Impact

Having just returned home from South Africa, I am stunned at my delayed reaction to the trip and the experience of taking students abroad. While on the trip I concentrated on trying to be the best leader I could be, and together with Dr. Hamann, worked to make sure students were getting a variety of rich experiences that would broaden their world views and understanding of South Africa and its people. However, I didn't have time to concentrate on my own experiences and the wonder and joy of it all. After returning to Lincoln, I spent the afternoon telling my family about the people, about the food, about the amazing discussions and things I learned and realized that I haven't had the time to truly process the trip. I think that for many of us, the impact of the trip on our lives is just beginning - many of us will see that the experience has enlightened us in so many ways, and has given us a greater appreciation for the importance of international inter-personal interaction, a greater understanding of issues related to language planning and policy and the day-to-day impact these policies have on people and schools, and a deeper understanding of the history and similarities/differences between the U.S. and South Africa. But we won't see this right away, it will come to us each day as we ponder the experiences, look at photos, discuss the trip with family and friends. I am deeply thankful for our South African friends and colleagues, who took the time to talk with us, eat with us, and teach us about South Africa. I hope that the experience of our visit has impacted our friends and colleagues in South Africa as well and that they will be able to come to Nebraska in order to continue this amazing intercultural experience.

-Theresa Catalano

Final reflections

Language Planning and Policy Discussion

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Parent Post

Thanks for the rich discussion today about language policy and planning in both South Africa and the United States. I agree with you that a common language is important for national communication and unity. I also agree that it is important to maintain home languages. While alike in many ways, the United States and South Africa have very different contexts from which to construct language policies. South Africa has 11 national languages (that are fairly geographically based), the United States has none, though English is most widely spoken. When I think about the medium of instruction for my former school in Lincoln, there were 16 native English speakers, one native Spanish speaker, one native Karen speaker, and one native German speaker in the entire grade level. Obviously it would not be possible to teach these students each in their native respective native languages, however, I tried to create space for their home language use in our classroom as often as possible. For example, as a class we had "daily math routines." During this time, students led various math activities including counting from one to twenty (which was determined by our curriculum). To create space for their home language in our classroom, these students led us in counting in German, Spanish, and Karen each day as well. Although they were not learning in their language, I am hopeful that these instructional practices, which create space for languages other than English, encourage them to continue to develop and maintain their home language.

-Tiffany Teichmeier

Final Reflections

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This study abroad experience has been very interesting to me. As a Latina and an international student, it has been the first time that I have "lived" and had a lot of time together with a group from whom most of its people have a different ethnicity than mine. It has been a very enriching experience which has helped me understand that independently of our different backgrounds, personal stories, ethnicity, social class, nationalities, and ideologies, we share similar perceptions about the world and its problems and challenges.

At the end of this trip, I take several learning experiences with me. I like the recognition that South Africa does about its differrent languages and how South African educators try to promote them despite the covert policies (Wiley, 2010) that continue giving an ideological superiority to English and Afrikans. As Cassels & Freeman (2010) highlights, educators have an active role in developing policies and practices about bilinguism and/or multilinguism in microlevels. In this sense, I return to the U.S. wondering how I might work actively for giving a real space to languages and its varieties in my university in Chile and other educative environments.

In addition, even though South Africa has more poverty, less resources for education, and higher levels of corruption, I admire that they have less individualism, more sensibility to understand other's needs, more solidarity, and more optimism. I usually see the children and other Africans with a smile despite their problems. It was also interesting to see the norms about spaces which remind me some countries around the world. It seems that private or personal space is not a matter here.

Finally, I would like to thank everybody for his/her warmth, kindness, and understanding during this time. Most of the times, I really felt Iike I was among friends.

-Andrea Flanagan Borquez

Appreciation

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My experience in South Africa has been very enriching, both from academic and personal perspectives. As one of the instructors of the mixed methods seminar, I was able to interact with a wide range of South African and other African countries graduate students. As I was working with the different groups during the activities, I was very moved hearing about some of the research projects these students are conducting. AIDS, hunger, inequality, lack of education... The complexity of these issues made me think of the importance of my own research, and how scholars work influenced by their environments and availability of resources. The majority of the students do not have access to statistics courses or research methodology, which I was very surprised to hear since they are doctoral students. For many of them it was the first time hearing about mixed methods. It made me feel very lucky to be able to contribute in some way to their research process, and at the same time very thankful for the opportunities that I have and the education I am receiving at UNL.

Visiting the schools and the townships was eye-opening. Not that I never saw extreme poverty and inequality before, because I did see that situation in Colombia when I was growing up. The difference is that back then I believed that was the normal way of life. It was not until I moved to Spain and later to the US that I saw that people could live differently, so I came to South Africa with a different mind and eyes. Being a doctoral student in education, it becomes even more a duty to look at Dr. Soudien's question from this morning, "How do you intellectually come to engage with social structure?" This trip has made my "degree of self-consciousness" rise, and has broadened my academic and research perspectives, which I am very thankful for, because it has made me grow as a person. I am looking forward to collaborating with South African colleagues in the near future and engage in research that seeks social justice.

-Carolina Bustamante

Past and Future

As I sit here in my room listening to the call to prayer,  I can't help but think about the things that I'm going to take away from my time here in South Africa. 

The world we live in is not as big and expansive as we think it is.  People are people are people, no matter their race, religion, gender etc.  Having traveled to many parts of the world, I have to come to realize that the things that separate us are not as big as the things that bring us together.  Also, through the many conversations that I have had with my peers on this trip and from the other students at UP, I have come to realize the many things that South Africa and the U.S. have in common, especially from a historical stand point.  I know that in our talk with Crain Soudien today, he would say that we shouldn't plan for the future with our past in mind, but I think that sometimes you have to let your past inform your future.  You don't want to move forward and repeat the same mistakes from the past.

-Linsay Wach

Monolingual vs. Multilingual Society

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As I reflect back on my travel study experience in South Africa, I realize that I have never been in the presence of so many speakers of a language that I could not understand. In the countries I have previously visited/lived prior to this travel study experience (i.e. Costa Rica, Spain, Nicaragua, and Panama), I at least had working knowledge of the Spanish language  and still managed to run into other English-speakers there. There were limited numbers of indigenous languages that I encountered during these travel experiences, so my unfamiliarity with the language(s) was not so dominant in my time spent there.

 In South Africa, however, this was completely different for me. One thing that came as a shock to me is that I had never encountered so many spoken words that I could not even identify which language it was derived from. Working with immigrants and refugees in my community as well as international students on campus, I have become a bit familiar with identifying certain nuances about certain languages (e.g. Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese Chinese, Vietnamese, Hindi, etc.). However, I felt completely lost trying to identify difference between the nine indigenous languages that hold official status in South Africa, as well as other languages indigenous to Africa that I encountered through engaging with other UP students.

In addition, something that surprised me (at least at first) was how many of the White South Africans were speakers of Afrikaans. While I already anticipated this prior to traveling to South Africa from our readings and other news, I think I realized that this may have been the first time I was surrounded by so many White people that had the ability to speak a language other than English.

In the United States, especially in the Midwest, it seems as though the presence of White privilege also includes the privilege of speaking English and only English. As a person who loves to learn languages, this is very disheartening. As a refugee resettlement location, as well as a large draw for other diverse communities, the community of Lincoln hosts a plethora of language backgrounds. The common discourse does not embrace this linguistic diversity; rather, “if they come here, they should learn English” is often times heard.   Why should immigrants and refugees be the ones viewed as deficient in language? Some of them are coming to the table with three or four languages already on their plate, while many people native to the United States only find one to be a necessity, English. Why must everyone conform to learning English? While I realize the importance of having a common language as a lingua franca to be able to communicate across these differing linguistic backgrounds, must it always be to privilege the already privileged? Why are foreign and heritage language programs in the United States structured as an afterthought rather than a valuable resource?

In sum, I am left with more questions than answers. However, the study of language policy and planning is very enticing to me. In what ways can we work to combat this language ideology shift, whereby recognizing the importance of every language rather than submitting certain languages/language varieties as inferior.

-Kristine Sudbeck

Thoughts

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This trip will be memorable, as it was my first visit to Africa and filled with many new experiences.  I will remember the connections I have made and intend to maintain with University of Pretoria students.  It also reminded me that the variance within races is greater than the variance between.  People share more similarities than differences and are generally good.    

The best part of my trip, however, was seeing the spectacular sights of Cape Town.  I cannot find adequate words to describe it.  Although I wanted much more time hiking at the top of Table Mountain, I am quite thankful for the experience.  The nature, the air, the paths, and the views.  I will return someday.

-Tim Guetterman

Table Mountain

The excursion to Table Mountain has been the highlight of my trip! I loved being able to break away from the academia which I have been surrounded by and simply immerse myself in nature. I felt unbound by obligations for one hour and explored the different paths on Table Mountain. I was surrounded by people while on the mountain but somehow I felt very alone and free. This is something that I have been craving on the trip and I was so happy that I was able to experience it. 

-Allix Catlett

Sign from District 6 Museum in Cape Town

 
                                     With Professor Crain Soudien, renowned author of our class textbook
                          "Realizing the Dream" and University of Cape Town Deputy Vice Chancellor

                               
                                View of Lion's Head and Signal Hill from Table Mountain

                                  Messages written to Nelson Mandela at the District 6 Museum

                                      Visit to Bo-Kaap district in Cape Town with Jessica Sierk

Thoughts...

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Ah ha Moment

As I said this morning at the round table, one of the best experiences for me in South Africa has been working with the graduate students in the mixed methods class. As I was teaching in my second language, I struggled with my English at some points, both trying to say things and understanding the students here, which happens sometimes as well when I teach in the US to an American audience. However, I felt very comfortable speaking to these students, and it felt different somehow from my previous teaching experiences in the US. One of our colleagues from the University of Pretoria talked about how people here believe that the South African English dialect is inferior to the American English dialect, so deficit notions not only about languages per se, but also about varieties, exist here. This comment made me think of my own experience as a speaker of English with an accent in the US. It has happened to me on a few occasions that people make fun of me, imitate me, or ignore me, and, similarly to what our colleague explained, having a Spanish accent is not generally seen as positive in the US. This made me realize that part of what made me feel so comfortable with these students was the fact that many of them were also second language speakers of English, so, linguistically, we were in the same place.

-Carolina Bustamante

Rich Points

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One of the things I noticed that were highlighted and articulated during our round table discussion on Thursday were the "rich points" that both UNL and UP students brought up in their reflections of this experience. In his book Language Shock, Michael Agar (1994) explains the notion of frames: "a frame sets a boundary around details and highlights how those details are related to each other” (p. 130). A frame serves as a layout for how to understand a concept. As different discourses come into contact and tensions arise, what Agar calls “rich points”, frames permit a person to tie things together and show their interrelationships. This may happen at the micro level, between individual words that people use, or at the macro level, between ideologies and entire systems of discourses.

In our discussion, this phenomenon was highlighted several times. I even heard several people ask, "What do you mean by ______ in the US/South Africa?" These are rich points. One example is the phrase "developing critical thinking skills". I think all of the words in this phrase serve as rich points: of all of the people involved in the conversation, what did we each mean by development, critical, thinking, and skills? From the initial reactions, I gathered than many UP instructors were viewing "develop" through the frame of "teach directly"; I approached this term through the frame of "foster" or perhaps "scaffold". (Dr. Jenelle Reeves once deemed me to be a "radical constructivist".) I think it would be very interesting (yet outside of the word requirement) to think more deeply about each of the words in this phrase from all perspectives.

Agar (1994) also highlights rich points as moments of negotiation of culture. Tension between ideologies, discourses and frames is what permits the definition of one’s own culture through the identification and negotiation of the “other”. So, whether we were aware of it or not, we were all "doing" culture during our round table discussion while we were discussing culture and cultural differences. Go us!

-Jen Stacy

UNL student Marlene Grayer sees the ocean for the first time in Cape Town.

UNL students frolic on a Cape Town beach.

White rhinos at a watering hole...

              Jamie Stech ponders two white rhinos in a blind in Pilanesburg National Park.