When I think about raising awareness of sociolinguistics, one of the biggest contributions I feel compelled to make is in helping people become more aware of their culture and of themselves in intercultural interactions.
As Agar (2007) observes “Culture is something those people ‘have,’ but it’s more than that. It’s also something that happens to you when you encounter them. As long as they’re just out there, a different group of folks, you won’t have to deal with them. When you deal with them, culture turns personal. Culture is no longer just what some group has; it’s what happens to you when you encounter differences, become aware of something in yourself, and work to figure out why the differences appeared. Culture is an awareness, a consciousness, one that reveals the hidden self and opens paths to other ways of being.” (18)
