S: I had um alright(.) the answers the music pretty much we had a thing for all in Pennsylvania high schools choir choir groups choir members can audition for regional for district choirs the choirs for all of for for me it was the choir for all of the high schools in Bucks county Montgomery country and then I auditioned there and at the district choir and then made it to regional choir which was all of southeast PA and we had this one song well two songs um ( ) the brooms that we had to sing but the other one was hymn by ( ) and I was just captivated by the song and for one thing it was first time it was really my first time reading Cyrillic like really reading Cyrillic not just seeing it as something plastered on a movie screen to make it look exotic but I had to actually look at it and realize what it was saying so that was really the first time I had had a real exposure to Russian and that was it was some I just decided when I came to Penn State(.) I’ll take this for a language try something new
Reflections – Both Nick and Serem were inspired to study a second language due to real-world encounters with language and culture outside of the classroom. Do you find that your students have had similar experiences or encounters? Do you feel that cultural connections are an important component of language learning in the classroom? What proportion of a language course should ideally be devoted to cultural awareness, learning, and sharing? Have you found ways to make these connections in the day to day lessons? If so, what are some examples? How do students respond to these types of activities? How have you or might you incorporate students’ experiences into the cultural aspects of language learning?
