10/16/2021; W05: Cultural Miscommunication
- Yeira Akemi Cervantes
- Oct 16, 2021
- 2 min read
Learning about cultural miscommunication was so interesting! There were many things I did not know about other cultures. Let me share some examples:
In Asia, if you praise someone, they will make themselves less saying they are not that good. Because they have been taught they should not stand out, as their saying says:
"The nail that sticks out gets hammered down".
French people interrupt a lot to show that they are interested in the conversation.
I have heard about this one before, in China, if you eat the whole plate, you show the host he has not given you enough food. Which is not very polite.
In Albania, people nod to say no, and headshake to say yes.
In the TESOL classroom, teacher may find students from all around the world, which means he or she will likely find similar situations. Though they might probably be surprised, we should not feel offended when a student reacts in a way we are not used to. Dr. John Ivers, who was Dean of the College of Language & Letters at Brigham Young University, Idaho; and expert in language and social interactions, stated:
In the TESOL classroom, teacher may find students from all around the world, which means he or she will likely find similar situations. Though they might propbably be surprised, we should not feel offended when a student reacts in a way we are not used to. Dr. John Ivers, who was Dean of the College of Language & Letters at Brigham Young University, Idaho; and expert in laguage and social interactions, stated:
Be aware of those potential misunderstandings, and realize that those people have good intentions. They have good intentions, they are just working off of different paradigms.
Even though we could continue giving more examples about cultural misunderstandings, the most important thing a teacher should keep in mind is: students are not trying to be evil or rude, they are just different! In fact, we all are. Getting to know more cultures, and keeping an open mind can be our first step towards cultural understanding.
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