Culture is crucial when learning a language

As I read Fernandez 1998, I realised that I totally agree with the fact that teacher have been assigned the role of educating the children who consequently teach the community or society, becoming a very self-sufficient circle. It is indeed powerful what teachers have in their hands hence it becomes a huge responsibility.

“The context of our understanding is our culture” (Fernandez 1998:374) somehow summarises why culture is important and should be a must topic to be taught in the classroom. Not only we teach someone else’s culture and language, but we also make connections and reflect upon our own. It enriches our education and values as citizens of this world and big community we live in. Therefore, tolerance and respect are crucial attributes each person in the world should have in their personality. That is why it is so important that teachers and parents show them how to be intercultural in a world that is multicultural (Byram 2009).

Whenever we teach a new language teachers must fight against the preconceived judgements that person has on that particular culture (traditions, personalities, religion, food, and so on). Our job is to teach language to show them how these speakers see the world – our language is our way of expressing how we see, interpret and understand what surround us-. However, we sometimes forget that culture is also part of the language and if we do not demystify those untrue stereotypes that people have, the cultural barrier they have will impede them from learning and understanding anything we explain.