n Furrows of Pain: A (very) brief history of the politically-driven violence in Colombia - Gestión de la Comunicación y la Promoción Institucional

Learning a language without the cultural framework in which it exists is an artificial and sterile exercise which produces “incomplete” results; it is equally deficient to teach a language without a deep understanding of the cultural framework in which the learners are immersed and from which they are product.

Teachers, far from being instructors who provide a set of barren rules and dry knowledge, are cultural mediators. Knowing the history, the causes and the sequels of the violence in the country where we teach and live empowers us educators to become better interpreters of those — sometimes invisible — intercultural dialogues that arise during the process of learning a foreign language. Through a keynote presentation I intend to provide the audience with a general view of the historical causes that underlie the current state of affairs and to provide the public with elements to help their learners to critically assess their political reality and shape the nation of the future.

To plant their seed, in furrows of pain.