Thursday, May 31, 2007

Culture Quiz

In relation to the quiz we took in class about the gestures. I found another quiz that gives you scenarios about children in an American classroom and the other student's reactions to them. They are many and the answers at the end. This could clear up many behavioral issues that the students may be having in the classroom. I found them to be pretty interesting.

http://www.everythingesl.net/downloads/culture_questions02.pdf
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5 comments:

Krista723 said...

This quiz had a lot of great information. It included different types of gestures, in addition to other behaviors and customs that seem normal to us, but may offend another student. It gives great explanations about other cultures and provides interesting facts. For instance, in Chinese culture taking a picture with an odd number of people is considered to be unlucky. Children from countries with war going on may become frightened when they hear a simple whistle or regular school bell. These may seem minor to us, but may really make a difference to a child. It is near impossible to remember every single custom from every single culture, but if you know that you are going to have a child from a different country in your classroom, I guess something you can do is research that country and its customs. This could help.

May 31, 2007 at 3:27 PM
Anonymous said...

This was a great find! Some of the answers were pretty insightful and not what i would expect. The questions on gifts and colored wrapping appear was interesting. It's funny to look back and try and come up with instances or situations when someone tried to do something nice and it wasn't culturally expected. When I first started dating my husband his grandmother unfortunately passed away. The whole funeral process is performed quite quickly. Normally, I would send flowers and a sympathy card so I did the same thing with my husbands family. I learned that Jewish families, (or at least my husband & his extended Family & friends) bring food to the family's house and not flowers. When I walked into the grieving family's house I only saw one bouquet of flowers(mine) and was confused because everyone loved this woman! My mother-in-law graciously explained that flowers too will die whereas food will nourish your body and provide sustenance at a time of loss!
Beautiful thoughts~

anyone else have a similar tale?

June 1, 2007 at 1:03 PM
Anonymous said...

I found this quiz to be extremely interesting and informative. I really learned alot as I read through it. Being that our classrooms are becoming more and more diverse, it is so important that teachers are aware that so many cultural differences exist. Teachers should definately consider researching their students' cultures. This might help them to make sense of why their students behave certain ways and help them avoid doing or saying anything their students might find offensive. One of the questions on this quiz made me think of a personal experience. When my sister was in fifth grade she sat next to a boy that had recently come from another country. Everyday she came home and cried to my mother that she could not take how he smelled. She said it made her feel like she wanted to throw up. My mother did not know who the boy was or that he had just come from another country so she contacted the teacher to see what was going on. The teacher explained the situation; that this boy had just come here and that it was the food he was eating at home that made him have an odor. She also mentioned to my mother that she had received many other phone calls from parents questioning the same thing. This is a perfect example of a situation in which kids were not aware of the customs of other cultures. Being that my sister was so young, she just assumed that this young boy was dirty and needed to take a shower. My mother had to explain to her that this young boy was not dirty and that it was because of the food he ate that he smelled that way.

June 3, 2007 at 5:08 PM
Anonymous said...

The quiz was interesting and the information it provided is very useful for teachers.I can personally relate to one of them - I Subed for an 8th grade student from Turkey a number of times and he always called me "Teacher" and I would tell him that my name was Mrs Moran and he would say ok "Teacher". I now know why he referred to me as teacher thanks to the quiz.

June 14, 2007 at 3:44 PM
Mara said...

The quiz was interesting and the information provided is very useful for any teachers, any level.I can personally relate to one of them - I Subed for an 12th grade Science teacher in EHS and an african american students student was always calling me "Mizz" and I would tell him that my name was Ms Trejo and he would say ok "Miz". At the begginig I thaught it was rude but that the way they speak and refer to tacher!!!!

June 26, 2007 at 7:24 AM

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