I am Karen Angulo. I finished my Bachelor's Degree on English teaching last year at Universidad de Costa Rica, and currently I am in a Second Languages and Cultures Master’s program at Universidad Nacional-Heredia.
The purpose of my blog is to share a little bit what I am learning on culture and its relationship with language. Language teachers are not only in charge of teaching the language itself, but teaching culture, we cannot detach one from the other.
There are lots of definitions on culture, I consider that culture include all those aspects that a determined group of people share (as the food, values, attitudes, ways of thinking, likes and dislikes, habits, traditions and behaviors), acquire and transmit from generation to generation. Those aspects are not easy to teach in our classrooms, even more if we are not familiarize with the culture of the target language. The lack of familiarization, or actual knowledge of a culture from the inside, makes us create assumptions that could develop into stereotypes. We, as teachers, have to avoid “labeling” people in class. On the contrary, we have to emphasize in our students the fact that we should not judge those people who have different points of view, or behaviors from ours.
Let’s implement different techniques in our classrooms in order to teach culture accurately, in an objectively way. Let’s do research on different topics that our students could be interested on learning. Don’t limit yourself; go beyond that teaching just a language. Remember that “Language is Culture and Culture is Language”.
But, how could we teach culture? According to Patrick Moran (2001) there are many approaches in order to teach culture while teaching a language as role-plays, film, realia, authentic materials, literature, among others. But there is a huge difference between teaching culture as a way of living and teaching how to participate in that way of living. Moran explain it by his own experience, he was a French student, who didn’t know about French culture until he actually was part of it. He realized that, even he knew lots of grammar rules, vocabulary, and culture, he didn’t know how to behave,he didn’t know how to apply all the knowledge he had learned and acquired. After a while immerged in French culture, Moran could understand what he had learned on culture.
At this point, I get a little bit concern, because we, as teachers, have to provide our students with cultural experiences and also have to make them understand the culture by their own comparison and analysis. I have not had the opportunity to be immerged in an English culture as Moran did, in order to provide my students with cultural experiences. But, anyhow, I have to teach culture while teaching the language. I am not going to wait until I can experience living within an English speaking country for learning culture from the inside, so, the answer for my problem is to research on culture accurately and meaningfully.
For that reason, I was trying to look for some information about different cultural behaviors. People tend to be ethnocentric because assume our own culture as a point of reference. That is why I chose two cultural behaviors that are different for me, based on my own perception of culture. Here there are…
Female Genital Mutilation
This is a very controversial topic, on which even World Health Organization (WHO) has been involved. Let’s state it as objectively as possible.
According to Rhonda Heitman (2000), “Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a cultural practice that started in Africa approximately 2,000 years ago. It is primarily a cultural practice, not a religious practice. But some religions do include FGM as part of their practices.”
There are many practices that, even in our own culture, in our own home, we don not share, we do not see it as "regular", or "acceptable". But, we can not judge it, their just different. We must respect others beliefs, even they are not similar to ours.
Those African and Islamic people practicing FGM believe in it as a religious or cultural issue. Its part of their traditions, and we cannot just say that is a strange, dangerous or abominable practice, because we do not understand it.
There is just one aspect that concerns me, and should be the only one that makes people aware of the risks that Female Genital Mutilation has. It is the insalubrious of the procedure in some cases. Even this practice is carried out in hospitals and clinics, sometimes, because of traditional matters; it is done with not so adequate hygienic conditions, and could bring some health complications. But, besides of that, I really do not get the point when people criticizes or judge those cultural practices. You will see in the videos that I attached that women are conscious about the process that they had being through, and they really are proud of their beliefs and practices. So, if they are satisfied with their practices, why are we going to be concern? We just have to respect, learn, and avoid judging. (Watch the added videos on Female Mutilation)
Zulu Culture
This other topic that I want to develop is not as controversial as the previous one. I consider this, to be an idea on how to get involved, trying to understand and learn in a meaningful way from other cultures.
Zulu is a South Africa ethnic group, which has its own language, traditions, values… Its own Culture!
I chose this culture because it is said that they hold ceremonies yearly, in order to keep alive their culture and traditions. Some of them are:
- Reed Dance Festival. It promotes purity among women.
- Weddings. Zulu woman has to show to her husband’s family how pretty she is. And man’s family kills a cow as a symbol of acceptance.
- Traditional Healing. They have an isangoma, who is in charge of healing people, and find stolen goods.
One of the videos that I added was performed by two young men that tried to represent Zulu way of living and behaving. I like it very much, because, its a nice way to involve our students on learning a different culture. They benefit from learning while having fun. (Watch videos on Zulu's Culture)
As a conclusion, I want you to get my point on the development of these two cultural behaviors. The most interesting fact is that, in both cases, they have different traditions, and ways of living that us, but people do not criticize Zulus as much as they criticize Female Genital Mutilation practice. I am not telling that you have to accept FGM as part of your own culture and practice it, I am saying that the important issue on culture is to accept and respect others beliefs, traditions, behaviors, and not judge them just for being different from ours. Let aside the stereotypes, let aside ethnocentrism, we are all part of the same world, we only have to realize that there are unlimited different points of view.
