The manner in which people
are strongly opposed of not having bilingual or ESL
programs one would think that English was the national language of America and
as a result was owned by America. It is sad to say this, but the pedestal on
which English stands on correlates with this view. Kumar mentioned that because
English is an international language no one has custody over it. I would have
to agree with that idea because language is always changing. Languages,
especially English, are constantly being shaped and reshaped by inner, outer,
and expanding countries therefore having a hold on English is impossible. This
constant interaction between different cultures is what gives birth to the different
varieties that are present in our world. The battle between Standard English
being positively associated with certain groups of people and nonstandard being
negatively associated to another group is a battle that I can sadly say will
never be won. As language teachers our job should be to expose our students to
as much language varieties and help them understand the power of language.
In chapter 12, Kumar talks about language understanding, which I found to be a very important topic, especially in a multicultural classroom. I have a friend who was born and raised in the USA but is married to man from Ethiopia. The other day at work she started venting to me about how her husband is so frustrating because he does not want to learn or understand her culture (he just arrived to the USA about a month ago). I feel that this kind of situation happens a lot with people from different countries; neither party wants to understand the other in fear that they might change, conform, and as a result leave their culture behind. This reminded me of the readings I have done in the previous class about assimilation and people leaving their own culture and being forced to blindly adopt the American culture. When thinking of this, I wondered how different their experience would have been If their teachers were familiar with the term cultural versatility, Color Purple, and the third culture. From the above terms, the definition of cultural versatility, “expanding one’s repertoire of experiences and behaviors, not subtracting anything” stands out to me because it goes against the notion of assimilation, which people are expected to perform once they arrive to a new country. From this point of view, understanding a culture does not mean one has to lose his or her culture, which is what most people fear, but rather the individual builds of what he or she already has.
In chapter 12, Kumar talks about language understanding, which I found to be a very important topic, especially in a multicultural classroom. I have a friend who was born and raised in the USA but is married to man from Ethiopia. The other day at work she started venting to me about how her husband is so frustrating because he does not want to learn or understand her culture (he just arrived to the USA about a month ago). I feel that this kind of situation happens a lot with people from different countries; neither party wants to understand the other in fear that they might change, conform, and as a result leave their culture behind. This reminded me of the readings I have done in the previous class about assimilation and people leaving their own culture and being forced to blindly adopt the American culture. When thinking of this, I wondered how different their experience would have been If their teachers were familiar with the term cultural versatility, Color Purple, and the third culture. From the above terms, the definition of cultural versatility, “expanding one’s repertoire of experiences and behaviors, not subtracting anything” stands out to me because it goes against the notion of assimilation, which people are expected to perform once they arrive to a new country. From this point of view, understanding a culture does not mean one has to lose his or her culture, which is what most people fear, but rather the individual builds of what he or she already has.
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