Reviewing the SOFM: Week 9

Two of the main focuses of the SOFM, which go hand in hand, are language and culture acquisition.  One reason they go hand in hand is that you can learn so much about a culture in the process of learning it's language.  I find it amazing how much of a culture's mindset and history can be picked up in the process of learning to communicate.  As the vast majority of cross-cultural workers will be learning either a trade or heart language to better communicate,  we always try to include solid teaching on the topic.  This year we had some great teachers come from MTI to impart some principles from their PILAT program.  It was a great time combining traditional linguistic exercises, such as learning to make sounds not used in english by adjusting the position of the tongue, and hands on practice with techniques based on how a child of that culture would learn the language. Obviously there isn't one magic method that will work with all languages since some have an alphabet while others are character based, etc.  That is why one of our goals in all of the SOFM teachings is to adopt principles and adapt methods.