Cultural flavors from distant lands

It was my first week in the US. I was walking my two big dogs in the park close to the river, when I gave a shot: “Good morning,” I said, practicing my rusty English, and that old black woman greeted, and stopped to talk to me. Her name was Rose, and she told me about when she arrived here thirty years before, and how it had been difficult to her at that time making friends in a white neighborhood. She stayed there standing for an hour talking to me, a white person, giving me some tips, and stopping people who were passing around, just to introduce me to them. I was a lucky guy.

Never before in my life had I lived abroad, so far away from home. Now I’am forty years old, I found myself living in a small little town in a foreign country. Sometimes, I still feel as if it were a dream: I quit my job, I left my house, and most important, I left my family and friends to start a new life in a different land.
I used to live in abig city, drive for two hours a day from home to work, stuck in the traffic, and work around eighty hours a week; that was the price of living in an expensive big city. I made good money; I cannot deny, but I was tired of that life. I wanted to experience something different.

Now here I am, living in a little town, biking, walking, taking the bus with my backpack, and knowing people from everywhere, from distant places. It has been a great opportunity to get to know different cultures, different ways of living and thinking, which sometimes it is hard to understand and rationalize about; however, those experiences have opened my mind and enhanced my understanding of cultural differences. It is always rewarding filling out that our lives’ blanks. Everyday is a new chance to do or learn something. Everything. That’s why I’m here: to not despise any possible innings of learning. Learning about people, places, costumes, languages, sounds, tastes. Yes, cultural flavors from distant lands, from intricate minds. I really enjoy talking to people, listening to their stories. Learning from them. It can be surprising and wonderful to have those experiences, and I think everybody should try it at least once in his or her life; then, the world might be a better place to live, with less prejudice and bigotry, broadening the people’s minds.

by E. De Maria

Can we learn to laugh in another language?

While having my morning breakfast today, I was thinking of something: building on my previous post, where I was wondering if we can really understand and adapt to a new culture. I would like to ask why you think some movies are made to be exported and others are made to stay in house. Several times in my life, I noticed that the best movies I saw in a certain country were never exported while many less interesting ones were on foreign markets. What factors determine if a film is exported or not? Are they the ones that have the most stereotypes and ignore much deeper and mind-blowing cultural issues (these are the most interesting films, in my opinion)? Yes, I guess.

For example, I was thinking about the movie by John Turturro, Passione. To my knowledge it was not super successful abroad. No doubt, on the other hand, that a movie like Gomorra, about the mafia, sells better. What would an American, Asian, African, Australian, Indonesian, etc..etc.. person "see" in the movie Passione? Would they be able to appreciate it? Movies meant to be exported are often a "simplified" version of local cultures, but why so? Why keep limiting ourselves to stereotypes? Why not export the sincere, incomprehensible movies and slowly let foreigners adapt to them? Is that too complicated? Is that related to our obsession with simplifying everything in order not to deal with complexity?

When living in another country, I always get informed about the local comedians. I want to understand why people laugh with them and, if I don't find them funny, I want some local friends to explain to me why I am supposed to laugh at that particular moment! Someone could argue that you cannot learn culture-based humor, but I would try to challenge that argument. Because I did learn to laugh when French people laughed!

After spending some time living in France, I began hearing people talk about the Bronzés series, I tried to watch that movies and I found them totally uninteresting. But then I thought: I have to understand why everybody in the room is laughing but me. I told a friend and he suggested we watch the movie together, then something super fun happened. In the beginning he was "explaining" to me when to laugh and "why" and I mostly laughed because he was laughing. But then, as the movie went on, I started to laugh "with" him and not "because of" him. I felt great inside: Yes! I had managed to change my culture-based conditioning and get into a new one.

It was only after being able to understand and feel why those movies made people laugh that, in the end, I could decide by myself that that kind of movie was not my favourite one and that that kind of humor was not what cracks me up; but this time it was not because of the cultural barrier, it was just because of my personal taste! I could overcome cultural barriers and start from the same base of a real French person.

On the same token, I did experiments in other countries and with dramatic movies. If I find a movie from another country boring, I always wonder if it's because of my personal taste or because I didn't "get" it. This process is fascinating and this approach brought me to really broaden my mind. Perhaps, relating to my previous post, Competence or awareness, I would say that the simple fact of traveling around the world and living in another country without wondering "why" people like this and that, "why" they laugh for this and that, etc... etc.. diminshes our chances to step out of our cultural conditioning and step in a different one.

E.

Negotiation of identity?

How do we negotiate our identity, or identities, when learning and speaking another language?

Is identity fixed or does it develop and change in a process of continuous negotiation?

How do we perceive ourselves when dealing with different worlds? And how do these worlds perceive us?

Is it necessary to negotiate our identity in order to learn another language, or rather to really “feel” it, instead of simply putting the new words together in shallow sentences? Are we ready to accommodate our identity?

Is the classroom a place where it is possible to reach the stage of negotiation of identity with the new culture and language or not?

Which kind of activities may we suggest to learners, in order to encourage them reflecting on the process of negotiation taking place within themselves? And what if they are not willing to negotiate?

I believe that being ready to negotiate ourselves is very enriching and makes us glimpse new perspectives in life, broaden our perceptions and multiply our viewpoints. Negotiation of identities is not only related to culture and the way we deal with it. It is related to language itself. How do we perceive ourselves when speaking a different language? Our voice changes, and so does the way we shape our thoughts.

As concerns myself and my experience with foreign languages, when I look back, I deeply realize what negotiation of identity means and I clearly see the opportunity to entering several individualities. I perceive myself differently when speaking another language, and I am not talking about an artificial Paola, it is rather another aspect of me, which I, myself, discovered through the contact with the new language and culture. Besides, my life experiences in other countries of which I could speak the language made me widen my perspective and consider my “culture” from several points of view.

I believe that negotiation of identity and the openness to it have a strong link with motivation towards the language in object, especially on an emotional plan. I notice that I can speak the same foreign language well and smoothly in some occasions or periods of my life and then be almost unable to utter a correct sentence in others.

When I happen to wonder about how my life would have been and how I would have seen the world around me, and even myself, if I hadn’t studied Arabic, I am sure it would have been very different from now. Speaking Arabic and living in some Arab countries made me a different person. The process was not easy and smooth. I had several moments of “crisis” and rejection. It was a very deep process which I do not think can happen in a classroom.

Besides, I noticed different “levels” in my learning process: from studying the classical language at university to being able to really speak the daily language and communicating with people. Only the latter gave me the exciting feeling that I was a fluent Arabic speaker. Before that, every time I tried to express myself, in Arabic the person would answer in another language, such as English or French.

With regard to my experience with English, I believe that it is significant to highlight the importance of motivation and emotions in language learning. I studied English for a short while when I was a child and I really enjoyed it because I liked the idea of speaking another language. When I went to middle school, I decided to study French since I wanted to learn a new language.

Later on, at university, where my major was Arabic, I decided to study English as well, but this time my decision was dictated by the awareness of the necessity of speaking English because of its “power” and presence all around the world. Therefore, I started not to like it and I was not able to speak English until I lived and worked in Cardiff for six months. Words just wouldn’t come out of my mouth before that. Then, since my six months in Cardiff were very interesting and enjoyable and I found people very welcoming and open, I started to enjoy the contact with English language and its sound. On the contrary, since I am in London my level of English worsened, both because of the lack of opportunities to speak it (especially with native speakers) and of my perception of London as a not very welcomingcity.

by P. Casola (Italian and Arabic teacher)

A conversation with Chinese and American students

On the wake of my previous post, I would like to share with you a video. Here it is.

It's really interesting, 'cause American and Chinese people talk openly about how they see each other. Some barriers seam possible to overcome, others less.

I constantly question myself asking: Are there cultural aspects you can accept and overcome and others you just can't?

In this video, they talk about PATIENCE, it is a good point indeed.

What about kidding? Is it possible to understand another culture's irony? Will you be able to laugh genuinely after some years living in another country? Is it possible to be able to have fun in a new way? After all, even laughing and having fun are culturally based concepts.

In Italy, we have a saying that goes: Moglie e buoi dei paesi tuoi. It basically means you should marry someone from your own country. ;-) I don't think I agree but my point is: To what extent can we actually overcome cultural differences? Can we do that in all contexts?

E.

Are stereotypes real?

Stereotypes: Where do they come from? Are they really real?

I started thinking about the nature of stereotypes when I moved from Italy to France. That’s when I had my first baptism about how my people are perceived abroad.

The Italian guy is macho. Women usually stay at home and obey. We live with our mothers until more than 30 years old. We keep loving our mothers even after we leave. We are not very serious and reliable. All men use hairgel and court all women. We are never on time. We like la dolce vita. We use gestures a lot. We speak too loudly. Men often cheat on their partner.

For the first time, I saw an image of myself and my people that I had never seen before.  But that image didn’t really mirror my experiences as an Italian. All the boyfriends I had had before moving to France were Italian, faithful, respectful and never asked me to stay at home and wash dishes, on the contrary they were usually the ones who cooked and cleared the table. I was 24 and I had moved abroad alone. I was always on time and I never liked the movie La dolce vita, even if I watched it several times trying to like it. I used gestures a lot but I spoke very lowly. Oh! I forgot something: My boyfriends had never used hairgel! I was puzzled.

I started trying to understand where all these myths came from and I realized that many of them came from cinema, all those French people had watched all the movies with Sofia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Vittorio de Sica, ecc…ecc…  but none of the real people I knew and had been hanging out with corresponded to that image. (To what extent is cinema inspired by real life and to what extent is it based only on a few characteristics and behaviors of the country of origin, extrapolated from a much deeper and much more complicated reality?) 

Later on, when I went to the US, I received a different feedback: Americans saw Italy as a Garden of Eden where everybody wears Prada bags and beautiful shoes, where plants grow lushly and people don’t need to work to eat, because food grows on trees. Mothers cook very well and women are beautiful. Life is dolce and the Vespa is the most wonderful bike ever created. We play beautifully the mandolin, cars are sublime and architecture brilliant. 
They were stressing completely different things. As for me I had never had a Prada bag, I liked beautiful shoes and being well dressed and I knew for sure that food doesn’t grow on trees in Italy, unfortunately.

At this point, I would love to check the opinion of South-American, Asian, African and Australian people about Italy and the Italians. It might be something else again. 

My point is that stereotypes are real and unreal at the same time. They actually stem from some real aspects of a culture but then they are rearranged according to the values of the foreign culture that created them. Everyone spots a part of the whole and interprets it according to their own values. That’s also why some foreign movies are successful in some countries and not in others, because the perception of what they talk about will necessarily be mediated by the target audience’s culture.  


How can we deal with stereotypes ? I suggest to float among them without fumbling about, backing them up sometimes and distancing ourselves from them at other times, 'cause they might be real for certain geographical areas, social classes, religious groups and levels of education but not for others. Maybe Prada bags and the elegant shoes the Americans were talking about are easier to spot in the rich Florence, Milan and Venice, whereas most Italians have surely never seen nor desired them. Social conditions and geographical locations can no doubt contribute to stereotypes. 


So: Does spaghetti really grow on trees? Yes, but only in Ticino and Po Valley. Have a look here. 

  
E.

Brazilians as Latinos (!)

Coming to the US taught me a lesson about my identity. I had always seen myself as being "very Brazilian": I love Carnival, I can dance samba quite well, I drink coffee like crazy. However, being Latin-American was a totally alien idea to me. I never thought of the things Brazil and Bolivia, for example, had in common. Living here made me understand that Brazilians have a lot more in common with "Latinos" than I thought we had.

That perception came through American eyes, who referred to Brazil as "South America", a term that at first upset me. "Why South America?", I thought. "We don't even speak the same language." A year later, I got to know that yes, Americans are right. I am South American, I am Latina, and I love it!

What we call Pão de Queijo (Cheese Bread) in Brazil, Bolivians call Cuñapes. Carnival is very popular all over Latin America. Brazilian soap operas are watched and adored in Colombia, El Salvador, Peru... We do share so many characteristics.

I feel lucky for having learned that. People in Brazil have no idea of how South American, how Latino we are; neither do they think this is a positive thing, I suppose. I guess they would have to understand all the issues about ethnicity always being discussed in the US in order to make sense of what I am saying.

Most Brazilians would be shocked to see that, here, Brazilians are not considered "white people". Here, being white does not only mean having light skin. It means being part of a historically priviledged ancestry, and we Brazilians are not a part of this group. While this would certainly upset some people in my country, it has been a very liberating experience for me.

Now, every time I have to declare my race/ethnicity ( something I had never had to do in Brazil), I am no longer in doubt: I just check the Hispanic/Latino box (even though I do not speak Spanish) and think of all the possibilities this new identity has brought me.   

                                                                                                                   F.

Competence or awareness?

Darla Deardorff wrote a book about Intercultural Competence. But what do you think of this expression?

I personally like it, but I loved it when a colleague of mine from China said she perceived it as arrogant. She asserted that in her home country such a concept would not be understood. Competence? Why do we need to talk about competence? Is that something that someone has and someone else doesn't? In my opinion: yes, but I wouldn't say that this competence is given by only traveling and living abroad.

I often happened to think about this: traveling and living abroad in itself does not give you any competence, you can live abroad but stick to your habits, beliefs, behaviours and not open up to the diversity of the world. Or you can never leave your home town and be the most generous, sharing, helpful and sympathetic person who makes no difference between human beings from different cultures. I know a few people like these both.

So... is competence the right word? How can you acquire such a 'thing'?

It's sure that, for me, everything started when I first visited a non-European country. I felt really lost and shaken up as for my personal and cultural identity and that helped me a lot understanding that not everybody in the world thinks and feels as I was taught to think and feel. But is that a competence that someone can teach us? Can we learn that at school? Maybe we can. Maybe history, foreign languages, literature, geography could be taught in a perspective so to slowly broaden our horizons and perceptions. In that case, people who are not led by their own life experiences to reach that comprehension and awareness, could be helped by forward-looking professors and teachers to bridge that gap. Nevertheless, neither teachers nor professors can teach us something we are not ready to accept. 

Intercultural Competence would be that ability to not judge cultural behaviours and not to look at them as if they were weird, bad or inadmissible. They are just culture-based. Nothing is universal. Everything is cultural. Not even the way we raise up our children, teaching them what politeness is, is universal. So, of course traveling and living abroad can help a lot, but not always, not for everyone.

Sometimes a good teacher can help. Sometimes our own sensitivity will do it all.

So, since that is not something you learn, cause you need to have a correspondence within you, wouldn't it be better to call it awareness or even openness?

E.