Reflection Paper4

The insights I have gained from culture are many different things. For instance, culture is important in the way we view subjects and different things. Culture influences people in their daily lives and I think some decisions come from our culture and background. I have learned that a culture is a group of people who think very similar and act as one. People in a culture have certain ways that they do things such as dress, holiday celebrations, what foods they eat, etc. I have also learned that something like looking into an adult’s eye while talking to them could be disrespectful in another culture and that it isn’t always the right thing to do. I also learned that in some Hispanic cultures for Christmas Eve some will go to a family member’s house and they eat naca tamales, enchiladas, and flautas, etc and they drink. Before midnight they gather around the Christmas tree, pass around presents, open them and take pictures. They continue with the festivities they left before the opening of the presents and then at three in the morning they all return home. I think that culture is very important to a person because in a way it gives them an identity and makes them feel a part of something unique. I think it is important to be aware of the different cultures, as a teacher, in order to understand your students. As a teacher it is inevitable that the group of students you will have will be strongly culturally different. We must be able to put aside cultural differences in order to manage a class room but still be aware of them so that we do not offend any students. I think it is important to be intercultural competent because it can give you the chance to connect with your students and to know their customs so that you understand where they are coming from when they talk about a certain tradition or whatnot. I think it would be a good idea to have a class discussion of the different cultures and how they celebrate different things so that students become aware of how people do things differently so that in the future when they come across someone who does things differently than they do that they will not offend that person.