Time Talks with an Accent - Robert Levine

 Time Talks with an Accent - Robert Levine

          In his essay Robert Levine discusses about cultural differences in regards with the concept of time and the intercultural misunderstandings and conflicts that owns the variations in the temporal concept of time.

This essay is based on the personal experience of the writer himself, as a writing professor at Brazil. In the essay he discusses about the difficulties he had had in a college to a new concept of social time, which reflects different cultural beliefs, assumption and values then he was habitual in his native country i.e. us. After his experience with Brazilian student teachers and other people, the writer realized that the people did have different concept and values about the time. These people were unable to materialize the time and follow its pace.

        Unlike American students, the Brazilian student ignored the time value and came in the class, without hesitation, even long after the commencement of the class. Besides they were in no hurry after leaving the class for they surrounded the teacher for a long time. Moreover the writer also found that even the professions were not punctual. They made the guilty for turning up late likewise his experience with the landlord suggested the same. Although he waited for him for a long time, he was unable to meet him, Undoubtedly the people of Brazil make apartments but they never travel themselves respecting the valves of time obviously they understand their social time but it make a great confusion to the people like the writers, who is accustomed to the exactness of the time.

 

·       As a child, the thought that time was measured by a clock but later in his maturity he know that it was measured by culture.

·       As a writing prof. he knew that Brazilians Report everything for tomorrow. ‘Amanha” was highly valued in their culture.

·       He also noticed that exactness of the time was not possible in Brazil. The people had their own concept of time and them more accordingly.

·       The Brazilians didn’t have the concept of early and late. They seem almost indifferent to the valve of time.

·       Not only were the students, the prof. also indifferent to the value of time. They were found of making appointments but never turn up on time.

·       The writers also noticed the high people or the landlords display their value by not being punctual. He waited for his landlord for more than two hours but the landlord didn’t wait for him even for the minutes.

·       In conclusion he realized that Brazilian concept of time was taking. They wasted their time in talking.

·       Levin in this narrating essay describes cultural differences in concept of time and inter cultural conflict and misunderstanding that after worries from these temporal variations. In order to enhance the intercultural experience Levine stresses the importance of learning unwritten rules about time in a new culture.

·       Levine in this essay means that rules of punctuality are strongly shaped by cultural values and believes.

·       Levine clarifies the concept of social time and says that social time is a cultural tempo. Orientation reflects unconscious values believes and rules. The components of social time and concept of punctuality, pace of life and orientation of past, present and future are discussed.

·       Adjusting to a forming concept of time is different because it reflects values, believes and rules that are after very different from those of the writers culture and that are unwritten or hidden.

·       In this place of writing Robort Levine maintains that there are cultural differences in concept of time reflecting values and believes which often lead to intercultural conflict and misunderstanding. By learning about a new cultures pace of life rules of partiality and orientation to past, present and future a writer can minimize problems and facilitate cultural adjustments.

TU BA 2nd year Compulsory English 202

Polite But Thirsty - By: Yaping Tang

Polite But Thirsty - By: Yaping Tang

In this essay “Polite but Thirsty” the writer has explained some of the cultural variations in between Chinese and American society. Especially she has tried to make the Chinese students aware about the American culture so that they could be adopted very easily in American culture.

Usually a new comer feels like a baby or an idiot in a new culture because of culture misunderstanding. There are several language problems but in addition to this the cultural differences make the problem even worse. Thus it is necessary to learn the cultural differences. The writer found some fundamentals differences between the Chinese and the American cultures.

a)     The Chinese classrooms are in proper discipline. There are certain rooms and values of the classrooms that they aren’t allowed to anything but in American classroom the students eat like in a canteen. As an eastern student, it was really a strange experience and a great adventure to be adopted in the American classroom.

b)    The second fundamental differences that the writer noticed were the directness of American people. They responded just in two ways; Yes or No.  They never show the so-called politeness which is highly esteemed eastern culture.

c)     The American people believe in the informality. They break the hierarchies and treat every individual equally. They address even their professor by their first name without adding the title Sir/Madam.

d)    The Americans never hide their feelings when someone praises the food, the house, the cloth, etc. They never reject it but rather they accept it happily which is very much ware in the eastern culture.

e)     The Americans open the gifts just in front of the host, he opens it and praises by heart but it is taken as uncivilized manner in the east. In eastern culture, gifts are given usually at the end of the party and they are opened after the departures of the guest.

f)      In American societies tipping system is highly popular as even as it is taken as necessary work in a restaurant. But in eastern society especially in China leaving a tip is rarely found. The Chinese students are ashamed when they aren’t leaving the tip to the workers. In this way Yaping Tang has tried to ease the problems of Chinese students in America. Her main intention is to reduce the cultural misunderstanding and to enable the Chinese students to learn the American culture before they come to America.

 

·  Cross cultural differences in the United States and China.

ü Informality / formality

ü Equality / social hierarchy

ü Direction / indirection

 

-         Self asserts / modern

·        Culture shocks – feeling of love and change and so suffering – food, climate, language, mannerism, communication

Symptoms of culture shocks:

          Absent, mindedness a feeling of hopelessness, fits of anger, excessive fear of being cheated, robbed or ignored, homesickness.

Friends And Strangers - Margaret R. Nydell

 Friends And Strangers - Margaret R. Nydell

This essay studies the intercultural differences is relation with the concept of friends and strangers in American culture and in Arabian culture. In Arabian culture there is gap between friends and strangers. There are certain rights and duties in a friendship a stranger is neither alone for rights nor he is offered any duties. In Arabian culture refusing a friend as taken out breaking the friendship even if the work is impossible to perform, a friend never refuses it directly this response is “I will try my best”. This response from a friend keeps the friendship alive forever

          An Arabian culture personal benefits is taken from the friendship we often here “Do it for my sake” but in American culture no benefit is expected from the friendship even if a persona is helped by the other he is not morally obliged to help him.

          The personal choice is so much valued that even the children aren’t obliged to take care of their parents in American culture, personal details are much more important than a person himself. They readily disclose their social and economic backgrounds. In contrast to Arabian culture, the Americans are unwilling to disclose their personal details and individual is much more important than his background.

          An Arabian culture insulting the friends is frequent without information they used their friends and story there as a long as they please. They do not feel that they are interfering their personal life.  Being alone is taken as either being dissatisfied or being sad but in American culture privacy is highly valued. A person likes to have a moment of privacy so that they could feel oneself with their self. Besides the Americans enjoy being with the friends but they never let them cross the boundary of personal life.

          These are some of the differences between the Arabians and the Americans concept of friendship. The Arabians have distinctly the line between friends and strangers but the Americans have blurred the line.

-         For Arabs a friend is someone whose company one enjoys and whose duty is to give help and do his/her ability whereas for westerners a friend is someone whose company one enjoys but whom one doesn’t except to have the same sense of duty.

-         For Arabs and oral promise has its own value as response whereas for westerners actions are valued more than words.

-         For Arabs loyalty is expected from friends but westerns don’t accept the same sense of loyalty.

-         In the culture of Arabs when introducing oneself it is common to give a lot of information about oneself from a one’s family and one social connection where as in westerns culture less personal information are disclosed.

-         In the culture of Arabs one writes one's friends often and has little concern about privacy where as in western culture one just writes ones friend less after and has a strong sense of privacy.

-         Arab people, except a friend to reciprocate invitation but the western people don’t have as strong of a need for reciprocal invitation.

A Coward - Premchand

 A Coward - Premchand

In the story, a coward, Premchand shows how cultural difference within a conflict creates problem among the people who live in the same society. Basically the Hindu cast system has created problems among the people in case of marriage. Moreover, the gap between a traditional mind and the modern mind devide the people clearly in to opposite pose. Most of the people still stick to their conservative beliefs due to which the gap has always remained unfulfilled. In the story, Keshav a Brahmin boy falls in love with Prema a girl from Banya caste. In the beginning Keshav seems to be very strong because he is ready to undergo any hardships that might come on his way. He convinced Prema to be bold and fight against the conservative mind. Prema, who is loyal to her parents, doesn’t close to against them. However she doesn’t share to live her life without Keshav as Prema goes home. She thinks about Keshav and collects her strength to tell her relationship with Keshav to her parents. In the beginning her parents rejects it strongly but they agreed when she put her life at stake. Prema’s father went to talk with Keshav’s  father, who reacted very rudely to him. However he tolerated being the father of a girl. Then Prema wrote a letter to Keshav informing him that she was ready to undergo to any shorts of difficulties if he was ready to accept her as his life partner. She also wrote that her parents were eager to meet him and he was called for dinner. Prema waits for Keshav impatiently but neither he nor his letter comes only the next morning Prema gets the letter of Keshav in which she finds him unexpectedly coward and disloyal. Her parents ask her about his response but she tells them nothing she hides her pain the whole day and the next morning she commits suicide.

          In this way this story shows the cultural problems of the same society due to the conservative feelings of the people. The lover like Prema and Keshav are very much frequent in our society too and they are killing themselves due to the fear of social parts which are almost impossible for them to cross.

School is bad for children - John Halt

 School is bad for children

                                                                  John Halt

In this essay, the writer seems to be against the idea of formal education about, he is not in favor of abolishing the school education, and however he stands for the reformation of traditional teaching system.

          According to him, schools are killing the curiosity of the students by imposing (forcing) the final truth in their mind. When a child comes at school he comes with a lot of expectation and frantically he returns home with the feeling of pessimism. Besides, the writer argues that the school has changed the students' natural intelligence, curiosity, confidence, resourcefulness independence, patience and energy into past, laziness, dependences, indifference. Actually the child has got immense confidence about his potentiality but the teachers always discourage him. The additional to this child, finds the classroom to be cooled and ugly. There are other children but they are unable to communicate with each other.

          Most of the schools separate the learning from the living. When they create the gap between life and learning the children are confused. The classroom environment is artificial and the teachers act almost like robots.

          Usually the students are taken as a blank sheet of paper and the teachers are free to write on their mind. The teachers never trust the students and they never appreciate their natural knowledge. As a result the children feel that he is not worth of listening to.

          The teachers neglect the needs for the respects of individual difference. Every individual has got different perspective and the teachers always try to establish the final perspective.

          The teachers teach the students that to make a mistake or to be confused is to commit a crime and as a result the students start creating the teacher. The writer claims that the schools are teaching him to be indifferent. The class environment is just opposite to the way how a child lives his life in a natural form. There is no doubt that there are other children in the classroom but all of them are in silence. They all seem as if they have nothing to do with each others. As a result, the child takes his teachers to be inhuman.

-         Reformation

According to the writer, there are fundamental changes necessary for school education. The first and foremost thing is that compulsory attendance should be abolished. He justifies that when something is made compulsory it develops unwillingness from the students. It is self-evident that forceful. Knowledge is useless at the time of crisis. Curiosity is developed not to force but through freedom. Undoubtedly, the critics might counter argue, “If the children did not go to school where would they go?” It does not necessarily mean that if the children are not compelled to go to school, they will come out in the street. When the education system is made free, the children will be more eager to go to school.

          The second reformation that the writer puts forward is that the students or the children should be taught in a natural environment. In other words, the teachers should bring the outer world into the school. For example, the students should learn about the law not from the teacher but from the judging himself.

The children should be allowed to judge their works by themselves. It is better to encourage the student to learn from each other rather than dictating what to the small kids learn more readily from their teacher. They also point out the exams should be at list and the fixed curriculum should also be abolished. His argument is that certain hour's examination cannot judge the ability of the students. Besides the fixed curriculum units, should be given the unlimited potentiality of the students.

          In this way John Halt stand for the reformation of the traditional system of school education. In his opinion most of the schools are running natural knowledge of the students and they are making them passive and dull.

 

 

In the first half in this essay John Halt criticizes formal education and says that schools convert students natural intelligences curiosity, confidence, resourcefulness independence ,patience and energy into passiveness, laziness, dependences, indifferences, boredom and low self-esteem. Halt further says that the schools discourage experimentation, creativity and originality. - They teach students that learning in separated from living and that students can't be trusted to learn and are no good at it. The children from school learn that the learning is a passive process. - School neglect students need and interest and shows no respect from individual differences - They teach students that, “to be wrong uncertain, confused is a crime and as a result students start to dodge, bluff, fake, cheat. - School doesn't teach to interact with other people and to lives and without paying attention to anything going around them. - Schools are almost always ugly, cold (not interested) and inhuman. - They encourage dishonesty, --- and anxiety - They provide, little opportunity for students to learn about the real world.

Halt’s recommendations to enhance real learning and improve school

·       - Abolish or modify compulsory school, attention.

·       - Take students into the community to learn about real world first hand.

·        - Bring more of the real world into schools different professional people to talk that they actually do.

·        - Encourage students to work together and learn from each other.

·       - Encourage students to learn to evaluate their own work and find their mistake and correct them.

·       - Eliminate (avoid) grades, exams and rank.

·       - Abolish the fixed, required curriculum.