Cross Cultural Experiences in and out of the Classroom
By Jennifer Wilson

As a recent graduate from the Department of Romance Languages, I have decided to round off my education with a trip to South America- a trip which provides me with the chance not only to polish off my language skills but, more importantly, to observe the cultures which I have studied for the last four years in a more personal manner. For example, I have visited one of Neruda´s favorite homes in Valparaíso, seen multiple monuments marking the influence of Gabriela Mistral and Salvador Allende on the daily life of Chile, observed new gestures and nuances of the language, and seen some of the unequal living conditions that have resulted from the complex trajectory of these countries since the conquest of 1492. Throughout my studies, professors have tried to illustrate cultural variations between the various countries and peoples, but not until this trip have the differences been so real to me.

While in Santiago I was invited to observe a graduate level literature class entitled “Cervantes y El Quijote en Las Américas” at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. The class was taught by Dr. Correa-Díaz -at the time a Writer in Residence at PUC- whom I had studied under in Athens, this brought a sense of familiarity as the teaching (only) at the beginning was not drastically different from that which I had observed earlier. However, there were sensitive differences that I noticed within the classroom regarding both the kind of student participation and the role of the teacher.
The Chilean students, by the very nature of being from a Spanish-speaking country, brought with them to the classroom an encyclopedia of cultural knowledge that most English-speaking students simply do not have due to the cultural and linguistic gap between the authors and their readers. The Chilean students understood the fine details of history, culture, and language that were utilized throughout the work- this innate understanding is, unfortunately, not generally present in U.S. students and thus in the classrooms. Due to this factor, teachers must spend extra time in the U.S. explaining the importance of the work in its historical and linguistic setting. In contrast, the Chilean students, who were reading a drama by Argentinean writer Marco Denevi at the moment, analyzed linguistic and cultural subtleties that most English-speaking U.S. students would not even notice; this made for a much richer classroom experience.

Many students in the Spanish department, including myself, struggle to figure out why and how Neruda, Darío, or Mistral is important. Students are often ignorant of the historical relevance of the work and are unable to understand the complex ideas and historical facts behind words. This is not simply a case of lazy students; rather it is the difficulty of trying to understand a new culture from within the borders of a classroom walls. What a difficult task- to teach something as vague and dynamic as culture, literature, and language from within the stagnant setting of a university building! Yet somehow the task must be done, and professors do.
Students at UGA are fortunate to have teachers from all over the world who can share their experiences and cultural knowledge. Teachers in a language program serve for more than just linguistic instruction; rather they offer cultural knowledge that helps explain the significance of texts and authors from within a new and relevant framework. Professors are able to tie together the past with the present to show the interconnectivity of literature, culture, and history; they manage to do this in a more personal manner that can not be duplicated by textbooks –not even by a sofisticated virtual program, although necessary nowdays. Students must be able to access the cultural encyclopedias of their professors in order to build one for themselves. This can be done through the sharing of experiences; whether a student saw poverty in Guatemala, or a professor saw corruption in his/her country, or one of them was involved with a human rights organizations: these experiences help explain the relevance of a work or an artistic movement in a new light. Students must understand some of the cultures on a deeper level than just memorizing where a country is on a map. Professors can and often do relate the past to modern day conditions and their own personal experiences as well as the experiences of other groups within their country in order to show their students one more dimension of importance in the works being studied.

Aside from having teachers share more personal information regarding what it is like to be a modern day Chilean, Argentinean, Mexican, Spaniard . . . and how the works impact them as such, students must leave the confines of the classroom and go into other countries to see how modern Spanish-speakers around the world live and how they view their own culture and history. Students can use their study of the language and culture to literally take them around the world, opening up new doors and opportunities. There is no dead-end or stopping point for ones studies. As I have learned thus far in my trip, the more cultural knowledge one has, the better one understands the literature and the art and, completing this cycle, the better one understands the culture; at the end hopefully one evolves a more thorough understanding of oneself, ones culture, and ones world.