Journal # 8

[Alexander Allen]

Upon reflection of my reading "Communicative Competence" I found myself also reflecting upon the MLC class itself. I came to the conclusion that one cannot effectively teach language without culture, and also that the opposite is true. Language and culture must go hand in hand for one to fully grasp either. Language defines the very nature of a culture, a language takes the ideas, the emotions, the history, and the values of a group of people, whether it be a nation or tribe, and translates them into a tangible means of expression. Subsequently without the aforementioned ideas values history and emotions, in other words without the culture, language is nothing. Culture is the proverbial soul of language. One may be able to communicate to another through words, but the same word in one language will not carry with it the same, if any, meaning in another language. There will always be mannerisms, references, and shortcuts within one language that cannot be found in any other, no matter how similar the languages may be. This is why when anyone studies a language, they should also couple that time studying the culture behind it. Otherwise, the words they are studying will remain exactly that to them, only words.