1. Why do we need to study communication and
culture on our chosen field?
We view communication as the exchange and flow of information and ideas
from one person to another; it involves a sender transmitting an idea,
information, or feeling to a receiver. Culture, on the other hand is the
summation of one’s beliefs, customs, practices, and social behavior of a
particular nation or people.
|Then why, as a teacher, do we need to study it?
As a future educator in the field of Special
Education, I do believe that good communication skills is one of the major
component on why learning takes place. It paves the way for the information
from the book and the experiences to the minds of the students. Without it, the
students cannot comprehend what the lesson will be all about especially in my
case, because I will be handling exceptional students that need a remarkable
amount of skills in communication.
Moreover, knowing one’s own culture is of
utmost importance because this is where we belong. Once you are fully adept with
your own culture, you now can relate to other culture and understand others,
which is a very essential in teaching a multicultural class.
2.
In your own
words, how would you define culture?
I see culture as a collation of art, music, literature, humanities,
tradition, beliefs, rules of behavior, language, rituals, technology, styles of
dress, ways of producing and cooking food, religion, and political and economic
systems that a group of people share. It is like a blueprint, etched in their
DNA that distinguishes them from other group of people.
3. How is language interrelated to culture?
Through the use of language, culture does not
remain stagnant; it evolves, it can be shared, and learned. And through
culture, language progresses.
4.
Explain cultural relativism.
Cultural relativism is the view that
all beliefs, customs, and ethics are relative to the individual within his own
social context. In other words, “right” and “wrong” are culture-specific; what
is considered moral in one society may be considered immoral in another, and,
since no universal standard of morality exists, no one has the right to judge
another society’s customs.
We related or judge other cultures
with our own culture as the basis of what the epitome of culture is. We frown
at the idea of divorce, but in other countries, it is widely accepted.
