Intercultural encounters, in the eye of the beholder

Said M. Faiq, FRSAAmerican University of Sharjah (UAE)

& Exeter University (UK)

IAFOR 2015

Integrated Practices in/of language learning

Assessment Cross-cultural communication literacy Phonetics Teacher training Translation and interpreting --- etc---

IICLL 2015

Education

Transnational or international? Developing new spaces of learning

Education, power and globalisationChallenges of literacy and communication

in transnational spacesEducation and transnational spaces: power

and Disempowerment

IICE 2015

InformationCommunication

CultureLanguage

TOGETHER …IICLL2015 and

IICE2015

Information =

knowledge =

power

Information

Intra Inter

ProductionReceptionMessageMediumContext

Communication

Macro (mental)

Micro (material)

Culture

Macro Culture

Religion

Values

Language???

Social Structu

re

History

… includes the knowledge that people need to have to function effectively in their social environment.

… is shared and learned behaviour that is transmitted from one generation to another for purposes of promoting individual and social (group) survival, adaptation

Macro Culture

FoodClothesSleeping habitsMarriages / divorcesFishRiceCars…

Micro Culture

Where is it?What is it?

Language

…culguage, any one!

… altogether # 1…

Culture Language

RepresentationTransmissionTransculturation –

hopefully or

… altogether #2…

of

(Inter)cultural Communication

are

based on a master discourse

… Spaces …

[Receivers of intercultural mediation or communication] have at their disposal established systems of representation, with norms and conventions for the production and consumption of meanings vis-à-vis people, objects and events. These systems ultimately yield a master discourse through which identity and difference are marked and within which [representation]is carried out. (Faiq, 2006).

… master discourse …

Where is it? What is it? Why?

ReadingLiteracyNumeracy

Global citizens? Complaints from/by all

IICE2015 … Education

State and status of Arabic in AW(when Arabic ruled )

English language ‘seducing’ UAE pupils Solid bilingual system would bolster Arabic in the

UAE Law planned to preserve Arabic language in the UAE UAE schools must improve Arabic lessons UAE students being not fluent in Arabic ‘a worry’ Creativity needed when teaching Arabic

Education …Arab World - AW

“We have a generation of students from an Arab background who are not fluent in their mother tongue,” said Mazen Al Sheikh, director of Arabic at the American School of Dubai.“Actually it’s English that’s their mother tongue. Arabic is becoming a second or third language.”

…Arabic in AW …

Higher Education …Dubai, for example …

إلى العالي التعليم لقيادة اإلقليمي المنتدى في المشاركون دعاوإدماج والعولمة، والتدويل األكاديمي، واالعتماد الجودة ضمان

. العالي التعليم في العلمي والبحث والتعليم والتعلم ، التكنولوجياوحلول التعليميxة االبتكارات مركز نظمه الذي المنتدى استقطب و

العربية الجامعات اتحاد مع بالتعاون ، المتخصصة المعرفةيوتي ومبادرة بعد، عن والتعلم المفتوح للتعليم الدولي والمجلس

فعالياته اختتمت والذي أوستن في تكساس بجامعة العالميةمن أكثر ، وصن 180أمس العالي التعليم قادة والخبراء من القرار اع

لمناقشة وخارجها المنطقة داخل من القادمين المتمرسينواالعتماد الجودة وضمان القيادات بتطوير تتعلق مواضيع

التعليم في التكنولوجيا وإدماج والعولمة، والتدويل األكاديمي،العالي التعليم في العلمي والبحث والتعليم والتعلم .العالي،

Higher Education in AW

...العالي التعليم مؤسسات إبعاد على بالعمل اوصى كمارسالتها على تؤثر التي السياسية الصراعات عن

االرتقاء أجل من الطلبة مستقبل وعلى التعليميةالعربية المنظمة ودعوة العلمي، والبحث العالي بالتعليم

) برنامج ) وضع إلى أليكسو والعلوم والثقافة للتربيةفي العلمي والبحث العالي التعليم مؤسسات حوكمة

اإلقليمية المنظمات مع بالتعاون وذلك العربي الوطنبين للتنسيق آلية ووضع التمويل، مؤسسات و والدولية

البحث عن المسؤولة الوطنية الهيئات و المؤسساتالعربي الوطن في العلمي

 

…more …

Mastery vs. mystery (!)

Triad of ----

… E & HE in AW …

education

arabicization

translation

So, answers please …

E & HE in AW

Where is it?What is it?

IICLL2015… translation …

…translation does not happen in a vacuum, but in a continuum; it is not an isolated act, it is part of an ongoing process of intercultural transfer. Moreover, translation is a highly manipulative activity that involves all kinds of stages in the process of transfer across linguistic and cultural boundaries. Translation is not an innocent, transparent activity but is highly charged with signification at every stage; it rarely, if ever, involves a relationship of equality between texts, authors or systems. Bassnett & Trivedi (1999: 2)

… translation …

[Translation] wields enormous power in constructing representations of foreign cultures. The selection of foreign texts and the development translation strategies can establish peculiarly domestic cannons for foreign literatures, cannons that conform to domestic aesthetic values and therefore reveal exclusions and admissions, centres and peripheries that deviate from those current in the foreign language. Venuti, 1998)

Appeals to the past are among the commonest of strategies in interpretations of the present. What animates such appeals is not only disagreement about what happened in the past and what the past was, but uncertainty about whether the past really is past, over and concluded, or whether it continues, albeit in different forms, perhaps. This problem animates all sorts of discussions - about influence, about blame and judgement, about present actualities and future priorities.

(Edward Said, 1993)

… 1 …

I wanted ... to translate a volume of contemporary Syrian literature. I ... thought the work of ‘Abd al-Salam al-‘Ujaili was very good and well worth putting into English. ‘Ujaili is a doctor in his seventies who has written poetry, criticism, novels and short stories. In particular his short stories are outstanding. Many are located in the Euphrates valley and depict the tensions of individuals coping with politicisation and the omnipotent state. .... I proposed to my British publisher a volume of ‘Ujaili’s short stories. The editor said, “There are three things wrong with the idea. He’s male. He’s old and he writes short stories. Can you find a young female novelist?” Well, I looked into women’s literature and did translate a novel by a woman writer even though she was and is in her eighties. (Peter Clark, 1997)

... 2 …

That Women of Sand and Myrrh was written specifically for English-speaking audiences is clear in the opening chapter. References specific to Western culture which would be unfamiliar to Arabs go unexplained, whereas references to customs or practices specific to Arab contexts are consistently accompanied by explanations. … “Barbie dolls and Snoopies and Woodstocks” would not be recognized by most in the Arab world, and yet are left without explanation. (Dallal, 1998)

… 3 …

… 4 …

Büchler & Guthrie )2011( -for UK and Ireland.

X Y

betwixt & between

animated/controlled/guided … by

Master Discourses

Spaces

Calls for cultural plurality may create uniformitarian biases.

The “holy” mating of self and other (to be global) often seems to touch on fantasy.

Cultures come to terms with their “others” through master discourses that are primarily “monocultural” within which “others” need to fit to belong …

… SO #1…

An understanding of the issues of

identity (self and other), representation enterprise (patronage, agencies, mediation), and

the master discourse.

… SO #2…

Local -----vs----- global

Soft knowledge economyKnowledge societyCivic society

HOW? … Perhaps ...

glocal – wishful thinking

… not really sure, are you?

… SO #3…

... Difficult … it is

a matter of …

… why …