Thursday, October 25, 2012

To me, culture is everything that a native person knows about how to fit in to their own society. This can be conscious knowledge, such as what type of food is normally eaten, or more subconscious, such as how to walk down the street and "blend in," or how to properly use a slang term in context. I think it is definitely possible to teach culture in a second-language classroom, and it is also important to do so. It is especially important for those students who plan on continuing their language education and might even plan to study abroad.

I'm not quite sure what the video was trying to demonstrate about culture shock, but I certainly did experience shock when I went abroad this past summer. Costa Rica was such a different place with such different people that I often found myself just wishing to be around something--anything--familiar. It was hard to be eating different food, speaking a different language, and living in someone else's house so far away from home. And you can never "turn it off." I did have some idea of what the Costa Rican culture was like before I headed down there, but it is completely different from actually experiencing it first hand. I feel like that is the largest drawback from trying to teach culture in a foreign language classroom. You can't teach the students how it is to really live the culture.

Though there is no perfect solution, I think one of the best things that can be done to teach students about culture is to have native speakers come talk to them, and maybe throw a celebration for a certain holiday while they are there to get their take on how the celebration is really supposed to proceed. If there are any movies that come close to portraying the real culture of a place, those might also be a good tool to use in the classroom setting.

4 comments:

  1. I like the idea of having a native speaker come into the class to help teach and discuss culture. It's a great use of an authentic source.

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  2. I didn't really understand the video either, haha. But it was kind of amusing. I think it was supposed to be about how the toaster did not physically fit in like the other appliances, and when he tried to force himself to be like the others, he got "culture shocked". But this would imply that culture shock only happens when a person tries to fit in while abroad, which isn't really the case.

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  3. Living the culture is something that can’t be taught or simulated in the classroom, but it is important for teachers to prepare students to go abroad so that don’t experience a as big of a “culture shock.” I like how you said that when you go abroad you can’t just “turn it off” and that is the point of true immersion. You are almost forced to experience the culture whether you like it or not. I felt bad for students in my class who didn’t like Dominican food and felt that all they ate was beans and rice, and that all the food was too similar. I found it interesting that Chinese students at UNH felt the same way about the food in the dining halls, to them it was all the same and they thought it was plain, when most American students think the food at UNH is great and there is a lot of variety. Being able to “fit into a society” is all about knowing the culture. Even if a person doesn’t know everything about the culture being respectful of cultural norms is important.

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  4. I agree with Kelly, I like how you mentioned that you can't just turn off the change of culture. When I went to Puerto Rico for vacation with my friends we didn't realize how much of a culture shock it would be. We were living with natives and I didn't eat for days because I didn't care for the food. It wasn't until we went into the city that we could find food that we were used to. Needless to say, I really wanted to turn off the culture shock.

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