Comparing Invitations To Love And The Spirit Catches

It is obvious that language is an incredibly important part of culture. In order to fully understand a culture that is not your own, you need to learn the language first. Unfortunately, one can go through years of schooling to learn a new language to the point that they are completely fluent, but that does not mean that they will fully understand the culture. There is a difference between knowing the grammatical part of a language as opposed to the cultural part of a language. This difference can be defined as linguistic competence vs. communicative competence. This difference plays a huge part in knowing a culture and being able to communicate effectively. In the two books, “Invitations to Love” by Laura Ahearn and “The Spirit Catches

Linguistic competence can be loosely defined as knowing how to say words and put them together grammatically. This is the result one would get after years of studying a language straight from a book. You learn the specific structure and grammar of the language. While this is obviously quite important with learning a language, it is not the only important factor. The other factor is communicative competence, which can be understood as knowing how to use the language in social situations. This means that one may not have complete and utter competence of the language linguistically, but they understand how to use it in social situations. The way that language is taught to non-native speaker can often be very different than the way that the language is actually used casual conversation. So, having a strong grasp on this ideology is crucial to be able to fit in with a new culture. You will stick out like a sore thumb if you are using proper language or perhaps using a slang phrase incorrectly. Of course, the ideal is that someone would have sufficient knowledge of

Lia’s family is refugees from Laos that move to California. Once settled in in California, it is evident that Lia is in need of medical services. The concentration of this ethnography lies within the story of Lia’s medical attention. At a young age, Lia is diagnosed with epilepsy, but the ways of treating it in the Hmong culture and in Western culture are very different. The first half of the book explains in detail the trouble and frustration that not only Lia’s family, but also her doctors went through. Lia’s parents were able to understand the English language for the most part, but they seemed to lack communicative competence. This made it very difficult for them to accept what the medical team was trying to do in order to treat their doctor. On the other hand, the doctors in the Californian medical center, despite being renowned in their field, lacked an understanding of Hmong medicine. This misunderstanding between the two parties caused for many troubles throughout the beginning of Lia’s life. This goes to show that while you can have an understanding for the linguistic side of a culture, it does not mean that you can fully understand it. Lia’s parents understood what the doctors were saying at the base level, but they could not comprehend why. The doctors also could not understand why the Hmong parents would not accept the