On Intercultural Communication (Part V)

Even though Chinese-born Kazakhs have long been mingled with the mainstream of the country, the invisible barriers still lie there. First, most Chinese-born Kazakhs receive bilingual education, but this bilingualism seems to be unbalanced for there is an obvious sign of decline of their mother tongue——Kazakhs. From the perspective of language, Kazakhs language is abundant with proverbs related to animals, for instances, “Қасқырды қанша асырасаң да тауға қарап ұлиды.” (No matter how much you train the wolf, he still looks at the mountains and howls.) , “Күшік асырап ит еттім балтырымды қапты, соқырды үйретіп мерген еттім өзімді атты .”(You can train a puppy and it will later bite you in the calf; you can train a blind man how to shoot a gun and he will later kill you. ). According to Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, the way people think is influenced by the language they use, thus in the aspect of expressing their own ideas and sometimes plus their distinct accent when speaking Mandarin, the failure of communication between Chinese majority and Chinese-born Kazakhs constantly occurs. Second, almost all Chinese-born Kazakhs are Muslims. Following the guidance of one of the most beautiful religions in the world——Islam, is their pride and faith. Unfortunately I have seen lots of Chinese majority serve them porks as meals, and what astonishes me most is that still there are countless people firmly believe that the reason why Muslims refuse pork is because pigs are their ancestors. Another example is that, some of my Kazakh friends usually complain that they have always been asked a ridiculous question : “Are you going schools by camels?” In daily life, I realize that the main differences in lifestyle is triggered from religion, as for the troubles arouse from which, methink, is the lack of understanding and respect and even ignorance to different customs.