Week 3 Reading; Self and other: Language and identity

In the early section of this reading, Holliday explains Parisa, the Iranian woman, and how she is forced to deal with the “us versus them” attitude.  Analyzing this idea more, it really troubled me when I noticed how I would have behaved in the same manner that her colleagues had.  In the limited films or literature I have seen regarding this particular group of women were always portrayed as soft spoken, near powerless because of how the media had stereotyped them.  I can’t imagine being in Parisa’s position because she truly does struggle to make herself known while still trying to avoid being placed in the “us” or “them” categories.

When immersed in the Spanish culture, I often felt that my Spanish teachers were also guilty of placing their American students into a stereotype as well.  It seemed they saw us as a spoiled group of people who spent much time worrying about possessions instead of family and values.  Especially during the month of December, I noticed that one teacher in particular felt the need to criticize our culture’s emphasis on Santa instead of the birth of Christ. Coming from a religious family this was offensive to me and reflecting on this experience helps remind me to avoid stereotyping my own future students.

“I am who I can make myself and make others accept me to be”. This opening quote for the Identity Card section caught my attention right away because I wasn’t exactly sure how I felt about this sentence until I reread it a couple of times.  The word that made me question the validity of the quote was the use of “make”.  I think a person is defined by something much deeper then what they “make themselves and make others accept me to be”. If you need to be made into another person, then how true can you really be to yourself?  Also, if I feel comfortable with my own traits while a peer does not accept me to be the type of person I predetermined I was, then does that change who I am? These questions remained lingering in my mind throughout this section and its example regarding the school girls and their use of “identity”.

Bauman posed an eye-turning thought when he stated on page 66, that “Asians born raised and educated in Britain were thought to be precariously suspended between two cultures” all the while he migrated there and because he was white no one had thought anything of it.  Again I regret to also upholding this troublesome stereotype because of my assumptions.  Although it may seem like a harmless mistake, I know that I would also be offended if I fell into this stereotype so since it has been pointed out to me I feel like I can make a conscious effort to limit this occurrence.

At this point, I feel like I have been given multiple definitions of different researchers’ thoughts of culture but I still think that there is no set definition that perfectly sums up the main idea of the word.  In some ways, the process of defining culture is similar to the idea of culture in that there is no one defined person (or word definition) because we are always changing and evolving.     

Readings for Week 2; Culture: Concepts and Definitions

After really analyzing the information that was presented in the readings, I was able to reflect personally on my experiences as a language learner and the culture I was surrounded by during my studies in Spain.  Of course being immersed in their language was helpful but I still felt like I was missing a key element until classes started and I was able to take courses to give me a better understanding of their lifestyles.  Two classes in particular were the most beneficial to me, one of which was history of Spanish culture and the other was an oral production class.  The first one helped me immensely in terms of understanding the Spanish pride and way of life and gave me a better look at why some traditions were important.  I would love to bring this type of learning environment to my classroom but it is difficult to define where the English language originated and what location to base my information on since English is spoken worldwide.  The second class I was enrolled was excellent for me because it served as almost a survival guide with current information about pop culture, slang terms and even common expressions and attitudes.  Although having a good knowledge of the language itself, this class was probably the most helpful because in all my years of Spanish classes there was still much material that I had never been exposed to.

A solid combination of culture and language is the perfect way to get a better understanding about a group of people as long as the idea that every person is an individual and perfectly unique in their own way is stressed strongly.  Without this point being made clear, stereotypes are often made and applied to the masses.  It was interesting reading Hannerz’s point of view because it made me realize how many negative aspects have come from this broad understanding of culture.  His comments about ideas like “culture wars” and “culture clash” made me want to further dissect the origins of these terms since as an educator I plan on doing all that I can to avoid fostering an environment in which these things would be acceptable. 

Another point I found particularly thought provoking was Holliday’s interpretation on the essentialist vs. non-essentialist.  Although I feel that everyone is guilty of behaving like more of an essentialist, I think that if more people were exposed to this information they would be more conscious of its negative consequences and want to learn more about becoming a non-essentialist.  Seeing culture as an unbounded and dynamic life force would improve public relations and reduce the amount of stereotypes among individuals.

First Blog Entry

This is my first entry for Cross Cultural issues in TESOL