LANGUAGE AND CULTURE  6

THINK AND DISCUSS

Answers will vary. Possible answers:

1. Speaking more than one language is useful in business. If you work for a global company, then it really helps to be able to communicate well with people from other countries.

2. For me, the most difficult thing about learning a new language is speaking it. I struggle with my confidence when speaking another language, even after I’ve studied it for many years.

EXPLORE THE THEME

A 1. Agatha Christie

2. Jules Verne (Verne was a French novelist; he wrote mostly science fiction.)

3. Answers will vary. Possible answers: When I was at school, we read Shakespeare, Tolstoy, and Hemingway. For pleasure, I’ve read Agatha

Christie and Jack London in the past. More recently, I’ve read both Enid Blyton and Alexander Dumas to my son.

B substantial, captivate, multiple

Reading

PREPARING TO READ

A 1. cryptic

2. straightforward

3. definitively

4. nostalgic

5. irresistible

6. integral

B 1. on the contrary (Note: Students were introduced to this phrase in the Writing section of Unit 5 as a term to use in a comparative essay in a discussion of differences.)

2. monotonous

3. simultaneously

4. excluded

5. evidently

6. metaphor

C Answers will vary. Possible answers:

1. If you speak multiple languages, you can travel all over the world and make friends with people who have ways of thinking and living that are

different from your own. I think being exposed to a variety of people and lifestyles is a wonderful way to grow as a person.

2. I am actually studying Spanish now in addition to English. Sometimes, when I open my mouth to speak Spanish, I say something in English by

mistake. It’s very strange. But I still think that it’s okay to learn two new languages simultaneously.

D Answers will vary. Possible answers:

studying song lyrics, reading novels, listening to podcasts, watching TV shows or movies online in the foreign language with foreign language

subtitles too, etc.

E Answers will vary. Actual answer:

b

UNDERSTANDING THE READING

A 1. F–G

2. I–J

3. A–B

4. C–E

5. B

6. H

B Answers will vary. Possible answers:

1. b (Explanation: Paragraph A: Her stories of New Orleans were filled with references and names in English (frequently also in French), and those mysterious words, so different from the ones I heard in everyday speech, produced in me an irresistible fascination.)

2. d (Explanation: Paragraph B: For me, that English lacked charm, instead sounding like the noise of my shoes crunching in the gravel of the schoolyard during recess.)

3. c (Explanation: Paragraph D: It was the English I started to learn from cartoons on television, where the characters expressed thoughts, emotions, and feelings in a straightforward way.)

4. e (Explanation: Paragraph G: To act as a character in any of Shakespeare’s plays, or to read an O. Henry short story out loud to my classmates, or a chapter of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, or a sonnet by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, brightened my day.)

5. a (Explanation: Paragraph J: My cousins, not to mention their friends, listened to me with surprise or mocking looks. In turn, their English was almost unintelligible to me because they spoke, of course, in teenage slang.)

C Answers will vary. Possible answers:

1. Adjectives she uses to describe her grandmother’s English include: mysterious; light and crystalline; dense, thick, high notes, lonely,

nostalgic; cryptic; fantastic; full of attractions and mystery (Paragraphs A–C); She compares it to the trill of a bird, honey, the sound of a

flute, the swirl of a whirlpool, frenzied crowds. (Paragraphs B–C); Through her language, we can tell that her feelings towards her grandmother are loving, warm, and nostalgic.

2. She tells us it was dull and harsh sounding. She compares it to the sound of walking on gravel and a cart struggling over cobbled streets. We

can infer that she did not find the sound of this English pleasant.

3. Some words and phrases she uses include idyllic, beautiful and comfortable; gorgeous. She compares the landscape to a fairy tale. Her feelings toward the place today are nostalgic and warm.

4. She says that she had a hard time understanding their slang and that they reacted poorly to her English. Her cousin compared her way of

speaking to that of a philosopher (Socrates). We can infer that she felt alienated as a result.

D 1. f; (They sounded like strange music, an exotic melody coming from faraway fantastic places where life had an agitation, a rhythm, an acceleration unknown and unheard of in the peaceful world I shared with my parents, sisters, and brothers.)

2. d; (We were all part of an enormous family that included grandparents, great-aunts, great-uncles, uncles, aunts, and first cousins, as well as a

second and third level of blood relatives, followed immediately by all the other people in the category of relatives included in the family universe and its state of perpetual expansion.)

3. b; (For me, that English lacked charm, instead sounding like the noise of my shoes crunching in the gravel of the schoolyard during recess.)

4. e; (I learned phrases and words that communicated necessity in a fast, precise manner.)

5. g; (My cousin,not to mention their friends, listened to me with surprise or mocking looks.)

6. h; (On the contrary, the vocabulary I learned from books, especially from the poetry that taught me to love the language, had no place in the everyday speech of my contemporaries.)

7. a; (It was all worthless for learning to speak practical English that would help me establish bonds with boys and girls my own age.)

8. c; (I understood that if I didn’t do that, I would be left on the fringes of the main current, the mainstream where all U.S. teenagers lived, with space only for themselves.)

E 1. c; (Paragraph D: The first time I heard characters in a downpour shouting their heads off with the phrase … )

2. b; (Paragraph C: No, this other English expressed things in a different way that was not enigmatic and seductive, nor dumb and monotonous, but dramatic and direct: … )

3. f; (Paragraph B: The English I heard from my grandmother Ilse had nothing to do with the English I was taught in kindergarten.)

4. e; (Paragraph J: She didn’t have a clue about the extreme anguish I was going through trying to understand what was being said around me.)

5. a; (Paragraph J: When one of my cousins couldn’t stand it anymore, she told me that I was a weirdo, that I spoke like a philosopher, some sort of Socrates or something.)

6. d; (Paragraph H: From that deep relationship with the language, I wound up with what I considered a broad and complex knowledge of English.)

F 1. a large number of

2. highly

3. It is widely accepted

4. Currently

5. received

6. acceptable

G Guesses will vary. Actual answers:

1. such as

2. is eager

3. Consider

DEVELOPING READING SKILLS

A 1. I had a whole conversation in Spanish, surprised that I was able to communicate at all.

2. Learning Hungarian was the most difficult thing I did when I was an undergraduate.

3. To get familiar with Japanese pronunciation, I watched a lot of Japanese TV shows.

4. Being unable to communicate with her teenaged cousins, Zamora decided to improve her way of speaking.

5. Determined to sound like a native speaker, I took an online conversation class.

B 1. The first time I heard characters in a downpour shouting their heads off with the phrase “The sky is falling, the sky is falling!”;The verbal phrase describes the characters.

2. Understanding the language and speaking it in a natural way became integral to my being … ; The main verb is became. The two verbal phrases serve as the subject of the sentence.

3. To be accepted by everybody, I started paying extreme attention to how I expressed myself and to the words I chose.The verbal phrase gives a reason.

Video

BEFORE VIEWING

A Answers will vary. Possible answers:

My guess is they notice cultural differences around spending and waste between their homes and the U.S. Probably the diverse culture of the U.S. was something they noticed too.

B 1. graze like cows

2. stretch our legs

3. grab something

4. Chilling

WHILE VIEWING

A 1. Answers will vary. Actual things mentioned in the

video are: how people live on top of each other in apartment buildings; ATM machines; how much and often people are eating; hot dogs

B 1. apartment, first, second, third floor, ATM, voila, hot dog

2.to explain how money is gained through trading items in their homes. For example, they take a goat to the market and trade it.

AFTER VIEWING

A Answers will vary. Possible answers:

1. They are used to lots of space, which is why they were surprised about the apartment buildings. Also, probably they don’t consume as much as

Americans because they seemed surprised by how much everyone was eating.

2. Like Daisy Zamora, the men probably had ideas about the U.S. before they came, and this changed during their visit. For example, they

didn’t seem very impressed by the hot dog! Also, they seemed to enjoy picking up new terms from their guide, just as Zamora enjoyed learning new phrases.

3. I think they’d be surprised by the food in my hometown, such as the spiciness of a lot of Korean food. Maybe they would also be surprised

by beaches and fishing and even sunbathing, since they don’t live near the ocean.

Writing

EXPLORING WRITTEN ENGLISH

A Personal Opinion: As far as I’m concerned; In my experience; Speaking for myself; Personally, I think

General Opinion: It is thought that; Some people say that; … is generally considered to be … ; It is accepted that; Most would agree that

LANGUAGE FOR WRITING

B 1. memorizing

2. Feeling

3. interrupted

4. Excited

C Answers will vary. Possible answers:

1. Relying solely on online self-study programs, many students are missing out on opportunities to interact with others.

2. Some language learners, defeated by increasingly complex grammar, tend to drop out in their second year.

3. Many language learners are able to learn quickly, motivated by their teacher’s positive feedback.

4. I picked up Chinese really quickly, surprised by the simplicity of the grammar.

WRITING SKILL

D b, d, c, a, e

WRITING TASK

A Answers will vary. Possible answers:

Attending a language school is good because you can practice talking to people in a controlled environment. There’s also a teacher who can

answer your questions. But it can be expensive if you want regular classes.

B Answers will vary. Possible answers:

Introduction: background information about language learning, how important it is in today’s global society, etc.

Thesis Statement: I believe that the best way to learn a foreign language is to live in a country where that language is spoken. In doing so, you become totally immersed in the language, are exposed to authentic language use, and are motivated to learn because you need the

language to survive.

Body Paragraph 1

Topic Sentence: By living in a country where another language is spoken, you become totally

immersed in the language.

Details: the language is all around you, for example, on TV, on signs, on transport etc., constantly learning and practicing the language

Body Paragraph 2

Topic Sentence: By living in a foreign country, you are exposed to authentic language use.

Details: If you take a language class or learn online, you don’t know if you are learning authentic language that is useful in everyday life.

Body Paragraph 3

Topic Sentence: Living in a foreign country gives you extra motivation to learn that country’s language.

Details: learn out of necessity in order to make friends, order things in shops, open a bank account, etc.

Notes for conclusion: restate thesis, final

thought: example and quote from Daisy Zamora “My true encounter with living English … happened in the United States.”

REVISING PRACTICE

1. c, b, a

2. a. Exciting Excited …

b. teaches teaching …

c. Fantasy novels are much more popular with teenagers.

EDITING PRACTICE

1. a; Taking classes every night, I learned a lot quickly.

2. b; You can take private lessons, to learn a new language.

3. c; Living in a bilingual household, I learned Spanish easily.

4. c; To improve your pronunciation, you have to practice.

5. a; Watching TV in English, I learned a lot of natural language.

UNIT REVIEW

Answers will vary. Possible answers:

1. cartoons, movies, song lyrics, literature, her friends

2. restatement of thesis, summary of supporting points, final thought

3. To become more fluent, I practiced speaking Japanese with my friend.

4. Answers will vary.