Learning Journal #9
I found this section of reading to be very interesting; in particular, the sections about dialect reminded me of my experiences with language in India. As Crystal writes, “dialect” refers to spoken grammar and vocabulary differences (290). His concept of a “chain of dialects” was something I encountered when travelling throughout India. He writes that, “At any point in the chain, speakers of a dialect can understand the speakers of other dialects who live in adjacent areas to them; but they find it difficult to understand people who live further along the chain (291).” This was especially true during the time I spent in villages in India. My Hindi teachers generally acted as translators for us, but found this much in the villages due to the different dialects there. Depending on where we were and who was translating, almost all to almost none of the Hindi dialect was intelligible to my professors. Dialects can definitely complicate the task of learning a language through immersion, as what one is taught in the classroom may be different than what one hears on the street. I also found the concept of the social dialects very interesting. One of my Hindi professors, who was a proud part of the Brahmin, or highest caste, told me that he could distinguish a person’s class by the way that person spoke as well as his mannerisms. This reading showed me that this is actually a well observed phenomenon.
On a final, and very different note, the concept of introducing a new English sex-neutral pronoun such as E, ne, thon, mon, heesh, or any of the others Crystal lists (314) seemed a bit unnecessary to me and definitely a result of a certain type of feminist movement. I don’t find that the lack of a sex-neutral pronoun is a sign of discrimination towards women that needs to be changed; it is merely a quirk or fact of the English language.
Cultural competence, or the ability to interact with people of different cultures, is definitely a skill which needs to be developed over time. I think it quite usually requires a conscious effort, at least in the beginning. This is because an important part of cultural competence is an awareness of one’s own culture and the biases that culture may impart. On top of that, one must also become knowledgeable about the culture he or she wishes to interact in – what are the cultural norms, what types of behavior are acceptable in society? Understanding the differences can help one behave and relate to people much more appropriately and effectively when in a culture that is not one’s own. An additional component of cultural competence which goes along with this is the ability to be flexible and accept that one may make cultural mistakes, but that they are to be learned from in the future.
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