# Cultural discussions forum



## rayloom

Hello all,

It's really difficult separating language from culture, thus, questions relating to culture would certainly arise among those learning a foreign language, questions which would be posted in WRF, and probably end up being deleted.
As such, having a cultural discussions forum would greatly benefit people interested in the language as well.

Now, I see that there was a Cultural discussions forum which is now closed:
http://forum.wordreference.com/forumdisplay.php?f=12
I understand that there might have been some problems within the forum before, *but* I suggest that it be reopened, even in a controlled manner.

I mean:
If a user asks a cultural question in a certain language forum, and that question is deemed beyond the scope of said forum, that it be moved to the Cultural discussions forum (by the mods) instead of it being deleted for example.
The cultural café is for senior members who have been in WRF for more than 6 months, also it's not the place of asking specific cultural questions related to a certain language or culture.
I'm reminded of a thread which was posted originally in the Arabic forum, deemed beyond the scope of the forum, moved to the Cultural Café, then moved back to the Arabic language forum (I guess because it wasn't cultural café material). I can't remember the thread now, but I believe it would've fit quite well in the Cultural discussions forum. 
This way, a cultural question would still be addressed, and accessible to probably the junior member who posted it, foreros in the forum where the question was originally posted would know about the question (because of the move notice), the cultural discussions would remain controlled (in the sense that new topics there are the result of moves by the moderators) and everybody wins!

What say ye?
Thanks for your time


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## wildan1

Hello rayloom,

There is indeed a Forum dealing with matters of culture--the Culture-Café. It is open to all Senior Members who have belonged to WRF at least six months. (That means you qualify.) You can find the link to the Culture-Café under the Other Forums section of the Forum's top page.

Note to other members: You will only see the portal to this Forum after you meet its access qualifications -- Senior Member (100+ posts and six months' presence in the WR Forums--so be patient if you aren't yet there.

Best regards, 

wildan1
Moderator, Culture-Café Forum


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## rayloom

wildan1 said:


> Hello rayloom,
> 
> There is indeed a Forum dealing with matters of culture--the Culture-Café. It is open to all Senior Members who have belonged to WRF at least six months. (That means you qualify.) You can find the link to the Culture-Café under the Other Forums section of the Forum's top page.
> 
> Note to other members: You will only see the portal to this Forum after you meet its access qualifications -- Senior Member (100+ posts and six months' presence in the WR Forums--so be patient if you aren't yet there.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> wildan1
> Moderator, Culture-Café Forum



Hello Wildan1,

Yes, my point exactly.
I'm fond of the cultural café and I use it frequently. However, it's a place for senior members to unwind a bit, to ask cross-cultural questions and participate in non-linguistic discussions.

I'm interested in the junior members who post specific cultural questions regarding a certain language/culture in that language's forum, only to find their questions deleted because of them being beyond the scope of the forums.
If their questions were moved to the Cultural discussions forum, under the discretion of the mods and what they see fit, that these questions could be addressed by foreros of that language forum (because of the move notice), the Cultural discussions forum would remain closed (partially), and the junior member who posted the question would still be able to access his question.

Best regards,
R.


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## cherine

Hi Rayloom,



rayloom said:


> Now, I see that there was a Cultural discussions forum which is now closed:
> http://forum.wordreference.com/forumdisplay.php?f=12
> I understand that there might have been some problems within the forum before, *but* I suggest that it be reopened, even in a controlled manner.


You came a bit late  That old forum started as a great place, then was abused gradually both by some new comers who joined WR only to have a "nice chat"  in the Cultural forum and some senior members who couldn't control the "darker side" of their characters. We had fights, heated and hateful discussions, people insulting others and other groups of people... man! moderating that forum gradually became hellish. Some of the mods , and I believe some of the foreros as well, had "real life" problems because of the forum, like crying our eyes out because of someone's attack.
Bad bad memories.

So, the only way out we could think of was to close that forum.
Then we -the mods- thought that maybe we could come to a compromise: have a place with minimal rules, but with only senior members. Hoping that people after spending some time in the forum would be more aware of the basic rules, and that the "chat" was not their primary reason to join the forum. Not that there's something wrong with chat, but because this forum is first and above all for language.



> The cultural café is for senior members who have been in WRF for more than 6 months, also it's not the place of asking specific cultural questions related to a certain language or culture.
> I'm reminded of a thread which was posted originally in the Arabic forum, deemed beyond the scope of the forum, moved to the Cultural Café, then moved back to the Arabic language forum (I guess because it wasn't cultural café material). I can't remember the thread now, but I believe it would've fit quite well in the Cultural discussions forum.


Actually, there's absolutely nothing wrong with asking language-culture question in the Café. That poor thread was sent back to the Arabic forum because the Arabic speaking foreros don't show enough interest in the Café forum. Otherwise, it would've stayed there. 

So, if more Arab foreros show a bit more interest in discussing such topics in the Café we can keep the Arabic forum for strictly language related topics.

I hope I could answer your questions. And sorry if I can't offer any more help (nor promises) regarding re-opening the doomed CD forum.

P.S. By the way, try to search this forum for old discussions about the CD/Cultural Discussions forum. You'll have "fun" reading them, and you'll get a good idea how things "evolved" regarding it.


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## Vanda

Well, dear Cherine put it all in a way I wouldn't dream about (I am not skilled like that!), but I'd like to add to your discussion. If a linguistic question is somehow related to culture we do discuss it in the language forum - note I refer to the Portuguese forum - because there are explanations for a certain usage of an expression (let's say this) that is linked to culture either Portuguese or Brazilian. In this particular case we do discuss it in the forum. 
And now that you have mentioned it, as far as I can recall they are always asked by new foreros that aren't able to access the Café.


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## rayloom

Thanks Cherine and Vanda,

Wow so it was that bad at the Cultural discussions forum!
Also one of the causes of this discussion is a thread in the Café  (called "Ben alors ?") which was discussing the lack of interest of francophone foreros from participating in the café, the same can be said about our arabophone foreros (& learners of Arabic). But I guess a solution to that is as you both have said, to keep such cultural question in the language forum, especially if asked by junior members.

Still I think the CD forum might benefit from a new solution...maybe 
Thanks for your time

P.S. I'll go through the old discussions regarding the CD forum here, hopefully I won't get depressed or anything


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## Nanon

Thank you, Rayloom .
However I do not know if the reason for the lack of participation of French and Arabic speakers has the same causes - or, if there are several causes, if each of them has the same importance for each group.

My reason for starting that thread about the small participation of French speakers and learners in the Café (leading to a number of posts and threads in French that is by far inferior to the share of French in WR - I have been trying to do some stats) was inquiring about those causes. Some posters may prefer practicing English (and to a lesser extent, Spanish), some may use the "main" language by inertia, those who are not at ease with English (whatever the reason) refrain from participating. But I was also wondering about some cultural aspects:

how self-centered or conversely, open to intercultural discussions are members of culture X or Y / speakers of language XX or YY (French in that case)?
do some foreros consider Café discussions a risk of overexposing themselves, and are they avoiding it because of that?
are these aspects particularly true when it comes to French speakers, and would that explain their lack of participation in the Café?
 
The same questions would be valid for Arabic, of course - although answers may be different...

Another question - statistically speaking, does getting senior member status take more time if you don't work with English <-> Spanish?


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## sound shift

It's sometimes suggested that the French word "culture" does not mean the same as the English word "culture". If there is any truth in this, I wonder if (some of) the French members haven't looked at some of the threads in the Café and thought "This café isn't really about culture".


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## Nanon

Maybe... It is true that for some conversations, in French, the word "civilisation" could apply as well. But is the title of the forum _that _important? 
There are threads related to the most diverse aspects of culture (civilisation?), from coffee-drinking (or mate-drinking ) to your favourite book passage and from playing with words to dress code - and as Rayloom said in the first post, many of those questions are likely to be asked by people who study a language or who plan to travel to a foreign country.


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## Vanda

Or, at least they could open themselves a ''truly'' culture thread, if that was the case.


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## sound shift

Well, coffee-drinking does not fall within any of the definitions of "culture" provided by my "Petit-Robert" dictionary, but it's a 1973 edition.


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## Vanda

Well, they can always read the description of the forum:


> Civil conversations about topics beyond the scope of the language forums.


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## Nanon

I have the 1989 edition of "Le Petit Robert" , and I don't see anything wrong with that definition, especially with 2 and 3:


> 1. Développement de certaines facultés de l'esprit par des exercices intellectuels appropriés. — _Par ext._ Ensemble des connaissances acquises qui permettent de développer ce sens critique, le goût, le jugement.
> 2. Ensemble des aspects intellectuels d'une civilisation.
> 3. _Didact._ Ensemble des formes acquises de comportement, dans les sociétés humaines.


Of course, agriculture, microbiological culture and physical culture are out of the scope of the Café . But IMHO, how you drink coffee falls into 3.


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## rayloom

Thanks for your participation all 



Nanon said:


> how self-centered or conversely, open to intercultural discussions are members of culture X or Y / speakers of language XX or YY (French in that case)?
> do some foreros consider Café discussions a risk of overexposing themselves, and are they avoiding it because of that?
> are these aspects particularly true when it comes to French speakers, and would that explain their lack of participation in the Café?



I see these points might be hinting to a shyness factor. Which if there were, it would increase  by the "need" to write in a language not one's own mother tongue. I find that the "Ben alors ?" thread drew out francophones  and people capable of speaking French...so that was a good thing, with more topics like that you'll end up finding more francophone foreros participating there.  However, although I was able to read and understand the thread, I guess I  shyed away from participating in it, because I'm not as comfortable  with my level of French as opposed to my level of English.

--------------------------------------------------------

Another thing that could be added, is probably because the majority of the threads in the café are quite generalistic, or lack specificity to a certain culture, and are written usually in English, thus are mostly considered directed at English speakers...maybe.
Also, most of the specific cultural questions (in the Arabic forum for example) are asked by junior members, who can't access the café and would find the CD forum closed, so they would only have to ask their questions in the language forum.


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## Nanon

A shyness factor is one of the reasons. But interestingly, when I have a look at the profiles of answerers in the "Ben alors ?"... thread, I see mostly French learners, or my own contacts... meaning that overall, I failed in my attempt to attract other francophones (questions are not only about _the French_).
Oh, whatever .
I could have asked the same questions about, let's say, Italian. But I don't speak Italian .

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Sometimes, as you said, it is difficult to separate language from culture. It might be particularly true for Westerners learning Arabic or sons and daughters of immigrants with a loose connection with their family's original culture and language.


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## almostfreebird

I guess a lot of topics were very interesting and fun to read 

until they got mixed up with political thing with twisted mind.

I, for one , was beginning to get a bad feeling when this topic came out.
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=179174


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