The Heinrich Conversation

What is language? Why can the meaning of something be dramatically changed when a symbol or phonetic character is replaced or omitted? This is what started the conversation about the deconstruction of language with my Father. It came about while I was going through a funny website called Engrish.com. This website features photos of signs in asian countries that have been translated into enlish underneath the Chinese/Japanese/Korean writing. I then proceded to show all of the funny signs that said "take the child...fall carefully into water" or "beware of caution" or a trash can marked "poisonous and evil rubbish". I began to talk with him about how these signs sound rediculous in enlish...but why do they sound redicilous? Do words have a concrete signified attached to them or are they simply generalizations of an accepted signified? He thought I was being rediculous really, like Heinrich's Father was, yet he was astounded that I could carry such an intelligent conversation. Because he had never been taught the meaning of signifiers and signifieds and all the Postmodern lingo, he was confused and resorted to the typical modern response which, although I expected, I did not hope for. He kinda backed off and acted like I was being rediculous because deconstructing the meanings of words is so foriegn to him. (No pun intended) When we use synonyms for words that sound rediculous, is it only because we relate better to the common word for garbage and not "evil rubbish". Although garbage is bad, it is really not evil, as the sign says. But in other languages they see it as evil. Different cultures can have a totally different take on words and how they apply to the objects around us. Phrases that are direct and demanding may sound normal in Chinese while they sound extremely rude in English, but is this not normal? Shouldn't all people use efficient language and say what they mean? Signs that read "Don't Fun" really sound direct and very much like a communist dictator. But other countries see fun as a waste of time. What is fun anyway, can the absence of fun be fun for other people as well? To sum it up, I had a conversation where I talked, he responded with something like "well, they just translate bad" and it went back and forth like that for at least 15 minutes. Eventually I he stopped listening and I got tired of trying to converse so I went to my room to play Call of Duty 4.