Culture surrounds us. As language teachers, our job is to teach beyond the "products," incorporating the practices and perspectives.

 

 

Norwegian dean Tove Dahl leads a culture-based activity during our visit to her village.

Today we spent a good portion of our day exploring the Culture standard, breaking culture down into the “3 P’s” of Products, Practices, and Perspectives. Products, by far, are often at the forefront of culture instruction. Language teachers often find it very easy to integrate tacos, cow bells, and the Eiffel Tower into their teaching. French food is often an integral part of French classes. Yet, we rarely dig deep enough to find out why. That was our mission in today’s discussions. We strived to look beyond the surface level, and search the for practices and perspectives that support the products (in this case, French food). The discussion was fascinating. 

 

The afternoon and evening was spent in the Language Villages, once again. This time we also had a small group spend their time at the Norwegian Village. The participants’ goals today were to look at how the Villages integrate culture into their daily lives, while also looking for immersion strategies used to teach language. One of the highlights of today’s visit was that the participants were able to share an evening meal with staff and villagers of one of the various Language Villages. Experiencing the entire meal process, with all of the CLV traditions that go along with mealtimes, was the icing on the cake. 

“Watching the counselors at Waldsee has given me so many new ideas of how [thematic planning] can be done. The classroom material that we are learning falls right into what we are seeing and will help me when I’m actually writing and planning units. All this information is putting what I’m teaching into perspective and giving me more focus.” - Birgit, middle school German teacher from Minnesota