Here’s a nice simple guide for US teachers (or anyone) travelling or working abroad, on how to adapt to a culture and not reinforce cultural stereotypes (right-hand column half-way down: “download free abridged version”). Many expats may find it obvious or simplistic but for newbies it’s a good start. (Via Fast Company Blog).

I managed a language school in Buenos Aires for 8 of the 18 years I lived in Latin America, and probably recruited over a hundred teachers directly from the US. It was interesting to see how each individual adjusted to the new culture and managed the inevitable cultural baggage that they brought with them. I think language teachers in general are culturally flexible, for a variety of reasons: sensitivity to language, facility at SLA, cultural curiosity, etc. And because they are in the new culture for longer than the typical two week vacation, they are more motivated to integrate.

What was also interesting was to see how longer-term expats differed in degree of cultural adaptation. Some fit so easily into the Argentine culture that they essentially “became Argentine”: friends, activities, partner/family, language level and sophistication, L2 primarily for interactional as well as transactional goals, understanding and assimilation of folkways. Other long-term expats encircled themselves in a US cultural bubble: other ex-pat friends, only watched CNN and Sony Entertainment Television, ate at Mickey-D’s, limited (and mainly transactional) language ability. One 10-year expat I knew (worked for a big US multinational) refused to learn or speak Spanish for the entire 10 years he was there - a truly amazing feat.

I was somewhere in the middle, tending toward assimilation but keeping some personal idiosyncrasies that are archtypical of US culture (is “archtypical idiosyncrasy” an oxymoron? …probably). One of these idiosyncrasies: I refuse to accept the petty abuse that individuals receive from large institutions and corporations. Anytime Citibank or Dell or American Express or my insurance company or a government agency tries to step on me I don’t let them: I politely point out the mistake and work my way up the supervisor sequence to get a solution or register a formal complaint.

I encountered two problems with this when I lived abroad. First, when in another country, this behaviour isn’t seen as a justifiable defense of one’s individual rights - I was seen as an example of US arrogance and entitlement. So, in order to not appear as the ugly American, I would usually just shut up and take it. But as a result something bad happened, so slowly and insidiously that at first I didn’t notice it: after several years of suffering in silence I started thinking, subconciously at first, then overtly: things aren’t this bad in the States, big companies aren’t as screwed up in the States, they treat their customers better in the States, etc. And that’s the second problem, because this line of thinking is dangerous; the “it’s better at home” thought is a huge barrier to understanding a culture.

Well, I moved back to the US a year ago: it’s just as bad here. Institutions and corporations try to abuse the little guy just as often. The difference is that I can complain incessantly without fear of reinforcing the ugly American stereotype. They just think I’m a jerk, not an ugly American.

This is fascinating: universal grammar vs. an entire culture based on mindfulness. “The Pirahã are a unique people living without time or numbers, without colours or a shared past.” In additon to adding to the debate on Chomsky, some linguists say that, because the Pirahã can’t concieve of numeration, it is proof of the Whorf hypothesis. Others disagree.

“A people without terms for numbers doesn’t develop the ability to determine exact numbers,” Dr Gordon said in Science magazine. “The question is, is there any case where not having words for something doesn’t allow you to think about it? I think this is a case for just that.” But Professor Everett did not leave it there. “You could say these features of the language, these absences, are all coincidences. I tried to find a common thread to explain why the Pirahã were the way they were.”

That factor, he found, was all around and yet its significance had never been noticed: the culture and unique way of life of the Pirahã. In a paper published last year, Professor Everett says this, not their language, prevents the Pirahã from counting.

Because of their culture’s ingrained emphasis on referring only to immediate, personal experiences, the tribesmen do not have words for any abstract concept, from colour to memory and even to numbers. There is no past tense, he says, because everything exists for them in the present. When it can no longer be perceived, it ceases, to all intents, to exist. “In many ways, the Pirahã are the ultimate empiricists,” Professor Everett says. “They demand evidence for everything.”

Life, for the Pirahã, is about seizing the moment and taking pleasure here and now. “I suddenly noticed how excited they were whenever planes crossed the sky then disappeared. They just love sitting around watching people coming around the bend in the jungle. Whenever I came into the village then left, they were amazed.”

The linguistic limitations of this “carpe diem” culture explain why the Pirahã have no desire to remember where they come from and why they tell no stories.

The question at play here is “what is the causal relationship between language and culture?” Which “causes” the other? Or, are they so intertwined that they develop together, with neither “causing” the other….?

Imagine: they tell no stories. What would life be like without stories? My guess is that the Pirahã are so totally immersed in the here and now that they truly feel the stunning fact of existing and being conscious of that existence. The Pirahã don’t tell stories because the here and now is so amazing that they don’t need them.

There’s a lot to love about dogme and dogme-influenced classroom approaches. With individual students, we tie dogme principles to performance support, which leads to an emergent syllabus, and that’s it..with the right teacher that’s the most powerful BE environment that we have found.

That said, Sandy’s send up of dogme is too funny. If you’ve spent any time on the dogme Yahoo group this will crack you up. (Warning: may be offensive to some.)