Have you ever thought why your lifestyle and work ethics are the way they are and what should you start with to keep improving both?
The answer to this question is partly covered by your mother language. You will be surprised to learn to what degree a language and its grammar structures alone can shape your culture, your entrepreneurial skills, and commerce in the country. In this article, we will be examining the grammatical categories of English, French and Russian languages and how they affect your lifestyle.
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Do you typically start thinking or expressing yourself with the subject or the predicate in mind?
There are nuances in how people start thinking (around a subject or around a verb). As we know the order of words in French and English sentences is quite strict – a subject, a predicate, complement, and circumstance. For example, we do business for pleasure. Je fais des affaires pour le plaisir.
In the Russian language, the word order is not grammatically regulated. In Russian, we subordinate words in a sentence in anyway, albeit more often around a verb. Занимаются бизнесом для заработка. Для заработка занимаются бизнесом. Бизнесом занимаются для заработка.
In languages, where we start a sentence with a subject, we pursue ourselves included in the process and as the primary source of the action. You rather start with yourself and this way set priorities immediately, than get overwhelmed by your endless to-do list when constructing sentences around verbs, reasoning, or circumstances.
Also, it is noticed that cultures and languages that build their thinking in strict word order are more willing to obey rules. It explains why Canadians in general are more likely to obey laws, and why Russians prefer to function on their own rules.
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Do you pronounce or accentuate the verb to be in the present tense?
For example, I am happy. Je suis content. The usage of the verb to be in the present tense affects the lifestyle as well. Russians typically avoid being and living in present, because the verb to be is not used in the present tense. Я счастливый. In other words, they always try to reach happiness instead of simply being it. This fact might also affect their work culture. Russians are known for their rigidity to see things in the process (progress, evolution, development). As a matter of fact, it may be a source of disagreements in teams or all kinds of defaults at work. On the contrary, Canadians are used to approach tasks with the unfolding process in mind.
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Do you mostly use active (personal) or passive (impersonal) grammar structures?
For example some active structures, I read books; Je lis des livres. Passive structures – Many books are read on the topic of personal development. De nombreux livres sont lus sur le thème du développement personnel. Russians, on the contrary, prefer building sentences in the impersonal forms. Как жить богато? Письмо должно быть написано сегодня. Помещение не убрано.
This passive approach provokes shame, disbelief, and even rejection. In Russia, it is generally considered impolite to be real, express strong (especially loud) emotions. And people’s serious demeanors, at least while in public, is expected behavior. It provokes that sheep effect and makes people totally submitted to crowd or public opinions /thinking and naturally not to make compromises. It also explains why Russians are more conservative and become easily opposed to even minor changes.
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How adaptive is the language to progress?
Languages mostly evolve with the progress country makes in different industrial sectors. As the progress gets boosted mostly in the western part of the world where people speak English and French. The Russian language has no choice but to adapt English words to name inventions and innovations. The monocultural societies, Russia is not an exception, tend to reject English words because they are not of their origin. This, in whole, makes the Russians less adaptive to the modern new reality.
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What person is considered being knowledgeable?
In Canada, someone is considered knowledgeable if he/she is confident if he/she can easily express him/herself, give exact definitions, use a variety of synonyms and also name things or processes correctly. You will be surprised that in Russia, a knowledgeable person is the one who uses many words that are unknown to interlocutors. Or person who knows the history is by default a knowledgeable person, however, the fact that he/she is not aware of his own future is often omitted.
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The vocabulary of any language is shaped by the world-known achievements.
For example, the French are known for their creativity, fashion, and cuisine. The British for management skills, and a mass scale industrial business development. The Russians got fame for painting technics and ice hockey among others. The mixture of the achievements gets ingrained in their lifestyle, shapes their attitudes towards others, and also empowers local people’s vision of themselves to a certain image.
These are pretty drastic outcomes and even drawbacks of speaking a language, aren’t they?
This is why today being cosmopolitan and speak many languages is a must. The more languages the person speaks, the more flexible his/her attitudes are, the more open becomes his/her mind and richer his/her life experience. Only those few who speak multiple languages become capable to look at themselves with the eyes of an outside observer and shape their personality by acknowledging the strengths of each culture and also getting rid of the ones that are not of use to them anymore.
This is also a major reason why western countries progress at a higher speed. Their achievements are predetermined by the universal values and their lifestyle.
Antoine Parent, bachelor’s degree in finance and international commerce at ESG UQAM University
Marina Belskikh, Ph.D. in economics, international business development consultant, coach