BYU Idaho - Fernando Rojas

Every classroom has a cultural background behind it. There are nonwriting rules for every aspect of the students and the teacher in class. They must follow them with no exceptions, it is a social must to be integrated and belong to the community. Nowadays, the classroom has major diversity in classes, and teachers will find Cross-Cultural Students in them.  The teacher should consider every student’s background, knowing them will allow him to treat them better. Understanding the differences will give a powerful tool to make the learning process successful. In the video, Professor Ivers talked about some cultures that consider American rude and not showing respect to their teachers. He explained that some Asian cultures use to respect their teachers. Just like some Latin-American countries where teachers are important to the community helping them to improve kids’ skills. In Mexico is so common and normal that students on National Teacher’s day, bring a cake and give presents to t...

Personal space is a private limit to everyone. It is like there is a "bubble" around, which limits the approach of others. The approach limit will depend on how familiar is the other person, husband, friend, co-worker, client, or just people around. It will also depend on whether the introverted, extroverted, conservative person lives in rural areas, small cities, or large urban areas. And the most important, the cultural one. It will determine how you establish personal space.   I remember I met some missionaries who had gotten on the subway in Mexico City, one of them was from Wyoming, and the other was from Arizona. None of them had been in a subway before. A missionary from Wyoming said, "people in Mexico City push us when we get on the subway, but we agree to say that we could get on the subway and survive." They both felt people pushed them on purpose to annoy them or that people touched them to dirty their clothes. I made it clear to them that it is norma...

There are two ways of dealing with an environment in countries: individualism and collectivism. Collectivism is representative of Eastern cultures, which mostly show this type of behavior in their society. While individualism is predominant in Western cultures. The United States is the best example of a culture oriented towards collectivism. Perhaps its history of being a nation of migrants,  and a greatest representative of capitalism, made it a nation of competitive citizens. Giving rise to individualism.   Reading about the educational level of the United States, versus the Chinese model. It gives us a look at the competitiveness between those nations. Today they are the first and second economic powers. China will be the first in 2030 . It is important to note that education is the basis of your system. The American model has failed in recent years to increase the educational level of its students, higher than in non-developed nations, but lower compared to other devel...

The video of Professor Iviers' class reminded me of a movie about Elizabeth I; England’s Queen in XVI century, in which a character comments that the Italian Medici Family spend their time at the party and in the drama, just like the people of Spain. It's the Mediterranean's fault, said one of the characters. That reminded me of how Americans see Hispanics in their country, very expressive and emotional. Pre-Columbian cultures were very emotionally expressive, as were the colonizing countries; Spain, France and Portugal. Historically and culturally, Hispanics are emotionally expressive.   As a Tesol teacher we must also take into account the Differences in Emotional Expressivity. In order to understand our students, how can you show your discomfort or lack of understanding of a lesson, if it is not easy for you to express it. We must create communication channels to create an environment of awareness and understanding. Although Mexico is a country that is in the range o...

I remember an activity that the teachers made us play at school. Someone started with a phrase and whispered it in the ear of another student, and he did the same with another student, at the end the last person had to say the phrase. It was never the same sentence, it ended up being illogical or with a different message. The lesson was that the information had to be clear and concise to be understood, otherwise there would be a problem of misinformation. That little game left us an important lesson. Today misinformation is the main cause of problems of understanding. You can speak the same language, but you can't understand it if both people don’t have the same culture. In the video, Professor Ivers explains that one person can give a message or have a certain attitude, and another person cannot understand them and give them the wrong meaning. Cultural differences make this problem bigger. If a person from the United States visits Latin America, he may feel his personal space inva...

 In the video Brother Ivers talks about Cultural Differences in Concerning time. He explains that there are two types of time: Monochronic vs. Polychronic, which are within cultural paradigms. Monochronic is oriented to tasks, schedules, and procedures, while Polychronic focuses on interpersonal relationships and family. Ivers mentions that Northern Europe and the United States are Monochronic, while most of the world is Polychronic.   Maybe some parts of a country will be Monochronic as a minority in a country, but it will be predominantly Polychronic, for example. This last I can confirm when I moved to live in Mexico City. At the time I didn't know it and I learned it instinctively. Now that I saw this video, I can say that I had to change my cultural paradigm and adapt to a more Monochronic environment, but even so, relationships are always important to establish a network that can help me in difficult situations.   I believe that we must take into account the...

A sentence can say more than a text, Mexican intellectual Carlos Fuentes said, "We shall know each other or we shall exterminate each other." What does it mean to know the other? There are many barriers that prevent understanding without context or without knowing the actions of a person. These can be cultural, economic, sociological, or ethnic. Which create paradigms, on which conceptualizations of something are based. Paradigm is described on the Merriam-Webster site as, "an outstandingly clear or typical example or archetype". Using simple words, I can say paradigm means the pre-established form we have of a concept or situation. Thus we can understand that a paradigm can show us some correct behavior in a different culture or country, while in our country it can be the opposite. "We shall know each other or we shall exterminate each other."  In real life, we ​​face endless paradigms on which our idiosyncrasy is based. We already know that this will be ...