For answering this question it is important to distinguish between tools for me as a person who travels to a foreign country and me as a foreign language teacher.
When I am in a foreign country in most cases I enter a new culture as well. To become more open-minded towards that culture it is important to question things that are different to my own culture. Therefore you should try to avoid to face the other culture with prejudices. In many cases it is better to talk to the people of that country and ask them about things that feel strange for you. Only then can you become more open- minded and you understand the culture around you. After that the step of getting yourself into the culture is really easy.
In the role of a foreign language teacher it is my task to get the children more open-minded towards foreign cultures. From my point of view it is closely connected to the development of intercultural competence. Firstly children should improve their knowledge concerning other cultures.Only when they have enough background knowledgethey are able to deal with differences. But if you start teaching a foreign language or other cultures in general, you should first work out the similiarities with the culture the children of the class belong to.That can bedone with mind mapping or group dicussions about cultural topics. Only if pupils are aware of the similarities the teacher can avoid that they are prejudiced. Another important tool that pupils become more open. minded is the real contact to children from other countries. That can easily be done with the help of e-mail projects. Students at younger ages can write e.g. about their hobbies. Afterwards they can find out if the foreign children share their hobbies or if they have other ones. This can really help to get in contact and to become more open minded, especially for younger pupils. With older students these e-mail projects can revolve around themes like global warming or globalisation in general. They can discuss about it and have to learn to be tolerant to lead a good, successful conversation.
Whenever it is possible teachers should offer exchanges to get in real contact to students of other countries. Then the students can talk to each other and ask about different manners. If exchanges are not possible, the teacher needs to construct authentic situations to support the development of open- mindness. This can easily be done through role plays. Here the pupils have to change their own point of views and simulate the other culture. It is necessary that they try to understand their part and therefore they develop a certain tolerance towards other cultures. That leads, of course, to more open-mindness. With older children it is important to have many discussions and debates. They need to question and reflect their own culture to be able to argue about others. As a teacher you should enable your students to have a critical look on the world and its many different cultures.
What kind of questions can you ask in order to reach understanding od a known- unknown situation?
Classroom in Laos
In order to understand the school life in Laos, you can ask question like the following:
Is it normal that you have animals in the classroom?
Which education do teachers have in Laos?
When does your schoolday start/end, because it seems that there is only natural light in the classroom.
As one can see on the picture, there is a dog in the classroom and this is a very unfamiliar situation for me. In Germany we only have animals in the classroom when we have special projects.
Furthermore I asked myself which education you need to become a teacher in Laos because the man on the picture looks really young. Moreover I don't know anything about the timetable of the pupils in Laos. I asked myself if they start school when the sun comes out or whether they have artificial loght as well. |
| Laos |
Classroom in Eritrea
Concerning the picture of the Eritrean classroom it was unfamiliar that they don't have chairs and tables, robust walls as well as a blackboard. When I want to reach an understanding of this unknown situation, I wocuestions about the facilities of the schools and how teaching is proceeded there. Furthermore I would like to know how teachers manage to teach different age groups at the same time. I also can not imagine, which methods the teachers use to educate the children because it seems that they only get input by the teacher and less student's activities. In order to understand this, I would like to know which possibilities for learning exist in Eritrea.
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| Eritrea |
Danish classroom
For understanding the things that happened in the Danish classroom, I have to ask questions about the things I already know. In many seminars students often ask: 'Where is the teacher?'. The reason for this question is that lessons are really open in Denmark and the focus is made on individual learning. Another question revolves around the use of media. Is it necessary for the learning process to use so much of it? It would be interesting to see how lessons at university proceed without any media and if professors are still able to lead a qualitative seminar without it. On top of this there is the question why everyone is looking in different directions during class. Is it because of the changing role of the teacher and the concept of individual learning or are there other reasons?
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| Denmark |
