Cultural translations of teaching the German language in Brazil

Abstract

The article analyses various cultural translations (Bachmann Medick: 1998; 2019), which means the dynamic negotiation of meanings, through a transcultural perspective (Welsch: 2017) by teaching the German language in Brazil. Firstly, we present a historical retrospective of the textbooks used for teaching German, in which stereotypical representations can be observed. Furthermore, multi-sited ethnography examples (Marcus: 1995; 2011) from our ethnographic diary are provided.  It contains participant observation, comments and conversations, recorded between 2012 and 2024, and refers to teaching German as a foreign language in class (to beginners, advanced and intermediate students) at a private language and cultural institute in Rio de Janeiro with the textbooks Menschen (A2.2, B1.1, B1.2), Sicher (C1.1, C1.2) and Auf neuen Wegen (C2). We especially refer to the cultural translation of the German speaking countries and people representations, as well as the dialogue with the cultural-other. Introduced are thus pedagogic practises beyond eurocentrism in class, during an excursion, and presentations on culture and German film screening of in a cinema club. Finally, we refer to the multimodal interconnectivity of cultural translation activities. Accordingly, we describe the screening of the German film “The White Massai” (2005) set in Kenya. Together with the fiction film we describe classes in which the (neo)colonial relations of the German speaking countries are discussed.