Reflection of Moran's Perspectives in Practice :: Chapter 4. Language-and-Culture

When talking about culture, language is automatically part of the picture.

When I first started learning Spanish, however, I didn't realize that. In Spanish class, majority of the time, language was taught, and at the end of class, culture was taught (sometimes). I started to realize, I didn't like to learn about culture. On exams, the culture section would be something along the lines of:

1. T     F     Ofrenda is the food made out of fish and rice.
2. How do friends and family greet in the Spanish-speaking world?
        a. They only say "¡Hola!"
        b. They smile at each other
        c. They bow to each other
        d. They kiss each other on the cheeks (depending on gender).

Just by reading about culture from the textbook and never experiencing it, how do I remember what the answer is? (By the way, the first answer is F (Ofrendas are decorations Mexicans set up to honor their ancestors (not to worship!)) and the second answer is D (as to many other countries besides Asian countries).

According to Moran, these language and culture can be separated. Since talking about culture might interrupt language learning, but since they are both supposed to be together, how do we teach culture without interrupting language learning? How do we teach culture in the most interactive way (experiencing it), instead of reading it from the text? If students do experience culture more than the text, would it be appropriate (like teaching about the kiss on the cheek)?

Learning more of Spanish and Mandarin, I started to realize how much language and culture are fused together. In my previous blog, I talked about how culture and language can sometimes be considered the same. The way people greet each other is also a product of culture and attitude.
In many languages, different levels of formality by using "you" is used to represent respect. In Korean, there are six formality speech levels. In English, it could be a means of equality.

旭亨