Saturday, September 21, 2013
Communicating with Others
How we communicate with others says a lot about who we are. All my life I've been raised to be the same no matter who you are around. But I was also raised by parents who lived on a farm and hardly ever got off of the farm. When working in a public place, it kind of seems different. I mean I do act the same around all the people, but the things I talk about differ with each person. I feel very close to my Pre-K teachers (There are 3 of us). The kindergarten teachers seem a little more distant although we are all in the same building. When it's just the pre-k teachers at lunch, I feel comfortable talking about things that are a bit more personal or being dirty minded.. ya know.. lol! We talk about things I would never share with the rest of the faculty at school. Sometimes you kind of know when the people you are around will allow you to talk about personal stuff or be dirty minded (lol). It's usually pretty easy to read someones attitude before you are even talking to them. I try to treat everyone the same. I don't have much experience of talking with people of others cultures or races. I do know that if I go into a store and there is someone of another culture at the checkout, i am usually WAY more nice to them than I would be an American. I feel like they need to be welcomed properly so they don't look down on the US. I tend to talk more with them than I would an American.
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Shanda,
ReplyDeleteLol..I am left wondering how you communicate with your students? I also was raised in an rural area most of my life but in that time, I realized that I communicated differently with all cultural groups in different ways. Do you feel that effective communication hinders you and the other Pre K teachers? How do you feel about being other oriented when you think that other groups need to feel welcomed properly? In other words, I guess I am just not getting your point.
"I don't have much experience of talking with people of others cultures or races. I do know that if I go into a store and there is someone of another culture at the checkout, i am usually WAY more nice to them than I would be an American."
ReplyDeleteAre you ashamed of being American? I mean it's okay because that is how you feel, but you need to open up some and get some culture if you are teaching kids. How are you going to deal with the parents if they are a different race than you or came here established citizenship and are mean to you because you are not of their national origin? How would you react to that because what you are saying is that you have favorites...That isn't good.
I am not ashamed of being American. I just know that often times others are treated unfairly and I am overly nice to people so I like to make all people feel welcome. I'm not saying I have favorites. I simply stated, I dont have experience with culture. I teach in a small town in Oklahoma and everyone there is Cherokee Indian or White. I have always lived on a farm and haven't done much traveling. I've definitly never been to another country and I can barely say I've been to another state. In my five years of teaching I have had 2 students from Laos that came here to live on a chicken farm. They were both in my class the same year so I've had 4 years with no diversity. I treated them with respect and they treated me with respect. I never said I have favorites, I just said I don't have experience. And just like college, reading a book or observing others will never get you the experience you need. You need put into a situation where you must communicate with them to ever learn how to properly communicate with them.
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