We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
from Intercultural Encounters
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Introduction
Anna's story
I would like to begin with the story of Anna (not her real name); her father introduced her to French at the age of two. Although he was born in Australia, he spoke fluent French and taught her French nursery rhymes and songs. Anna went on to study French at school from reception to Yr 12, and had the opportunity to visit France on several occasions with her family. To most of us, this would seem to be an ideal situation. Yet, in spite of this, Anna disliked French as a school subject and developed a negative attitude towards the French people, but she “hanged on to it” because the subject was easy for her.
In attempting to explain Anna's dissatisfaction with the language and her attitude towards the French people, two critical factors strike me. Firstly, Anna reported that she had no less than seven teachers of French throughout her years of schooling, and the only one she liked was her Yr 12 teacher. Secondly, she developed her negative attitude towards the French while visiting France with her family. Anna found, in particular, that the people there were “rude” to her. This “us vs. them” reaction is not an uncommon experience among first-time travellers and has now been quite well documented by intercultural researchers and educators who state that without thorough preparation this first visit in the foreign land does not necessarily foster more open mindedness, or greater tolerance toward others.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
