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As a teacher, it is important to have an interest in the place in which you wish to reside and teach. It is also important to consider the cultural differences and issues that may arise from being in a different country from your own. What this means is that having a general understanding and knowledge for all aspects of the country and people is not necessarily a bad thing. For example, if a teacher has a fondness for Asian countries. Having said that, each country a teacher may have an interest in provides their own challenges and differences, considering no one country is fully alike. One example of this would be how in Japan and South Korea there is cultural consideration highly focused on both age and language level. It is important to learn the languages of the countries that most interest you. By understanding a foreign language and being able to compare it to the experiences that a TEFL teacher personally had as a student, granting them a unique insight as a TEFL teacher, as they can relate to the frustrations that their students are possibly or could possibly face. While speaking the secondary language should always be the primary goal, sometimes having the cultural and language knowledge works more as a benefit than a hindrance because students are able to connect with their teacher on another level. Meaning, if they are confused about a difficult word or concept I can try and explain it to them in their mother tongue for the sole purpose of helping to make the difficult part of my lesson more obtainable. It should never be depended on, however; it can be an extremely useful tool. The approach discussed in the previous paragraph highlighted the possible language experience advantages on the spoken language side of the spectrum. This is with consideration for a teacher and how they can benefit students in a monolingual classroom. Stepping from the monolingual classroom ideal, it is also important to consider the factors which could cause outside frustrations or confusion for students. Again, having experience in this matter offers benefits to students and their relationships with their teacher in the case of being in a multi-lingual setting. What is meant by this is that countries have several different habits or customs that others do not. For example, when in Japan, everyone walks, stands, and drives on the left side of the road, sidewalk, or pathways. This is completely opposite from America where people will instead do all of those things, typically, on the right side of the road. Although not a specific language based lesson, a cultural difference like this for multi-lingual classes could cause them to become frustrated when discussing real-life situations. Understanding the differences that can appear between cultures is important to consider as a teacher because when teaching a lesson about traffic laws, for example, it may be important to establish which country the teacher would be referencing when going over the vocabulary. Cultural awareness, interesting, understanding, and adaptability are all important things for students and teachers to learn alike. If teachers can sympathize with the challenges are passions exuded by their students than the results in the classroom will surely reflect in a positive light.
