Teach English in ChengwuxianbaifutuZhen - Heze Shi

Teachers have one of the most important roles in society. They have the chance to make a lasting impact on the next generation of citizens. It is the teacher’s duty to do everything they can to educate and build the confidence of their students. There are many obstacles that can make the teacher’s job significantly more difficult. One of the biggest obstacles a teacher will face is teaching students of different nationalities. This is an obstacle because of the language barrier, gestures, and religious differences. The language barrier is probably the most obvious problem one will face as a teacher of students of different nationalities. Speaking a different language than another person can potentially cause many problems. When someone does not fully understand the language, they can easily say or do something that could be misunderstood. For example, some languages are more tonal while others use little to no tone at all. Let’s take Korean and English for example. Tones are used in English to convey different emotional meanings, asking questions, as well as signaling for a reply. However, when someone is speaking standard Korean, tones are only used when asking questions. Therefore, when compared to English, Korean is a relatively monotone language. If there was a class of Korean students learning English from a native English-speaker, there are many times when the students could miscommunicate with the teacher and each other through tones. Students could misunderstand feelings of annoyance, anger, and even humor. For the most part, this is a fairly harmless issue, but it is still an obstacle that occurs when you are teaching students of different nationalities. Gestures and other means of communication can also be a potential problem when someone is teaching people of different nationalities. Some gestures are fine to use in some cultures, while they are frowned upon in other cultures. Take America and South Korea for example. In American culture, when you want to call someone over to you, you would fan your hand in an upwards manner with your palm facing up. If you did this in South Korea, it would be considered rude, arrogant, and as if you are calling over a dog. In South Korea it is best to keep your palm towards the ground. Eye contact could also be a potential problem. In American culture, eye contact is a way to be respectful to another person as they are speaking to you. However, in South Korea prolonged eye contact is considered disrespectful. The teacher needs to do their fair share of research to figure out which gestures could be offensive to one of their students. Another problem a teacher will face when teaching students of different nationalities is having students of different religious backgrounds. There are certain things that are not okay to do or say to others, especially when they do not understand the other person’s religion. A simple, and meaningless, thing such as a high five or a pat on the shoulder could be highly offensive to someone of another religion. For example, in Christianity people would not think anything of a pat on the shoulder. If you did the same thing to a Muslim woman, it would be considered rude and disrespectful. In order to avoid this issue, it is best to do research on the area in which you will be teaching as well as take on a more conservative approach to the way you interact with your students. It is the teacher’s responsibility to do research on the country in which they are teaching. There are many things that a he or she must take into consideration. What is the best way to get past the language barrier? Are there any gestures you should avoid using? How will religious differences affect your teaching style? If a teacher takes all these things into consideration, they will have done their absolute best for their students.