Julia CP #4

Date/Time: 2/4/16 1 pm
Location: CIES Lounge
Topic discussed: Today's topic in the cultural exchange was culture and education. We conversed in small groups about expectations from the teacher and expectations from the student in each of our cultures. We talked about and demonstrated certain classroom behaviors from our home countries. Also, Ramin made a point to discuss the underlying reasons as to why there are these certain expectations and behaviors in our cultures. 

Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: First we discussed the expectations of the teacher. I was surprised to learn that in Thailand the teacher does not give verbal feedback or correction in front of the students so as not to embarrass them. In the United States, correcting errors in front of the class is a common behavior so that other students may learn from their mistakes. Another practice that I learned about is that in Kuwait the teachers do not give homework. Instead, they assign work for the students to do at the end of the day in class. The teacher then corrects the work before the students leave so that they know how much the students retained from that day's lessons. Afterwards, we discussed the expectations of the student which were pretty similar in each of our cultures. For the final activity we modeled classroom behavior from our cultures. In Thailand the students bow to the teacher when they entered the room. Abdullah went to a military school in Kuwait and would have to stand and tap his foot when the teacher entered the room.