One of the most basic capacities of human beings is the ability to discover meaning. Children in every society discover the meaning of verbal and nonverbal symbols with great ease. Although they sometimes receive explicit instruction, children learn most of their culture’s meanings without it.

James Spradley, The Ethnographic Interview, page 155.

Whether you’re learning a language, a culture, or both, the process of “learning” is largely about learning the meaning of symbols. Such symbols can be words in written or spoken form, as the written word “cow” is a symbol representing the sound “cow” which, in turn, is a symbol for the animal. Symbols can also be what we typically think of as a symbol—a yield sign, a police officer badge, a doctor’s uniform, etc. Language and culture acquisition is all about learning the meaning of those symbols.

However, as I explained in Context is King: Discovering Language Through Life, it’s not enough to merely know the dictionary definition of a word; you also need to know how the word is used in a specific culture.

In today’s article, I’ll share another language and culture method which is one of my favorites: learn the meaning of a word or cultural element by comparing and contrasting it with others.

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The curious case of “tastes like chicken”

Think back to the last time that you tried to describe a local dish in your host culture to someone from your passport country. The simplest thing to do would be to just make the dish so they can taste it, but let’s say you’re unable to do that. How do you describe the dish to them? Maybe you can show them a picture, which will help a lot, but how do you describe the flavor?

“Well, it’s a noodle dish, but the noodles are crunchy and super thin, not like spaghetti noodles. And the noodles are in a sauce that is kind of like curry, but it’s more milky than curry is. And it has these delicious herbs in the sauce that kind of taste like mint, but with more of a nutty, wild flavor. You can put different kinds of meat in it, but the most common is a local bird that kind of tastes like chicken, but is smaller and has a more gamey taste to it. The dish also has vegetables in it, like broccoli, but also a local vegetable that tastes a bit like cauliflower but is reddish and has the texture of a potato. It’s kind of hard to describe, but it’s delicious—it’s kind of like a minty curry on top of noodles with chicken and cauliflower in it.”¹

Now, that description leaves much to be desired in helping your friends understand what the dish is, but it goes a long way towards helping them understand what the dish is. How do you describe a dish when so many of its ingredients are new to the hearers? By comparing it and contrasting it with things that they already know. You would do this intentionally when describing a new food to someone, but you have done this implicitly your whole life.²

Knowing what is and what isn’t

Underneath this common method of description is a fascinating linguistic and ethnographic reality: that knowing what something is also means knowing what it isn’t:

• If you know what a butcher’s shop is for, you also know what it isn’t for.
• If you know what a cultural norm says you should do in a specific situation, then you also know what not to do in that same situation.
• If you know what the word “cow” means, then you also know what it does not mean.

If, for some reason, though, you don’t know what something is, then almost for sure you don’t know what it is not. Likewise, if you don’t know what something is not, then you’ll find that you have a hard time articulating what it is. Comparison and contrast are inherent to meaning.

Comparison and contrast are inherent to meaning.

For example, if you don’t know how the word broad is different from wide, then you don’t fully know broad (or you don’t fully know wide)! If you don’t know how tall is different than high, then your understanding of one (or both) is lacking. The meaning of one term stems from how it is similar or different to other terms.

The same is true for cultural elements as well. If you’re learning about US culture and you know that “President,” “Senator,” and “Judge” are similar because they’re all government workers, but you don’t know how they differ from each other, then you may understand the words, but there’s a lot to learn about US culture. Cultural elements, too, derive their meaning not just from similarities but also from differences.³

The meaning of cultural elements comes from similarities and differences to other cultural elements.

Learning what is and what isn’t

Here’s why this matters for language and cultural learners: the fastest way to grasp the meaning of a word or cultural element is not only asking what it is or means but also asking what it is not or what it doesn’t mean. By seeing how a word or cultural element is similar to or different from other words and elements, you’ll gain a better sense not only of the word/element but also of the other words and elements to which you’re comparing them.

Learning the word for inside in your host language is good; learning how inside compares to in and contrasts with outside is even better. If you’re learning that the weather is hot, ask what else the weather could be. Learning cool or cold or warm will help you fill out the meaning of hot. If you learn squat, asking for other body positions—kneel, lie, stand, etc.—will help you flesh out the meaning and contrasts of the words.

After all, to say that something is similar to something else means that it is also different from that other thing. Those similarities and differences of one object to another, compounded millions of times into a web of similarities and differences, make up language and culture.⁴

How to use comparisons and contrasts in your learning

I touched on a couple of these above, but here are some methods you can use to learn about similarities and differences between words and/or cultural elements.

Introductory methods

1. What is similar to x? What makes these things similar / how are they similar?
2. What is different than x? What makes these different / how are they different?
3. Is there something is the opposite of x? This is particularly useful with adjectives (what is the opposite of smart?), adverbs (what is the opposite of quickly?), and prepositions (what is the opposite of inside?). It can be helpful with verbs (what is the opposite of run?) or nouns (what is the opposite of meat?), but verbs and nouns don’t always have precise opposites. Still, it can be revealing to see how someone answers this question even if the answer isn’t precisely right.
4. Is the meaning of x similar to the meaning of y? Are they ever interchangeable?
5. Are there situations where you could say x but not y? Vice-versa?⁵
6. Do you see any differences between x and y?
7. Freestyle sorting game. Print out pictures of objects or bring different objects and ask a local person sort them into groups. Ask what makes each group similar or different. Ask why an item is in one group and not another. You may find their system of categorization is radically different than yours.⁶ You’ll also likely find tons of ways of contrast and similarity that you would never have expected. After you understand one grouping, you can mix up the items again and ask the local person to put them in different groups the second time.

More advanced methods

As you observe similarities and distinctions that a culture makes and learn the language for them, you can follow up with other questions that will help you learn more. For example, if you hear them say “a grapefruit is like an orange, but it’s sour and bigger,” then you can ask these sorts of questions:

8. What are other fruits which are x (e.g. sour)?
9. What are other fruits which are not x (e.g. sour)?

For these two questions, don’t ask “what other things are sour”, as that’s too broad. Instead, stick to the category you’re already asking about (e.g. fruit). The narrower the comparison category, the more helpful the answer will be. A frog is different than the planet Mars, but it’s more useful to know how locals see frogs as different than toads.

You may think that such questions are stupid because you already know the answer to them—you know which fruits are sour and you know the difference of a frog and a toad—but don’t assume your cultural understanding is the same as locals. You’ll be surprised how often locals view even “basic” things like flavors differently than you.⁷

8. Forced choice: Would you say a kiwi is sweet or sour? A local may say it’s neither, choose one, or tell you a new word to describe its flavor. Even if they refuse to answer the forced choice by describing it as “both” or emphasizing another element (e.g. texture), you’ve learned something about that culture.
9. Restricted sorting game. Bring objects or pictures of objects, like in the freestyle sorting game above, but this time prepare in advance several categories you’ve already learned. Ask the local person to sort the objects into the categories you’ve prepared. Pay careful attention to categorizations that are unexpected to you, or objects which the local person says can’t be placed into the categories you’ve pre-arranged.

Tips when comparing and contrasting

The goal of all these comparisons and contrasts is to understand both the words and culture of locals. Thus, what is most important isn’t whether you agree with a similarity or difference, but what locals understand as similar or different.

• You may think that a house cleaner is quite different from a chef for hire, but locals may view them both as the same thing: hired domestic help.⁸
• You may view blue and green as two different colors, but locals may have just one word for both and treat them as the same. Likewise, locals may make a distinction between two shades of what you consider to be just one color.
• You may be inclined to treat single people the same as married people, but locals may have radically different norms for how you interact with each group.
• You may taste five basic flavors (sour, sweet, salty, spicy, bitter), but locals may have more or fewer flavors in their language and culture.

Comparisons and contrasts are an insight into culture and thus, as much as possible, you want to solicit from locals the comparisons and contrasts that they deem important, not ones that you’re inclined to make based on your passport culture.

As such, try not to suggest differences or similarities (unless you’ve already learned these from locals). If you ask an open-ended question “Do you see any differences between x and y?” and they respond “What kinds of differences do you mean?”, don’t suggest examples. Instead, respond “I mean any kinds of differences or similarities that you think are important.”

If you’d like to dig deeper into this topic, especially on means of soliciting local-generated comparisons and content, I recommend The Ethnographic Interview by James Spradley. While he approaches the topic more academically and from the perspective of a cultural ethnographer, the book is tremendously helpful.

Conclusion

Understanding language and culture goes far beyond merely learning vocabulary or memorizing customs. It’s about grasping the deeper meanings embedded in symbols and recognizing how these symbols are used within a specific cultural context. By comparing and contrasting symbols—whether they are words, gestures, or cultural artifacts—we can gain a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of a culture.

Whether you sprinkle a few of the methods into your current lessons or structure an entire lesson around them, using these methods will help you seek out and explore the comparisons and contrasts that local culture makes. Learning those comparisons will not only enable you to better understand the local language, but also learn the local culture so that you can use the language appropriately. In doing so, you’ll improve your ability to connect more deeply with your host community and learn from their perspective on the world.

Footnotes

1. Mad props to anyone who can tell me the name of the dish I’m describing. ↩︎
2. Especially if you have kids, you’ll do this all the time, you may just not be aware of it. A zebra is kind of like a horse but with black and white stripes A grapefruit is kind of like an orange, but it’s sour and bigger. A phone call is like FaceTime, but without the picture of the other person. Grandpa is like Grandma, only hairier. ↩︎
3. My son just asked me the other day what is the difference between the CIA and the FBI. I explained that the primary difference was that the FBI collected intelligence inside the US and the CIA collected it outside the US (at least in theory). He asked the difference of FBI and the police and I explained that they were similar, but it’s a difference of state law enforcement and federal law enforcement. What’s fascinating is how such a “simple” answer reflects all sorts of cultural values related to limited government, civil rights, constitutional limits on government authority, etc.
   
   I don’t know if this motivated his question in part, but where we live has different values and law enforcement doesn’t have the restrictions and limits reflected in the US government system. The contrasts in the US between police, FBI, and CIA reflect immense cultural values—the lack of contrast locally, likewise reflects different values. ↩︎
4. I’m fascinated by this every time I go to a grocery store. If you want to cook hot dogs in the US, you have to go to three areas: to the “frozen meats” area to get the hot dogs, to the “bread” aisle to get the buns, and to the “condiments” aisle to get the ketchup and mustard. Why aren’t the buns right next to the hot dogs? Because even though these three are similar enough that you eat them together as one item, “hot dog”, their differences are big enough that we put them in different spots in the store. In this case, the difference of “cold/room temperature” is more important than the similarity of “we always eat these together.” In contrast, even though you don’t always eat cake with frosting, the similarity of cake and frosting means that they’re organized together.
   
   Notice that the way grocery stores are organized is different in other cultures! In other cultures, the similarities of hot dogs and hot dog buns trump their hot/cold difference and they’re stored in the same place. Grocery stores thus become fascinating places to learn the similarities and differences between items and, importantly, how those similarities and differences are perceived in a particular culture. ↩︎
5. Note that I didn’t ask “How are the meanings similar or different?” This isn’t a bad question to ask, but you may get more of a “textbook” answer here. It’s more useful to ask someone how the usage of the words differ, as that will more likely reveal connotative and cultural differences. For more on this, see: Context is King: Discovering Language Through Life. ↩︎
6. For example, if you present a local with a winter coat, a pair of winter mittens, and a pair of work gloves, should the gloves be group with the mittens (because both go on your hands), should the mittens be grouped with the coat (because both are for winter), or should the gloves go with the mittens (because both are a pair of items and the winter coat is a single item)? All are logical and accurate distinctions, so which is the most natural grouping that culture would make? It is fascinating and quite revealing, culturally, to see how people categorize items which are different in multiple ways. Which difference or similarity is most important in the classification? ↩︎
7. For example, my local culture regards as “sweet” things which I consider bland, and things which I think are just barely sweet will get a verdict of being “too sweet. There’s a lot of cultural influence even in something you think to be as “basic” as a flavor. I’ve discovered that locals see sweetness and sourness as on a continuum so that if something isn’t sour, then it would be classified as sweet. Thus, something that is just one on a scale of ten can be considered sweet.
   
   In contrast, in the West, I view something as sweet when it’s already a six on that sweetness scale. Thus, I view a level-four sweet food as not even sweet, but locals already regard it as pretty sweet. A level-seven sweet is a normal dessert to me (it’s three levels past what makes it sweet), but it’s too sweet to locals (being seven levels past sweetness)! ↩︎
8. Something similar happened to me the other day: we hired a house cleaner to clean the house and, when she finished early, my wife asked her to help prepare dinner. I thought it super odd; they both took it in stride. In the US, a house cleaner is quite different from someone who helps prepare food, but locally they’re considered part of the same “domestic help” job description. ↩︎