The subject of cultural miscommunication is highly important for the ESL classroom since it is common to find people of many different cultural backgrounds. Small gestures and actions might be perfectly normal in one culture, but in others it might be offensive and frowned upon. As professor Ivers stated in the beginning of the video, cultural miscommunication can cause wars and all kinds of bad things.
having traveled to many parts of the world and experienced living within different cultures, I have my own share of embarrassing moments that was caused by cultural miscommunication. One might find it difficult to know when to tip for example. If you're in the US, you should tip in restaurants, hotels and taxis, that also goes for Mexico, but in China, that is not a common practice, not even in restaurants. So, what might be considered rude in one part of the world, it might not be in other parts.
It is important to apply those principles to our classrooms so that we can become more aware of differences. In China, where I am at the moment, it is perfectly common for people to walk around with their water or tea bottles wherever they go, they believe that hot water or other hot beverages (especially tea) have medicinal properties, so they will pull out their bottles at any time and drink. That goes especially for children, even more so for the children being raised by their grandparents, the 奶奶 will simply enter the classroom at any time, interrupting the class and give the child water. Like I've said before, there should be a balanced approach and we should be aware of those differences.
having traveled to many parts of the world and experienced living within different cultures, I have my own share of embarrassing moments that was caused by cultural miscommunication. One might find it difficult to know when to tip for example. If you're in the US, you should tip in restaurants, hotels and taxis, that also goes for Mexico, but in China, that is not a common practice, not even in restaurants. So, what might be considered rude in one part of the world, it might not be in other parts.
It is important to apply those principles to our classrooms so that we can become more aware of differences. In China, where I am at the moment, it is perfectly common for people to walk around with their water or tea bottles wherever they go, they believe that hot water or other hot beverages (especially tea) have medicinal properties, so they will pull out their bottles at any time and drink. That goes especially for children, even more so for the children being raised by their grandparents, the 奶奶 will simply enter the classroom at any time, interrupting the class and give the child water. Like I've said before, there should be a balanced approach and we should be aware of those differences.
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