Cultura

Cultura Well, you probably saw Mitras entry mentioning Senior Lecturer Gilberte Furstenberg (teacher of French III, a class were both taking). The homework Im doing right now is part of a unit called Cultura, where we correspond with university students learning English at lEcole Polytechnique and lIUP in Paris. So far, weve done word associations and sentence completions, where we at MIT enter (in English) what first comes to mind when we see words and sentences related to work, money, food, culture, and other staples of daily life. The French students do the same in their own language, and we compare and contrast the different responses to gain perspectives in the other country. Its interesting to see the different sorts of things that come to mind when we think of a good job, for example, in comparison to what comes to the mind of a French student. We consider these observations, ask for clarification and chat with the French students on a discussion board. Probably one of the most striking differences in perspective we found was the idea of suburbs In France, suburbs are often dangerous a stark contrast to the American idea of them being nice places to settle down, live and raise a family. Basically, the Cultura system highlights the way we think about various things we take for granted, and its been a useful way to bridge the gaps of our cultures.