Chapter 7: Current Issues

SLIDE3:
This week we will analyze which problems are currently difficult to solve in the
multidisciplinary meeting of linguistics and sociology.
We will analyze difficult concepts such as “native speaker”, “cultural authenticity”, “politics of
recognition”, between others.

SLIDE 4:
Let's start with the idea of native speaker. At first glance, it may seem a simple concept to
define and to recognize in everyday life.
A native speaker is someone who is fluent in a given language because he or she was born in a
place where it is in official use, has been raised by parents who speak the same language, and
has also been taught to read and write in the same language.
Isn't it true?
Well, in reality, there are many native speakers who meet this definition, but who are not easily
identified in this way by others.
Why is that?
Because the idea of native speaker in the popular imagination also connotes a certain cultural
identification. That is, a native speaker is also someone who falls within the stereotype spectrum
that characterizes a culture: one who looks and acts as we expect someone from that culture to
do.
The prestige accorded to native speakers with physical and attitudinal traits that identify them
with their own culture is not the same as that accorded to those who do not look or act like
members of the culture.
This extends to the race-culture relationship. For example: A child of Turkish parents with a
Turkish surname who was born and educated in Germany will hardly be seen as a prototype of a
native German speaker.
In the popular imagination a native speaker looks like a member of the culture. And that
prototype is given by appearances.

SLIDE 5:
You may wonder where the difficulty lies?

 Well, in two aspects:

First, in authenticity
Secondly, appropriateness.
  Cultural authenticity enjoys an international prestige that helps us to easily recognize an
individual, both in his own territory and abroad. This is due to the identifying
symbols of appearance and behavior, as well as abstract characteristics such as the
casualness of Americans or the discipline of the German.
Recognizing the identifying characteristics of others helps us to categorize them, as well as
ourselves in relation to them.
In the same way, we can recognize ourselves as members of a certain culture:
-With this nose I'm wearing, I can't be anything but Jewish, don't you think?
And others can identify us:
- Everything about you screams French, you are so polished, elegant and classy! And of
course, the hint of arrogance is not missing.

 Whenever someone studies a new language, he or she doesn’t just want to have a
theorical knowledge of the idiom, but an extended knowledge of the ways of thinking
and behaving of an entirely different culture.
This is the reason why when someone studies a foreign language, they prefer a teacher who not
only knows the language, but also represents the culture that speaks it. Someone who dresses
and looks like a member of it.

 The students attach great importance to what are considered typical and inherent
characteristics of a culture: the baguette, the bread that the French look for every day
from the bakery just before lunch; or Japanese greetings and honors.

These two examples are symbolic. French culture is strongly characterized by its cuisine, and
the baguette represents this. Japanese culture presents very strong traits in its moral code on
honor and respect for others, which is manifested in its codes when greeting each other.

SLIDE 6:
1. But Authenticity does not pass the test of diversity.
Stereotypes tend to be few and have ambitions of totality:
"All French people are chic."
and
"If you are not chic, are you really French?"
This is clearly not true.
In every culture there is an enormous diversity of characteristics of its members. So, saying that
someone belongs to a culture just because he or she has many characteristics considered typical
of the culture could be very limited.
We do not want a foreign language learner to feel the need to adopt a concept of authenticity
that diminishes their identity as learners. This is identified with the concept of appropriateness.
What we do want is for them to adapt the language and culture they are learning to their
own characteristics and needs. This is identified with the concept of appropriation.

SLIDE 7:
Let's move on to other concepts that present difficulties.
Depending on which discipline addresses the issue, the terms cross-cultural, intercultural and
multicultural may have different meanings.
The first two can refer to the meeting of two cultures and are based on the idea that a nation-
state possesses a particular culture and a particular language.
The encounter between a Mexican and an Australian can be considered a cultural shock, in
which the culture of both countries and the use of Mexican Spanish versus Australian English
clash.
The same terms can be used to refer to the clash between members of the same nation and
who speak the "same" language but belong to different ethnic groups, levels within the social
hierarchy, age, gender, etc.
For example: A worker who must talk to his foreman to discuss an improvement in salary: this
is the meeting between the working class and the upper classes.
A woman who must request a salary equal to that of her male colleagues, even though she has
the right to take maternity leave: this is the meeting between men and women.
In addition, intercultural communication can be recognized in the encounter between
dominant cultures and minority cultures: example: a situation in which both European
descendants with a long history in North America and children of African immigrants have to
come to an agreement.

SLIDE 8:
On the other hand, the concept "multicultural" can be used in both a social and an individual
sense.

 An example of social multiculturalism can be New York or London, cities that are
home to countless inhabitants of different ethnic groups, races and cultures. At the city
level, they can be recognized as multicultural, although it is true that within them the
different ethnic groups tend to group together in neighborhoods within which social
multiculturalism is much lower, since they are mostly made up of a single race or ethnic
group.

 An example of individual multiculturalism can be that of Wonder Woman.

Actress Gal Gadot, who covers the role of wonder woman, was born in Israel and her parents
are of Polish, Austrian, German, and Czech descent. She professes Judaism and is a native
Hebrew speaker. But in addition, she works in the universe of North American cinema and
speaks English almost perfectly, in addition to living in North America.
A compatriot of Gal is Natalie Portman. She was also born in Israel although she later became
an American national. In this case, she not only speaks Hebrew and English, but she can also
communicate in French, Spanish and German.
The first actress did two years of military service and studied Law and International Relations;
the second graduated with honors as a psychologist at Harvard. This implies mastery of specific
jargons from different areas of study and work.
We are talking about two individuals with a high degree of multiculturalism, due to their life
experience being born and growing up in one country and then living and working in another
from a totally different culture, in addition to mastering various languages and jargons related to
nations, races, religions, work and areas of study.
Once again, we see that we intuitively relate belonging to a culture to belonging to an ethnic
group, having been born in a certain country and the knowledge of languages.

 The cultural identity of these multicultural individuals does not imply that they are
native speakers of the languages of each culture with which they identify. In the case of
these two actresses, they can only be considered native Hebrew speakers.

SLIDE 9:
Finally, we find the complexity of tolerance and empathy, or, as politics recognizes:
recognition, of other cultures.
It may seem counterintuitive that such socially positive terms are considered difficult.
People have fought and continue to fight for the social recognition of their ethnic group without
discriminatory labels. But at the same time, they want their particularities to be respected. Also,
they want everyone to see them as individuals but also as members of a culture.
As humans we all have the same dignity and rights; as members of different cultures, we have
unique characteristics; and as individuals the uniqueness is absolute.

SLIDE 10:
Here is the paradox of the recognition of the other. We are different but at the same time we are
the same. In what sense?
Our ways and customs may vary, but we all have the same dignity as members of the human
race.
Respecting the other as an individual and member of a culture, we must approach with an open
mind and acceptance of their ways, customs and values as unique and as valid as ours.

 We always have to keep in mind that the way our own culture sees the world, and other
cultures, is also unique. The way other cultures view ours and others is probably
different.
The differences can be accentuated or diminished by political strategies.
  For example, in the United States the continuity of differences between different ethnic
groups is strengthened by education. The schools are supported by local taxes, ensuring
that the education is conservative with the local culture.
It usually happens that the identification with the ethnic group is stronger than with the nation-
state, the latter being mainly due to a territorial issue. For example:

 In Singapore, the separation between ethnic groups related to a religion, such as the
Chinese Taoists or Buddhists, Muslims or Islamic, among others, is strongly
maintained. Despite the fact that the government tries to promote national harmony by
protecting these ethnic-religious differences.

SLIDE 11:

We must also consider two products of today's globalized world:

 On the one hand, the fact that a person can no longer trust a pre-established stereotype
of identification with a culture. Nowadays identification with a personal culture is the
result of a search that occurs in relation to others and with the environments in which
one moves: family, work, church, etc.

 On the other hand: The members of society who belong to the lowest part of the global
economic hierarchy are relegated to belonging to a single identity cultural group,
reduced to their locality, the language spoken there and the combo of characteristics
that define it.
Instead, those who have access to the Internet and the freedom to travel and move around the
world are modern cosmopolitans and polyglots, multicultural individuals who can identify with
an unlimited number of cultures.
This differentiation also produces intolerance and lack of political recognition.
As we have seen, all these apparently simple concepts contain certain human difficulties that
urgently need to be resolved.