More Examples for Cultural Interference in Learning English

Hello, there!
In my previous post I had promised to give more examples for culture-related difficulties for English learners.Let me once again make clear the meaning of the word culture as used in this context.It denotes a characteristic way of perceiving things or relationships between things.Every people has a tendency to see the relationships between things in one way ,not in the other.Take, for example, the relationship between time and place in English.-time adverbs are always preceded by place adverbs .You must have heard of MPT-Rule-the sequence of Manner,Place andTime.,as in the sentence "She danced well in the temple yesterday".Malayalam speakers of Kerala like the order :time followed by place.A typical Malayalam wedding invitation will run as follows:On September 6 2000,at Guruvayur L ord Krishna Temple our daughter will get married to ....."If you listen to any specimen of Malayalam speech, you can see this preference for time followed by place.Preferences like this cannot be explained in terms of grammar.Grammar is a set of rules internalized for articulating thoughts Grammar helps to fix the conventions of a language .The basic structure of English ,SVO, is grammatically -determined. The place -time sequence may be said to be culturally-determined.I hope that this way of explaining will simplify matters and make the learning of English a delightful experience Readers ,please, express your views on my opinions .Remember: blog is the place where people open their hearts!