Manners And Verbal Expressions Across Cultures

 2/13/13    
       

       After watching this video, I found it very interesting to learn the different manners to be aware of towards different cultures.
       When listening of the story about Asian cultures or middle eastern cultures; they do not call people by their first name. According to the people of Asian people, they describe their relationships when speaking to someone rather than calling them by their first name. For Example, Amys mother; instead of saying Mary. I wonder if it is the same as my family saying Mormor , which is Swedish for saying Mothers mother also known as Grandma in American? Also when I was brought up , I was told when speaking to an adult it is respectful to approach them by addressing them as Mr. or Mrs. (last name). And listening more to the video, I learned that in some cultures their first name is really their last name but sequenced first ! I never knew that.
      Another part of the video I found interesting that it is not acceptable to compliment babies in Indian cultures. And that they put a mark on the babies head to remind people not to. Also complimenting or praising people from Philippians and Asian cultures. There causes a tension , because they think, wasn't I doing well before my compliment? Also that they do not want to accept a promotion because you are then taking them out of from what they know.
     When Norine Dresser spoke about people from other cultures not saying what they really mean; in the case of asking the class " does everybody understand?" and the class would say "yes " and node their heads when not being fully honest. I can understand the childern who do this, even though I am not from another culture as a child I would say yes because I didn't want to be pointed out as the only one who didn't know. Which in fact there were probably many other students in the class room who did not understand and could have benefited from any questions being asked. However she then spoke about what to say to a class instead which I was interested in learning a different technique. A different way of asking is phrasing the question in another way for example, "tell me what you don't understand", "what confuses you?" This is because students say what the teacher wants to hear, but they may not really understand.