Who on Earth are we?

I subscribed to a number of BBC podcasts a few months ago when I started tutoring as a way to get good, free recordings to use with my students. Some, like 6 Minute English and Grammar Challenge are geared towards specific language problems, but others, like Talking About English, are more general.

While making oatmeal cookies last week, I caught up on a series in TAE entitled "Who on Earth are we?"

There are 12 episodes, which look at various aspects of culture, communication, culture shock, perceptions of time and space, and what it means to live in a foreign country. I've listened to half of them, and so far it's been really interesting. There are a few professors who give their professional opinion, and then a number of people who talk about the differences between their home country and Britain.

I subscribed through the iTunes store, but you can listen to the entire series here.

The piece of advice repeated the most often on the podcasts, is to keep an open mind and not use your home culture values to judge your new culture if you want to have successful cross-cultural communication. They also urged listeners to learn the local language and said that that would do wonders for your communication.

While these are both true, I feel like I've come to the end of the road on their usefulness, and I don't know how to go any further. There are still things that surprise me in France, though less than before, but I have a hard time openly accepting these differences. When I explain things to my mom, she has a now famous reaction: "Ohhhh!! I never thought about it that way!" I want to ask "But now what?" After you notice how different things are, and that indeed, you'd never thought about it that way before, what's next? I know it's bad (and counter-productive) to then judge those differences with another culture's values, but remaining at that notice-the-differences stage seems like the work of an anthropologist. "Take note of weird customs for book." When those differences make it really hard, or impossible, to do what you want to do (like get a job, go to school, get a loan, buy a car, make friends, etc etc), you're supposed to just keep an open mind? And then what?

As for learning the local language, it's true that being able to converse with people makes communication much easier than if you don't know the language. But it's not a panacea. Speaking the language gets you in the game, but it you want to win, you have to know the rules. Perhaps that's the hardest part of living in a foreign country. You were really good at winning the game in your own country, and now you find that the rules have all changed.

In any case, check out Talking about English and Who on Earth are we?