CulturallyTeaching.com » Reflections

Are Types of Rewards & Recognition Influenced By Culture? (Yes.)

Anamaria — Mon, 03 May 2010 09:51:48 +0000

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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“Lost” Education Question

Cate — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:14:51 +0000

Even people who are obsessed with the TV show Lost want to know more about education across cultures:

I found this educational comment and question on a Lost message board where people where discussing last week’s episode (in which parallel world off-island Alex needed a recommendation from someone who went to Yale University in order to apply and be accepted there).

The comment and question made me wonder about the college search and admissions process in other countries. I know what it’s like in Germany (similar to the U.K. system it seems) and the U.S., but what’s it like in the rest of the world?

What factors contributed to you choosing the university you attended?

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Ask 3 Questions to Improve Your Cross-cultural Skills

Cate — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 01:09:28 +0000

photo by !borghetti

by :: Cate

When I was learning how to do ethnographic research I had to develop keen observational skills.

One of the things my classmates and I did to become better observers was to make the familiar strange.

In one activity, for example, we chose a situation or environment that we knew very well (e.g. a classroom, the check-out line in a supermarket, eating dinner, etc.). Then we observed and described the situation as if we were seeing it for the first time.

Doing this helped us uncover latent interpretations and assumptions. This was important because in collecting ethnographic data one strives to document meaning as determined by the observed, not the observer.

The practice of making the familiar strange taught us how to observe with the goal of understanding the perspectives of others.

If you want to be cross-culturally effective, develop keen observational skills.

Most of us go through a large part of our day on auto-pilot, quickly interpreting and categorizing what we see and experience. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Every day we’re inundated with a huge amount of information, and we simply can’t stop and ponder every single thing we come into contact with.

But in order to be effective in cross-cultural situations, we need to disengage our cultural auto-pilot.

Instead of automatically interpreting what see or experience, we need to carefully observe it. We need to uncover our latent assumptions and interpretations. Making the familiar strange in our daily lives can help us develop the keen observational skills necessary to be cross-culturally effective.

Ask these 3 questions to improve your cross-cultural observation skills.

Even if you’re not in a cross-cultural situation right now, this simple practice can help you develop the observational skills that will come in handy the next time you are.

As you go through your day, look at everything and everyone with new eyes. Pay close attention to interactions between people (e.g. greetings, a heated discussion, a parent-child interaction, etc.) and get in the habit of asking yourself these 3 questions:

What do I see?
Describe what you see concretely and objectively. Avoid interpreting or evaluating.
Who do I see?
What experiences and perspectives might they bring to the interaction that’s influencing their behavior?
How might the where influence the what?
If the context changed, would the interaction between these people change?

What questions do you ask in order to better understand cross-cultural situations?

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Who’s Flying The Plane?

Anamaria — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:10:36 +0000

photo by bfraz

by :: Anamaria

Every morning at 7 am you will find me in my car, driving to work and listening to NPR. Recently, I heard an interview with science writer Shankar Vedantam, about his new book The Hidden Brain.

The more I listened to the story, the more I wanted to read the book. So I put it on my long list of books to purchase, and, eventually, read. In the meantime, I wanted to talk about it here.

Although this is not a cross-cultural communication book, many of the things Vedantam addresses in the book could explain why cross-cultural interactions are so tricky. And incredibly challenging. And exhausting.

Let me explain.

In his book, Vedantam talks about how our brains have two modes: one conscious and one unconscious.

Pilot and autopilot, he calls them.

And Vedantam believes that people are constantly switching back and forth between the two. This makes perfect sense to me, I thought as I was driving to work.

And then I started thinking about Vedantam’s theory from a cross-cultural perspective.

When we live in our own culture, I do believe that we switch back and forth between pilot and autopilot all the time. But what happens when we move to a different culture? Does this switching back and forth continue at the same frequency? Should it?

It’s difficult to stop the autopilot part of the brain from taking over, sometimes. However, in a cross-cultural context, it is very important to minimize the autopilot mode - as much as possible.

When your brain is on autopilot, it makes assumptions which, in a cross-cultural context, it should not be making.

These assumptions will result in cultural misunderstandings, frustrations, and miscommunications. Being on autopilot when we shouldn’t be is what leads to “unsupported snap judgments about people in the world around us” – as Vedantam points out in his NPR interview. How true!

A good cross-cultural communicator is one that suspends the autopilot mode as much as possible when interacting cross-culturally. But not being able to freely switch to autopilot mode can be exhausting for a person.

And this is why living or working abroad is so tiring. This is also why interacting with people from other cultures can be so exhausting. And this is why foreigners will happily look for the company of other fellow country men and women: to give their brain a break, and allow the autopilot to take over. Even if for just a little while.

@CateBrubaker’s Twitter Interview with @CindyKing

Cate — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:50:50 +0000

My interview with Cindy King is today!

The interview is conducted in two parts. First, there’s the blog interview that you can read over on Cindy’s blog. Then there’s the twitter interview. We’re doing the Twitter interview today (Tuesday) at 8am Eastern. If you’re on Twitter you can follow today’s interview by following me (@CateBrubaker) and Cindy @CindyKing) - our tweets will be marked with the #ckinterview hashtag.

Cindy has interviewed several cross-culturally inclined people - be sure to check them out (scroll to the bottom of the post to see the list)!

We’re Not Fighting, We’re Just Being Romanian

Anamaria — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:01:37 +0000

photo by Geir Halvorsen

by :: Anamaria

A few weeks ago we invited you to reflect a bit on your communication style. Well, I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting of my own lately, especially during the winter break. Some of you may already know that my house was full of family for Christmas: the Romanian side of the family. My side of the family.

And when my side of the family comes into our home, I sometimes find myself wondering how my interactions with my family are perceived by my US American husband.

Why am I saying that? Well, because of differences in communication styles between Romanian and US Americans.

Romanians, like many other Latins, are very expressive when we talk. We are loud (we seem loud to Americans), use a lot of gestures, stand pretty closely to each other. So, when we talk to each other, even if it’s on the phone, we always look to Americans like we are having a fight.

I can’t tell you how many times my husband asked me during the Christmas holiday, when my family was here, if everything was OK. I smiled every time he asked.

Of course everything is OK – I would respond – that’s just how we communicate.

The non-verbal behavior is not the only thing that is different.

WHAT we talk about is also VERY different from the topics that most American families would discuss. Basically, we don’t have many conversation subjects that are off limits. Especially among close family members.

It isn’t uncommon to hear Romanians talk about money, weight, or religion. In detail. Talking about these things often involves openly questioning each other’s choices or opinions on these topics. And somehow, rarely does one get upset or offended. Why? Because for Romanians, talking about this “very personal stuff” (which is how most US Americans perceive these subjects – personal) is a way to get closer to each other. To establish deeper, more meaningful relationships with people. To become close friends.

Needless to say…I had to adapt my communication style when I moved to the US. I was clueless about these things when I first moved to this country…so I made a lot of mistakes.

Some of the questions that I would ask my new American friends were being perceived as very personal, and quite intrusive.

I thought I was making friends, but it didn’t take me long to figure out that I wasn’t.

So, pretty soon I learned to communicate one way with Americans, and my old way with Romanians. It’s fascinating to me how people find ways of transitioning in and out of their culture – national or regional. Going in and out of different ways of communicating is definitely one aspect of this complex cultural transition.

What about you?

Have you experienced these transitions related to communication styles? Do you find yourself communicating one way with a cultural group, and a different way with another?

Cultural Differences Related to Appointments & Deadlines

Cate — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:06:18 +0000

photo by iheartlinen

One of the cross-cultural blogs I read is Cindy King’s. Cindy is originally from the Bahamas and has lived and worked in several European countries, including France, where she currently lives. Even though her focus is business, Cindy’s insights into issues of culture are very relevant to educators.

Case in point: here are two recent articles from Cindy’s blog related to time, a topic we covered a while back on CulturallyTeaching (here, here, here and here):

5 cultural differences in understanding appointments

Fun With Half Hours

Some cultures use expressions where a “half hour” can mean 30 minutes before the hour referenced and not after the hour. This can lead to confusion when “half nine” means 8:30 and not 9:30.

This can happen when a non-native English speaker uses literal translations from their own language which uses such expressions. But there are even native English speakers in some parts of the world who use similar expressions.

This type of mistake usually happens when speaking as most people write out the numbers.

Takeaway: Always be clear in how you say the time.

>> Read about the other 4 cultual differences in understanding appointments on Cindy’s blog here.

Cultural differences in understanding deadlines

My downfall came because people can use two ways of giving deadlines:

Deadline December 23rd = meaning this is the last day for you to take action

Deadline December 23rd = meaning you need to take action before this date. In this case your last day for taking action would be December 22nd.

And I navigate almost exclusively in circles where people use the first example with the deadline date given is the last day to take action. But there are people who give the date to mean the first day after you must take action. And this is what happened to me. I had left taking action to what I thought was the very last day, but I was already one day too late.

>> Read more about cultural differences and deadlines on Cindy’s blog here.

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Why I Don’t Have a Favorite Teacher

Anamaria — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:03:09 +0000

photo by bachmont

by :: Anamaria

A few weeks ago a colleague asked if she could interview me for a grad school project (she is getting a Master’s in International Education).

There was only one interview question: Who was your favorite teacher and why?

At first, the question did not seem to be very difficult. Since I have been in the U.S., I have witnessed many conversations on this topic. Many of my American friends like to reminisce about their favorite teachers. So when I heard about my colleague’s project, I thought oh, easy, I can answer that!

But then I started thinking about it. And I couldn’t come up with a favorite teacher.

Talking about your favorite teacher is a conversation that I never heard or was part of before coming to the U.S.

In Romania, my friends and I never talked about it. Many of my American friends did, though. Why? Could it have anything to do with culture? I think it does.

When I went to school in Romania, the educational system was very formal, and the power distance between teachers and students was huge! The teacher was a guru, whose role in the classroom was to transfer personal and professional wisdom. The teacher was not there to be the students’ friend. As such, the closest that a student could get to having a favorite teacher was defined in terms of how much the student respected the teacher.

In other words, there were teachers I highly respected, but I wouldn’t single them out as my favorite teachers. I didn’t think in terms of favorite. From my conversations with my American friends, I believe that a “favorite teacher” in the U.S. is somebody who breaks some rules, in favor of students, who takes a close interest in the academic performance of a student, or who is willing to help the student with a personal matter.

For instance, an American friend told me that her favorite teacher was a woman who trusted her students enough to leave it up to them to decide whether or not they needed to do their homework, depending on how well they thought they understood the concepts taught in class.

When I went to school in Romania, the relationship between a teacher and students was so formal that this left little to no room for any other feelings towards teachers except for feelings of respect.

In high power distance classrooms, such as they were when I went to school in Romania (my understanding is that this distance has decreased since then), the level or respect for a teacher was sometimes so high, that students would often feel intimidated by that teacher. The idea of feeling intimidated by a teacher is not part of any conversation that I heard in the U.S. about somebody’s favorite teacher.

A favorite teacher, for my American friends, does exactly the opposite: that teacher is able to get close enough to his or her students that feelings of friendship develop, rather than of intimidation. A favorite teacher is somebody one respects. But a favorite teacher is above all someone who has managed to get to know their students on a much more personal level. Somebody who takes an interest in their students’ interests, and uses this knowledge in their teaching.

The reason why I don’t have a favorite teacher is something that I have been thinking about for a while, and I would be very curious to know what you think about this subject.

Do you have a favorite teacher? Why was that person your favorite?

How an International Teacher Changed My Life

Anamaria — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:48:20 +0000

photo by bachmont

CulturallyTeaching is on vacation until January 4, 2010! Until then, we hope you enjoy a selection of favorite articles from 2009. This one was originally posted in March 2009.

by :: Anamaria

When I was in 9^th grade in Romania, an international teacher from the U.S. walked into my classroom and changed my life. His name was John, and my classmates and I absolutely loved him.

Before I met John, my knowledge about the U.S. was limited to what I learned from the show Beverly Hills 90210, which I was a big fan of (my excuse? I was 16).

But then John came to our school and corrected all these distorted perceptions about the U.S. that I had learned from the show. He told us that not everybody drove expensive cars in the U.S. Or lived in big houses. Or dined at fine restaurants.

He also talked about his own life in the U.S., his family, his friends, the school where he taught and his students. And my classmates and I were just mesmerized.

We met John in 1994, roughly 4 years after the fall of communism. Back then, we, just like our parents for that matter, were still learning about the outside world. We were learning not to fear it, after many years of almost complete isolation, when any contact with foreigners could have had devastating consequences.

So John was somebody we slowly became very curious about. John talked to us about his country, he told us about Thanksgiving, he taught us how to play baseball, and he sang “Row row row your boat” with us.

John started conversations about how he was different from us, and how we were different from him. He started conversations about the rest of the world. And one day, I woke up with a feeling that I had never experienced before: I was curious. Curious about John, about his life in the U.S., about his culture.

For the first time in my life I had a genuine interaction with another culture. John brought his culture to us, he brought the world to us, and I became curious about it. I became curious about the same world that had been forbidden to us for so many years. Suddenly this world was no longer a mystery: it was fun, and interesting.

It is because of John that I had the courage, and curiosity a year later, in 10^th grade, to get on a plane and live for 5 months with an American family that I had never met. It is also because of John that I decided to study in France for one year in college. And it is because of him that I decided to return to the U.S. as a graduate student. The world had opened up to me in 9th grade, and I just couldn’t get enough of it.

I now realize that my life forever changed the minute John walked into my classroom when I was only 14. I am not even sure that John even knows the impact that he had on my life (I didn’t either back then), which is a shame.

Did you ever have an international teacher at school?

Holiday Gift Guide for 2009 – err, I Mean 2008

Cate — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:33:38 +0000

photo by pineapplebun

by :: Cate

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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