Reflect on "Communicative Competence".
While this entire chapter was definitely very interesting, the part that interested me the most was when the author said, "What are the rules that govern our conversations? How do we get someone's attention? How do we initiate topics? Terminate topics? Avoid topics? How does a person interrupt, correct, or seek clarification? These questions relate to an area of linguistic competence possessed by every adult native speaker of a language, yet few foreign language curricula traditionally deal with these important aspects of CC [Communicative Competence]" (page 228).
Thinking about this, I completely agree with this! It is so true! There are certain aspects of a language that one really only knows if they are native speakers. This doesn't even only refer to slang. There are many phrases and ways in using certain sentences that reflect certain things only native people understand. In this way, it could be very easy for a foreign speaker to innocently insult native speakers because they don't know any better. For this reason, it is very important to also learn about the culture that relates to the language you are learning. I recently learned (I have not verified and do not know if it is actually true) that it is considered rude in China to say please and thank you to a waiter. Therefore, when the Chinese people come to the United States, they are not used to saying please and thank you. However, in the United States it is considered rude not to say please and thank you.
An interesting article that Professor Grove shared with our class spoke about "Huh" being the only universal word. "Huh" tends to mean basically the same thing in every language. This was a fascinating article to read and reflect on. It is true, there are not many universal words and expressions, which puts additional barriers between people of different cultures, even when they have begun learning similar languages.
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