Culture in the classroom

I have some of my best thoughts and conversations in my one-on-one Chinese class. My teacher really knows what I am interested in, and always asks me what I think about [insert some topic I am really passionate about].

Anyways, we were talking about culture, and I asked her about how cultural impacts learning experiences in the classroom. I was really curious to see what she thought about American students having taught Chinese to many American students. She said that she thought about this topic often because in Taiwan it is unacceptable to hand-in assignments late, but many of her American students frequently hand in their assignments late.

I told her that late assignments was something American teachers found forgivable, and frequently, they accepted some bullshit excuse from the student and provided extensions. I told her despite this being acceptable, showing up late for class, or even more importantly, TEXTING or SLEEPING in class would get you kicked out.

She was kind of surprised by this. I told her that in Japan I was shocked because many students slept in class, and if I did that in an American classroom, my teacher would have me kicked out immediately. Of course, every teacher and every classroom is different, but generally speaking, it is important to pay attention in American classrooms.

I think this might have some relationship with how culture places values on different places particularly in education. I believe Americans very much value oral communication. Most of my assignments and tests in university were based on my ability to present, answer questions, or use material based on my teacher's lecture material(which meant going to class), and not the textbook. However, I feel in Asian society, particularly Japan and Taiwan, the emphasis is placed on written communication, which may be why handing in assignments is more important. Japanese and Taiwanese students tend to really focus on the texts they are provided, more so than Americans.

This same teacher mentioned last week that Japanese students always do their assignments and never ask many questions about the text. I, on the other hand, always come in with questions and ask for clarification on a specific word's usage or grammar structure. This cultural difference really came to light last semester when I had a really hard working Japanese girl in my class. At moments in class, she would not understand what the teacher was saying, but refused to ask for clarification. I asked her one day if she wanted to ask the teacher to explain more, but she said she felt it was disrespectful to the teacher and her classmates because she felt like it was her fault she didn't understand.

I found this type of belief to be held among many Japanese students, they worry their questions will disrupt the class, and will just try to figure it out on their own.

What things are acceptable or unacceptable in a classroom can show a lot about what each person's culture values.