LEARNING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE THROUGH HISTORY AND MONUMENTS

Chinampas (The floating garden)

Language Learning Through History & Monuments

When we learn Spanish or the fact that any foreign language in an institute in Bhubaneshwar, we learn a lot of things apart from only the grammar of the language. There is so much to learn when we start to interact with a foreign culture. We would talk about a practice in Mexico which is exclusive to the country. It is called chinampas or floating garden, located on the Xochimilcan district of Mexico, it is like a swamp like area and we all know how difficult it is to grow crops there. So they used floating cultivation which generally looks like this.

Chinampa is a small rectangular land; the fenced area would be filled with mud and dead decaying foliage in order to make it fertile to grow crops. When they would construct another plot, there would be a little slit between the two enclosures. Although these lands were cut from the sides making them rooted to the soil below, because of this type of cut, had an impression that these gardens were floating. It is actually a great way to practice this type of culture.

Notre Dame

One of the most of iconic monuments of France called the Notre Dame is located in Vienna which had its turmoil but stayed its course through time. During the 12^th century Paris on the bank of Seine emerged as politically, economically and intellectually the cradle of civilization. 130 meters long and 850 years old this monument has seen its share of history. King Louis xvi started construction of this national heritage. It was constructed over a period of 300 and more years .One of the first historic events which occurred in Notre Dame was King Henry who was crowned the Monarch of France in 1431, one of the most prominent figure of French history Joan of Arc, at the age of 19 she was burned at the stake. In 1456 she was dismissed of the all the crimes that she had done supposedly and in 1909 was beatified by pope x in Notre Dame. During French Revolution it was turned into centre for storage of food and salvation for common people. There was a time when it was certain that Notre Dame would be destroyed but somehow Napoleon saved it.

When we are in an institute and we are learning a foreign language sometimes we lack the curiosity or the passion to learn it because t may feel boring and void. In cities like Bhubaneshwar there are very well equipped Spanish language institutes offering best language courses at affordable price. Learning the history lets us to visualize the incidents that happened and in turn it helps us to learn the language with more intent and passion, because without proper intention or passion learning a language can develop into a burden.