The relationship between language and culture and culture
Individual written essay:
Language is intertwined with culture. When a person starts learning a new language he has to be aware of the importance of learning about its culture too. This is a matter of knowing that they will go always together; you cannot understand its language without going deeper to its language; due to it represents a symbol of social identity. And it is that language and culture have a wide perspective that they work with every single part of the society. Both culture and language very important because of three main aspects: the relation between them, the influence of culture in the process of learning a foreign language and the cultural expressions countries have through language.
Firstly, the language depends on where we or our family live and what they and we are used to. It is very important for everyone to know the way we communicate to others taking into account our traditions and the way we are used to relate to other people. Many people from different countries around the world can communicate differently, but it is respectable because it is what they have been used to and have been doing for a long time; from their ancestors.
Secondly, the influence of culture in the process of learning a foreign language depends so much on the place we talk about, since not all the countries are used to the same things. For example, Colombians are used to doing things that Mexicans, Europeans, or Americans are not. But in spite of everything, it is a matter of having good communication to be able to understand other points of view and be flexible with things that can sometimes seem interesting to us from foreigners and others not so much.
Thirdly, our language expresses something about your feelings about how you interact with others. When talking about education, many countries show great respect for the teacher. American teachers notice this in the way students express themselves. For example, the way they greet or communicate with each other. There are many cultural expressions that countries have through language, and that is how they let their people communicate with others.
In conclusion, as we can see all of the aspects of culture take us to language; so they are always combined that there is no way to learn a language without knowing about the culture where the language comes from; all of the expressions they normally use, things they like to say, not to say, celebrations that involve the language and many more. In sociolinguistics it is seen as the main factor for communication it means one language equal one culture; this one represents daily life duties, such as behavior, celebrations, customs, food typical things and more, the words which we usually associate culture with.
PowToon presentation:
https://www.powtoon.com/c/fz3sJPfPbwJ/1/m
Interview to an English teacher:
Topic of the interview: Importance of the Language and Culture when Teaching English.
Date and time it was performed: Wednesday, June 24th at 5:00 pm.
Place where it was performed: California, USA via Zoom.
Interviewed name: Kiran Malavade.
Profession: English Teacher.
Courses in charge: English for Native Speakers in the Cañada Community College.
Summary of the answers and comments:
What do you think is a relationship between language and culture?
According to professor Malavade, “Our language expresses our culture”. Although the relationship is not very clear, she says that the language depends on where we or our family live and what they and we are used to. Also, the way we communicate to others depends on our traditions and the way we are used to relate to other people. She explains it saying, “how I speak with my parents is different than how I speak with my white husband, you know, and that's my culture like my culture is, you know, all of those things together. Right, so I think that's true for our students that we see in community college that their culture is not just one thing. Like, you're from Colombia, it's, you know, maybe the particular place in Colombia, you know, your particular sometimes we talk about even our family has a particular culture. Right. Every family has its own culture and so that there's that too. So, I think. It's a very complex relationship to things, but it's almost impossible to separate language and culture. I think”.
What is the influence of culture in the process of foreign language process?
It depends so much on the city and country, since many countries are used to different things. When for example students go to the United States to learn a new language, they should get used to the teaching method in one way or another. This also involves meeting students from other countries where the teacher is the one who has the right to speak during the explanation without giving the students the opportunity to participate actively, or where the teacher is very demanding or short-tempered. American education, on the other hand, tends to be more comprehensive with the student, where the teacher will always want to help the learner and will look for ways to help students to achieve autonomous and meaningful learning. This is how Malavade explains it, “So glad you know so I think it's just an issue of understanding that culture does impact not just how we interact in the classroom with the teacher how we might interact with each other. So, if I ask a student to do group work, but in their culture that's not comfortable. Like, it feels like you're cheating if you do group work, right. So, you know, it's a good idea to have a conversation with students and talk about what's explicit. This is my expectations. This is why I think it's good and be respectful of students coming in the door with a lot of their own ideas about learning so that that is because it's going to come up in some way, whether we acknowledge it or not. It's part of the you know what's going on in the classroom”.
Which cultural expressions do you know countries have a through language?
“We're cultural expression, you know, your language you're trying to express something about your feelings about how you interact with others. So those things coming out, you know, in our writing in our speech, in the classroom kinds of thing”, says Mavalade in the interview. When talking about education, many countries show great respect for the teacher. American teachers notice this in the way students express themselves. For example, the way they greet or communicate with each other. Kiran says that despite the fact that she tries to make her students feel confident in their classes by calling her or her name, it is difficult for them to feel that confidence because, according to them, it may be a lack of respect towards the teacher. And from my point of view it has always seemed strange to call the teacher in class by his name because, as Kiran says, I feel that it is a lack of respect, but here it is just normal. However, it is difficult for me due to the lack of habit, since in Colombia you always say professor to whom the class is guiding. “ I always tell everybody in my class on the first day when I'm teaching, face to face, please call me Kiran. It's what I'm and when I was in college, I really appreciated that my college professors told me to call them by their first name and I like that you don't do that in high school, but it feels like mature to do and college. So, I tell that to my students, but my students, many students, you know who are educated at least partly in other countries could be Latin America could be Asia. It could be anywhere really students who are educated in other countries, typically don't feel comfortable with that. And you know, I think that's a cultural expression of language right so culturally. I'm not comfortable calling you curate. They'll call me, you know, Professor, that's fine. You know, whatever. Maybe sometimes they'll call me, Professor Kiran, but really, they just stick to Professor and that is their cultural expression you know their way of saying in their language. I'm trying to be respectful of you because you're the teacher. I don't feel comfortable calling you. It's not that they're trying to you know disrespect me. I'm telling them, call me, Kiran. They want to show respect and that is their language of doing it, you know”, says Mavalade.
So why do you think it is important to have an oral tradition in a country?
“An oral tradition is so much more alive than a written tradition, so oral tradition is constantly changing” states Mavalade. The oral tradition allows us to communicate with other people and keep relationships with others. In addition, this allow us to move forward and learn new things as time passes. The oral tradition not only defines a person, but a group of people, a country, a culture, since through them we identify ourselves as people, and we learn from others in our countries and abroad as well. This is what Mavalade explains it, “I'm thinking about with the COVID you know this term social distancing, and this is something that I was joking with my husband. I think that you know 2030 years ago if the same restriction was given to us, you know, stay six feet away. They called it social distancing; we would have called it something else. Really use those that kind of terminology. Right. Which is evolving and changing. And so, an oral tradition is so crucial, crucial to our culture, we need to keep that alive… So, we have to be okay with using the oral tradition to allow us to make changes in and because the oral tradition more closely represents the culture a written tradition is for the educated. In most countries, including America that's going to be the privileged people and an oral tradition is for everybody. You know, and so everybody has a claim on that and every many accesses that. So, it's important that we keep that alive”.
Do we teach language using culture or do we teach culture using language?
“Both right. Um, you know, I don't think it's possible to teach culture without language. You know, I don't think. And I don't mean just written language. I mean, oral language. I don't think it's possible to teach the culture without the language. But I suppose it's possible to teach the language without the culture… those things are so connected” answers Mavalade. It is true, the two things go together, and their relationship is so strong that it is simply difficult to separate them. For example, in Colombia, some people can learn English without knowing much about the American culture, and vice versa, but if we finally want to travel to learn more and have a knowledge of that culture, it is essential to know the language.
Do you take into account culture in the strategies you use in your English classes. Can you give me some examples?
As Mavalade expresses, teachers need many strategies to be able to understand the oak trees that our students go through and to help them in time. They have relation with their with culture, and the teachers are obliged to help them because we are the ones who are charge of helping our students, and in our hands it is to identify shortcomings in time. “I usually have some kind of assignment, especially in the earlier classes in our class, I think it was just a small survey kind of thing about yourself. Right. But usually I want to give students an opportunity to tell me you know this is my experience in with education before because I don't know… If I see a student doing something that seems weird. I'm not understanding what's going on here, Linda, you know, your assignments seem like you're off on this, tell me a little bit about why you did it this way, and then you're going to explain to me. Oh, because in my country, I learned done it at it and now I understand. Let me think about how I can you know give you different instructions so that it would be clear for you or I see Linda that you don't really like to work in groups. Tell me about that, you know, and then I could understand why. So, I think it's important, it comes back to that teaching with love, right, it comes down to, you know, understanding that our students are not blank slates. They come in the door with a lot of information and knowledge and culture and in order to promote learning”.
Write a significant reflection about the answers of the interviewed:
The Professor Malavade is an excellent Teacher with whom I have had the chance to learn English abroad in a Community College. Through her interview, I confirm the importance of teaching with love and understanding the problems many students go through on a daily basis. Teaching goes beyond explaining a topic in front of a group of students, teaching is wanting the best for the learners and looking for strategies so that they overcome their obstacles with our help and in this way, they can achieve meaningful learning. On the other hand, she stresses the importance of not judging students by their origin or roots because learning from different cultures is something wonderful. In addition, it is vitally important to know how to communicate with other people orally or in writing. To be able to teach adequately, it is necessary to know a little about the culture of the language that is going to be taught, but to learn about the culture it is essential to know the language to be able to communicate and learn in a more significant way.
Conclusion about the Unit 1:
Language and culture are two related aspects, since language depends on culture and vice versa. The language reflects the experiences and the way of seeing the world of the people. Each town, city or place and therefore its inhabitants form their own way of being in life. People create a cultural model that is built from the relationships that the community establish among themselves, with nature, the relationships with other communities and with what they consider important. It is necessary to understand what others are used to and learn through experiences.
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