Olimpia Tesol

Culture generates expectations about how the self should act in society. These cultural expectations can be a double-edged sword. They can create psychologically positive effects. Or they can impact people negatively,  to the extent that individuals sometimes behave irrationally. For example, before the white men came to America, the Cherokee Indians assigned men the responsibility to hunt and the women were assigned to the farm. Man would not do farming; it was shameful. Farming was for women. Later when the settlers invaded the Cherokee land, the Indian men started farming in order to fit into the American society. It was very humiliated for Cherokee men to farm because they believe it was a feminine task. It took many generations of Cherokees to accept this new perspective. All races tend to live up or down to cultural expectations. Psychologists Joshua Aronson and Claude Steele presented an interesting study. They took two groups of black and white college students and gave the...

 2/16/2021 Difference in Manners Manners are the way people conduct in various situations. Each society's customs have their own way to behave according to traditions and cultural heritage. People with good manners are considered as cultured and polite. I believe there are good manners that are universal. For instance, not speaking rudely, not talking behind someone’s back, using phrases such as “please” and “thank you”, respecting the elders, etc. Nevertheless, manners in one culture could be bad manners in another. For instance, the concept of burping in China and Taiwan is a sign that the meal was good, and the chef will take it as a compliment. Tipping in some parts of Asia is not a custom, on the contrary, it is an insult. It is a sign of begging. Chewing gum in many countries like Asia and South America is considered good for dental hygiene. However, in countries like Luxemburg, Switzerland, and France, is believed to be vulgar. There are many more examples of different manne...

In different cultures, some people are more expressive than others. There are many different subcultures in the United States. In the Northeastern part of the country, people are more expressive. In contrast, in states from the west, such as Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah, people are less expressive. Teachers in classrooms come across African American students who, by nature, are very expressive. Sometimes white teachers might feel these students are bad or rude because of the way they say things or the way they do things. They are not being necessarily bad or rude, they are just being themselves. It is part of their culture. Also, students from Asia will be less expressive in comparison to white students. It is also worth mentioning that Hispanic students will be more expressive. Teachers need to realize that these variances are due to the student’s cultural rules. There have been studies done where Asian students came to universities in the United States and had shared what they experience...

 Each country has its attributional tendencies. Attributional tendencies refer to assume why people do what they do. People's behavior can be attributed to internal or external factors. When people attribute success or failure to themselves is referring to internal attribution. On the other hand, external attribution is about blaming others for failing or taking credit from others for success. For instance, in Hong Kong and India, personal success and personal failure is an internal cause. In contrast, in Japan, personal success and failure are attributed to external sources. And in the USA individual success is internal, but personal failure is external. When I think about myself, I tend to attribute my successes to my efforts and God's help. This thinking process makes me feel good and confident. However, when I fail at something, I often blame myself for it. This is probably the way I was brought up at home. Although, I know that as I get older, I like to find comfort in thi...

 Each 02/13/2021; Week 06; Response to “Personal Space Differences”. Each culture indeed has specific boundaries when it comes to personal space. However, how would someone figure out individuals' protective bubble since we all come from different backgrounds? In the early 1960s, the American anthropologist Edward Hall presented studies of human relationships with each other. He describes the interpersonal distance between people in four zones. The intimate zone, the personal zone, the social space, and the public zone. Each zone has a distinct territory measurement. For instance, Westernized culture tends to have space zones larger than Southern European countries or Latin American countries. When I came to the USA to study English, one of the teachers talked to us about cultural differences we might encounter while living in the country. Out of all the points he mentioned, one of them stuck out to me. It was the one about personal space. He explained how people in the States do n...

It has been an eye-opening experience to read in more detail about the culture and linguistic diversity. There are two types of society in culture, the individualistic and the collectivistic culture. Both follow different patterns of values and behaviors that are passed on from one generation to the next.  Individualistic people's views are oriented around themselves. They focus on independence, individual rights, self-reliance, true to own values, shame to individual failure, look for help if needed, and obtain individual progress. On the other hand, collectivistic individuals are more oriented to do things as a group. The needs of the group come before the needs or desires of each individual. These people are interdependent, they rely on the group, they hold fast to traditional practices and values, they take care of their own, they feel shame when they fail the group, and hierarchical decision-making is greatly considered. We need to realize that the characteristics of both indi...

 Emotional expressiveness is a way we demonstrate feelings of sadness, happiness, anger, surprise, and fear. To display emotions we use face gestures, body movements, and verbal expressions. For instance, crying, writing a love letter, smiling, laughing, or using a loud tone of voice, are examples of emotional expressiveness.  One of the factors that affect emotional expressivity is culture. Therefore, cultural differences influence the way we interpret expressions of emotion. For example, most people in Asia, Scandinavia, or Britain do not show a lot of public emotion; it is part of their culture. On the other hand, people in Latin America (Hispanic), Middle East, Southern Europe are, in general, very emotional in public. Imagine a scale on a horizontal line where one side represents low tolerant expressivity (do not show a lot of emotions publicly) and on the other side represents high tolerant expressivity (show a lot of emotions openly). Where do you think we can...

 Culture is a word for the 'way of life' of groups of people, meaning the way they do things...  simple.m.wikipedia.org It is interesting to think that there are thousands of different cultures in the world. How do we find acceptance, understanding, and tolerance for other cultures? I do not necessarily have the answer to this question. However, I have concluded that culture is represented mainly by exterior traits. For example, think of all the nations around the world. In many cultures, people still wear their traditional attire. There is a variety of food in every region. More than 7,000 languages and dialects exist today. Even body language differs from country to country. But one thing we all have in common is that we are all human. As humans, we have one common culture, the natural disposition to do good. Inconsequential the language we speak, how we dress, or how we do things, we all can find a way to build bridges and fill the gaps. I was born in one country and grew u...

I never heard of monochronic and polychronic cultures before. Nevertheless, the definition of these two words helped me understand why I do things the way I do. Monochronic people schedule events that take place one at a time in an orderly manner. Commitment, punctuality, privacy, and preciseness is essential for these individuals. On the other hand, polychronic people schedule more than one task simultaneously as long as they accomplish the work without worrying about deadlines. Interpersonal relationships are essential. They worry more about their family and friends than other acquaintances.   My family moved from Mexico City to Canada when I was 15 years old. About ten years later, I went back to Mexico to visit. I understood the language very well, but I did not understand the people. While reading the differences between the two cultures, I realized I had adopted traits from both lifestyles.  This awareness will be of great value in my TESOL classroom because, to some deg...

  I have always been curious about other cultures. I like to learn about how other people dress, how they speak, what they eat, and how they socialize. Our family moved a lot when I was young. We lived in different states in Mexico. People would recognize we were not from the area because of the way we spoke and the way we dressed. The greatest culture shock we had as a family was when we moved to Canada. We thought people were very different. One thing I appreciate from my parents and my maternal grandmother is the fact that they always taught us to respect, understand, and tolerate differences in other cultures. When I got married, I had the opportunity to live in different countries with my own family. We had special and wonderful experiences. We also met amazing people with interesting backgrounds. I strongly believe that regardless of our differences we can see each other as precious individuals with many similarities.  I am getting ready to become a certified ESL teacher...