Intervention with experts
Expert 1
Joseph is an Australian Online English teacher who had lived in Thailand for more than 10 years. He has 4 years of teaching experience with people from different countries and experiences of living in different countries so he has a high level of cultural competence.
I randomly picked 4 questions and we answered them together. He told me some cultures of Australia but also other countries based on his cultural knowledge.
Joseph’s feedback
“Personally, I am fine with that. They are not intrusive questions and not bother me anyway. Interesting questions because it highlights that we have common things. We do celebrate the same things in a little different way. With all that country are being to, we eat different food, we look different, people are different religions, different everything but we are all the same. We had a basic fundamental of human beings, we all want the same thing.”
“You gotta remove the culture and that is what I did. I look beyond. Of course there’s difference between culture and languages. The basic of the human are the same.”
Expert 2
Alma is an Online Spanish teacher and she has lived in London for 4 years. She loves getting to know different cultures and always has conversations about culture with her students from all over the world.
I did this intervention with Alma. She explained a lot about her culture such as what nap actually is in Spain. And she is always curious about Chinese culture as well and she asked many questions. So we only had time to do 3 questions in this card game.
Alma’s feedback
“I think it’s very fun. I think it’s really interesting to know the differences between cultures. Especially with cultural differences to China and Spain because I think here in Spain, although there are many Chinese people, they normally have their communities and I don’t really know. I mean I think now with Chinese culture, a lot of teenagers nowadays have classmates who are Chinese, but when I was in school, I had never known one Chinese classmate so I never had a chance to talk to people from China, talk about these things. I don’t think we know much about China. It’s really interesting to talk to you. All the little things you told me, I find really fun.”
“Clearly, there are similarities. Even though the cultures are different, I think Asian cultures are different from European cultures. I think there are lots of similarities. I think the traditional knowledge, all those little things that pass down from generation to generation, are those pieces of advice. I think they are very similar. I think the fact that food is so important. You have your time, you might organise your day around food as well, like in the morning, you had to take into account that you’re gonna have breakfast and then lunch. You will have dinner around the table with your family and talk about your day. Yeah, I think there are lots of similarities. Families are important to every culture. The way we try to raise children is also very similar.
Tips to get along with people from different cultures
“I think the most important thing is to be open and very curious. Not to be judgmental. I find it really interesting to see how people do things differently. And actually, I really like to try. Every time you tell me about those little things, I really would have to try. I think it is the differences that make it interesting rather than you know obviously, we have things in common but I think the differences are very interesting. It helps us to understand the culture. I like the differences. I see the similarities but I love the differences.”