Cross-Cultural Aspects in Teaching English - could be more unique then observing usual, common things, like a bird's song, or fallings of a leaf, or splashing of water? Unfortunately we fail to d...

Стаття - Cross-Cultural Aspects in Teaching English

could be more unique then observing usual, common things, like a bird's song, or fallings of a leaf, or splashing of water? Unfortunately we fail to do this in our technological epoch, when everyone, being only a tiny part of a great industrial and political world machine, is too preoccupied with his own personal worries: family and children, job and career, money and power. We are gradually losing individuality, moral values. We can't agree more with the philosopher's idea that any important transformations first take place on the level of a man's spirit but not on the level of political, social or ideological systems. In our opinion it's vital to believe in people, their strong will and character, but not in bare principles, as this is the only way for modern civilization to survive. At the turn of the centuries when "mankind is threatened with the ecological catastrophe, the third world war and the Judgement Day, we should get rid of all fears and unbearable sufferings through self-realization of a free creative personality" (7; 200). No wonder that Western philosophies and ideologies failed as they tried to change a man and the latter attempted to rebuild, reconstruct the environment which led to unpredictable consequences. J. Krishnamurti, as a representative of the Eastern culture, proposed that human-beings should co-exist in harmony with nature and satisfy their requirements in accordance with its laws. Only then such a personality will decorate and rebuild any system, not vice versa. We observe now that the development of science and technology without wisdom and "spiritual perfection has created a civilization of robots with ideal conditions for manipulating every sheep by totalitarian machine" (7; 205). An English writer Aldous Huxley following the guru's idea, suggests combining pacifism and moral self-perfection as the only way to avoid overall "brain-wash", intentional infiltration of consciousness and subconscious influence of mass media. As a result our brain is overloaded with useless information. We could be turned off from the vitally important things and can't tell, what is vice and what is virtue.

A. Huxley in his essay "The Writers and the leaders" analyzed the negative influence of a heavy flood of information on modern West World. As a result, peoples in the West don't cooperate in using treasury of the ancient literary and wisdom heritage. All they have left in common is science and information. But science (meaning technical progress) is knowledge, not wisdom; the first deals with quantitative, not qualitative characteristics of the world, though the latter influences us directly" (9; 223). What author means is: being engaged in technological progress, we should remember about human values and negative consequences this progress might cause. The West got its knowledge from the ancient Eastern civilizations, like Indian and Chinese, but it failed to learn their wisdom. Dialogue between the East and the West could help future generations and our modern society live without fear and suffering, without wars and conflicts. If we find love in ourselves, as Indian guru believes, everyone will co-exist in harmony with the rest of the world. We are quite sure, if a person manages to preserve this innocent understanding of love through his life without putting out a begging bowl, no man or human agency will corrupt such an individual.

A Teachers role is primary in this case. An educator who is preoccupied with his own personal worries can do no good in bringing up and sharing knowledge with students. This indifference and egoism can even spoil young souls, breed a nation of robots, unable to bring out their own decisions and stand their ground. We strongly advise Western teachers and representatives of other humanitarian sciences, like: sociology, political science and psychology, - with perfect (high) professional training to put to use the experience of eastern gurus. You shouldn't force a student to learn, but like guru, try to lighten the youngsters' way in search for knowledge, create a warm, friendly atmosphere which inspires learning and reveals one's abilities and talents. We reckon everyone remembers the idea of Summerhill school built on Freud's and Deui's philosophic principles but let's make this dream come true, not leave it an abstract notion. The greatest achievement in teaching involving the Dialogue among civilizations has been the introduction of Cross-Cultural Studies in higher educational establishments. Studies in multiculturalism have been gaining more and more importance in recent years among the researchers and students.

Customs vary with cultures and not to experience a deep "culture shock" on students' arrival in a foreign country, like the USA or the UK, to continue their studies or on other purposes, the young people should learn the Western traditions and mentality beforehand. This could be done during their English

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