10/16/21; Week 5: "Culture Differences Concerning Time"

How does culture affect time?

Defining a little bit...

    When we are talking about time we can divide countries into two categories, monochronic and polychronic. Monochronic refers to valuing time and procedures, someone in this category will be punctual and conclude a task before passing to do something else, while polychronic can be chaotic with time, multitask, and won't prioritize schedule over relationships.

A little about my experience...

    I grew up in a bicultural house, my mom is a polychronic Mexican while my dad is a monochronic American. I don't define myself as exclusively one, I adapt to the circumstances and act accordingly, though I would say I have some tendency to be more monochronic sometimes. 
    While I appreciate time and think that is a way to show respect when you follow schedules, I also see how prioritizing relationships over procedures can be more inviting, and natural for others. An example I can give you is when I have to get to friend activities, I will prepare ahead of time to get on time, and even stress when things like traffic delay me, but once I am at the meeting site we won't start anything until everyone is there because it would be "heartless" otherwise, and I don't have problem with it. I have learned to live both ways and enjoy the pros and cons of each one.

About education...

    As a student, my schools would work more in a polyphonic way, the students would become friends with the teacher, and if they had any problem with a due date or the schedule they easily negotiate with the teacher and fix it. My dad would talk to me about his experience in a monochronic school and how precious time is. As a future TESOL teacher, I am aware that I will have to adapt to my students' culture and their view of time. I think it would be splendid if I could use both and help my student to have a new view in time.

Comentarios

Publicar un comentario

Entradas populares de este blog

10/16/21; Week 5: "Cultural Paradigms"

"Cultural Paradigms and TESOL" What are paradigms and how do they mold me?      Paradigms are the basis of how we interpreted our reality. You are exposed to different situations every day and you classify them whether it is something normal or strange, good or bad, acceptable or outrageous, but how do you get to these conclusions? Have you ever thought if it is the same for the rest of the world?      Your culture is full of paradigms, you have grown to know and accept things in a certain way, and though people with the same paradigms may differ in opinions, it is not compared with the scale difference you have when comparing it with other cultures.     Becoming aware of how paradigms form a person and how different one can be from another can help you overcome the cultural  barrier that forms when interacting with a foreign individual or in a foreign place. Now, regarding TESOL...     As you can imagine, besides affectin...
Leer más

10/26/21; Week 7: "Differences in Manners"

Imagen
Personal Experience  I remember one time when I was talking with friends from different cultures, the majority were American, there was one Korean guy and a Mexican girl (me). We were talking about how is the place where we live, when it was my turn I answered: "It's pretty nice if you don't mind listening to shootings in the middle of the night" Now, unless you are from my culture or have a similar one, you are probably shocked, my friends were no different. I left my phone for a minute to attend something and when I returned, I was met with conceded texts, I realized that even though it may be common here to shoot at the sky in the middle of the night to celebrate things like New Year's Eve, the Mexican Revolution, and the victory of your favorite soccer team, it could be considered dangerous and frightening to the rest of the world. I had to explain that everything was fine and be more careful with my comments from thereon....
Leer más

10/21/21; Week 6: "Individualism vs. Collectivism"

Imagen
  Little introduction... And yet another aspect of culture. Do you desire to be part of the group or do you desire to stand out and define your own persona? Collectivism culture takes pride in being part of an organized system and fear being labeled as the black sheep of the crowd, on the other hand, the individualism culture relish being unique and outstanding, while they feel captive if they have to follow the same protocol as everyone else.                                              Involving education...   So how does this affect education? When you work with a collectivist classroom you are working with a group and a group only, everyone will be treated the same, will have the same responsibilities, and the mistake of one will affect all. With an individualist classroom, every student will have a different idea of how things should be, how are they going to...
Leer más