In your connections with native speakers, your understanding of cultural context is a huge part of what you bring into the conversation.
You need to understand the culture and the history of an issue and not just learn empty phrases to recite.
It’s all about asking yourself:
- Who am I talking to?
- What are they interested in?
- What can I contribute to the conversation?
Last week Jessica met with a VIP student in our course.
The student had done our lesson on native Americans.
Her assignment was to research her own culture and learn about an indigenous group in Japan.
She didn’t know much about this topic before she researched it.
They ended up having a fascinating conversation about racism and prejudice in both of their cultures as it relates to indigenous cultures.
What can you learn about this?
The conversation between Jessica and this student couldn’t have been as deep and interesting as it was if they hadn’t been paying attention to the context and the perspectives of the people who are on the other side of certain issues.
Join our course and have an interesting conversation like this one with Jessica or Lindsay.
What questions do you have from today?
Let us know in the comments below.
