Cross-Cultural Students in the Classroom 6.04

This topic is going to expound upon the things we talked about in Differences in Emotional Expression.

Who has heard of the debacle in the United States, mainly in the west, about being offended about getting called "Sir" or "Ma'am". It is mind boggling to me that someone would get upset about someone calling them "Sir" or "Ma'am". I used to live in the South, I lived in Georgia for two years, in fact I completed my Senior year of High School there. It is very common and it is ingrained into kids to say it to their elders as a sign of respect. I read a story about a kid that called his teacher "Ma'am" and she made the student stay for detention because she saw it as disrespectful. This can be a difficult habit to break, but more and more in today's world it is seen as offensive, but it is culture paradigm. I had a friend in Utah that was from the South, and she was in her mid-thirties, that people didn't want to talk to her because she said "sir" and "ma'am" to them while doing customer service. I feel like people need to get out more and experience more cultures.

Asian students, especially if they weren't born in American and moved later, tend to be less expressive. Of course this isn't always the case but happens more often than not. As it is for kids from the South it is ingrained in Asian students to be respectful of the teacher. Sometimes this means they won't speak up in class for fear of showing they don't know something that the teacher maybe didn't teach well enough, or they are questioning the teacher's opinion. Questioning or disagreeing with their elders is very rarely done in Asia. Some students won't even look a teacher in the eye because it would show disrespect. I am unsure why this particular thing is seen as disrespect, as long as you aren't doing it in a aggressive manner anyways.

There are many other things about other cultures that we as Americans find different that actually are a sign of respect in that culture. For example bowing, it is common to do in Asian culture and we only do it after a performance as a thank you kind of gesture. Being a teacher anywhere around the world you need to be mindful of the customs of respect that people have. Don't criticize a culture for showing respect or the likes of such, just because you don't like it. To me this will help bring a small piece of peace to the world because we are opening up communication and not misunderstanding each other.