photo by Guerrilla Futures | Jason Tester

Hey there! I know it’s been a little quiet around here (ehhh, understatement?). A lot has happened in the past few months (mostly good stuff, some not-to-good stuff, all gotta-deal-with-real-life stuff).

Anyway, stuff is happening/developing….such as this cool new thing I’ve been working on with 3 rockin’ colleagues. Please check it out and join us if you can!

photo by jumbledpile

by :: Anamaria

A while ago Cate and I came across a very interesting discussion thread on one of the on-line groups we belong to. We are grateful to Martina Rehm, who is originally from Germany, for allowing us to post her comments below.

The constant “praise” in the American school system (at least as I see it in my son’s school) surprised me after we relocated to the US from Germany. Although I try not to undermine the teaching methods the school decided on, my son (only 9 years old) sees and understands the “cultural difference” in the teaching approach. It takes a very confident 3rd grader to decide “against”some of the “reward methods”.

Let’s take the “Pizza Hut Book-it” competition every year. The children have to read a certain amount of pages in order to receive a free pizza. If they reach the class goal as well, they are invited for a pizza party in school. Do we really care more about HOW MANY PAGES the children read than WHAT they read?

My son’s friend explained to me that it is easy to reach the goal, you just read a book you already know from last year or listen to an audiobook or even cheat…. It does not seem to be important what they read, if it is a non fiction book the children might actually learn something from or if it is a comic. It also does not seem to matter if they read so fast that they don’t even remember what they read.

I can’t remember how many “Pizza Parties” or “Ice Cream Socials” my son’s school had last year for the children that reached a goal (reading, passing all spelling tests, running x. laps…..). Don’t get me wrong, I am all for rewards. But not too much. Hearing “good job” several times a day for average work makes it almost worthless.

First time I helped in school, one of the kids showed me their work (a very good friend of my son). I said that I liked the work but I believe that he could improve it by… Already the teacher took me aside to explain that we do not criticize the young children’s work.

Just like Marina, we are curious to hear what others think of the “praise/reward” methods in school systems around the world.  In other words, how are students where you live praised and rewarded in school? How much and what kind of praise and rewards do you think are helpful? When do you think it becomes too much?

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photo by pmorgan

Photographer’s note: Ba Li Ba Gai Village Middle School (China) students heading home for lunch. The new school building is part of a national government project to upgrade unsafe school buildings. Alas, there is no additional money for resources or teachers salaries.

See more of pmorgan’s school photos here.

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From Flickr: We visited a small school in a remote fishing village on the Atlantic coast. There were very few teaching aids, just a chalkboard, but the children and 2 teachers seemed enthusiastic. These 3 were fascinated by my hairy legs.

Photos by :: John Spooner

Are you from, or have to been to, Mauritania? What was your school experience like?

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photo by mysza831

by :: Cate

CulturallyTeaching is is on vacation! We’re spending time with our families during this holiday season, and doing some behind-the-scenes work on the website. We’ll be back to posting new articles on January 4, 2010. Until then, we hope you enjoy a selection of favorite articles from 2009. This one was originally posted in December 2008.

Looking for a holiday gift that’s fun and fosters cultural awareness?

Look no further! Here are 7 ideas for the culturally curious kid, teen or adult on your gift-giving list, each for $20 (US) or less.

Gift Idea #1: Putumayo World Music

Travel the world with Putumayo! Kids, teens, and adults will be tapping their toes in no time to the likes of African Party, Celtic Crossroads, Tango Around the World, Arabic Groove, or even World Playground (click on the links to listen to clips of each CD, $14.95). 

>> For more information about Putumayo, watch this video or visit their website.

Gift Idea #2: Fair Trade Items by World of Good

If you’ve shopped at Whole Foods recently, you’ve probably seen a World of Good display. Fair trade bags, jewelry, t-shirts, housewares, notebooks and journals — there’s something for everyone.

Here are some of my favorite items: (yes, this is a hint to my husband )

• Hold Your Own coin purse, handcrafted in Nepal ($7.95)
• This Bag is Trash clutch, handcrafted in India ($17.95)
• Wild Things ornament, handcrafted in Peru ($9.95)
• Save the Date! basket, handcrafted in Bangladesh ($9.95)
• Knock on Wood olive tray, handcrafted in the Philippines ($9.95)
• Amazon Harvest Coil bracelet, handcrafted in Colombia ($19.95)
• Daily Calcium paperclip magnet, handcrafted in India ($6.95)

>> Learn more about the World of Good organization.
 

Gift Idea #3, 4, 5: Three Options for Three Cups of Tea

I’m half-way through this book and recommend it to anyone who likes being inspired by amazing people who are changing the world (and doesn’t mind feeling really lazy in comparison to “Dr. Greg”). If you by some chance haven’t heard about Greg Mortenson’s book, here’s a synopsis:

Some failures lead to phenomenal successes, and this American nurse’s unsuccessful attempt to climb K2, the world’s second tallest mountain, is one of them. Dangerously ill when he finished his climb in 1993, Mortenson was sheltered for seven weeks by the small Pakistani village of Korphe; in return, he promised to build the impoverished town’s first school, a project that grew into the Central Asia Institute, which has since constructed more than 50 schools across rural Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Here are the three options for Three Cups of Tea:

1. Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time
(Adult Version, $8.51 on amazon.com)

2. Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Journey to Change the World, One Child At A Time
(Young Adult version, $8.99 on amazon.com)

3. Listen to the Wind: The Story of Dr. Greg and Three Cups of Tea
(Children’s version, $11.55 on amazon.com)

If you click through to amazon.com through the Three Cups of Tea website, up to 7% of the proceeds will benefit the Central Asia Institute.

Gift Idea #6: Help U.S. Students Learn about the World with DonorsChoose.org

A Kindergarten class would like a world rug for their classroom. Seventh graders want to build a Ugandan stove in their science class. And a group of elementary ESL students hope to create picture books to exchange with students in another country through Kids to Kids International.

And they need our help funding these projects.

Why not make a donation in your gift recipient’s name and at the same time help students learn about the world. Just go to DonorsChoose.org and search for an international project that catches your fancy. This is a perfect gift for that person who has everything.

Gift Idea #7: Art in History

I learned about Art in History a few years ago at an international education conference. At their session, they handed each participant a replica of an earthenware drinking vessel from Ancient Greece, a paint brush, and a cup of paint. As we sketched and then painted our designs on the vessel, we learned how it was created, decorated, and used in Ancient Greece. I had so much fun painting my vessel that I snagged a couple for gifts for my nieces and nephew.

Not interested in a drinking vessel from Ancient Greece? Well, then, how about an African Kuba mask, a 19th century Japan Ceremonial Tea Bowl, a Mughal Empire India Khurja Box, or one of their many other world history projects.

Projects cost around $8.50 and contain paint pods, a code for a downloadable lesson plan that explains the history of the artifact, history of the time period, full color motifs, and decorating instructions.

Happy Holiday Shopping!

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I have a confession.

A month ago – heck, even a week ago – I had grandiose plans of creating a 2009 Holiday Gift Guide for the Culturally Curious. Kinda like last year’s Cultural Gift Guide but, you know, more grandiose.

But now it’s December 22. 

I still have 2 days of work ’til I’m on vacation (I can’t complain…I used most of my days to go to FAAPI in Argentina in September!). I still need to send our holiday cards (I ordered them just before Thanksgiving in November!). And if I don’t get my gift-giving act together, I’m going end up shopping my house, rather than an actual store, for my husband’s Christmas gift. (Hmmm…do you think he’d like an pack of hot pink post-it notes?)

And…if you’re my friend on facebook you know that I just got my hair chopped off. Which resulted in me spending far too long in front of the mirror brushing, teasing, straightning, gelling, and scrunching. (I’m pretty ok with my new look now.) 

Can you feel the drama?

Wait. There’s more!

Here’s the thing: right now I’m more drawn to spending some downtime with my family, rather than my laptop.  So, if you haven’t figured it out by now, I didn’t create a grandiose 2009 Holiday Gift Guide for the Culturally Curious. Or any 2009 Gift Guide.

In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a big deal, I know. You might not even remember that I mentioned it at the end of November. I think I’m writing this more for myself than anything else. To justify to myself that I can step away from the computer for a few days and instead of being productive, I can be relaxed, creative, spontaneous…I can just be.

Not that I can’t be relaxed, creative, and spontaneous and still knock everything off my to-do list every day…I guess the thing is that I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the things that important to me. Doing intercultural work is my passion and my little contribution to making the world more peaceful.  My job, my work with SIETAR-NC, the SIETAR-USA conference, and CulturallyTeaching – these things are absolutely important to me. But so is my husband. My family. My house. Even my cat.

Oh my. I sound like an adult talking about work/life balance, don’t I?

Hmmm…I know there’s culture in this conversation. Is the work/life balance thing something people in other countries talk about as much as we do in the U.S.?

Anyway. I’m rambling. Here’s the deal.

Instead of posting a Gift Guide for 2009, I’d like to direct you to last year’s super awesome guide to 7 Holiday Gift Ideas for the Culturally Curious (Each for $20 or Less).

Since I wrote this just after starting CulturallyTeaching, when we had exactly 3 readers (me, Anamaria and Pamela), I think it’s safe to assume that it will be new to you.

Also –

CulturallyTeaching will be on vacation until January 2010. Anamaria has a full house of relatives, Pamela just wrapped up the school year and is enjoying summer vacation, and I will be eating chocoate and pondering the meaning of life.

In addition to taking some time to just chill, we’re also working on several behind-the-scenes website-related projects. You may have already noticed a few of the layout changes. We’ve got several other new things in store for 2010.

But don’t worry. Even though we’ll be on vacation, CulturallyTeaching’s autopost feature will be working hard reposting favorite articles from 2009. We’ll be back to posting new and exciting things on January 4, 2010.

Happy Holidays and see you in 2010!

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photo by Salihan.com

by :: Anamaria

I’m feeling a sudden sense of urgency. About visiting Romania.

Nothing unusual about that, since it’s been 3 years. What’s unusual is how this feeling came about.

It just struck! Like thunder! Out of the blue!

It’s not something I felt growing, and growing, and growing for months, or longer. No. I just woke up one morning thinking I have to go back to Romania! Just like that. It’s like somebody flipped a switch and turned on this urgency to go back.

And I thought: how strange that the desire to travel somewhere would happen like that, just all of a sudden. People usually spend years dreaming about visiting one place or another, don’t they? We don’t just wake up one morning thinking: I want to go there! Or do we?

Maybe we do, but only when it comes to places that we’ve already visited. If it’s a new place, I think we tend to spend more time thinking about it, planning the visit or simply dreaming about the visit.

I mentioned this to Cate one morning, and she just about jumped out of her seat. She said

I had the same thing happen to me about going back to Germany! A few months ago I woke up with this overwhelming desire to visit Germany again, and soon.

 If you know Cate, you know that she thinks about Germany quite a bit. It’s not like she has forgotten about Germany and then one day somebody or something reminded her of it. Germany is always on her mind. But, interestingly, the desire to go back and visit the country was dormant (she hasn’t been there for 5 years)…until one day when it came alive for her. Very strongly and suddently. Same with me and Romania.

Has this happened to you? Have you ever felt this sudden out-of-the-blue desire to return to a place that you already visited?

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Álvaro in snowy Madrid (!)

by :: Cate

After teaching for 2 years in the U.K. and 3 in the U.S., Álvaro Mediavilla returned to Madrid, Spain to co-found Bablingua, a company that provides “great videos that really show our country, and that are interesting and understandable for a foreign student.” As a former world language teacher, I know how compelling authentic and up-to-date videos can be for students, so I’d like to help Álvaro and his business partner Laura get the word out about Bablingua. Back in July Álvaro wrote up a School Snapshot and today he’s talking about education in Spain, his experience teaching abroad, and what Bablingua offers Spanish teachers.

Álvaro, please tell us a little about yourself.

I feel very glad of living at the moment in one of the greatest places of Madrid: La Plaza Mayor. I was very lucky to find an apartment here, and I love getting up in the morning facing the famous square.

I’m currently teaching English to adults through different programs: I’m doing some courses for unemployed people, courses in companies and also teaching in what we call Formación profesional, which is an alternative to college.

This is my seventh year teaching. I started in Salamanca (Spain), doing my student teaching in a high school, then I moved to North Carolina (USA), where I stayed for three years. I’ve been teaching here in Madrid since I got back three years ago.

Why did you decide to teach in the U.S.?

Our educational system in Spain is in a very deep crisis. This is not only a personal opinion, many international reports and the main Spanish political parties share this point of view.

Going to the U.S. was a great opportunity for me to learn from another system, to improve my teaching skills and to get new ideas I could later use in my country. Apart from my professional development, there were also personal reasons, such as my love for traveling and knowing other cultures.

Álvaro with students in Madrid

How did living and working in North Carolina change your perspective on Spain? The U.S.?

I don’t think it changed my perspective on Spain. I had already lived in the U.K. for two years and I had the experience of looking at my country from abroad.

My perspective on the U.S. did change dramatically though. All I knew about the U.S. was basically from TV and movies, but there are many things you can’t learn unless you live in a place.

One of them is that the U.S. is a huge country. I know you can see that on a map, but it was when I drove from North Carolina to California (and back) when I truly understood what that implies. I had visited many countries before going to the U.S., but none of them was close to it in size.

The U.S. is so big, and the regional differences so significant, that I don’t dare to generalize about the whole country since I finished that long trip. I know many people here in Spain who might say Americans are…or the U.S. is…, but I don’t think you can finish those sentences with adjectives you can apply in such a generic way.

People from North Carolina are quite different to New Yorkers, and Florida doesn’t look like South Dakota at all. Even the language sounds so different that it’s hard to consider it the same language!

How would you describe education in Spain?

In Spain, the educational system is in a critical moment that requires brave and innovative changes, but it’ll be too hard or impossible to change it because there are too many groups benefiting from the current situation.

And in the U.S.?

In the U.S., at least in the region where I taught, education is not so rigid, principals have more freedom to do their job and it’s easier to take decisions that have a real impact in school life.

I think there were more and better training opportunities for teachers, and all those factors make me be optimistic towards the future of the American educational system.

When you were in the U.S., what did you miss about/from Spain? Now that you’re back in Spain, what do you miss about/from the U.S.?

I think I’m a person who adapts very well to live in a new country, but there’s always something I miss: people. When I was in North Carolina, I missed my family above all, but also my friends, and now that I’m in Spain I miss the friends I made in the U.S.

Apart from that, I really miss American cost of life. Spain is a much more expensive country, and our wages vanish at a surprising speed compare to American’s.

Now tell us about Bablingua…why you decided to start this business?

Laura and I were always shocked by the interest that students, teachers and the members of the community where we lived had about Spain. It didn’t matter who we talked to, from the postman to the person who helped us with our taxes, we were always bombarded with questions about our country, and we loved that.

In school, our culture was constantly linked to teaching the language, but it was difficult for us to present Spain as it is with the resources we had. Pictures were a great help, but there is nothing like videos.

The problem is that the videos we had were too focused on stereotypes: bullfighting, flamenco, Feria de Abril, etc. I think all those are important, but I don’t believe they should be the only thing to show about our country.

We realized students were mainly interested in seeing what ordinary people of their age look like, what clothes they wear, their hair styles, the houses where they live, their schools, cars, etc.

That was the way we started thinking about Bablingua. It was our last year in the U.S., and we decided to fill that gap when returning to Spain, filming regular people in ordinary situations, with some activities to help students to get the most of each video.

How does Bablingua help students learn about other cultural perspectives?

When we were thinking about this project, we came up with the idea of a door as a symbol. Our goal was to help teachers to open a virtual door in their classrooms so they could take their students to Spain at a reasonable price. 21 short videos and a DVD later, we think we have achieved this goal.

Our audiovisual resources, in our opinion, present Spain as it is. Some of our videos are filmed in touristic areas, but many others show the kind of residential places that are usually left behind because they don’t seem interesting enough. We think culture involves extraordinary events and also ordinary ones, and by including examples of both of them we think our materials give a very realistic perspective to students.

How does Bablingua help teachers?

As teachers, Laura and I are perfectly aware of the importance of good resources in a Foreign Language class. We know there are many great textbooks for Spanish language teachers in the U.S., but we also think that overusing textbooks lead to certain problems such as boredom and an excessive repetition of the kind of activities done in class.

We didn’t start this project to compete with the existing resources, but to offer new ideas and additional materials that can spice up Spanish classes. Many teachers have written to us to thank us for offering something different and appealing for students.

We try to help them by covering as many topics as we can, paying a lot of attention to the activities that come with the videos. We want students to be ready to watch them, to understand them, and that’s why we need to provide teachers with some good exercises to introduce the topic in class, including the key vocabulary and the grammatical structures covered in the video.

What’s in store for both you and Bablingua in 2010?

We’re more and more excited about Bablingua as we receive positive feedback from other teachers. Our main satisfaction comes from seeing that almost every teacher who tries one of our materials buys another one in the following weeks.  That is something that make us feel very proud of what we’ve done this far, and it’s the reason why we’re going to try to put more time into this project in 2010.

We have many ideas in mind, such as offering online series of short episodes, or visiting other Spanish speaking countries so teachers can take their students to as many places as possible.

Editor’s note: Click here to preview the awesome videos Bablingua offers! If I were teaching Spanish, I’d definitely use them.

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photo by neon_mamacita

by :: Anamaria

My mother arrived from Romania last week for a much anticipated, 3 month visit (I am already dreading February ’10). Like any other Romanian mother that I know, she has been cooking ever since she got here. And I have been devouring the home cooked Romanian meals.

A couple of days ago, as I was slurping down delicious white bean soup with green onions on the side (onions that I would take big bites out of – yummy), my U.S. American husband looked at me and said, smiling:

You’ve turned on your Romanian, haven’t you?

I guess I have, I responded. But his comment left me thinking: I didn’t know I had turned it off.

Had I? When exactly did that happen?

As an immigrant living in the U.S., I am a big believer in holding on to my cultural roots. When I moved here, I searched for other Romanians living in the area, and a few of them became close friends.

I am very close to my family in Romania, as well as my Romanian family living in the U.S. I still read Romanian newspapers, only speak Romanian with my 18-month-old daughter, and have asked my mother to bring me Romanian children’s songs, movies, books and anything else she could find.

So when exactly did I turn off my Romanian?

Well, I guess it depends on what my husband meant by your Romanian. Since he made that comment over soup, it was clear to me that, in his mind, your Romanian was the tip of the iceberg stuff (in that particular example it was food).

Had I turned off THAT Romanian? I guess I had, because I never cook Romanian food. Before my mom came, if you asked me if I missed Romanian food, I would have said not too much. There are some foods I do miss, but not enough to make them. So, yes, when it comes to food, I guess I had turned my Romanian off. And then my mom arrived and turned it on again! How wonderful!

After a day reflecting on my husband’s comment, I happily concluded that I continue to be very Romanian in many other ways. Ways which cannot be turned off, at least for now.

But I also realized that, in the past 7 years since I have been living in the U.S., my Romanian was turned off in many other ways besides food. Ways which my mom’s visit is slowly bringing to the surface, because she now does some things differently than I do, or because I now do some things differently than she does.

Will these ways be turned on again as a result of the visit? How is it possible that one can turn something as powerful as culture on and then off again? Can we? What do you think?

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photo by Éole

It’s all about you: our readers.

No matter how passionate one is about something, sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day to devote ourselves to that passion as much as we would like. We’re sure you know what we mean!

We know our readers are passionate about education. And that you’re also interested in cross-cultural communication. In other words, we know you enjoy reading our blog.

However, we also know that life might not have permitted you to read every single one of our posts this month. So we started an It’s All About You: Month in Review series, which we’ll post at the end of every month.

The goal of this new series is to highlight for you, our readers, some of the most interesting posts in each topic we blog about. So whenever you have a busy month, don’t worry, we’ll help you catch up!

Month in Reviews are also perfect posts to forward to your friends and colleagues who might enjoy sampling CulturallyTeaching.

Month in Review – November Edition

::: How you count cash: A cultural thing?
According to the video, yes! Watch it to find out if you count cash the way the video says people in your country do.

::: What’s your communication style?
There’s no question that culture has a huge impact on how people learn to communicate with one another. In this Culture School post, Anamaria kicks off a series of articles on communication styles across cultures by explaining how doing and being cultures often communicate differently.

::: The danger of a single story
Reader Lisa Velazquez mentioned this video in her comment on Cate’s post about a thought-provoking Mercy Corps commercial. As Lisa noted in her comment, this video sparked her (and us) to consider the question where do I hold a single story that prevents me from seeing the complete story of a person or a place?

::: The stories of culture
Stories make up a large part of any conversation we have about culture. Life offers some of the best examples to illustrate the cultural theory that we both learned in school, so we’re always on a quest for more stories. Read this post for two stories that beautifully illustrate how deeply perceptions of time permeate cultures.

What’s in store for December?

Here’s a glimpse of what we’re working on for the final month of the year:

::: A holiday gift-giving guide for 2009

::: An interview with Álvaro Mediavilla, an English/Spanish teacher and Bablingua co-founder living in Madrid, Spain. (Bablingua creates culturally authentic videos for Spanish teachers and their students.)

::: Pamela, who’s wrapping up the school year in Argentina, shares her students’ School Snapshots and an exciting new project we’re taking world-wide

::: Anamaria turns her Romanian on

::: Cate discovers  30+ everyday ways to learn about other cultures

And much, much more…

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