5 February 2019; TESOL Week 5 Cultural Paradigms
Learning about your students for example when I went to teach
Tira (a little Turkish boy) his mom politely requested that I take my shoes
off. This is not part of our culture, but we often walk around with no shoes on. Also, before the mom would open
the door, she had to cover her face but when with her friends inside her home
it was okay not to have her face covered. My son informed me that is it polite
not to knock on their door but to call them to tell them you have arrived and
were at their gate. Having learned this I
now know what to do when I go to their home.
If you have a variety of cultures, you may encounter that one
paradigm has more than one meaning. Once you get your class list and you know
where your students are from you can do research so that you understand their
culture. Doing a cultural lesson where the children can learn about each other.
We could even have them bring some of their favorite foods and how they eat it,
if not done the way we are used to.
I live in a country with many cultures, not just from our own
country but from up Africa as well. A lot of the people that live in South
Africa are very loud, but I could not understand why when they prayed you could
never what they were saying, until the other day someone told me it is because
they are talking to Heavenly Father and it had nothing to do with us. It is
between them and Heavenly Father. This is exactly what Carlos Fuentes referred to
when saying “We shall know each other, or we shall exterminate each other. We
simply do not understand the reason behind it. More effort should be made to
find out why different people do things differently.
How would you handle paradigms without offending the other culture?
Do you handle it from your point of view that it is rude, or do you explain to
the rest of the class that it is okay for them to do what they are doing?
Hi. We can handle differences as long as two people know that there may be some differences and that they are willing to be observant, tolerant and respectful. We must be more patient and tolerant with each other. I believe that if we have the Love of God in our lives, we will be more willing to make the effort.
ReplyDeleteHi Anete,
ReplyDeleteI think people can handle other culture when they first want to learn from them before making any judgement.