We learned about history and the evolution of behaviors inside culture. I don't know many culture-specific words though.
We had learned about cultural differences and means of measuring values. Language reflects cultural attitudes specific to a language. There are many odd sayings in Iran that they don't do in Afghanistan like May I be your sacrifice.
In Iran, there is like all cultures a more traditional segment of the population that is formal and a younger population that is informal. In being a self-directed learner, my language partner taught us formal academic style but my practice was more conversational. There is a lot I wanted to learn but the culture was, for Iran, repressed by a political regime. I wanted to learn how to accomplish tasks and talk about leisure time but my presentation was on travelling which meant religious monuments. I think there are interesting books and films to see but I was just learning basic nouns and verbs to accomplish a bigger goal. Culture is closely tied to history but there are segments of the population that are no longer in Iran and just opening up in Afghanistan. Films show these unrepresented populations. I didn’t use popular culture or film, regrettably although I found some you tube videos. I haven’t read and spelled as much so I might be weak in reading a book but I would pick up movie words. We watched some soap operas in partner-class. The families have some old traditions in Afghanistan and I was focusing a lot on Iran because of the internet sources I could find and the travel book.
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