Are there any elements in your home culture that are irrationally causing you to have low self-esteem? If so, what are they and how would you like to change them? Yes, there are elements, though I've grown used to or moved passed a lot of them. I'm overweight. I have acne. I eat too much sugar. I talk really awkwardly. I don't have a clean house or well-behaved children. Those are all things that people are judged for that make them feel less adequate. My culture promotes perfection to some degree and any status below that gives reasons to think less of yourself. It's not just aesthetics either. People determine your worth by how much you care about your self and your children. If you don't exercise, eat too many calories, over-indulge in sweets, shower too little, yell at your kids too much, don't discipline your kids enough, etc then people treat you like your less of a person and how can your self-esteem not be affected. In the church, I'm a topic of Branch council because my kids make too much noise during sacrament meeting. At the store, I'm stared at for trying to keep my kids in line. There doesn't seem to be any way to change how people judge you--just how much you care about what they think.
How do you think your home culture can be improved based on the knowledge you have received about how other cultures handle these situations? My home culture could not be so judgemental. It could allow people who are different to enjoy being different. Especially in the church, where we espouse to love everyone, there is so much categorization and judgment being passed that it's almost unbearable. My former Relief Society president wore a sundress to the beach and went to dinner in it afterward and posted pictures of it on facebook. She was told she was unworthy of her temple recommend, that she couldn't be sustained by the sisters, and that she should be ashamed. The members of my branch chased this active, strong member into inactivity because they decided they had a right to be judgmental. Ooh, I'm ranting now...sorry. This is supposed to relate to what Brother Ivers said...well, he said that the standards vary across cultures, but we're all affected psychologically from meeting or failing to meet our cultural expectations.
How will your home culture affect you and your students in a TESOL classroom? There might be some stereotype threat in the classroom. Where students know they're being judged by where they're from. This will take work to keep the affective filter low and help them see that they are being treated the same regardless of race or culture. I think some students will have lower self-esteem based on what the cultural expectations are for them in their home culture. I can't reprogram students, but I can try my best to raise their self-esteem so they can acquire a new language.
What insights did you gain about other cultures and your own culture? How can this new insight help cross-cultural understanding in your classroom? I think I learned mostly that there are a lot of paradigms that people hold themselves too. They are very vulnerable to feeling better or worse about themselves depending on how closely they fit the standards that they were taught makes a good man/woman/person. I think students will not always be able to express how and why they feel the way they do, so it will be important to remember that I will have to discern how a student feels about themselves and why. Then I can work on figuring out ways to help my students define their own healthy standards for self-esteem.
How do you think your home culture can be improved based on the knowledge you have received about how other cultures handle these situations? My home culture could not be so judgemental. It could allow people who are different to enjoy being different. Especially in the church, where we espouse to love everyone, there is so much categorization and judgment being passed that it's almost unbearable. My former Relief Society president wore a sundress to the beach and went to dinner in it afterward and posted pictures of it on facebook. She was told she was unworthy of her temple recommend, that she couldn't be sustained by the sisters, and that she should be ashamed. The members of my branch chased this active, strong member into inactivity because they decided they had a right to be judgmental. Ooh, I'm ranting now...sorry. This is supposed to relate to what Brother Ivers said...well, he said that the standards vary across cultures, but we're all affected psychologically from meeting or failing to meet our cultural expectations.
How will your home culture affect you and your students in a TESOL classroom? There might be some stereotype threat in the classroom. Where students know they're being judged by where they're from. This will take work to keep the affective filter low and help them see that they are being treated the same regardless of race or culture. I think some students will have lower self-esteem based on what the cultural expectations are for them in their home culture. I can't reprogram students, but I can try my best to raise their self-esteem so they can acquire a new language.
What insights did you gain about other cultures and your own culture? How can this new insight help cross-cultural understanding in your classroom? I think I learned mostly that there are a lot of paradigms that people hold themselves too. They are very vulnerable to feeling better or worse about themselves depending on how closely they fit the standards that they were taught makes a good man/woman/person. I think students will not always be able to express how and why they feel the way they do, so it will be important to remember that I will have to discern how a student feels about themselves and why. Then I can work on figuring out ways to help my students define their own healthy standards for self-esteem.
That story about your former Relief Society president is awful! That would sour me from attending church, too!
ReplyDeleteWe definitely have some serious cultural issues with being judgmental in our religion. I catch myself making unfair judgments too often and I hate it. I do my best to fix them but they're really unpleasant when they come. I feel like we're harder on our fellow saints than others who don't know or try to follow the commandments. I remember Lindsey Stirling getting a lot of flack for wearing something that wouldn't cover garments once, too. We've got to make sure we're actively focusing on the gospel and doing our best to combat the negative cultural habits that can come from being part of a typically conservative religious culture.