How Well Do You Communicate With Other Cultures?

Working as an Early Childhood Educator, I do find myself communicating with people of different cultures, religions, ethnicities, etc. Amongst my staff alone, in a professional setting, I communicate with various individuals from different cultures. I learned that some topics I can speak about with people of certain cultures, while other's do not understand exactly what I am talking about. As no one person is alike, I also talk differently with my own family members. For example, I can talk to my brother about music and making beats, but can not talk to my cousin about these topics. I can talk to my cousin about acting, but my brother would have no clue what I was talking about. We encounter different people of different cultures everyday, sometimes without even realizing it.
The same applies with my parents and children in my classroom. I communicate with all of my parents differently. The way I communicate with one parent may not be the best way to communicate with another. Some of my parents like my full honesty when discussing their children while other parents would rather not focus on the objectives that need enhancement but one the objectives already accomplished. Growing up in a Jamaican household, with a father and uncles who were raised by a father from Hong Kong, and an Irish grandfather, not to mention all who have lived under British rule for years, I have learned to adapt and communicate with others from different cultures. I have come to appreciate the essence of diversity within my parents and children, as I try to infuse such diversity into my classroom.

How Would You Interpret This?

The show that I chose to watch was the "Modern Family". I have seen bits and pieces of this show, but was never truly intrigued by it. In the segment I was watching, the woman, who I already knew was the mother, was fussing at the young boy, who I already knew was the son. In the episode, based on body language, she was pregnant, and using her hands and fingers to gesture what she was saying. It appeared that she was fussing at the young boy, but the young boy was laughing. This was kind of confusing to me. Her hands were flaring in the air, and she was pointing her fingers at the young boy. Then she turned around, as though someone said something to her. That was even more confusing. As the young boy was laughing, she walked away, and it appeared as if she was crying. I assumed in this segment of the show, she was yelling at the young boy for something, and I guess the young boy found it hilarious.

After turning off the mute button, I learned that the mother was fussing at the boy because according to the son, she snores like a gorilla in heat. The mother was trying to explain to the son, and to the father, who was standing behind her, that because she was pregnant, her hormones were out of whack. This is when she begin to wave her hands and fingers in the air, demonstrating how passionate she was about the conversation at hand. When she turned around, was when the father made a comment about her snoring, which triggering the young boy to laugh even harder. The young boy was laughing because according to him, the mother has always tried to be this prissy individual, who thought it was unlady like for any woman to snore, and now she is the one snoring. The young boy found this hilarious, which was why he was laughing so hard.

My perceptions of the actions portrayed in the show were not too far off, but they were off in some points. I couldn't understand why the young boy was laughing so hard at the mother, while she was showing that she obviously was upset about something. Also, the boys facial expressions were also confusing, as I was trying to understand what he was implying, but had a hard time. The elements of communication demonstrated in this show was some what explanatory, but also kind of difficult to decipher. In this show, it also demonstrated that her method of communication was not very effective in getting her point across to her son and husband, as neither the son nor her husband took her seriously, or even attempted to understand her point of view. Clearly, her flaring her arms, hands and fingers in the son's face and in the air were not very effective ways in communicating her feelings and emotions regarding the topic.

Either way, I am still not intrigued by the show....lol

How Well Do You Communicate?

Growing up, I have encountered many forms of communication. For example, growing up in a Jamaican household, many of my family members, when excited, tend to speak extremely loud. One who is unfamiliar with this, would assume that an argument is taking place, when in fact, my family expresses their form of communication very passionately. One person, who I believe demonstrates competent communication is mother. I love they way she articulates her thoughts, how she allows the other individual to express their thoughts and concerns, no matter how much she may disagree, she does not interrupt. She just has this way of making the other individual think about about what they are saying. After they have said all they had to say, the look on their face is priceless. I have experienced this myself, too often. Now that I am older, and have my own family and children, I hope to one day develop the ability to be patient and listen first, before interrupting or disagreeing with another, no matter how passionate I am about the discussion.

My Professional Hopes and Goals for the Early Childhood Field

I would like to begin by thanking my 6164 Perspective Diversity community for all their support and guidance throughout these eight weeks. This course has been a very interesting one, and I wish my 6164 community all the best as they continue to strive for greatness throughout there MSECS program.

One hope that I have when thinking about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is providing these families with a level of acceptance and compassion beyond words. I always tell my husband, "actions speak louder than words", and providing diverse families of various backgrounds with a spirit of humbleness, acceptance and gratitude is the first step. The reason I say gratitude is because, without the diversity of these families, coming here to america and their willingness to expose and share their cultures with us, we would only have access to a limited level of diversity to display and share within our classrooms and amongst our children, so we should also be thankful that our multi-cultural families are open to sharing their cultures and levels of diversity with us.

One goal that I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity and social justice is the hiring of more adequate and qualified teachers, who are open and humbled by the leverage that each of these variables hold. Diversity within a classroom is the epitome of our social world today. The level of inequity displayed in society today is the very reason why knowledge, comprehension and deliverance of equity in early child care is imperative today. We as teachers, often times become so engulfed in our biases, personal issues and internalized privileges that we disregard how our personal social injustices affect the social justices due to our children. It is time that we all jump on the same bang wagon and strive for the best for our young children, in the field of Early Childhood Education.

Welcome to America !!!

The country of origin that I chose is Comoros. Comoros is an African Island, located on the Indian Ocean, found between Mozambique and Madagascar. In this country, the known religion is Muslim.

One aspect of the Muslim religion is the importance of time spent with a child's mother. In response to this, as the child is away from his/her mother for a substantial amount of time, I will make it my duty to make the child feel as comfortable as possible by showing much more extra attention.

I will also encourage the other children to make the child feel much more comfortable by encouraging interactions with the child.

As the child is out of their element and away from home and familiarity, I will place photos and pictures of Comoros, as well as families dressed in Muslim and Comorian attire to help make the child feel a little more comfortable.

We will explore as we dissect different aspects of the country and the dominant religion of Muslim by learning about Ramadan, and reading books about the Comorian island. .

As the child explores the classroom, and becomes much more acquainted with the different areas in the classroom, I will also place familiar clothing in the Dramatic Play area. Clothing such as the Shiromeni worn by women and long color skirts and Koffia hats worn by the men.

Lastly, Comorian people are known for their fresh fruits and vegetables. We will also incorporate such activities into the classroom, through cooking experiments and other various activities.

I believe these preparations will benefit both me and the child , as I learn more about this country and its' dynamics, while he/she learns to adapt to this country. We will help one another as we provide one another with diverse information to be shared in the classroom. The level of diversity will be beyond measure and dynamically used for the enhancement of his/her's education.

My Personal encounter with Biases and Prejudices

In all honesty, I can not recall any incidents where I was exposed to biases or prejudices. However, my brother has been exposed to this. My brother was walking with his friend, to the bank, in the afternoon. On his way to the bank, two police officers walked behind my brother and grabbed him by his shirt. They placed him against the wall, and placed hang cuffs on him. My brother's friend, dumb-founded, stood helpless as he sought to find out why my brother was being arrested. My brother continuously asked why was he being arrested, but nothing was told to him. All he was told was to be quite. When he arrived to the precinct, the officer told him that they received a call from a woman who's purse was stolen, and he matched the description given. After being given further information, my brother explained to the officers that he was no where near that vicinity. I vividly recall the day my mother received the call from my brother that he was being held in "county" for something that he did not do. After much paperwork and deliberation, they released my brother with a simple, "oh, sorry". I recall how livid I was, and even considered pressing charges. My brother, however, felt completely different. He did not argue with the officers, but accepted the apology and even shook the hands of the officers. I learned a lot from my brother in this situation and I truly applaud his humbleness and his lack of aggression.  

Has this ever happened to you?

This week, I have been carefully monitoring and observing any evidence of microaggression in my classroom. To my surprise, my first encounter with microaggression happened to me. As many of you know, my family is of Jamaican decent. Many of the foods we eat are considered "unappetizing" to others. This week, I decided to pack lunch, from left over dinner cooked the night before. As I arrived to work, I was unloading my bags, as to refrigerate my lunch. My assistant teacher just happen to walk over towards me. I noticed that she was making up her face, as to suggest she smelled something foul. I asked her what was wrong, and she replied, "what's that?". I asked her "what's what?" She replied "what's that in the container?" I said "Oh, it's my lunch. I made dinner last night". She asked "What is it?" I told her it was pig's tail with red peas, but in Jamaica we call it Stew Peas and rice. While making up her face she said "Eww, why ya'll eat that? That's nasty?". At this point, I was quite tempted to respond in a very inappropriate way, but recollecting back to this course, I maintained my objectivity and explained to her that all cultures are different and not everyone eats the same foods that she eats. For example, in my culture, we do not eat chitlins', fat back, lard, or any other foods along the same lines, all of which is common in her daily diet. In explaining this, I reiterated "It still does not give me the right to make you feel like what you eat is disgusting or unacceptable". She calmly shook her head in agreement and, to my surprise, she apologized.

I found this experience to be a positive experience, in the sense that she recognized her microaggression and was willing to take responsibility for her actions. There were so many angles that I could have approached this situation, but in taking this course of Perspectives on Diversity and Equity, I acknowledge that ignorance begets ignorance.

...Please feel free to respond and share how you would have handled this situation differently...