intercultural communication

this post is punctuation free.

not really, but it will lack capitalization. So this week's post is about intercultural communication. I must say I greatly disliked the articles we read because I find that they showcased a general flaw in a lot of the linguistic fields I've seen - people like to make up their own definitions for things. This lack of a system unnerves me to say the least. Why can't they just get along?

On that note, is that the goal of teaching culture? So that everyone could just get along? We talked about some interesting things in class today. Do students try to completely assimilate into the L2 and reject the L1? I tend to say that they do that with the C2/C1 relationship really. You can always see the Spanish major who tries extremely hard to dance merengue, eat empanadas, and 'dress latina'. I, like others, believe that it is impossible to completely disassociate the C1 from the self, as its imprint is distinct and permanent.

I am not a big fan of addressing culture because I don't really have one. My culture changes from day to day, and sometimes the culture of my parents seems more alien than it should. I do like talking about stereotypes because it makes us realize how misguided our perceptions of the other culture our. When we examine a stereotype of our own group and see how simplistic/bias it can be, we can reevaluate how we view the Other.