Despite a majority of the class's presentations being about the Korean culture, I was surprised to discover and learn about a couple new things of my native culture.
James had presented about the cinema culture of Korea which I had never really before considered, or thought about. Being someone who isn't too concerned with the technicalities of film, I had never thought that there would be differences in the cinema culture between other countries and America. It was interesting to discover all the history behind film making in Korea and how the nation's circumstances affect the genre and actual storylines. Just in a broader sense, James' cultural presentation really exposed the amount of impact a culture has on cinema.
Tia's presentation raised up another issue that I had never thought about before either. With her firsthand experience with English learning in Korea, she explained the downside of Korea's English teaching classes. I learned for the first time that the goals of those teaching and learning English in Korea was not to be able to communicate with English-speaking people, but rather as a certain type of skill. It seemed more like memorizing certain phrases, and regurgitating a proper response. It seems to me that Korea holds the skill to "speak" English as a valued skill, and Koreans will use that as an advantage to be in a better position to get a job. I personally think that this kind of defeats the purpose of learning a language if they are unable to communicate fluently in an English-speaking environment, as demonstrated by one of the videos that Tia showed in class.
Outside of the Korean cultural presentations, it was very interesting to learn about the other cultures as well.
Zeno's cultural presentation about the process of a Turkish marriage was very intriguing and fascinating to learn about. Never having attended many marriages, I didn't think there was a very complex step-by-step process in marriage globally. But Zeno's presentation definitely widened my perspective, and revealed to me the role that marriage plays in a Turkish culture. It was interesting to learn about all the different processes required for a man and woman to get married in Turkey, and to learn about the intentions behind each different process.
Madison's cultural presentation about the surnames of Basque countries was very interesting as well. The fact that all surnames of any Basque people are somehow related to a certain 8 is intriguing. It's crazy to think that essentially all Basque people somehow are related in a sense. I think that reflects just how small a culture Basque has. Never having heard of Basque before this semester, I've enjoyed learning bits and pieces of the culture through Madison's presentations and it has been very fascinating just learning about the Basque culture.
Overall, just learning about the different cultures and even diving deeper into my native culture, I just find it fascinating to see all the little differences between each one, and just understanding what a culture entails. I think culture is something that we often brush by, and people don't often take the time to understand a culture or learn a culture, but I think in learning a language, it is a crucial factor. To understand why a country is a certain way can help immensely in learning a language and all of its rules and technicalities, and can be explained through learning about the culture.
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