Teaching to a multi-cultural student body.

As an English teacher who has worked at international schools for the past few years, I have had ample experience with multi-cultural classrooms. Ironically enough,(considering that I'm American) I now have more experience working with students of Asian backgrounds than western. As such, my experiences teaching have made me realize that a sizable minority of those who work in western systems are unintentionally zenophobic, intolerant, and/or incapable of addressing students in their cultural terms. This has disastrous results on students who are subject to this, as it causes resentment and disengagement. Considering that we now live in a global world, where companies source both our bosses and peers from all over, having a wide range of cultural understandings and experiences are no longer just a cherry on top of the resume, but practically a necessity to be competitive both at home and internationally. The advantages of these experiences are wide-ranging; many people could name some of the more obvious benefits such as increased synergy/cooperation among those with different backgrounds, but many benefits are rather subtle, from knowing the appropriate persuasive appeals to make, to being able to correctly interpret the nuances of another persons actions/words. I always am reminded of different stories I keep hearing about American businessmen traveling to Japan and China, and their business deals either falling through or encountering multiple hurdles due to the straightforwardness of the Americans, and their inability to understand the subtleties that dictate what the locals say and do in such meetings. Another benefit that I am particularly interested in and find especially important is how it can help students develop their critical thinking skills; the ability to put oneself into someone else's shoes is directly dependent on how well you understand that person; what drives them, what values they have, etc. Even in the same country, there are different cultures, I'm often reminded of this with my southern upbringing and how we are often expected and required to be extremely polite or "gentlemanly", and sometimes this has resulted in a northerner misinterpreting my responses as overtures to friendship when really I wanted nothing more than to never see them again.

English provides a ripe medium for exposing students to diversity- the easiest and most common method simply involves using texts from different cultures. Often it is a simple matter of finding translated texts or videos with subtitles. I also utilize the students individual perspectives in their analyses; by sharing their analyses, they can easily see how different cultures interpret texts through their own cultural lens. I also bring my own experiences from America and various countries in Asia to the discussion, which often makes for a lively discussion. Students best show competence in their understanding of other cultures through the creation of rebuttals. Once students have spent enough time writing strong theses and papers, one of the last proficiencies they have to master is the ability to find counterarguments- the strongest arguments opponents might make, discuss them in their essay, then show how or why that specific perspective is wrong or overvalued. Without a clear understanding of other cultures and their resultant perspectives, students cannot perform this activity well, as it requires a deep understanding of how values change across cultures, which is easily the hardest aspect of the analysis, as you must be aware of your own hierarchy of values first, then be able to imagine a world where those values are no longer correct, or at least not in the same order.