Families in India are extensive. As compared to the United States where one lives with one's nuclear family (mom/dad/children), in India the family unit constitutes the grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins and nieces and nephews as well. The entire extended family lives near each other and supports each other. Family is cherished; it is important to be a help to your family, especially for children who are raised to help provide for older family members. Grandparents are proud of their children and grandchildren, and often family names carry weight and differing levels of respect. Especially in India which has a caste system, your family can determine your opportunities in life; the life of a Brahmin is necessarily different from that of an untouchable, and you cannot change your caste status given at birth.
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BODY LANGUAGE
EYES: Eyes are the windows to the soul...you can tell a lot about a person's thoughts or feelings on a subject by their eyes. For this very reason eyes play a large role in our communication. Our body language is often times eye language. Women in rural Karnatka lower their eyes when talking to men. People of lower castes lower their eyes when talking to people of higher castes.
HANDS: In Karnatka people don't kiss one another on the cheek as people do in Europe and in the US (among some people groups...like mine;) Instead people will pinch one's cheek and then the person will bring their fingers together so they resemble a flower bud and then they kiss the tips of their fingers.
FEET: Out of respect one will touch the feet of an elder or someone who deserves great respect.
There are some cultures where time is not so much about the agenda and the appointment, not about the activity or the rendevous, but about the people one is interacting with and meeting. In India, time is less stressed, and people treat time with people as more important than being somewhere on time. If a meeting goes longer than expected because the talking is productive and needs to continue, then it needs to continue until it is finished - and this can go on for minutes or hours. Granted, for official things like trains and business meetings, there is a more Western concept of time, but in rural areas of southern India, time is what you make of it; and you certainly are not looking at your watch every 5 minutes or grabbing food to go.
I loved thinking about the concepts in Figuring Out Foreigners because understanding other cultures is something very important to me. I think that there is good and bad in every culture and that the key to understanding and embracing another culture is to find what is best and most beautiful in that culture. In learning a language it's important to love the culture otherwise you'll end up resenting the work because you won't want to connect with the people and the collective that you'll encounter through the language. I used to go to VCU and when I was there I would use the prayer room in the commons. I'm a Christian and from an Italian family. The majority of the people who used the prayer room were Muslim from Qatar and Saudi Arabia. It was very interesting observing their interactions with one another and with me in such a scared sippet of life. Through those observations I was able to form some initial understandings of them (some of which changed upon talking with them, some of which were confirmed) While asking people about their culture is wonderful I think it's very respectful to observe and attempt to understand before you engage in dialogue.
The author discusses an interesting topic, namely that there is no one part of the brain connected with language, but that rather the part of the brain that controls listening, speaking, memorization and contextualization are all used. This is very interesting in learning a new language because it shows how multi-faceted language learning really is. It made me think about how when one learns a language the actual words and grammar structure is only one facet of the learning, but that cultural context, gender roles and accent are just as important in one's learning process.
"We are a cursed community. Men use us and throw us away," she says. Applying talcum powder to her daughter's face and tying ribbons to her hair, she says: "I am going to die soon and then who will look after her?"
- Parvatamma, a Devadasi in Mumbai
There is a practice in India, which although outlawed, is prevalent. Families give their daughters to the goddess Yellamma, the Hindu goddess of fertility. In ancient times, the practice was instituted to dedicate young girls, often wealthy, to local temples. They would be married only to the goddess and then take care of the temple. In addition, they would perform for wealthy locals in arts and dancing. This practice continued for centuries, but the Devadasi came to be used as mistresses of the Brahmin or other rich patrons. Essentially now the Devadasi are treated as prostitutes, who serve the temple and their sexual services are treated like having sex with the goddess. The Devadasi cannot leave their profession; they are considered unclean and untouchable by society and have no other life opportunity open to them. Once dedicated to the temple, they are sex slaves for life; often their children are too.
http://www.oodegr.com/english/anatolikes/indouismos/devadasis.htm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatlife/8008562/Indias-prostitutes-of-God.html
The findings of this study - that immersion helps to learn a language like a native speaker better than class work - makes perfect sense to me. After learning in the classroom and by immersion, I realized that I tend not to use words I have learned unless I have to. For instance, learning French in an English class is good while you are immersed in it, but when you want to order a sandwich after class, you dont need any French vocabulary to do so. When you are in France, and you want to eat, you have to scour your brain for that vocab word or you dont get what you want.
This lesson was bittersweet. I felt that because of my family issues this semester and because I was constantly in NY and California and Richmond that I wasn't grounded in the language and in conversational situations that would have been helpful in learning Kannada. That said, I formed a friendship with my language partner outside of class which was wonderful both personally and for the language work because I am a social learner. Additionally, working with Heather outside of class was wonderful. I think that the biggest benefit of this course was in understanding how I learn a language so that I can better learn in the future.
1. the audio clip of introductions and other lessons
2. interviews about korean beauty with language partner
3. powerpoint about blepheroplasty and the market in South Korea in particular
4. post about trip to Emory University for Asian-American Pacific Islander Youth Summit
I really enjoyed getting to know my language partner. She was an asset to my learning because of her insights as a fluent Korean speaker. Her background was interesting - although she was raised in Korea, she also spent a significant amount of time abroad, so she was able to develop a very worldview of culture and language, which she conveyed through our lessons when we talked about differences in both of those things. She was extremely helpful for my questions about things like beauty and food, which I ended up using for my projects and presentations. Her firsthand experience with those aspects of Korean culture were invaluable.
Our meetings were divided into different lessons based on things that I listed as part of what I wanted to learn overall in the beginning of the semester. We broke it down into subjects and then part of our lessons would be to learn the vocabulary, and the other part would be to use it in conversation. She was very helpful when it came to brushing up my pronunciation and also picking up mistakes I made (and had been making for awhile).
My favorite lesson was probably when we went to the Korean restaurant with the other language group. It was great to be able to integrate food into our lesson, for obvious reasons. I ended up realizing how passionate I was about Korean cuisine during this visit because it reminded me of home, and my parents' stellar culinary skills. Consequently, I did my final presentation about not just food, but the culture of Korean cuisine.
Brigid helped me with the culture aspect in particular. I knew a pretty good amount of things about food in general, but I didn't know things about the culture as much, because my family raised us in an American eating style. It was interesting to learn the other aspects of it!
This was a great experience and I'm so glad that UR offers this kind of specialized language and culture learning. I really enjoyed it and I have recommended it to many of my friends!
Response to reading “Communicative Competence” (From Principles of Language Learning and Teaching by H.D. Brown).
Unable to access article. Speak to Grove.
I really enjoyed reading about Sociocultural Factors and how these relate to culture and language learning. When the authors talk about stereotypes, I realized that while abroad, many people take the image of America as portrayed in the media and think that Americans "are all rich, informal, materialistic, overly friendly, and drink coffee." They also see American women as "loose" in comparison based on movies like American pie. When I was abroad, I remember a few times in bars where I would introduce myself and my country of origin, and I would get more attention than I wanted. By the end of my experience I had learned not to provide that fact and don a British accent when I spoke (in French or in English). This one change in my behavior changed others perception of me, and I was seen as more respectable and high and mighty!
Secondly, I can definitely relate to this idea on p. 194 that when one learns a new language, one also inadvertently forms a new, second identity. This process of learning a language also involves learning the culture, and conforming to that culture changes ways of thinking and feeling and socially acceptable responses. For example, when Americans get on the metro, they are often loud and boisterous, because in our culture this is acceptable. In French, a policy of respect for others' privacy and social space includes keeping noise levels to a minimum. Therefore, as one learns French, and boards the metro in France, a normally boisterous American may easily appear more reserved and professional. There is a quote from River Town that I think perfectly describes this formation of a new identity:
"I never changed my Chinese name, but I sensed the ease with which my Chinese identity became distinct from my American self. Eventually, I came to think of myself as two people, Ho Wei and Peter Hessler. Ho Wei wasn't really a person until my second year in Fuling, but as time passed I realized that he was becoming most of my identity: apart from my students, colleagues, and other foreigners, everybody knew me strictly as Ho Wei, and they knew me strictly in Chinese. Ho Wei was completely different from my American self: he was friendlier, he was eager to talk with anybody, and he took great pleasure in even the most inane conversations. In a simple way he was funny, by saying a few words in the local dialect he could be endlessly entertaining to the people in Fueling. Also Ho Wei was stupid, which was what I liked most about him. He spoke with an accent, he had lousy grammar, and he laughed at the simple mistakes that he made. People were comfortable with somebody that stupid, and the found it easy to talk to Ho Wei, even though they often had to say things twice or write new words in his notebook..."
After studying abroad in France, I see palpable ways in which I am Bruyère ("heather" in French), this French-speaking, fun-loving, silly, outgoing, somewhat pretentious, crepe-loving, explorer of life, and how I am Heather, a quiet, kind, selfless, responsible, religious, conservative, determined lover of knowledge. I feel like Superman in the sense that having both identities is like being both Clark Kent and Superman at once. However, themore time I spend in one culture, the more that identity is cultivated over the other. It is an interesting question: would I be the same person if I were born somewhere else?
Family is very very important in Karnatka. A woman will leave her family and be absorbed into her husband's family. Mothers and Fathers will live with the youngest son and he will take care of them into their old age. Cousins are often called brother or sister. While all adults are "antie and uncle" there are special words for your mother's sister and husband and your father's brother and wife. They are considered special because tradition/myths in the region said that one's mother's sister and father's brother were related to them by blood where as one's mother's brother and father's sister had more distant physical connections. Also there is a holiday in the region called Raksha Bandhan where a sister ties a rakhi (a sacred thread) around her brother's wrist. This symbolizes the sister's love and prayers for her brother and the brother's vow to protect his sister. Family is very important in Karnatka.
Sister tying the rakhi to her brother's writs.
T
The focus of my Swedish studies has not been writing but nonetheless I have expanded my writing skills through the reading that I have done most recently through blogs and news articles. For this artifact I wanted to pick a sample of writing that would allow me to practice translating English into Swedish in a manner that could be possible in the future. Although my initial goal was to be able to write in a more formal manner I decided that a news article would be more appropriate based on my readings this term.
Below is my translation of an English news article about Sweden on a English speakers expatriate website where articles are written about Swedes or Swedish culture in English.Here is the link to the original article: http://www.thelocal.se/40314/20120417/ and the series of photographs for which I provide a translation as well: http://www.thelocal.se/gallery/stockholm/2360/
Translation:
Fen saker du borde vet om Stockholm
Tror du att du känna Stockholm? Kolla The LOcal's list av den fem saker du borde veta om den Svenska kapital.
Kallade av många som Veizen om Norden, och kändes till andra bara som en annan Nordisk stad med blonda köttbulle ättare, Stockholm är en stad som "trolla" upp båda fantasier och mardrömer, beroende på hvor du sitter.
Vad som helst, The Local ha samlats en list av 5 enkla saker om Stockholm som alla måsta veta.
OBS: Listen kanske inte sitter bra med läsare frå Götenborg. Eller Oslo. Eller Köbenhavn.
Klicka här för The Local's list av 5 aker du måsta veta om Stockholm.
Bild 1:
Stockholmare är okänt om dera stad, så mycket att även en omnämnande om Sveriges näst störste stad (Göteborg, västa Sverige) kan resultera i en bitande svar, i allvarlig situationer- förnekelse av sitt existens. Ja, Stockholmare hatar Göteborgare.
Bild 2:
Stockholmska män är den sexigaste män i hela världen i den senaste forskning, och kvinnorna fick andra plats för tjejer. Och, dom är kläd att dö. Så, fixa ditt hår och din smink, annars ska du stanna ut som en mörbultad tumma.
Bild 3:
Där finns en stor exodus i Juli (vecka 29), när Stockholmare packa upp och åka för en liten by som heter Visby på Gotland. Så, var säkart att hålla din scheme åpent för "Stockholm vecka," för att den är den bästa tid att åka runt i kapitalen, eller, den bästa tiden att se Gotland.
Bild 4:
Dom flesta av tunnelbananen stationer i den Stockholm är pyntade med konst- målningar, skulpturer, och mosaiker som liva upp passagerares dagar när dom åker runt staden.
Bild 5:
Den är den Skandinavisk kapital!
