"Whenever a student is from a different place or ethnic group or something does anything weird, you have to give them the benefit of the doubt." This statement from Brother Ivers of Brigham Young University-Idaho gave me a concrete understanding of how ESL teachers should deal with students' weird behavior. It's not weirdness, but it is the students' cultural paradigm...its who they truly are.
I grew up in the province and after serving a full-time mission, my family moved to Metro Manila (this is the capital region of the Philipines). After a month, I was hired as a customer service agent by a Canadian TELCO company. I started my training class and there I experienced what cross-cultural classroom is. The ways of the people back in the province are different from the behavior of the people living in Metro Manila. In the province, we are tactful because we care about others' feelings.
I felt I was I did not fit in the group during the first few days of our training. I am not pleased with how my co-trainees talk to each other. It's like they are nice and rude at the same time. I was culture-shocked and so disturbed because I am not used to hearing so much swearing in one day. So I decided to talk it out with my older sister. She just told me to ignore them and soon, I'll get used to it. And she was right.
I was able to adjust because I focused on my co-trainees good attribute. I made friends with them and they even change their tone of voice when they talk to me. We are all unique in many ways and we should respect that. We should try to understand individual differences in culture, religion, race, and values. Don't judge too quickly and treat others the way we wanted to be treated in return. Despite our unique values and backgrounds, we can still live civilly together,
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