{"id":3610,"date":"2016-05-12T09:05:06","date_gmt":"2016-05-12T14:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wordybynature.org\/?p=3610"},"modified":"2016-05-12T09:05:06","modified_gmt":"2016-05-12T14:05:06","slug":"use-english-create-cultural-connections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.wordybynature.org\/newsite\/use-english-create-cultural-connections\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Use English to Create Cultural Connections"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Martin<\/a>Jonathan Martin
\nAssociate Student Representative, Southwestern Region, 2015-2016
\nRho Mu Chapter
\nOklahoma Christian University, Oklahoma City, OK<\/p>\n

Last summer I gained a new appreciation for language. I spent the six weeks between May 17 and June 28 in Yaizu City, Shizuoka, Japan. The value of language as a method to exchange ideas has never been clearer. My trip’s purpose was to converse with local residents who were interested in increasing their English conversational skills.<\/p>\n

During my time there, I met some incredible people and had some wonderful conversations about the different ways we viewed the world. One of my regular conversation partners brought an aged copy of the King James Bible in English she’d found on her grandfather’s bookshelf of Buddhist texts. She asked if I would be willing to read through it with her, and I was. We only made it about nine or ten chapters into Genesis, but every single time we met, the conversation covered definitions of obsolete words, archaic grammar rules, ancient Babylonian mythology, and our individual views on what we were reading. It was an intelligent, respectful trading of thoughts and ideas across gender, age, and cultural gaps.<\/p>\n

\"Japan--Martin\"<\/a>These days, I feel this type of enlightening conversation is lost in the constant stream of shouting matches dominating social media every other week. Language isn’t about who can yell louder and longer than their opponent. It’s about communion, the coming together to share both commonalities and differences.<\/p>\n

Too often, people become caught up in “right vs. wrong” or “me vs. you” debates that divide rather than bring together. I know in my own heart, I am guilty of wanting to be proven “correct” rather than sitting down and conversing with a friend about a topic of mutual passion. I’m striving to change this about myself so I can better engage with and understand the world around me.<\/p>\n

I can say with certainty my trip changed my life for the better. My eyes have seen the community, love, and tolerance that are possible when two people treat each other with respect and sincerity.<\/p>\n

Tell us about your experiences sharing the English language with someone from a different culture in the comments below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jonathan Martin Associate Student Representative, Southwestern Region, 2015-2016 Rho Mu Chapter Oklahoma Christian University, Oklahoma City, OK Last summer I gained a new appreciation for language. I spent the six weeks between May 17 and June 28 in Yaizu City, Shizuoka, Japan. The value of language as a method to exchange ideas has never been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32,34],"tags":[164,195,205,283,313,415,416],"class_list":["post-3610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-wide","category-southwestern-region","tag-culture","tag-ell","tag-esl","tag-japan","tag-language","tag-oklahoma-christian-university","tag-oklahoma-city"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.wordybynature.org\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/JMartin-Japan-051216.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa2J6O-We","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wordybynature.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wordybynature.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wordybynature.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wordybynature.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wordybynature.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.wordybynature.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wordybynature.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wordybynature.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wordybynature.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wordybynature.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}