I found the Cultural Competence reading very interesting. It further proved that learning a language means more than knowing the vocabulary and the grammar. Perfecting a language goes beyond that.
It is important to know the culture of the language one's studying. What I found especially interesting was the part about categorizing cultural competence into four different ones: grammatical, discourse, sociolinguistics and strategic competence. Knowing the language's culture is especially important when it comes to the sociolinguistic component of cultural competence. For example, when conversing with a Pakistani, there are some topics that should not be discussed. Knowing them is important to avoid problems like offending the person in front of you. Some of the taboo topics are the conflicts between Sunni and Shia, homosexuality and, interestingly enough, how one can relate back to the Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him).
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