Introduction The exact nature of the relationship between language and culture has fascinated, and continues to fascinate,

people from a wide variety of backgrounds. Language and culture may seem as different concepts from the outside but in reality they are really related. Obviously, the language represents our culture. It is a narrative that people certain culture made up to communicate with each other but all the people in the world do not speak the same language. Those people are from different places, they speak different languages and that is when we see languages relativity with our culture. It is the mirror of our culture, as it reflects not only real world around us, not only real life conditions, events, and experiences, but also a public conscience and self-conscience of the nation, mentality, national character, way of life, customs and traditions, habits, moral, system of values, vision, world outlook, and world perception. There are many cultures within Malaysian society such as Malay culture, Chinese culture, Indian culture, Eurasian culture, along with the cultures of the indigenous groups of the peninsula and north Borneo. A unified Malaysian culture is something only emerging in the country. Language is a major connection between the cultures that exist. The relationship between language and culture is deeply rooted. Language is used to maintain and convey culture and cultural ties through vernal and non verbal. It is used in relation to signs, gestures, news in media and cultural practices. A persons use of language is influenced by his cultural experiences. This is obtained when interacting among people from different cultures. Signs There are various signs that is related to our lives and culture. Picture is one of them. People say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Signs usually involve hand and face movements as they have different ways of conveying meaning. Besides that, picture is also an example of sign. When we see a picture of a face with a finger on its mouth at the library, we know that it means quiet. We are not supposed to make noise at the library. When we wanted to go to the toilet, we have o make sure that we are going to

right toilet by referreing to the picture sign ( either male or female) on the door. Sign language is also a form of sign in communicating. Here in Malaysia, we have our own sign language. As I mentioned earlier, different sign brings different meaning. Other people might misinterpret what we are trying to say if we use a wrong sign. Gestures Gestures are said to be the motion of the limbs or body made to express or help express thought or to emphasize speech. It is also said an act or a remark made as a formality or as a sign of intention or attitude. We might not notice that we use gestures everyday in our daily business. A very example of a gesture is smiling. Smiling is an act to show that we are happy. We are not saying that we are happy but when we smile, people will know that we are happy. we can smile to everybody no matter who they are. We sometimes use gestures together with our verbal speech. As Malaysian, we will interact with people from other races because there are other races in a community. So, we need to understand the way these races interact. We might give a bad impression to them if we use the wrong gesture when communicating. This will give bad implication towards the communitys harmony. The act of gesture is the beat-gestures. These gestures are use to emphasis on certain words as we speak. Imagine that we are talking to someone about something and there are some disagreements about the topic. We might use our hands to show that we mean no instead of arguing out loud which is a very impolite. In fact, I think that praying is one of a gesture. When we pray, we are suggesting to other people that we are praying by the way we act. Other races do different ways of praying to worship their God.

News in Media It is different in the old days when we can only find news through the newspaper, radio and television. Nowadays, we can read the latest news not just through the newspaper, or listening to the news broadcasted in the radio. News can be found through easier way, which is from the internet. With just a click from the keyboard of our personal computers or notebook, and with the help from any internet connection, we are able to read or find news from the whole country within seconds. Since the Malaysians

are from various race and culture, there are newspapers and news broadcasts done or written in different languages. Before 1957,Malaysia was known as Malaya. We were colonized by the British and they started to bring in immigrants from India and China to work for them. That is why Malaysia is a multicultural country. Newspapers back then were written after and before the World War II. Of the five Malay language newspapers, the largest is the morning daily Berita Harian. There are other newspapers written in other languages like Tamil Nessan for the Indian and the Nanayang Siang Pau for the Chinese. It started with the Malay language newspapers which was to carve out a separate Malay culture and identity. The same reason were used to make the Indians and Chinese wrote and came up with their own newspapers. It was maybe because of their own people who can only read in their mother tongue. Their nationality spirit was very strong. They wanted to make sure that they were voicing out their way of life, culture and traditions will be remembered other than informing people from their race about the things that were going on at that time. There are also newspapers written in English like The Star and Sunday Times. These English newspapers were written inform people who like or prefer news in the international language. We can also see news in television. Since everybody is not perfect and we know that there are some unfortunate people who are disabled. There are television broadcast companies who use the help form experienced people to broadcast news both in verbal and sign language. Cultural practices Malaysia, as we all know, is an Asia country. Most Asia country is bound to traditions that they inherit from their ancestors. Take Malay for example. Young people are taught to respect the elderly. Not just by the way they talk, but also the way they act. In Malay culture, young people will bend down, held one of their arms out if they want to walk in front of people who are older than them. This the way they show respect. In Indian culture, people will greet others from the same race by saying vanakkum which means good day or nandri which means thank you. In our Malaysian culture, we often address people respectively. As early as a child, we were taught to respect the elders. Not just only by the way we act, but also the way we talk to them. We cannot simply call

them Hey or Yo. This is not the way of our culture. We were trained to call them Ayah or Papa, Makcik or Aunty. This way portrays the soft eastern culture that we are practicing. We know now that language and culture are closely related. This is because what we say or what we speak is the mirror of what we are. It is really important to use the right signs, gestures through media and culture correctly.