I consider that it is really important to know a lot about the culture before you start learning language. When you know many things about the culture you are going to be able to understand the language better and you can give a better method to teaching to your students.
My personal relationship with culture has to do a lot with the methods I am going to teach. It is a main factor when you give classes as when you receive them.
This is the kind of house of common families in Costa Rica. Especially, this kind of family is composed by 4 members. Each room has a logical meaning, bedrooms are used to sleep, some people in Costa Rica are used to watching television before going to sleep that’s why most people have television in their bedroom. Depending on the family, some of them are used to have more than 1 bathroom. When families are composed by few members they have in the living room: sofas, television, and the dinner table. On the kitchen you can normally find the basic stuff to cook, keep the food safer, and most people have a microwave oven to make it easier. Costa Rican houses normally have a garage.
Object: cleaner shoes
Culture: countries which have tropical weather
What it is?
It is a kind of shoe which has the option to clean itself when it gets dirty, especially in raining places.
Where do you find it?
You can find your cleaner shoes in any store which sells the product.
How do you use it?
You only have to put your shoes and you do not have to worry about getting dirty shoes.
Which people use this product?
Any person can use the product.
Which groups of people use this object?
It can be people who work at big cities and have an important positions which make them being in a good presentation all the time.
Why do people use the product?
Because they want to have their shoes all the time clean and they want to avoid cleaning shoes.
What significance does it have in the culture?
It gives more comfortably to people.
Nowadays Learning English is one the most important thing that people need. As a part of a good learning process, people try to look for recognized and good institutions in which can learn the language as well they want. As future professionals I think we should know all the right aspects we have to take in consideration to teach. I consider teaching English is not only to teach students general aspects about grammar, listening or the speaking part but to include complete aspects about the culture of the target language students are learning. Basic questions can help us as professionals to improve ourselves. It can be questions like how do I have to teach? Or is it good what they are learning? I think questions like this can help us a lot because they make us to think about the things we are teaching.
Teaching the culture of the target language is one of most important aspects students need to know, but it is one of the most unforgettable aspects by professors. I think that when you learning a new language you need to know everything about it. Knowing everything means to know all the aspects about the country´s language you are learning. This is really important because it help people to understand that every culture is different and of course is not the same of their own country. Understanding the culture of the target language can help us to avoid embarrassment situations in front of people who speak the language.
Teaching the culture not only means to teach what they wear, what they dance, or what they eat but to teach the basic words they use, phrases which are not used in all the country, idioms and the respective meanings, slang, etc. I say this because when you do not know these aspects and if you travel to any country which speaks the language you are learning you can get lose. I think that as future professors we can use the ways the article comments. Using materials like the article exposed can help teachers to give a better job, and it can help students to get a better academic formation. According to the article I strongly agree with three materials that I think can help a lot to students to learn easily. I think I would apply Role plays, films, and students as cultural resources to enhance the academic formation of students.
I think that when you invite students to see any play (part of the target language you are learning of course) students can see how people in that country are. Role plays also help students to know more about the society, cultural differences, and others. It also help to understand more the accents if the actors are native speakers. I also consider students can learn new vocabulary for example idioms, slang, or general words that they usually do not learn in class. In this case I think watching films has the same function that role plays. Films can help more to understand better the language and of course films show the real culture of the target language you are learning. I think Interchange programs are the best option a student can get during the academic formation. Living in the country, which speaks the language you are learning, helps students to share the real context of a nation. It helps to see how people live, how they communicate and how they grow up.
First of all I think it is important to know currently topics which help us in our careers. In our case we are studying English teacher and translation and most of us are interested in teaching in a future. Most of the cases universities do not teach students how they have to educate or they just do not get important aspects to take in account. During the conference we could realize that not only is important to come to classes and pay attention about what the teacher says. Students should know that most part of the careers is based on the basic knowledge you get as a future professional. What I mean is that if you are studying something is because you really like or you are really good on that.
I consider really important what the rector said during the conference and I agree with that. I think most professors do not really know what they are doing in front of a class and this is not because they are bad professionals but because they do not how to teach. I think that all the aspects she mentioned during the conference were true and we as future professionals should put them in practice. I learned a lot about things I did not know. All I heard in the conference can really help me in a future as a professional. I would like to visit more conferences like the one we went.
