What is your cultural background? Does your family celebrate certain traditions?
My cultural background is celtic and I guess many of the family traditions we follow are English as my only living grandparent is English. This can be as simple as always having a cup of tea when we are having a chat and many expressions we use come from our English, Scottish and Irish heritage. Our sense of humour is definitely derived from these origins.
What advantages and/or obstacles do you think might be involved in tutoring students from culturally diverse backgrounds?
I find many people I meet from other cultural backgrounds are very eager to learn about you and your country. I can see that in a tutoring situation this could become problematic as the boundries between being a tutor and being a friend could become blurred. I would look at this on a case by case basis but would always be happy to offer help about where to find things, who to contact, what to see etc outside of my role as a tutor.
I can see a big barrier could be language and Kiwis are great with their colloquialisms! I notice sometimes that converstation can be slow and stilted with someone from another culture and often humour between both parties is not understood.
One advantage is it could make it more interesting and challenging for me to tutor someone from another culture and I am always interested in learning about other people’s cultures too.
How might you encourage a positive tutorial environment with students from culturally diverse backgrounds?
Be patient particularly with communication difficulties and don’t assume that someone is not very bright because they don’t understand you. Rephrase your questions and tell them to ask if they don’t understand as well as asking them yourself if they are understanding you.
It might pay to begin with to talk about what they are studying, what their goals are, how they feel about being here, what they have seen here etc as well as giving some of your own background. This will help to establish a rapport and build some trust and a more familiar environment for the sudent to be in.
Describe a personal experience in which differences in cultural values contributed to an interesting perspective. What did you do to encourage this interaction?
I remember many years a go when I was travelling in Turkey, I was in a small town which wasn’t as touristy as many on the West Coast. The days were very hot and humid so I wore clothes that I would wear here if it was very hot and humid (chance would be a fine thing) such as shorts and sleeveless tops.
I was a little taken a back when some of the locals, particularly older ones, started ‘tutting’ at me and the odd man would spit on the ground near me. I found the response of these local people a little frightening especially since I was unaware of what was so obviously upsetting them about me.
I was later to learn that my state of dress was considered inappropriate for a women in this culture (except in the big cities and touristed areas). As I was travelling alone, had I been aware of this I would have endeavoured to cover up (but it is a hot country!!!)
