The Concept of Hometown in German, Russian and Vietnamese Cultures (Experimental Studies)

The study of the concept hometown, reflecting national pictures of the world of different ethnic groups, appears to be an important research problem in modern culture study. It is a well-known fact that concepts differ between nations, cultures and periods of time in their content which is socio-culturally determined. The topic of the research is considered relevant due to culture bearers’ awareness of the phenomenon of hometown as well as the fact that the process of urbanization can be treated as one of the main global tendencies in the present-day society. The experimental study, dealing with the description and analysis of the content of the concept hometown, which is complex in nature, reveals similarities and differences in the perception of hometown in German, Russian, and Vietnamese cultures. In particular, most common and most frequent associative features of the image under study, discovered for the three cultures, include close people, specific landscape, cultural environment, local cuisine. The distinctive features of the image tend to demonstrate differences in the perception of hometown, which can have social, economic and demographical explanation. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n3s1p499