language reveals culture???

To what extent can we infer facts about culture from language? I have recently been exposed to lots of rather speculative statements. For example, I read how a travel author described a certain swear word which permeates society as "meaning a violent carnal sex act, which reflects the violent psyche of the nation". However, later I asked a friend from that country about it and he laughed and said it really didn't mean any more than "damn". Another example of dubious claims is that the use of indirect statements like "to me it is pleasing" or "he was killed by me" instead of "i killed him" reflects the passivity and apathy of the national psyche. I can't be sure, but it seems like a pretty bogus claim, as many languages have such structures and their cultures are very diverse...

Having said that, there are some features which surely do tell about culture, for example the extreme politeness of Japanese society is reflected in the complex levels of politeness of Japanese speech, I don't think anyone disputes this.

So what do you think? To what extent is clture reflected in language, and when do these claims become wild speculation?

Of course language reflects culture, it is a product of culture.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture

You're defining "culture" as politeness and/or PC but this is extremely narrow definition.
You must be a German.

"I read how a travel author described a certain swear word which permeates society as "meaning a violent carnal sex act, which reflects the violent psyche of the nation"

I am intrigued. Which word and nation were they writing about?

It was the Mexican Spanish word "chingar". Maybe it ORIGINALLY meant that, but now even 5 year old kids use it...

In French, the complicated formulations to end a letter reflects the old fashioned and conservative facette of French culture. Beer drinking nations say "best regards" and that´s it.

You might be interested in this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir-Whorf