1. Importance of the problem The culture is an integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief and behavior that depends on the society in which we are involved. For a long time, there has been a clash of cultures because of the differences existed between the countries in its way of thinking or its behavior. This fact is affecting all the areas, but mostly, the educational one.

2. The knowledge of cultural understanding in the post-secondary education is relevant to change the reality in which we are living. It might be accomplishing by learning from other societies the things that make them so successful. The lazy practical way of thinking of Venezuelans in terms of study, work and self-accomplishment will be reduced in most cases.

3. Venezuela is a country which has all the resources and natural wonders to be one of those countries that are known around the whole world as a model example to be followed by other countries. What we need is to be aware of our own faults and mistakes to get a personal improvement in order to understand the fact that has to be with a change in our mentality and the way that we see things. GeorgessyBarmaksoz

4. IMPORTANCE OF THE TOPIC Our country is passing through many problems in social, political and economicaspects and it is concerning to see how it seems to be getting worse. Many would think this free-fall we are having as a society is due to government issues mainly, but I think the problem we are facing now is not external but internal. It is our idiosyncrasy and way of thinking that leads us to the underdevelopment. As the author Manuel Barroso could say in his book “Self-esteem, ecology or catastrophe”, every revolution starts with an INNER STRENGTHand that strength is what leads us to a change.

5. I think every Venezuelan person should wonder about the reasons of our current issues. It is not blaming others; it is finding what is wrong with us, questioning our moral and personal growth. Our marginality is eating us away (not material poorness but mental one). Is It an important topic? Definitely! Education seems to be affected too. We see that in students’ attitudes towards studying and the lack of self-achievement. The foundation of a country is education but and education without good standards isn’t worthy.

6. Changing our inner strength for one with more values, moral and personal growth will solve our problems even in the educational field. As future leaders we are, it is our responsibility to care for the country we are living in. Do we want evolution for our country? There is no evolution without personal growth. Dannally Torrealba

7. IMPORTANCE OF THE TOPIC The importance of our project lies in the forming role constituting the base for our educational approach. “We believe necessary an approximation to other cultures’ educational backgrounds and mentalities that allows students to discuss and compare in order to emulate features that encourage their academic improvement and ultimately their self-growth” Given the intense language-learning setting to which English major students at U.C are exposed to on a daily basis it is quite normal, as time goes by, to neglect cultural aspects as we strive to meet more demanding levels of proficiency.

8. Besides that, the important role of language teachers as cultural intermediaries is totally disregarded or what is more, prevented from due to no knowledge on the area. This is, without a doubt, a negative factor when it comes to reinforcing our trans-cultural education with understanding of culture itself. Following to it, there is often confliction between the foreign learning methods and a Venezuelan-culture-adjustedmentality regarding study habits, sometimes even interfering with appropriate language acquisition. In response to that, for the sake of students’ self-growth and a change of mentality that acknowledges accomplishment as a priority, we put forward our project proposal. Mauricio Espinoza