Culture, Personality and Learning English

Another wonderful article sent by one of our followers:

I have been teaching English as a foreign language on the Internet for three years now.  It’s work that I love.  I get to travel the planet while sitting at my desk (sometimes in my pajamas!).  I talk with Brazilian engineers, Chinese doctors, Spanish civil servants, French job-seekers, Japanese medical representatives, Egyptian expatriates, and Mexican students, among others.  As I try to de-mystify the English language for my students, I get to hear first-hand what is going on in our small world.  The Present simple: “How is the weather today?”  and “What do you usually eat for lunch/for dinner?”  The Perfect tenses: “How has the family changed in the last 20 years?” and “Have you been personally affected by the tsunami/the revolution/the crisis?”  As a very curious city girl from the USA, now living in a small French town, I can’t think of any other job which could spare me from the collateral damage that inevitably comes with the culture shock.

In fits and starts, one faux pas at a time, I have figured out how to navigate my way in my new country.  Nothing can heighten cultural sensitivity in a curious city girl from the USA like being married into a French family which has lived in the same town for seven generations.  No hugging.  No enthusiastic waving of the hand.   Bread placed on the table, not on your dinner plate.  Hanging out with the locals, who refer to me at times with derision and at other times with pride, as l’américaine, I can really see how American I am and always will be. 

I’ve always shied away from stereotypes and generalizations, preferring instead to greet each individual as just that – an individual.  Someone it is only possible to know over time and through experience.  Yet, my own daily Franco-American experience seems to insist upon the validity of certain national characteristics.  And my daily experience as a teacher of various nationalities seems to confirm this validity.  After all, even as we each have our own remarkably unique personalities, we are all in some way or another, the product of the remarkably unique social and cultural environment in which we have been steeped.   

As if in confirmation of the link between culture and personality, I began to notice that my students interacted with me and approached their on-line lessons in nationality-specific ways. 

 How to explain the meticulous Japanese who always go above and beyond the call of duty?  Why read only one chapter when you can read the entire book, write a synopsis, and create a PowerPoint presentation?  What about all the Chinese who are hard-working students and brimming with undying love for English and English speakers?  The Brazilians who, almost without fail, treat their lessons like verbal physical training programs.  Ready.  Set.  Go!  Even the beginners speak during the entire class without stopping 40, 60, 120 minutes or more minutes.  Then there are all the Italian male students who can’t help but flirt with their teacher.  The Germans who insist that they must improve their English, but who actually speak and write better than the average American (okay, not a fair comparison).  And the Koreans who don’t know that it is possible to have fun in life, let alone while learning English?  Then there are the French who know that it is possible to have fun in life, but who haven’t made that link with learning English.  The French come to English class like most people come to the dentist: flinching, their mouths reluctantly open, but no sound coming out.

Curious girl that I am, I wonder if any other teachers have noticed any such generalizations among their students.  Surely, if student behavior can be categorized according to nationality, surely teachers must exhibit certain predictable characteristics according to the passport they carry.

What are your observations?

M.A. Chester