Understanding Other Cultures

Ethnocentricity is common to every cultural group. It is what we base our perceptions on about others, and thus we judge according to what is familiar to us. Many people have not had much experience with other cultures or foreign languages, or even people with foreign accents. This results in miscommunication. Take the following example. Does this sound familiar?

A young man from say India works as a troubleshooter for a large telecommunications company. He works with small businesses, and people, often frustrated with technology, call him when they need technical assistance. He often must defuse volatile situations, track down errors and troubleshoot to get things up and running as quickly as possible. Juan answers the phone, and the person on the other end barks, “I need someone who speaks English!” Juan is confused, “Sir, I speak English. What can I do for you?” with an accent, and the gentleman on the other end replies, “Get me someone in the United States – now!”

Accents are perceived as lack of language mastery. This is a result of ethnocentrism, and it colors our outlook on the rest of the world, including our interactions with immigrants to the U.S., and those who speak with foreign accents.

Schools in the U.S. are grounded in beliefs shaped by the mainstream dominant culture: white, European, and English speaking. School curricula aligns with this dominance, and they reflect the underlying values as they would in other countries. Inadvertently and unwittingly, barriers are created for minority students (George & Aronson, 2003). Newcomers to the country are bound to encounter cross-cultural conflicts in every area of life, especially in the classroom. All components to their culture – language, behaviors, cultural beliefs, values – become challenged because they are not congruent with the host country’s.

Non-native speakers of English are quickly marked as newcomers. Instinctively, people who have no conspicuous accent are understood and may be accepted as “one of us” much sooner. Someone who has an accent, no matter how good his or her English is, may know the rules of the American culture, and while we may “forgive” them when making inappropriate social or cultural blunders, we never completely accept them. The one who speaks native-like English must live up to a higher level of expectations, so in addition to speaking like a native we expect them to behave like one as well

Here is an example of cultural misunderstanding:

Jack a study-abroad student from America, spending the summer in Spain. He was invited to dinner at his friend’s family restaurant at 7 p.m.  He arrives inadvertently late because he did not understand the train schedule. Nobody is there, so he assumes he missed the dinner and feels terrible because in the States when someone arrives late it is perceived as rude. Realizing nobody is there, he orders a meal by himself at the bar, but soonafter is greeted by his friends who exclaim “Now we begin the party!” Being late in Spain, isn’t the same as being late in the United States. Now imagine someone from Spain arriving late for a party in their honor, would the reaction be the same?

What are similar cultural misunderstandings that can occur in a classroom?