Примењена лингвистика у част Ранку Бугарском - Језик у

JEZIK U UPOTREBI / LANGUAGE IN USE
only two subcultures, both related to contemporary youth music culture – the
Skinhead and Punk subcultures. The examination of the contexts in which the
relevant concepts of this thematic category occurred revealed little critical analysis
of the relation of these subcultures to the common or ‘mainstream’ culture,
or of the social and historical contexts in which these subcultures were created.
Instead, they included mainly the description of the characteristics of the subcultures,
the visible artefacts commonly associated with them, and their historical
background in rock music. Therefore, the high frequency of occurrence of the
concepts classified into this thematic category could be interpreted merely as a
sign that youth music culture is in the focus of students’ interest.
The third thematic category identified was the one most directly related
to the theoretical framework of the course and the topics dealt with in class. It
included the concepts of cultural profiles, cultural differences, and culture shock.
We find this a very important thematic category, because the contexts in which
the concepts occurred included general discussions of the theories and models of
culture (Hall’s high-context and low-context cultures, Bennett’s DMIS, the notion
of intercultural communication apprehension; Hofstede’s dimensions of culture),
and attempts at analyzing specific examples using these theoretical tools. The
contexts included comparisons of specific national cultures (British and Serbian,
Canadian and Serbian), based on two kinds of materials – the images presented
in the media (TV series, e.g. Only Fools and Horses), and personal experience,
obtained through interviews, or offered in published texts. This latter type of
materials was particularly interesting, because it focused two different kinds of
perspectives – the one of cultural ‘insiders’ (Kate Fox, Watching the English;
Jeremy Paxman, The English: A Portrait of a People), or that of cultural ‘outsiders’
(e.g. George Mikes, How to be a Brit; interviews with Serbian immigrants
in Canada). Within this thematic category, we identified several more specific
concepts that we interpret as indicators of students’ cultural awareness and sensitivity.
For instance, one was the idea that cultural models may represent helpful
generalizations, but that, at the same time, they are another instance of stereotyping,
because they are based on simplifying and reduction. Another interesting
concept was the idea that the way people treat animals can be seen as a reflection
of deeper cultural differences. Nationalism was yet another important concept
identified within this thematic category, and classified here based on the analysis
of the contexts in which it occurred, since it was brought up as a cultural trait and
part of specific cultural profiles. As pointed out by Bugarski (2002: 23), the term
nationalism can be used with very different meanings, and, like Ianus, faces two
opposite directions – that of patriotism, love, and loyalty, and that of chauvinism
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