KAMMS World Wide Blog

“Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of the human spirit.” Mathew Arnold (1822-1888)

Learning about another’s culture allows us to learn about the people of the world and in the process, we gain valuable knowledge about ourselves. Culture affects every aspect of our lives: from the way we raise our children, how we treat one another, the foods we eat, the language we speak, the way we think, to the celebrations we enjoy.

We are fortunate to have so many easy and inexpensive opportunities available to us every day. Here are 10 easy ways you can get started today:

1. Visit local museums and cultural centers. Many times they have exhibits that correspond with a specific geographical area or an artist from a certain country. You can learn a lot about a people’s culture, by the type of artwork that is created in that region.

1. Visit the library. Libraries have a plethora of travel books and journals to read through. Many have elaborate pictures of the country and its people. You can almost imagine yourself there by flipping through these books.

1. Explore the Internet. If you want an endless supply of information about other countries, just tap into the internet. You can read newspapers, local websites, blogs and forums from other countries. This is also great practice if you’re learning the language of that country.

1. Go to a Local Cultural Event. We are so privileged to have hundreds of different cultures right here in the U.S. In any given month, you can find a local cultural event in many cities across the country. Get out and enjoy the food, music, people and customs of that culture.

1. Get an Email Pal. There are many sites on line that will help you find an email pal to converse with about the community in which they live. You can compare and contrast with your own experiences. This is another fun way to practice a new language, as well.

1. Volunteer to Help English Language Learners. Learning English is essential to improving an immigrant’s life, here in America. You can help someone practice their English, while learning more about their native language and culture.

1. Take a Class. Local schools and community colleges offer inexpensive adult classes at convenient times. You could take a foreign language class, a French cooking class or a Spanish dance class. What could be more fun than learning a new skill and meeting new people, while experiencing a new culture?

1. Make a Friend from Another Culture. Many of us have neighbors or co-workers who are from other countries. Invite someone to share a typical American holiday or celebration with you and your family. Then, attend one of theirs. Maybe you’ll have the opportunity to go to a Quinceañera (an elaborate birthday party for a 15 year old Latina) or a Diwali (a Hindu festival of lights).

1. Go to an Ethnic Restaurant or Grocery Store. Eat good food and enjoy a new culture! Many ethnic restaurants and grocery stores hire people who are natives from the country where the type of food they offer originates. Start up a conversation with them about the food and their native country. Don’t be shy; everyone likes to talk about themselves.

1. Travel to Another Country. You can find inexpensive all-inclusive trips to many popular destinations. You could also volunteer or attend classes in a foreign country. While you’re there, make sure to find out where the locals go, not just the tourists. Talk to natives and ask them about their culture and their country. Who knows, you might just make a friend you can correspond with, when you return.

Now, you can start learning about another culture today! There are so many easy and affordable opportunities awaiting you. Remember, the more we learn about the world and its people, the more we learn about ourselves. Enjoy the journey!

I was recently training a group of world language teachers on language acquisition and methodologies when an interesting topic arose: How can teachers integrate life lessons into daily language instruction?
After an interesting conversation with the group of teachers that day, I returned home and reflected on the language theories I had just taught. I realized that the ways we teach language are actually intertwined with the way we conduct our lives as social beings, regardless of what language we speak. The process in itself is a life lesson.
Let me explain. There are three ways (called strands) in which we teach a language. They are interpretation, interpersonal and presentational.
Interpretation
Interpreting language and situations is what we do as humans from the time we’re born. Before we can speak, we communicate with facial expressions, body language and sounds. We then interpret people’s responses as good, bad or indifferent. As we learn to speak the language, even though we hear the words the same as everyone else, we may interpret what is being said differently. So, in essence communication is dependent on the interpretation of the message. It is the same when we are listening to someone speak another language; we must interpret the meaning, not just the words.
Interpersonal
Interpersonal activities consist of the interactions that occur between individuals or groups. Again, we begin this activity (verbal and nonverbal) at an early age: with our families, at school and with friends. We continue these interactions for the rest of our lives. As second language learners, it’s imperative to use the new language with others as much as possible, to really understand how to communicate well and be interpersonal in the target language. Interpersonal skills are important for all aspects of our lives, regardless of what language you speak.
Presentational
Presentational activities assume there is an audience to whom you are presenting. This happens all the time in our daily lives; whether you are asking your boss for a raise, writing a blog post, sending an email or text, giving a toast, or actually presenting to a group. These are all life skills that are considered presentational. When learning another language, we need to be proficient in this ability as well. Taking into consideration that there is or may be an “audience” for your message is an important aspect of how we use our language. It’s also an important facet of life.
☼
Learning a new language is good practice for learning life lessons. The skills that you learn can be carried over to all aspects of your life. Not only do you gain a new ability (speaking another language), but you also hone your life skills.
It was an interesting revelation to see how entwined life skills and lessons are with language learning. I never really considered it before. But now I’ll be certain to let the teachers know that they are integrating life lessons everyday that they teach.

There are so many wonderful assets to knowing a second language — from being able to communicate well with friends, co-workers and clients, to obtaining a better job, to lessening the affects of Alzheimer’s, or to be reinvigorated about life because you’ve learned a new skill.

I believe it’s important that people aren’t fooled by myths to keep themselves or others from obtaining a skill that can so greatly improve their lives. Here are some of the myths I’ve heard about language learning over the years:

In the Past, Immigrants Learned English with the “Sink or Swim” Method

Many people argue that we shouldn’t give any special treatment for immigrants to learn English in America. They believe that, in the past, immigrants learned the language quickly and without any help, so current immigrants should do the same. This theory has some flaws.

It’s highly possible that many adult immigrants of the past did not learn English well, for quite some time, if at all. People moved into ethnic neighborhoods, socialized with each other and worked in entry level jobs where little English was needed.  Think about how multilingual the country must have been during the European immigration years. For example, there were newspapers in many different languages in all the major cities.

In addition, immigrants of the past had fewer reasons to learn English than they do today. Today many jobs require at least a high school degree. You’ll need more than that, if you want to actually support a family. Not to mention, the myriad of forms you’ll have to fill out (in English) to get a job, deal with insurance issues, government papers, enroll your children in school, etc.

It may have been possible to “get by” without English a hundred years ago, but this is not true today. We need to help immigrants learn English, so that they can have a better life for themselves and their families and contribute to the society as a whole.

Children Learn Languages Quicker & Easier than Adults

A child is exposed to a language for at least a full year before he ever utters a word. Then when he does, it’s very elementary. He may start with one word at a time and then add others, but without using the correct grammar. We don’t even start teaching grammar formally until the second grade; after a child’s been exposed to the language for about seven years with parents helping his progress along the way. I wouldn’t say this is considered “learning a language quickly and easily”.

Then, when we start teaching a child a second language, we do it more naturally than we do for adults. We teach children simple vocabulary and phrases, with pictures, short stories and fun activities. Conversely, we typically start teaching older students with grammar first. This is the complete opposite of how we learned our first language. It’s much harder than gradually being exposed to the language naturally. This is another reason why we think it’s easier for children to learn, but it’s definitely not true.

The Best Way to Learn a Foreign Language is to Live in another Country

Living in a foreign country for a substantial period of time, will help you to understand the everyday language of the country and learn basic speaking skills. But, you’ll have to support your learning with formal instruction or independent study. Otherwise, you will just learn what you need, in order to survive.

By living in a country where you don’t know the language, you’ll be forced into a position where it’s inevitable that you’ll make many mistakes, because you’ll have to speak. Natives won’t correct you, because they’ll try to be nice and understand you, even if your grammar or pronunciation is horrendous. Then, your mistakes can turn into bad habits, which are hard to break.

Learning in your own country may be a better option, if you can find a good language school, can motivate yourself and can find opportunities to practice the language you’re learning. After you’re confidently fluent in the target language, then going to another country can help to improve your language proficiency. Not to mention, it will be great fun, to be able to speak well to the natives.

Unfortunately, these and many more myths surrounding language learning keep people from embarking on an exciting adventure of learning a new language and culture. Now that you know some of the truths, I hope you won’t let any myths stop you from benefiting from all the great assets you could obtain from being bilingual!

Recently, I saw a short video about a man who was given ‘magic’ glasses. When he put on the glasses he was able to see phrases over people’s heads that showed their current life concerns, like: “just had a fight with my girlfriend”, “just found out I have cancer”, “struggling at work”, “can’t pay my bills this month”, etc. The purpose of the video was to show that we can’t see what struggles someone may be going through, just by looking at them.  It suggested that we should consider there may be more underneath a person’s daily façade than you could possibly know. Basically, that we shouldn’t judge without really knowing someone and we should be kind to everyone no matter what the circumstances.

The video reminded me of how people judge others who speak another language without even thinking about the struggles that person may be going through.  What if there were ‘magic’ glasses that translated the thoughts of others? When you put on these glasses with non-English speakers, you might see: “feeling insecure because I can’t speak English well”, “wish I could talk to them”, “trying to get a job so I can support my family”, “miss my family in my native country”, etc.

Millions of people in the U.S. speak more than one language and approximately 337 different languages are spoken in the United States. It’s inevitable that everyone in this country has come across someone who may not speak English well. What do you think when you see or meet someone who has difficulty speaking English? Do you speak a little slower, so they can understand you? Are you patient with them, as they try to think of and pronounce the words they want to say to you? Do you realize how insecure they feel speaking in their second language? Do you think about how hard it is for them to find a good job or get promoted?

From a human perspective, we all want to be understood; whether we speak another language or not. We all have similar worries, dreams and hopes swimming around in our minds. No one lives their lives without joys and struggles. Moreover, our lives and the difficulties we experience are not any more or less important than the people we meet. Neither is there a time when we should consider ourselves better or less than any other human being. It’s a shame to see examples of times when people don’t realize this and put themselves on an exalted level at the suffering of someone else.

Unfortunately, I experienced an example of this when I was standing at the end of a line at an airport fast food establishment. A gentleman was placing his order and the counter person (being from India) had difficulty understanding what he was saying, because her English skills were poor. He loudly and angrily repeated the order. The poor woman behind the counter was so shaken by his yelling and obvious aggressive nature she ended up giving him the wrong order. He kept yelling at her and he finally said: “You dumb $%#@! You can’t even speak English! Go back to your country!” Believe it or not, things turned worse from there.

The people behind him in the line started to get aggravated that they had to wait, (it was only a few minutes that had passed). They started saying things, like: “Come on!” “Hurry Up!” “What’s taking so long?” Now, with everyone making the matter worse, it was as if the woman behind the counter was faced with an angry mob, all because of a lousy cheeseburger and fries.

Everything happened so fast, I felt I was almost in a state of shock. Looking back, I wish I had reacted faster to help this woman. Just as I started to go up to the counter and defend the woman, another worker came to her rescue. The Indian woman retreated through a back door. I imagined she went somewhere and cried or went straight home. Who knows how that experience affected her life?

I was so distraught after seeing this happen. I couldn’t believe that people could be so cruel, just because someone had a little difficulty understanding the language. If the counter person was having trouble understanding because of her language difficulties, the customer could have spoken slower or wrote down what he wanted. Instead, he automatically felt he was better than the worker and used his false sense of superiority to abuse the woman.

In reality, she may be fluent in more languages than the man at the counter and may even have an advanced degree from her country; but has to take an entry level job because she is still learning English. Maybe she fled her country due to violence or poverty. Maybe she works two jobs and studies English every day, so she can provide a better life for her child. Without the ‘magic’ translation glasses we never know what struggles someone may be going through (without asking).

What if everyone had these ‘magic’ translation glasses? Wouldn’t it be nice if we all had empathy or sympathy for others? Whether it’s how we look, how we speak or what we say. There would no language or other barriers between us. We would never judge others or be judged. It seems it would be a kinder world in which to live.

You may be familiar with someone I admire greatly and the Nobel Peace prize winner, Muhammed Unas. Dr Yunus created the concept of micro-finance. He started the Grameen bank that gives small loans to low-income women and men to start and build businesses. His guidance and inspiration has empowered thousands of poor people to create small businesses which take them out of poverty, ultimately promoting peace in the world. I strongly believe that we all have unique gifts that can help people in many different ways and (in the big picture) promote peace in our world. The reason I’m so passionate about what we do here at KAMMS is because I feel communication is the essence of humanity. It’s an innate desire we all possess: to communicate with other human beings. I also believe that bringing people together through language and understanding each other’s culture will promote peace in the U.S. and around the world. And I’m not the only one! Here are a few examples of others who share my sentiments about the importance of languages and culture:

• The top official for the United Nations stated that “multilingualism is a means of promoting, protecting and preserving the diversity of the world’s languages and cultures.”
• Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information said: “Languages, which ones you understand or speak, read or write, whether on the Internet or in your society, can make the difference between knowing and not knowing”.
• The UN Coordinator for Multilingualism said: Knowing languages can also make the difference between “being able to participate and being excluded.”

I think we can all agree that it’s crucial to learn other languages and understand other cultures, given our ever growing diversity, instant connectivity to around the world, and opportunities it would afford us. So why then do so many of us choose not to gain this knowledge. Let’s explore one of the responses I receive when I ask this question:“I’m no good at languages. I tried in high school (or college) and just couldn’t do it.” This one bothers me the most; considering I was a high school Spanish teacher and I witnessed the many antiquated teaching methods still in use today. It’s more than likely you were taught with the following:

• irrelevant vocabulary you’d never use (my school taught vocabulary for going fishing, scuba diving and skiing)
• grammar rules first (you learned approximately 50 ways to conjugate a verb – good luck figuring out which one to use when you’re trying to have a conversation)
• vocabulary out of context (you learned a list you had to memorize, so you know a lot of words, but you can’t put them together to form a sentence)

First thing first: You have an innate ability to learn languages. As many as you want! You learned your first language easily and without stress. The problem is that most educational institutions don’t teach you the way you learned your first language. They start with grammar. You didn’t learn the grammar of your first language until you were in second grade. At that point you had already heard the language for seven years, you were able to communicate and you could put sentences together on your own. The reason you weren’t able to learn easily in high school or college was because most of their teaching techniques go against every law of language acquisition methodology I know. Because of my experience watching and using these techniques as a grade school and high school teacher, I know they don’t work. This is why, after 10 years of research, I created the Spanish on the Job and English on the Job programs; so that learners can understand and speak the relevant language they need immediately. I have watched people learning with my programs be able to converse within three months. I’m very proud of this, but I’m also frustrated that more people don’t know that they CAN learn languages easily.So please, when you meet me, please don’t tell me that you can’t learn languages. AARGHH! I know you can! If you’d like to check out the programs or to contact me, please go to our website: www.kammsworldwide.comI wish you great success! Stacey Kammerman CEO KAMMS WorldWidePlease give us feedback or questions in the comment section below and we will reply promptly. Thanks!