Interview Method Practice and Language Acquisition

This morning I interviewed my roommate, Gordy, about his mission.  I wasn't going to find anybody to interview about the history of the church in Irapuato, Mexico, so I figured that because he served in Samara, Russia, that was the next best thing... right?

Luckily I did find some correlation to my project.  While I was learning about missionary work in Russia, Gordy brought up language study, which is something that I didn't have to do on my mission.  In response to my questions he explained the difference between a good language study plan and a bad one.

A bad language study plan errs very close to not having a language study plan at all.  For a little while on his mission he said he would just read the scriptures in Russian and, though it helped a little, there is only so much you can learn from this approach.  It is important to try lots of different approaches.  As he taught me, "you are going to speak the language about 5,000 more times than you will read or write it," so it is very important to incorporate that usage of speech into your language study plan.

Some of the things that he found effective, that I want to try not only while in the field but as I study the language before hand, include activities that he would do throughout the day.  For instance, if he was talking with someone and he heard a word he didn't understand, he would write it down to look up later.  Also, if he was trying to communicate something but didn't have the right vocabulary or grammar structure in the moment, then he would be sure to make note of that and learn how to correctly say that at a later time.

As language acquisition is one of the main focuses of my field study, I am very grateful for these methodological insights into language study plans.  I feel that this interview/methods practice proved more helpful than I originally thought it would be.

¡Chido!

Individualism: Ser, o no ser.

Reading about the Ophelia Syndrome (accepting the framework of being told how to think/act or what is important to learn) really made me think a lot about my education and everything that I am learning in school.  Quite fittingly I heard today that Mark Twain, among his many other witty words, said "Don't let school interfere with your education." I think there is a lot of truth in that. He also said "If God had meant for us to be naked, we'd have been born that way," but that seems a little less relevant.

But seriously, there are the things that we are going to college, and paying tuition, to learn, and then there are the hoops that we need to jump through in order to get the grade we need.  Usually they are unrelated.  It is unfortunate that so much of our time is spent jumping through these hoops that we don't learn the truly valuable lessons like what type of people we are and what is important to us.

Now I understand that my field study is not supposed to be this amazing "self-realization" experience, and I will be focusing outward and seeking to learn about the culture that surrounds me, but I think that overcoming the Ophelia Syndrome for field studies is completely applicable.  In order for me, or anyone, to be successful in learning about others and their culture they must first understand themselves.

We have talked a lot in class about recognizing "the water that we swim in" or the cultural views that we take for granted and then trying to compensate for them.  But it is also important for us to understand who we are personally so that we can see where we are coming from that personal standpoint.  And the better that I understand myself and what I want to learn, and how I can best learn, the better I will be at learning those things and completing a successful and meaningful field study.

 Sometimes the most difficult search we will conduct as Sherlock is trying to find out who we really are.  It's as Ezra Taft Benson has said: "Some of the greatest battles will be fought within the silent chambers of your own soul."

A Changing Perspective

Reading the Family and Kinship article was interesting for me.  It brought back a memory I had of some pacific island people in my high school.  I remember thinking that it was really crazy that their whole family had moved to the same town in rural southern Utah because all of the islanders I knew always called each other "cousin."  I once asked about this and found out that they weren't really cousins and thought that was interesting that they all were cousins, apparently through simple mutual agreement.

Now that I have learned more about how family and kinship structures differ in other cultures it causes me to pause and think about those things that I take for granted.  I never would have assumed that something I took as basic as the perception of my family would differ in other cultures.  I wonder how accepted I will become within my host-family in Irapuato.

The article said that kinship units were sometimes established by geographical boundaries.  In some cases all those people within a certain area would share a name.  In America we seem to use geographical boundaries to differentiate between different school or college preferences, and especially different sports teams, but we don't have a name given to these fans collectively; my name isn't Benjamin Provo-ite Cougar-fan Jones.

I wonder what other established social systems that I take for granted, and in what other ways I may be like the fish who doesn't know that he is swimming in water.  The views of education (especially public education) in Mexico probably differ greatly from that in the U.S.  The views of work and benefits are probably very different as well.  What is the average occupation within the area of Irapuato?  They probably have a lot less "white-collar" office jobs than we do.

I wonder what I can do while I am there to truly see the differences and similarities between our cultures. Wouldn't it be great to receive reverse culture-shock upon my return?