Cultural Experience Analysis

I have always been interested in other cultures, despite growing up in a small midwestern town. As a young child, I was fascinated with flags and maps of countries and dreamed of traveling to other parts of the world. Although my parents were not wealthy we had done a fair bit of traveling within the United States. My first recollection of people outside the United States were refugees sponsored by the church my parents belonged to. The refugees were from the country of Laos escaping the conflicts in Southeast Asia in the 1970s. Seeing the interactions of my parents with them brought a much better understanding of how to interact with people from other countries. My parents were very patient and kind to them, inviting the Laotians into our home. Their general approach to people from other countries had an impact on me. To this day, I try to be patient and understand that communicating in a second language is not easy.
When I was in junior high school, the high school in my town would have exchange students from various countries. It was captivating to learn about other parts of the world firsthand. My sister went to the country of Finland for a year as an exchange student and brought home interesting stories. I had decided after hearing about her adventures that I would go overseas in high school as well. I spent six months in Canberra, Australia. In addition to Australians, I met people from other countries, introducing me to a world well beyond the cornfields of rural America. I attended Northern Illinois University, where I received a BA in Political Science, with an emphasis in Comparative Politics. The type of classes I enjoyed the most and excelled at were those that combined politics with culture. As part of my general education classes I was required to take two years of language education. I decided to take French despite not having any language classes in high school. The classes were tough but I thought the activities and tasks were engaging. As an ESL instructor, I have many times looked back at that experience and tried to simulate the French language classroom. My struggles as a French language student give me empathy towards ESL students, as I understand that learning a language is not easy and takes hard work and persistence. I spent two years with the US Peace Corps in the West African country of Cameroon. One of the more gratifying experiences that I had there was just talking to the people in my town. I spent a lot of time outside of my friend Ahmadou’s shop talking to townspeople about the U.S., sports, and answering questions about whether I knew any celebrities. Since a lot of the world including Cameroon learns about the U.S. from television shows, it was important to communicate that …show more content…
The transportation system was very poor so the trip was long and the road was very rough. It took about nine hours to travel the distance of 280 kilometers in the dry season and twelve hours in the rainy season. The transport van would stop occasionally for Muslim prayer times or if the driver wanted to buy meat from the market. I would gain a lot of cultural insight into observing people in the van and in the little villages where we would stop. This experience has influenced my teaching as I am patient and, I try to be prepared for any situation that comes