In this week's Daily Yomiuri Behind The Paper Screen column, Sawa Kurotani discusses how idioms and proverbs reflect cultural values and how they are often difficult for non-native speakers to understand without the cultural context from which they were created:
Linguistic anthropologist Benjamin Whorf proposed that the language frames the human thought process and color our recognition of reality. Surely I would have never thought of the connection between death and taxes without this popular quote. But in fact, it was recent events that triggered my thoughts about it. Earlier this month, as I began to prepare for an upcoming meeting with my accountant to go over my 2007 taxes, I received the sad news that a highly respected member of the local expatriate Japanese community suddenly died of a heart attack. He was only 60 years old, in good health and had no known heart problems. The news came as a great shock to those of us who knew him.I looked at the manila folder on my desk, where I keep all my tax stuff. I'm good about keeping receipts and such, and my meeting with my accountant should go smoothly. In a week or so, he'll send me the prepared tax forms, which I'll sign and mail to IRS, and I'm good for another year. If we can't avoid taxes, we can, at least, prepare for them.
By contrast, there is nothing that truly prepares us for death.
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