Three Ways: A Guide for American Teachers
I was surprised and felt that weird strangers greeted me in America when I still was a newcomer from China. Sometimes, someone would greet me, but I didn’t notice and realize that person was calling me. In China, people neither say greetings nor smile at strangers. Rather, in America, if someone didn’t respond to the greetings, it would be regarded as impolite. Therefore, I think it is important and necessary to learn about another culture if teachers are going to have a long-time interaction with students. Maybe, everyone has learned about Chinese culture from restaurants, movies, or news. However, most Americans still have misinterpretations of Chinese cultures. The following essay will give information about China to avoid cross-cultural conflicts. These are individualism, privacy, and customs.
First, American teachers should tell Chinese students about American individualism. Most Chinese parents would limit children to build their own individualism. Chinese were not trained to consider how to decide or be responsible for their own life when they were still children. People mostly just walked the road which had already been arranged by their parents. Parents are responsible for their eating, living, and education until they become adults. People also will be independent and leave their parents when they become adults. However, most young Chinese are not willing to leave their parents. A part of them are still living with the support of parents even though they already have a job. Chinese parents still will be worried about their children when their children are independent from them. On the other hand, children are also responsible for returning to take care of parents when they get old and retire, in the future. If someone didn’t support and take care of their old parents, he or she would be despised by society. Even Chinese laws convey people to fulfill this duty. In America, most children are trained at an early age to consider for themselves their future life. When they have the ability to change economic circumstances themselves, they will be expected to live apart from their parents and have an independent life. America would look down upon the person who was concerned excessively with the opinions of parents. On one hand, they would be grateful for leaving parents to do their own thing. On the other hand, American parents would be gratified that their children could be independent from them. Therefore, it is different for individualism between China and America. In Chinese mind, American parents just finish their duty of raising children, and American young adults refuse to take care of their parents. In order to prevent the cross-culture conflicts on some occasions, American teachers ought to tell Chinese students about American individualism. If not, they would consider America a relatively cold country.
Secondly, American teachers should let Chinese students know how important privacy is in America. It is harmful for Chinese to be unaware that privacy is very important. Chinese hardly pay attention to privacy. At home, I was required to keep the door unlocked except sleeping time, and my father never knocked my door before entering. At school, if someone lost something, teachers have the right to check other bags to make sure nobody stole the item. However, nobody can refuse the teacher when they violate student’s privacy; if they did the person would be regarded as the thief. In their opinion, if people are innocent and did not do a bad thing, they would not be afraid to show their privacy. In America, privacy is important to everyone. To protect their privacy, Americans suggest the government canceling the traffic cameras. Besides, recently Apple was adamant that its system would protect their users’ privacy on cell phones from monitoring by the FBI. In China, the government is not able to do that because privacy is not as important as safety. To avoid cross-cultural conflicts, American teachers should let Chinese students know how important privacy is in America. Some behaviors would not be realized that Chinese students had violated others’ privacy, such as entering someone’s room directly or checking other items without agreement by the owner. So it is important and necessary for Chinese students to know how important private privacy is in America.