Málfríður - 15.03.2010, Blaðsíða 25

prevent our communication act becoming a fail-
ure.
The intercultural interference
We know very well that an extremely important part
of our work is to correct our students when they
make a linguistic mistake but an emphasis should
also be placed on the importance of the adaptation
to the context in order to avoid to what is known as
a “pragmatic interference”. According to Escandell
(1995:99) “a pragmatic interference is produced
when those who are learning a language apply the
behavior patterns from their own culture to the new
one”.
I have been teaching Spanish as a foreign language
for more than 10 years in universities in Spain and
abroad and I have experienced myself and through
my students countless cases of intercultural interfer-
ences. I specially remember two of them.
The first one happened when during a summer
course at the University of Santiago de Compostela,
a student from the United States asked me if he could
meet me to ask me some questions about grammar, I
told him he could come to my office “ a mediodía”.
The next day, he told me that he had been waiting for
me for one hour and I was not there! The misunder-
standing was due to the fact that the student applied
his concept of “midday” or “noon” to the Spanish
culture where “mediodía” refers to the lunch time
hours between 2 and 3 in the afternoon. The conse-
quence of this failure in the communication process
was the student’s frustration and a negative image
of the teacher.
The second case also happened during a sum-
mer course in Spain. One of my colleagues whose
cigarettes were finished, decided to ask one of my
Japanese students if she could have one, of course he
offered her one but she could see that it was the last
one of the package. In the Spanish culture when we
refuse an invitation, we expect that the other person
offers it again, but my student did not know this and
you should have seen my workmate’s face when she
politely refused it (“thanks, but it´s your last one, I
can’t take it”) and while he answered “ok, no prob-
lem”, he put his packet of cigarettes again inside his
pocket instead of insisting again “but, please, take
it” as a Spanish person would have done.
Still today the socio-pragmatic mistakes caused
by the lack of intercultural competence are not con-
sidered to be as relevant as any grammar mistake.
However, if a non native speaker does not use the
right rule for the past tense, the communication
will not be affected and the message will be under-
stood, on the other hand if he or she makes a mis-
take regarding how to show respect or politeness
through the language, his/her personal image will
be damaged.
Approaching Intercultural Differences
Between Spain and Iceland
When you personally get to know two cultures, in
this case Spanish and Icelandic, one can see clear
differences in social customs, habits and beliefs,
between them. This is based on my own experience
and observations of Icelandic society and its cus-
toms, after living in Iceland for more than 5 years.
This is also supported by the different opinions of
many Icelanders, friends, colleagues and students,
based on their personal encounters with the Spanish
country and culture as well as, on the point of views
of many Spanish-speaking people whom I have
known personally in Iceland, through my experi-
ence as a Spanish teacher for bilingual children
at the association Móðurmál, and as the head and
founder of El Caldero (the group of Spanish-speaking
parents in Reykjavík).
Some relevant issues to be pointed out
in the teaching of Spanish as a foreign
language in Iceland
1) Typical tips such as the differences in timetables
in daily life, opening and closing times for shops,
offices…, etc.
2) Socio-historical divergences for instance the fact
that Iceland is traditionally a matriarchal (led by
women) society whereas Spain is a patriarchal one,
and the consequences that this entails.
3) Breaking typical stereotypes and misconceptions
about Spanish people and Spain itself as a country.
When thinking of Spain’s weather Icelanders’
thoughts usually drift towards hot sunny days
and a blue sky, but Spain is a vast country and
has a very diverse climate. In the central inland
regions it can get very cold in winter, sometimes
even more than in Iceland. On the contrary to what
most Icelanders think, not all Spaniards dance fla-
menco, like bullfighting, eat paella and drink san-
gria on a regular basis. Those are typical Spanish
stereotypes that emerged in the 50s as part of pro-
motional campaigns in the tourist boom period in
Spain, and are not general symbols of the whole
MÁLFRÍÐUR 2