediate assumptions and judgments we all


have when it comes to something foreign are part of human nature, and are exactly
the reasons why different cultures and lifestyles exist in the first place.
Just as I believe that everyone can appreciate music, visual art, and other
forms of artistic expression that go beyond words, I also believe that all humans are
capable of experiencing the same emotions. However, this does not mean that
every culture has a concrete label for all emotions, mainly for two reasons. First of
all, I believe that the emotional language of a culture is always shaped by its history.
Depending on what society and its people have gone through since the birth of a
culture, its language will also alter and change with time. Just as history is fluid and
never-ending, so is language. The most prominent evidence for this is the fact that
some words die out as time goes by, even if they were extremely common and
popular in the past. With time, certain emotion words can also become lost and
forgotten, but this does not mean that they were never important to the culture.
Secondly, I believe that giving everything a label is unnecessary, and often
limists the extent to which a certain emotion can be conveyed. There is a reason
why we feel little stirrings in our hearts that can be a combination of heartache, joy,
sorrow, and tenderness. There is a reason why we feel our stomachs drop in
horror, shock, dismay, or what have you. There is a reason why we are hit with
occasional fits of shivering and chills, a premonition of bad things to come, once in a
while even though it isnt even cold outside. There is a reason why we feel boredom
and frustration at the same time and cannot seem to get rid of it no matter what.
There is a reason why we have those days where we simply feel blue and do not
want to step out of the house, or do anything at all despite the fact that we were
very happy the day before.

While all of these emotions do not have definitive words in English, I am


certain that there are other languages that do have these emotions in their
vocabularies, and vice versa. For instance, the German language has the word
Schadenfreude for that feeling of taking pleasure in others mishaps and bad
fortune, perhaps because we believe they do not deserve the better alternatives,
while the English language does not. Does this mean that this feeling is exclusive to
German culture? Certainly not. If this is so, then it is entirely possible for the
previously described feelings to be felt by English speakers even though they do not
have concrete labels for them.
This is what brings me back to the idea of the human body as a blank canvas.
If we were limited to words only as a form of expression, I think that humankind
would be suffering greatly from the lack of cross-cultural communication because of
all the language barriers. Facial expressions and body language are crucial to
portraying our emotions, and help us break most of these barriers. While certain
gestures may be received differently depending on the culture, this doesnt diminish
the fact that anybody can read other peoples physical cues and determine for
themselves what he or she might be thinking. Neither party has to say a word, yet
there is already this invisible connection between both people. A small upturn of the
lips may indicate a mild form of happiness, perhaps amusement, and an onlooker
may decide to label it exactly that. However, the power of physical cues lies in the
fact that people can affix their own labels to them, especially since their analysis
and judgment of what the other person is actually feeling can differ in so many
ways depending on how they were raised, what language they speak, and how they
viewed previous encounters of similar physical cues in other people. In English
alone, upturned lips could be labeled a wide variety of things, from joy to

bemusement to forced happiness to a simply a courteous greeting. Or, perhaps it


may not hold any emotional value at all to the onlooker.
The fact that something as simple as upturned lips can be perceived
differently by people of the same language and cultural background means that it
can only spark even more interpretations if presented to people of other cultures.
While it may be received as a friendly gesture in one country, upturned lips might
be a hostile expression in another country. This leads me to believe that we do not
experience emotions similarly. Even if we all experience happiness, sadness, or
anger, otherwise regarded as universal human emotions by many people, in
reality, they are simply constructs of Anglo-American culture. This does not mean
that Chinese people do not feel happiness or that German people do not feel
anger, but they simply do not exist in either culture because they are, ultimately,
English phrases.
As a speaker of two languages myself, I firmly stand by the argument that no
matter how similar to the original source it may be, a translation will never be able
to hold up to the inner emotional feelings conveyed. There will always be details
that are lost along the way, and while they might be considered small losses to one
culture, another culture that is translating the same source material may view them
as tremendous losses. When it comes to deciding what parts are the most
emotionally crucial to adapt in a source material, different cultures will always
disagree to some extent, because there are no two cultures that are the exact
same; otherwise, they wouldnt exist to begin with.
This brings up the topic of defining emotions in their most basic form. So
many linguists, psychologists, sociologists, and other people who study languages

try so hard to convince each other that their analyses of certain emotion words are
the most applicable to all cultures. In a way, these universal definitions can be
useful. For instance, Wierzbickas explications are valuable when it comes to
understanding the fundamental, most basic formats of certain feelings in terms of
what is generally required in order to display an emotion. However, I think that
trying to use them for anything beyond basic understanding is futile and quite
contradictory. The reason that so many languages exists is because there are an
infinite number of subtle differences in how every single person perceives and
reacts to the world around him or her. Language and physical cues allow us to do
this. If they open so many pathways to the outside world, then why are we so hasty
to shut them off by trying to define and label everything? Intangible things such as
emotions are simply untranslatable, at least to one hundred percent accuracy, and I
dont think that we will ever reach a point where we are able to fully understand
how every culture perceives the world.
For all of the years to come, people will continue trying to find a way to close
the gap between cultures caused by language barriers, to try and find ways to bring
all humans emotionally closer. However, I think the only way to do this is to focus on
the emotions and feelings that arent conveyed by words. Yes, language is
important. In fact, there are so many things that a cultures language reveals,
whether it be via slang words, certain coined phrases, or other unique emotion
words that do not exist in other cultures. Ultimately, emotions are felt in the body,
and are definitely not instantly identifiable and tangible objects that one can pick up
and immediately label. We try to accomplish this with words, but often times they
are simply insufficient for conveying everything that we feel. Emotions can be
voluntary and involuntary, can be desired and unwanted, and can definitely be mild

or extreme. They are everything but translatable. Thus, while I believe that all
human beings can experience all the possible emotions that there can ever be, I do
not think that we will ever experience them in the same way, nor will we ever be
able to express all of them properly with words. Words can cause barriers, but our
emotions can prevent them from forming so long as we accept that there are
certain things that cannot be labeled, no matter how hard we try.
That is the beauty of human emotion. We think that we are separated by our
different cultures, customs, and languages, but in reality, they are what bring us
together, because those are the things that cause us to feel in our daily lives. If all
human beings share only one thing, it would be the ability to have emotions and
express them.

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