Introduction
Culture richness of human being is a
matter of constant worrying and subject of continuous investigation and
expansion. Not only this, trying to understand each one and taking in account otherness
has been a difficult topic to discuss and research about.
The aim of this kind of projects
where you investigate and learn about broad and diverse culture makes, is not
making you feel small and tiny, but to compare your knowledge with the knowledge
you did not know and expand it.
Human being reflects its beliefs and
superstitions through fable and storytelling. It creates a universe to pour and
mix his limited understanding of it (the universe and world that surround us).
Understand and accept that other
being can have similar or distinct beliefs is cause of troubles and it has been
the root of many conflicts among tribes and countries, to show whose truth is
authentic truth, or which one is closer to it.
Even blood has been spoiled and
wasted, for one’s beliefs and ideas (e.g. America’s conquering era, Australian
colonial period, British occupation of India, etc.), to show the rest of the
world who is in command and who is correct.
The lack of competences to
understand the ideas and differences is the algid point where people start
arguing and not cooperate for common ideals. Upon ideas and troubles such
these, is where countries such ours (Colombia) built up his community and tried
to coexist and share the space, but nothing in life is perfect.
Understand and know where and why
the differences is crucial to build a better world, and this is also task for a
teacher.
Task
1: Mind map
Task
2: Cultural investigation
I chose the following countries to
investigate much part of their folklore and culture which had any o some
influence upon English language: Australia, Canada, and England.
Australia
Aboriginal mythology and culture can
be tracked to as far as 30.000 years ago. This influenced largely the first
colonizers of the continent by around 1788 when the first British settlers
arrived at the Sydney bay, where Governor Arthur Philip put the British flag,
as a meaning of the colony foundation.
Soon, the colony members started to
feel an own identity and a difference in the accent, mixing with the mutually
intelligible Irish dialect, Cox, F. (1999), but Australian English (the new
born dialect) is relatively new compared with other, with around 200 years of
history.
These newborns grew up mostly in the
southern part of London, receiving a wide variety of accents, and when arriving
to Australia, received new influence of aboriginal word, terms and stories to
tell. This influenced a new kind of storytelling and created an inner idiosyncrasy
and identity.
Here, is listed a non-exhaustive
list of some influences Australian people did to English language, by more than
creating a new accent with aboriginal and islander words (Torres Strait
Islands), including tales, riddles, fables, myths, legends, or poetry:
Tales
The dreaming: Part of Australian
mythology. This term was originally used by Francis Gillen for referring to
cosmovision of Australian Aboriginals. From this story, dreaming now has
something to do with the creation itself. Now, it has also a totemic meaning
referring to person itself, is related to animals and destiny path of person
and culminating in a single path that has been walked since the times of the
ancestor’s times, The dreaming
(Encyclopedia Britannica, 2013).
Dinewan
the emu, and Goomblegubbon the bustard.
The first part of the
tale is written as it is originally found on Langloh Parker, K. 1896, Australian
legendary tales.
“Dinewan the emu, being the
largest bird, was acknowledged as king by the other birds. The Goomblegubbons,
the bustards, were jealous of the Dinewans. Particularly was Goomblegubbon, the
mother, jealous of the Diriewan mother. She would watch with envy the high
flight of the Dinewan, and their swift running. And she always fancied that the
Dinewan mother flaunted her superiority in her face, for whenever Dinewan
alighted near Goomblegubbon, after a long, high flight, she would flap her big
wings and begin booing in her pride, not the loud booing of the male bird, but
a little, triumphant, satisfied booing noise of her own, which never failed to
irritate Goomblegubbon when she heard it.”
Australian
jokes
1) How many Aussies does it take to
screw in a lightbulb?
Three. One to hold the bulb and two to turn the ladder.
2) What do you call an Aussie in the
finals of the World Cup?
A referee.
3) Q: What is the difference between
Cinderella and the Melbourne football team?
A: Cinderella wanted to get to the ball.
4) Your taxi driver was a surgeon
before arriving in Australia.
The term “Aussie” itself is a funny
or familiar way to call Australians by themselves and is used to show friendship
and comradeship.
Another common way to show this is
by using a sort of nicknames or diminutive forms of names with no insulting
intention on it. Examples include Hargrave → Hargie; Wilkinson → Wilko; John →
Johnno; David → Davo; Hogan → Hoges; James → Jimmy → Jim → Jimbo.
Retrieved using way back machine of the Web Archive technology: https://web.archive.org/web/20190327180426/http://blogs.brisbanetimes.com.au/rhymeorreason/archives/2007/04/nicknames_you_d.html
The following cannot be cited or
have any authority support, since is a personal experience that I wanted to
show about the self-experience with anything from Australia. Since Steve Irwin,
the “Crocodile hunter” became famous in Colombia due to his violent death
because a stingray, and also for his documentaries, many students came to me
asking for his “weird” accent. In times, I had to explain that Steve is Australian,
and his accent differs from what they know about American or English accents.
Canada
The land of the maple leaf, the most
iconic symbol around the world, maybe. Perhaps is famous for having two spoken
languages coexisting together (with zones of influence), English and French. Canada
was inhabited by indigenous people, until the first explorers/colonizers came,
around 17th century.
The French came first, and then, by
mid18th century the British wanted their part of the “new” land, too.
After the war of 1812 (1812-1815), hard
times forced to many Irish, English, and Scottish to travel and settle in the
British Canada, with unprecedent numbers. Later, the British government smashed
two rebellions and unified the two Canadas (French and British), Powell, John.
Encyclopedia of North American Immigration (2005).
After these times, much water has
flown and this iconic country has built itself as a promised land for
immigrants of several countries, stated by government policies, and now the
country is known for its multicultural tolerance and coexistence.
Notorious
works in Canadian culture that influenced English
Canadian Wonder Tales by Cyrus
MacMillan (1918), book that solely gathers a big amount of Canadian Native
American tales, such “How Raven Brought Fire to the Indians”, tale about a white
sea-gull which lived near Canada.
Margaret Atwood is recognized as a
notorious writer of a diverse kind of books such Cat’s eye, about controversial
painter Elaine Risley, that reflects her writing style on non-fiction and vivid
descriptions.
Canadian poetry by the other hand, is
traced till the discovery age, when these lands were totally new for mainly
English-originated settlers. By 18th century and while English
poetry was developing, Canadian poetry began to appear on newspapers, before
books.
The first Canadian
poetry book will not come until confederation times (circa 1897), Dreamland by
Charles Mair, but formal author associations can only be tracked until around 1862,
(Simpson-Housley and Norcliffe, 1992).
England
Perhaps, the most difficult country
to define through its culture, since this is one of the older (if not the most)
well-established kingdom with a heritage of centuries (maybe millennium), with
an influence through also a vast amount of countries in many aspects, from
language, to food or novels. Home of notable scientists and brilliant minds
such as Sir Isaac Newton, Alfred Hitchcock, the famous Queen Isabel I and the
new most long queen in charge Isabel II. Home of famous sports such as cricket,
football, tennis, influenced many other cultures such as Indian culture,
founded countries thanks to his voyagers, USA, Australia, New Zealand for
citing some examples, tracing the influence and importance in English language,
cannot be done without talking about England.
Since the Anglo-Saxons times, were
the England kingdom were founded, the literacy in English started with Old
English in as far as 450 B.C.
Beowulf is one of the oldest examples of antique and unique poetry in
English language, circa 1000. Many writings of this era are based on war,
conquest, and bravery.
The old English prose was developed
around 9th century, mainly influenced by Latin language and its rich
content of stories, poems, legends, etc. We can pick the notable work of King
Alfred which consisted in compilations and translations from Latin, but his
work lacked originality, but were more intended for educational purposes
(Asser, John, d. 909, 1983).
Middle English can be tracked to
1066 until 1500 era, The Norman conquest of England in 1066 traditionally
signifies the beginning of 200 years of French occupation in English letter,
so, for example, in modern English we have word such as “parlor” with a
simplified spelling version to American English.
Next, we move to the English
renaissance, 1500-1660, when the Tudor dynasty is instituted but the
renaissance ideas were slow to penetrate in England, visit the Puritan period without
“unity and soul” as stated by Long, circa 1948. It would make this brief text
too long and complex, defining and detailing each period, so let us just mention
restoration, 18th century, romanticism, Victorian literature, modern
literature, post modern literature and finally, contemporary literature in
English media.
Notorious
works in English
As before mentioned, one of the very
first works in English language was Beowulf, but we can mention other notorious
works.
·
The
greatest poetry work of Geoffrey Chaucer.
·
The
masterpiece of English language, The Canterbury Tales.
·
The
legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the round table.
·
Sir
Francis Bacon with his philosophy work.
·
Never
forget to mention William Shakespeare, and his relevant work to the development
and spread of English language.
·
Metaphysics
by John Donne.
·
John
Milton’s “Paradise Lost” epic poem.
·
The
novel in English language is born in 18th century, with Daniel
Dafoe’s “Robinson Crusoe”, Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver travels”, and Henry
Fielding’s “Tom Jones”.
·
The
romantic Lord Byron who “patented” the name Vanessa in his work “Childe
Harold’s Pilgrimage”, 1812.
·
Sir
Walter Scott added his titles Waverly and Rob Roy.
·
The
classical, translated to many languages: Pride and prejudice by Jane Austen.
·
Another
classical, no necessary introductions with a title that tells almost everything
about itself except for his author, “Frankenstein”, by Mary Shelley.
·
Classic
of all times, nourished the “kid’s tales”, Charles Dickens gave us Oliver Twist
and the well-known “David Copperfield”.
·
Robert
Louise Stevenson wrote another classical of all times, brought to almost all of
us to the cinema and TV, “Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”. This one, has received a lot
of parodies, versions and reimaginations to be brought to the big and small
screens.
·
Oscar
Wilde must be mentioned, with his literary works.
·
Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle gave us “The hound of the Baskervilles”
·
Agatha
Christie did the same with his novels and her prolific writer career.
·
H.G.
Wells. Sci-Fi literature is mentioned to be born with his novels, The war of
the worlds and Time machine.
·
Brave
new world influenced thousands of people since 1932, with cinematographic
adaptations and music influences or dedicated to the topic.
·
Another
favorite of all times, became famous again in 2001 with its cinematographic
adaptation by Peter Jackson trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien,
founded a new school of epic novels and bravery, this work and his universe,
influenced musicians, painters, novel writers, Sci-fi producers, and a long
etcetera.
·
C.S.
Lewis had his own Multiverse with Narnia Kingdom and prior stories of
Chronicles.
·
In
contemporary literature, is difficult to define since the boundaries are blurry
thanks to globalization process and American influence. Now we witness new
medias such Manga and Speculative fiction, so is hard to show or tell any
notorious contemporary work.
Many novels influenced traditions in
other countries, such “Christmas carol”, which served as a point of reborn in
Christmas traditions on foreign countries.
A notable phrase in British English,
to show that you do not like something is by saying “that is not my cup of
tea”.
Thanks to the English broad reach on
contemporary time, and by American influence too, is that we can say that
English has become the lingua franca. This means, that now we can have a common
language to discuss and share through culture and language barriers or writing
systems, "as a global means of inter-community communication" (Seidlhofer
2016: 20; Murata, 2015).
Reflection
Oral communication can
be considered as one if not the oldest method of communication with intention,
among human beings. So, by this, humans transferred knowledge and expertise via
this method to the new generations. Thus, it was difficult to rewind in
knowledge to look for any point of facts or methods, so new ways of preserving
information was necessary. This process finished (almost), with the creation of
written method and supports or materials used for this, having evolved till
digital editions and so on.
But oral tradition has
not died, it is alive just like when the first awakens of human being, and it is
necessary to communicate ideas in clear and quick way, even faster than written
or iconic ways.
One way to access to new
knowledge and expertise is via learning another language, so oral communication
is nearly the most important competence to develop that you can talk with
others and being aware of their own experiences and ideas. Dialogue lies on
important competences such Intercultural Competence (Byram, 1997), but
if you are going to teach languages, you also teach culture. Then, the next
topic of discussion is born, and now we have to talk about Intercultural
Communicative Competence, by this, you not only understand the people of
your own culture, but start to meet and agree (or disagree) with individuals or
groups coming from a different context of yours and take into consideration the
social context in which their lives take place.
To
be successful communicators with people coming rom different countries or
culture where language can be (or don’t, as in Latin-American countries), a
barrier to effectively communication, one needs an Intercultural
Communicative Competence to be a capable person who is able to understand
and accept otherness with understanding.
This competence is understood and defined by Chan,
2015, as “where the relationship between language and culture is crucial.
Someone who is engaged in intercultural communication where there are different
languages involved need then to be interculturally competent (IC) and have
communicative competence (ICC), and latter includes the former.
By saying this, Chan tell us that every person
needs to develop the feelings and brain constraints to make a contrast between former
knowledge and compare it with the new which is being showed to the interviewer,
no matter the context they are found
So, mutual understanding and respect for
traditions is necessary, while comparing and adapting with contemporary world.
Do not forget where you come from but understand and accept where you go now.
Conclusion about the importance of the course.
I chose this course because it offered me the opportunity to swim down in more complex topics about culture and the way it is transmitted. Now, I understood that it is no only a matter of transmission but of learning and accompany during the growing up process of the individual and the adaptations suffered throughout the time.
Thus, culture richness is out there, available to be explored and understood, as a matter of contents and creations by humankind, which makes us different from the rest of animals and at the same time a part of this world that we share.
References
Cox, F., & Palethorpe, S. (2007). Australian English. Journal of the
International Phonetic Association, 37(3), 341-350. Retrieved July 23, 2020,
from www.jstor.org/stable/44526466
English renaissance, retrieved from: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/britlit1/chapter/english-renaissance/ by Lumen learning is licensed under
CC BY 2.0
Kumiko Murata, English as a Lingua Franca in the International
University: The Politics of Academic English Language Policy, ELT Journal,
Volume 68, Issue 2, April 2014, Pages 205–207, https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccu004
Paul Simpson-Housley; Glen Norcliffe (1 September 1992). A Few Acres of
Snow: Literary and Artistic Images of Canada. Dundurn. p. 51. ISBN
978-1-55488-050-8.