Reflection #6

Re the Whorfian hypothesis: Are there concepts or ways of saying things in one of the languages that you speak that can not be said or expressed or the meaning changes in another of your languages? How do you address culture in your classrooms? Do you go beyond the "holiday" model of culture?

I do believe there are sayings that are not able to translate in the same meaning. The backgroung linguistic system may be similar but it is not exact. If you translate a saying verbatim the meaning and expression might not mean the same. Dissecting dialogue could in turn make someone confused because the language grammar system (which includes the passive voice, the tense system, lexcial items, and such) is set up differently. Dialogue is therefore altered to make sense of the orginal meaning.
We see examples of this in quotes, slang, songs, idioms etc. All of these have at one point or another been altered because they just do not make sense if words were to be translated as they were. In the classical song, "Besame" we see the effects of it.

Bésame, bésame mucho Que tengo miedo a perderte Perderter despues.
vs.
Kiss me, kiss me a lot,Because I fear to lose you,To lose you again.

Here we can see how the first part was changed verbatimlly and then it was changed from depues (later) to again. In the English language we would not say "I fear to lose you". What we would say is "I fear of losing you". Language does need to be carefully monitored especially when students are new to the language and are not aware of the culture of the language.

I have only encountered Hispanic culture in my classroom because of the population of the community but there are still different cultures that exist among us so I do need to address those cultures. Showing a picture or just merely talking about a different culture is not enough. To become aware of the different cultures we keep a running calendar of when events happen in other cultures and not necessarily the common holidays. I try to do extensive research on the internet and look for videoclips to bring into so that they can watch actual footage of the culture and we have participated in those traditions in our own classroom by role plays. Once we role played Rosa Parks by using the whole classroom. I had half the class be the audience while the first half role played being in a bus where girls were not allowed to sit on the bus but boys could. Then I had the other half of the class participate while the others watched and had the girls sit and the boys were not allowed to sit. It was great to see how first grade students reacted. They were mature enough to talk about real life issues and concerns. We compare cultures to our own and we discuss how it would be like to be a part of that paticular culture. I try to address these issues in ways they will understand and enjoy so they will be aware and sensitive to cultures different than their own.