Saturday, October 27, 2012

Discussion 6 - Teaching Culture

In L2, teaching culture is as important as teaching the language itself. Culture is the history and way of life of the people who speak the language, and without learning the culture students are only experiencing half of the language. Often, there are parts of a language that do not make sense without having the cultural background of the people. For example, in Russian, a common expression is "without down, without feathers", which is essentially wishing the other person no comforts in life. This would seem harsh, but Russian people are used to living without many comforts and think of those who have them to be weak. Therefore, to wish this upon someone means to wish them to wish them strength and success.

It is certainly possible to teach culture in the classroom, but it is not entirely effective all of the time. A teacher can prepare students for some things, but there are parts of a culture that cannot be explained without experiencing them. The idea of "culture shock" is based on this, because it is the idea that a person travels to a foreign culture and is shocked by the differences in their way of life. But this should not stop teachers from trying, which can be done in several different ways. An easy way to teach culture is to inform students about special holidays and the histories behind the celebrations, but a very important part of culture is history. Students need to have historical knowledge about the native people in order to understand the general mindset of the region or country.

If someone who knew absolutely nothing about Russian history learned the Russian language and them went to Russia, not only would the famous landmarks mean nothing to them, they would never catch the nuances that make the language so special. For example, many Russian saying are spoken passively, meaning that things happen to you rather than you actively doing them. An ignorant foreigner would not understand why, but looking at Russia's history of oppression it is not hard to understand why the Russian people would feel like most things are beyond their control and simply happen to them. It is a teacher's job to not simply teach these phrases to their students, but also to stop and point out the cultural background behind them.

4 comments:

  1. I definitely agree that it is important to teach culture as a way to prepare students for a culture shock, in addition to adding meaning to the language that their learning. Also, I had no idea that Russian used so much passive and the implications of that in relation to history. Very interesting!

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  2. I think you used some great examples in this discussion response, Michelle. I don't know much about Russian at all, but from what you say, it certainly does sound like culture is very important and tied in strongly with the language itself. I would imagine it would be difficult or nearly impossible to separate the two or learn one without the other.

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  3. You’re right, teachers are responsible for more than just teaching a phrase and new vocabulary, they need to teach their students the significance behind these phrases. I like your example about wishing someone a life without down or without feathers, because this to me sounds more like cursing someone to a life without comforts. American culture is all about over-indulgence and material wealth, so we would not see this as a way to wish someone strength and success. To be successful in American society is to have a life full of “feathers” because that is how we represent success, the overabundance of material wealth, with all the things that make life “easier.” Just because the concepts behind terminology are difficult, this should not discourage teachers from teaching these cultural nuances.

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  4. I really like the examples that you provided here about the importance of teaching culture. Most importantly, I think it was interesting that you pointed out the importance of teaching the history of that culture. In my experience, teachers don't typically teach the history of the language unless it pertains to the current lesson of culture they are teaching.

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