Cultures today are in general characterized by hybridization. For every culture, all other cultures have tendencially come to be inner-content or satellites. This applies on the levels of population, merchandise and information. Worldwide, in most countries, live members of all other countries of this planet; and more and more, the same articles - as exotic as they may once have been - are becoming available the world over; finally the global networking of communications technology makes all kinds of information identically available from every point in space. (Welsch, 1999:199)
Transculturality as an epistemological backbone
The chaotic manner in which cultures present themselves frightens us. Thus our need for simplification to organize the world as it stands, with so many and infinite complexities. These simplifications are often so coarse that they lead us to believe in naive fictions, such as the one that cultures are viewed as delimited and well organized islands, or in the dangerous and generalizing belief that a person from a certain country can be the national representative of a particular and well demarcated culture. However, as stated in Sandküller (2004), "the borders between previously (apparently or really) stable cultures are evaporating, leading to new, unstable ways of life composed of elements drawn from different cultures" (p. 81). The development of ICT – Information and Communication Technologies (particularly the development of online interaction software, such as Skype, OoVoo and Windows Live Messenger, among many others) is one of the factors contributing to such evaporation, putting multiple ways of life in contact, at a low cost and without time or economic constraints.
Within the paradigm of trans-culturality, it is in the mixture and permeabilities of the events of online interactions that differences produce reference figures (and no more identities). Welsch (op.cit) states that a new type of diversity has taken shape: the diversity of different cultures and ways of life, each of them emerging from transcultural permeability and giving rise to individuals that shape new transcultural patterns and transcultural networks (p. 8). Here's how Welsch (op.cit) puts it:
Within the paradigm of trans-culturality, it is in the mixture and permeabilities of the events of online interactions that differences produce reference figures (and no more identities). Welsch (op.cit) states that a new type of diversity has taken shape: the diversity of different cultures and ways of life, each of them emerging from transcultural permeability and giving rise to individuals that shape new transcultural patterns and transcultural networks (p. 8). Here's how Welsch (op.cit) puts it:
It's just that now the differences no longer come about through a juxtaposition of clearly delineated cultures (like in a mosaic), but result between transcultural networks, which have some things in common while differing in others, showing overlaps and distinctions at the same time. The mechanics of differentiation has become more complex - but it has also become genuinely cultural for the very first time, no longer complying with geographical or national stipulations, but following pure cultural interchange processes. (Welsch, 1999:205-6)
Identity and difference
The cultural dimension of online communication in a foreign language through teletandem is essentially marked by the emergence of differences between teletandem partners. The languages that they want to learn and to practice are already an evidence of these differences. The exchange of information between teletandem partners during the sessions are also frequently marked by differences in ways of organizing interaction, discourse, customs, values, history, rules, views representing the world and participants’ lived experiences in their respective countries that occur in specific historical moments. Reports and narratives written by the participants show some challenges caused by the reflections about their own culture in order to be able to explain it to their foreign partners. The conceptions of identity that we have chosen for this project come from the work of Kathryn Woodward and they follow below. For us, identities
- are fabricated through the marking of differences. For Woodward (2000), "this marking of differences occurs both through symbolic systems of representation and through forms of social exclusion (p. 39). According to Woodward (op.cit) such markup is made, at least in part, through classification systems (p. 40);
- depend on difference (p. 40);
- are produced in particular moments in time (p. 38)
Um sistema classificatório aplica um princípio de diferença a uma população de uma forma tal que seja capaz de dividi-la (em todas as suas características) em ao menos dois grupos opostos – nós/eles (...) ou eu/outro.(...) Cada cultura tem suas próprias e distintivas formas de classificar o mundo. É pela construção de sistemas classificatórios que a cultura nos propicia os meios pelos quais podemos dar sentido ao mundo social e construir significados. (...) Esses sistemas partilhados de significação são, na verdade, o que se entende por ‘cultura’.” (Woodward, 2000:40-41)
Para aprender línguas, mas também para aprender a lidar com a diferença
A dimensão cultural do teletandem toca, deste modo, em questões relativas não somente à fabricação de identidades, mas também a possíveis reflexões dos praticantes de teletandem acerca dos sistemas classificatórios de suas próprias culturas para poderem explicá-la ao outro. Além disso, é de se supor que o contato virtual por meio do teletandem possa não somente expor as marcas de transculturalidade (Welsch, 1999) desses sistemas classificatórios, mas também promover (ou, provavelmente, impedir) a própria transculturalidade dos parceiros em função das trocas de sistemas de significação. Por não estarem vivendo na cultura do outro (a relação, nota-se, é virtual), é possível que o contexto de aprendizagem de línguas estrangeiras em teletandem diminua os receios e os riscos dos parceiros diante do contato com a outra cultura, facilitando certa tolerância e tempo para reflexão e compreensão mais profunda das diferenças existentes entre eles em um contexto virtual, interativo e mais seguro.