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In my experience as an educator, one comes to realize how important it is to be aware of another people’s culture. This awareness includes our cultural differences, even when we are from within the same country. As a bilingual history and geography teacher, I have been learning to be aware of this issue ever since I started teaching English to Chinese students. I consider essential the fact that we all need sensitiveness when teaching a language because with it, comes culture. Everything we say or do is part of our cultural learning. For Foley and Howell (2017) cultural awareness is very important when teaching history. Professor Gary Foley is an academic historian in Australia with Indigenous descent. He understands the need for training of non-Indigenous history teachers that teach Australian History courses. After more than twenty years of teaching, he exposes that “most students emerge from high school knowing very little about their own history (Foley and Howell, 2017, p. 41)”. I would say this is a common experience in other countries as well. Not only not knowing our own history as historians, but also not knowing history nor culture in other subjects, including teaching a second language. Foley’s cry is for others to become more “sensitive towards and respectful of Aboriginal people” (Foley and Howell, 2017, p. 42). As educators, we need to be sensitive and aware toward other’s culture. The study of Belli (2018) explains how important cultural awareness is when teaching English. Belli says: “Culture and language are inseparable from each other as both in combination reflect shared cultural properties such as values, behaviors, and attitude inherent in the society we live and in language patterns we use. In this respect, it is highly valuable to integrate cultural elements into language education for intercultural understanding and welcoming different cultures. (Belli, 2018).” When teaching English or other languages, the most important matter, according to Belli, is that we realize how “difficult it (is) to communicate or negotiate with the native speakers of that language since you lack the cultural knowledge. (Belli, 2018)”. I also have this belief; cultural knowledge helps us improve our teaching skills because we understand our student’s needs, customs, and living ways. We live within a context while our students live within another; what matters most to us does not necessarily matter to them yet being aware gives us a way to coexist. As Belli says: “as we learn the target language, we also need to learn the target culture for better communication and understanding of the perceptions of native speakers of the target language, their shared life experiences, social behaviors, feelings, beliefs, traditions and religions (Belli, 2018).” If we lack in cultural awareness we can judge, criticize, or not understand our students. The props we use, the words we say, everything must reflect a proper knowledge of their culture. This will make us respect “their” world while teaching them “our” English, greatly learning from this. When it comes to language, everything has a meaning whether we understand it or not. When teaching a Chinese learner, red has a lot of meaning. Red is not only a color, especially during Chinese New Year. “Red” means they will be safe from the “Nian” (the dragon) and “music” and “fireworks” will drive it away. As this, there are many other examples we must learn and understand. In Belli’s study (2018), there were asked some questions such as, “Should Turkish learners of English be taught English/American culture?” and the answers reflected that “culture-specific information is inappropriate to the classroom environment”. According to the study, the main point of learning another language is mainly for communication, and they want to speak more than to write or other skills. Yet in the study, culture proved to be very important when learning because it “provides global understanding”. When teaching English, there should always be a positive incorporation of culture in the learning-teaching process. Hence, cultural awareness is key for learners to open to learning English or any other language. Learners have their own reading of the world; we as educators guide them. We need to be aware and sensitive toward their culture. Paulo Freire said: “Reading the world is not exhausted merely by decoding the written word or written language, but rather anticipated by and extending into knowledge of the world”. Before someone starts learning a language, they already know how to read the world. Therefore, we need to read their world, their context, and this will help us when teaching English as a second language. References: Belli, S. A. (2018). A study on ELT students’ cultural awareness and attitudes towards incorporation of target culture into language instruction. Journal of Language & Linguistics Studies, 14(1), 102–124. Retrieved from https://nuc.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=ehh&AN=129687847&site=ehost-live&authtype=ip,uid&custid=ns229713 Foley, G., & Howell, E. (2017). Cultural awareness training for educational leaders and teachers - a lesson in History. Agora, 52(3), 41–44. Retrieved from https://nuc.idm.oclc.org/login? url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=124987454&site=ehost- live&authtype=ip,uid&custid=ns229713 Freire, P. (1983). The importance of the act of reading. Journal of education 165 (1), 5-11.
