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Introduction to the Cultura Guide > Goals of Cultura
Goals of Cultura
The objective of Cultura is to help our students develop understanding
of another culture - in this instance of French and American cultures. It is
designed to help them understand, in particular, each other's values, attitudes,
beliefs and concepts; to understand how people in the other culture interact,
look at the world and frame their thoughts and ideas. That dimension of culture
is a very difficult one to teach because culture, in that sense, is a very elusive,
abstract, implicit and an essentially invisible notion. What is needed is an
approach and a tool.
The goals of Cultura are best epitomized by that phrase from Marcel
Proust, which serves as a beacon to our project: "La seule véritable exploration,
la seule vraie fontaine de Jouvence, ne serait pas de visiter des terres étrangères
mais de posséder d'autres yeux, de regarder l'univers à travers les yeux des
autres" (Translation: "The only true exploration, the only true fountain
of youth would not be to visit foreign lands, but to possess other eyes, to
look at the universe through the eyes of others").
One approach that seemed to us full of promise is to start with the idea of
cultural comparisons. As is well-known, comparing and contrasting similar documents
from two cultures - through the simple process of juxtaposition - makes it possible
to see differences and similarities that would not otherwise be visible. It
allows users to start "seeing", for instance, the different values given to
words, the negative or positive connotations, the various attitudes toward events
or situations, etc.. It constitutes the first step toward deciphering and understanding
what these differences may reveal and signify.
What Cultura offers is a cross-cultural approach which has students
taking a French class in the US and students taking an English class in France:
- observe, compare and analyze similar materials from their respective cultures,
make observations and draw preliminary hypotheses.
- exchange viewpoints with each other, via an on-line forum, so as to test
their initial hypotheses and develop a more in-depth understanding of the
nature and origin of the differences.
Cultura thus offers learners and teachers alike, on both sides of the Atlantic,
a new methodology where it is the students themselves who Ð under the guidance
of their teacher - gradually and collaboratively construct knowledge of each other's
values, attitudes and beliefs, in a concrete and dynamic way and in an ever-enlarging
construction of the foreign culture. See Overall
Methodology