Myers 1
Austen Myers
ARLT 100G Section 35267
Professor Zeamer
M/W 5-6:20
Exploring the Influences of Abstractions:
Looking At Death and Time In Asian and Western Cultures
We are all composed of the same material, yet we are all unique. There are some realities
we all share as human beings, which include both death and time. Depending on the culture one
is raised in, these seemingly universal realities are perceived differently. Time is an abstract con-
cept seen as both something we are collectively bound to and an universal truth. Death can be
briefly described as the expiration of a person’s time. Amongst various cultures, their languages
and cultural ideologies can result in a strong contrast in existential abstractions. In both Asian
and Western countries, language and culture create a duality that strongly influences an individ-
ual’s convictions about the concepts of time and death.
Language sets boundaries for many of our conscious thoughts. If language is used to ex-
plain concepts and thoughts, then we are unfit to completely understand something since there
are limitations to our vocabularies. Death is an example of a concept limited by language as it
not clearly observable what occurs during and after passing, and in turn there are not many
words to describe death effectively. Language gives semantic meaning to abstractions we are
able to contemplate with the large brains we have evolved. These abstractions are determined by
the observations and experiences of each culture. This shows how the physical elements of both
our cultures and languages navigate the way we think as conscious beings. For instance, we have
a man named Jon who speaks two languages, and he might experience different emotions than
Myers 2
Matt who speaks just one language due to the fact that there may not be a congruent word for a
certain emotion, or concept, in Matt’s monolingual vocabulary. For instance, Sam Higashine
from Japan says in an article from The Guardian, “You can’t say that you “miss” something in Ja-
panese for example. I would guess that there are lots of slang words in particular that don’t quite
carry the same flavour or meaning of the English original.” (Higashine) This highlights the fact
that sometimes there are not any directly translatable words for every experienced concept from
one language to another. There also may be different connotations involved with different con-
cepts in each language. For example the Japanese word, kondo, can hold different meanings in
context such as “this time”, “last time”, or “next time”. This illustrates that the Japanese may hold
different concepts of time due to linguistic semantics than English-speaking Westerners. Addi-
tionally, in Japanese culture the first birthday is a really big deal along with the 42nd birthday be–
