Cultural Paradigms

(TESOL 103 / week 05 – October 08 2017)

I believe the most natural place to encounter people with different point of view from you would be in language class, by speaking a different language between the students we can readily notice their different background which translates in different ways and places they have been raised and brought up. So the langue is sort of the tip of the iceberg, there must be many other differences not so apparent as the different languages.

When I learn English in the USA, in my class we have people from my own country but also students from Japan, Korea, and Russia or so, I don't remember exactly anymore, but in those class when we talk about our country and culture we could see many differences in how they see and perceived things. Learning to see that sometimes there is no wrong or right just a different way of doing things is a start to make a friend from some others parts of the world, which is very common in some ESL classes.

The biggest learning about different cultures and differences between people came when I was living in Toronto Canada, most of the people in that city if not all, immigrate to Canada, as me so they speak their native language from where they came from and the common language which is English, so that was a city most cosmopolitan in the world I came across, even in meeting some people that speak my own language but from different countries such as Portugal and Angola I could spot some things they do differently than what we are used to doing in Brazil.

Being aware of those difference for the most part does not imply better or worse , but it is a good knowledge to have to be an English teacher in where such a diverse environment is more likely to occur, that awareness can help you be a better teacher because it helps you see and understand the students from different places, or at least not judge them so quickly without considering your own paradigm. The most impressive thing I did learn was about how different a very simple paradigm can be between two different cultures and they can be the source or explanation to embarrassment to a very different behavior

update: (me teaching in china after the TESOL graduation)

Book: My Chinese Experience

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09Y9BM82D

Book: The Key to Learning English

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09M8X4BWG

my free online class on how to use music to improve your English (in YouKu):

https://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTg2NTQ2MjE3Mg==.html