10/15/17; Lesson 05: Response to "Cultural Miscommunication”

As a result of immigration or globalization, there's a good chance for an English teacher to teach students from another country or cultural background at some point in her/his career. Teaching foreign students can be a tricky job, because even simple communication differences can cause major miscommunication issues. A teacher can be given hard times by several issues the result of which could be miscommunication: language, nonverbal communication, gestures, personal space, timeliness.

Language

If a British student tells another – "Let's do something some time", this is a just an expression; she/he just wants to be polite, the expression being similar to the well-known "Hi, how are you". Or if a Polish student just directly asks her/his teacher to help her/him with something, without using at least two "pleases", one or two "could you's" and "would you's", as an English person would do, it doesn’t mean that she/he was rude. In many languages, such a multitude of polite expressions in one sentence tends to be considered excessive and according to those languages – a simple "would you" already implies softened message and a polite request.

Nonverbal Communication

In the U.S., making eye contact with someone shows interest and engagement in the conversation, but when speaking to someone from Latin American, Middle Eastern or Asian countries, looking someone in the eyes might be considered rude. Showing the soles of your shoes can be very insulting to a Middle Easterner. Simple body language is enough to offend other cultures, so being aware of some of the things other cultures find offensive can help to create good relationships with foreign students.

Gestures

Before using the "OK" hand sign, peace sign, thumb up or pointing at anything, be aware that these all can be disrespectful to a foreign student. Depending on the country, these gestures can be equivalent to "giving someone the bird" or treating them like an animal. Foreign women often do not shake hands with men, so men from these countries may not be accustomed to shaking hands with women in general. A handshake may also be seen as aggressive in other countries.

Other Communication Issues

At some point in life, a person will likely have an experience with a "close talker." The amount of personal space required varies by culture, and differences can create an uncomfortable interaction for both parties. Americans, for example, tend to require more personal space than others, so Americans may see a lack of personal space as pushy or aggressive. But Mexicans’ approach is that of “close talkers.”

Timeliness is another issue that may arise in the teaching process. For example, Americans value timeliness, while in Latin American countries appointment times are often not as strict. You, as a teacher, may think it's rude if students arrive late, but it could be something usual for them.

A good cross cultural training will empower a person with knowledge, understanding and skills she/he needs to communicate and communicate effectively across cultural barriers. Cross cultural communication improves relationship with people who belong to different cultures.

10/11/2017; Lesson 05: Response to Cultural Differences Concerning Time

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

Cultural differences concerning time have a tremendous effect on human life. As we were taught by professor Ivers, there are monochronic cultures and there are polychronic cultures and they have impact on communication.

Monochronic cultures usually do one thing at a time. They value orderliness. As professor Ivers taught, they are “oriented to tasks, schedules, and procedures and schedules… schedules and procedures have no reference to logic and human needs.” The time orientation of a culture affects how it values time, and the extent to which it believes it can control time. For example, America is often considered to be future-oriented, as compared to the more present-oriented France and the past-oriented Britain. Often (not always), a past orientation arises in cultures with a long history, like India or China, and a future orientation in younger countries, like the USA.

In polychronic world they are not ruled by schedule they are ruled by relationships; family is important and “they believe it”, as professor Ivers underlines. Polychronic cultures like to do multiple things at the same time. A manager's office in a polychronic culture typically has an open door, a ringing phone and a meeting. All those are going on at the same time. People are their main concern.

A teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages will, probably, have to face the issues emerging when students come from different cultures and social realities. A requirement for a teacher is to know her/his students. It will help her/him to know to which culture they belong and to better understand their attitude. It will help a teacher to orient their behavior towards each other and foster understanding among them. In our entire lives, we all learn. Maybe teaching children to be on time for their class or being friendly to their classmates is not a task that cannot be surpassed.   

10/10/17; Lesson 05: Response to “Cultural Paradigms”

Cultural Paradigms

In his video “Cultural Paradigms”, professor Ivers speak about a great Mexican intellectual, Carlos Fuentes, who said, “We shall know each other, or we shall exterminate each other.” Professor Ivers continues to explain what Carlos Fuentes meant by that. By knowing each other he meant understanding each other’s paradigms - cultural differences. Professor Ivers also teaches us about simple paradigms, like clouds, car, rocks and complex paradigms, like hypocrisy, beauty, graciousness, pride, humility, laziness, being funny, polite, and loyal. Those paradigms differ from culture to culture. They describe how persons are, who they are. 

Reading more about this topic, I came across a sentence from Talmud, “We see the world not as it is, but as we are.” We are what our experiences made us to be. Therefore each individual’s knowledge and the way she/he sees the world is determined by her/his experience. That reminded me the story and poem about the six blind men and the elephant, which President Uchtdorf used to illustrate his talk, “What is the Truth?”

The story tells us that six men from Indostan went to see an elephant though all of them were blind. Each of them took hold of a part of it. One finds the leg and describes the elephant as being round like a tree, another feels the tail and describe elephant like a rope, another touches the tusk and describes the elephant as a spear.

Paradigms are mental and cultural models of reality that people use to interpret the social world around them. They can totally differ from culture to culture. People’s paradigms are influenced by their experiences.

In the end, the six men of Indostan “Disputed loud and long.” Carlos Fuentes was right, “We shall know each other, or we shall exterminate each other.”