Faezeh Pouryazdanpanah Kermani
Abstract
Obtaining academic certificates has become important in societies, which, at times, is known as “certificate admiration” in our society. In defining certificate admiration, which is a derivative, compound word, it should be noted that the importance of university education has made many people ...
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Obtaining academic certificates has become important in societies, which, at times, is known as “certificate admiration” in our society. In defining certificate admiration, which is a derivative, compound word, it should be noted that the importance of university education has made many people consider certificates as an advantage for a person to achieve their desired goals, including promoting their career and social status. Obtaining a degree can facilitate marriage and guarantee the happiness of the people around us, including parents. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, degrees and skills are of paramount importance in choosing a job. The present inquiry attempts to examine and analyze mainstream discourses, which are rooted in Persian culture and are associated with certificate admiration among individuals of different ages; hence, the concept of “Cultuling” is introduced here. This coined term consists of language and culture, i.e., “culture in language”, representing people’s culture and the science relevant to its study is called “Culturology of Language”. Following the existing studies on “Cultuling”, the present study draws on Hymes’ SPEAKING model. Simply put, attempts were made to analyze cultuling of certificate admiration in Persian language discourses in the framework of the Hymes’ model. For this purpose, 150 conversations belonging to individuals were examined and explored according to their economic status, age, education, and their employment status. The conversations took place in public and private places and formal and informal settings. The corpus was gathered from 95 female and 55 males and representatives from Khorasan Razavi (Mashhad, Neishabur, Sabzevar), Golestan (Gorgan), South Khorasan (Tabas), Kerman (Sirjan), East Azarbaijan (Tabriz) and Tehran (Pakdasht) provinces. The majority of the participants were from Mashhad and associated cities and a handful of the participants were from other provinces. The results showed that individuals in Persian culture are engaged in conversation with people on certificate admiration so as to follow these purposes, among other things, gaining knowledge, competing, showing off, gaining social status and a better job, and being respected and approved by people. It seems that there is often a confrontation between a degree and a skill, but both are complementary in the end. Therefore, in a healthy culture, both concepts can positively contribute to the individual’s success. The two should be valued and used together to promote healthy thinking, generate better ideas, and lead a life with more awareness.
