CULTURE By Carol Clark Cairo, Egypt A Czech proverb states, “You live a new life for every new language you speak. If you know only one language, you live only once.” Life, culture, and language are inextricably interwoven. They shape thought patterns, identity and perceptions, and the ways people express themselves. Like designing a lesson and then actually teaching it, the act of learning another language and then entering the culture where it is spoken is a very complex task. Both teaching and crossing cultures involve handling a variety of variables, some of which may be prepared for and some of which may come as a surprise. The speaker of more than one language has not only the added challenge of mastering a new linguistic system and ac- quiring adequate vocabulary and skills for survival and self-expression, but also the added burden, in entering the com- munity of the target language, of dealing with intangible constructs found in a different lifestyle and culture. The new culture may be close to the learner's native culture in some ways and very different in others. Just knowing the language does not necessarily allow for knowledge of, or ability to navigate, the target-language culture successfully. Artifacts of popular culture, such as films, TV shows, magazines, news articles, and books, can be valuable in providing insights into a different culture and its people, but they can also be misleading and misrepresent the actual reality, as they may not accurately depict routine daily life as a foreigner might experience it. Thus, there is a strangeness to navigating a new culture even when a learner knows the language. There may be a different perception of time and its importance; new transport systems to master; unfamiliar food, drink, and restaurant protocols to assimilate; formal vs. informal situations and the discourse register, body language, and personal space issues that ap- ply; language patterns and vocabulary learned from textbooks vs. the real spoken language of the community; differing habits of sanitation and hygiene; differing educational practices; appropriate vs. inappropriate clothing; and many other tangible and intangible aspects of culture that the second language speaker encounters every day. In an effort to prepare learners for entrance into an English language-speaking culture, a number of teachers and stu- dents have shared their experiences as second language speakers in the United States in the collection of short texts that follow. These texts provide springboards for classroom discussion about cultural issues and may stimulate further ques- tions that can be investigated through research or dialogue with other returnees, citizens of the U.S., or those of other English-speaking cultures. Although many of these issues can be anticipated and discussed while studying English, new cultural sojourners should be prepared to make mistakes and be attracted to, surprised, and sometimes even offended by various aspects of the new culture. At the same time they will learn to live a new life, the second life that both their second language and its culture offer them. Contributor: Carol Clark, Senior Instructor, Department of English Language Instruction, The American University in Cairo, Egypt 227

Se rappeler que quand on pointe une personne du doigt, 3 doigts pointent vers nous.