05/21/2020 - W05 Blog: Culture Miscommunication



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 invaded or feel overwhelmed with friendly people. While a Brazilian or Mexican could visit Nebraska and feel devastated by the lack of warmth in the people. Maybe they were polite and friendly, but they will not express themselves emotionally as a Latin American would like.

In the classroom, we as future teachers must be careful with misinformation. Some students may like the challenges and feedback teachers give them, while other students feel disadvantaged or offended because the teacher tells them what they are wrong with.

Could a teacher from a polychronic country understand a student better than a teacher from a monochronic country? Or will the monochromic teacher be more accurate in analyzing the student?

Comentarios

  1. My Little Pla.net24 de mayo de 2022 a las 5:28 p.m.

    Fernanda, very nice job on this blog post. I play this game of Telephone with my students sometimes to demonstrate this same principle. The kids enjoy this and learn a lot from repeating the same phrase to each other and having it turn out completely wrong in the end. I often see more miscommunication between adults than I do between children and adults. I think this is because we as adults are more careful to try to understand our students and the students show respect to the teacher and don't always call them out when they have misunderstood. I think we can learn a lot from that relationship. As far as your last question, I really don't know if one group will be more understanding than the other. I believe both have the potential for this trait.

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