I was five when I boarded the Delta Airlines flight heading for Germany. I confidently carried a humorously tiny carry-on bag that contained all of my essentials: colored pencils, coloring books and my stuffed animals. These items seemed important to me at the time if I wanted to keep myself busy while soaring through the clouds. My family touched down in Stuttgart and a taxi sped us over to Böblingen, a bustling town full of friendly faces about thirty minutes outside of Stuttgart. I was young and held no convictions against the individuals surrounding me because of the way they sounded or behaved. Children exposed to different nationalities at a young age immediately embrace the differences between themselves and others around them. They have not been tainted by the corruption of negative opinions from people who have never talked to someone of a different nationality. …show more content…
The school required all kids from kindergarten through eighth grade to take Spanish and German classes,where in both classes the teachers taught traditions and basic vocabulary. One day in German class, due to Christmas rapidly approaching, the entirety of the period involved decorating ornaments, singing Christmas carols in German, and learning about traditional customs of the spirited season. On the evening of December fifth, German children put shoes outside the entryway of their homes and leave them there overnight. Saint Nicholas visits the shoes overnight and stuffs them with candy for the well-behaved kids. The different German traditions have stuck with me after all this time. I feel grateful that I was fortunate enough to live in a country that enriched my life as a child and helped me appreciate the beauty in
In Joel L. Swerdlow’s 2001 essay, “Changing America,” he writes about the current cultural differences among kids in high school. He goes on to talk about how you can gather a large variety of kids, coming from all over the world, yet they still somehow manage to develop the same “American Teenager” attitude toward life. The essay talks about how people used to view America as a “melting pot” of nations, and how over time that view is starting to change.
Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood by Richard Rodriguez is an essay that shows his readers a part of life that many have never experienced. Rodriguez uses this essay to show how he fights through his childhood to understand English. Speaking clear English will help him to fit in to society. He faces society while forfeiting his happy home life, to try to become a typical English-speaking student.
Richard Rodriguez, in his “Aria, Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood”, uses imagery to illustrate the major changes in his personal and social life. He does that by telling us a story on how his parents decided that Richard should speak in English more; they had him talk in English at home, because the nuns told his parents that he was uncomfortable in school. The purpose of this passage was to show us that because of what had happened during that talk between nuns and parents changed most of his life.
Ever since I was a young girl, I was taught to love those around me and to treat others the way I wanted to be treated. I always looked upon everyone the same way, regardless of if they had a different skin tone or facial features from me. This philosophy, however, did not prove to be a popular one held among my peers in my middle school years. Middle school was the first time I truly experienced confusion regarding my ethnicity and culture. I vividly remember the time when a group of students blatantly mocked and teased my Asian ethnicity.
What about other countries though? Is the Christmas season all about giving and receiving gifts? Are children in Spain rewarded by Santa with gifts and toys on Christmas Eve? In this essay we will look at what Christmas season means in Spain, and what traditions are prevalent in their culture. We will also look at the Christmas related traditions of Americans, and how those compare and contrast to those in Spain.
A book written on the challenges the children of immigrants face called Adaptation of immigrant children to the United States. This book talks about the challenges and pressure children of immigrants face in the united states. This pressure includes stereotyping. These children have to breaks these stereotypes put on them by society. These stereotypes include jokes such as “what's a mexicans favorite sport….cross country. ” etc. these little jokes are what make bigger situations happen and since they are just “jokes” people think it's okay.
As I look back on my trip to Italy I learned several important lessons. I believe I have developed a greater empathy for those immigrants new to our country. Marlborough High School has students enrolled from other countries but I now feel an obligation to try and help them fit in. I believe I can make a greater difference through my school activities by having an appreciation and sensitivity to others of different cultures.
Context: It is the early month of December and the students have been already reading, writing and hearing about Christmas in Canada. To date, they have already shared their cultural practices during Christmas, if any, and are now interested in the Canadian culture. They are familiar with the concept of Christmas and some key terms, like Santa Clause, Christmas tree, etc. The length of this class is two hours with one fifteen minute coffee break, after one hour.
When visiting just about any school across America, students who attend come from all over the globe. This raises the question across America about bilingual education. This can create many challenges in and out of the classroom. The classroom should be a safe place for all students regardless of what native language they speak. In the essay Lost in translation written by Eva Hoffman, describes a foreign student who tries hard to fit in. Instead, Eva begins to feel angry, hurt and confused because people laugh at her. In Guiding Principles for Dual Language Education by Elizabeth R. Howard, Julie Sugarman, Donna Christian Center for Applied Linguistics Kathryn J. Lindholm-Leary San José State University David Rogers Dual Language Education of New Mexico. Guiding principles gives great ideas to educators to stop kids from making other students feel the way that Eva felt. After reading several articles about bilingual education, it is evident that all children in school should learn English but never lose their native language. When all the students speak one language, students will be less likely to make fun of each other. A good educator should learn enough foreign languages to aid them in effective communication in their classroom although; if an educator does not speak a foreign language, they should recruit within the classroom students to be peer mentors. However, a teacher should be willing to listen and encourage the students. Above all a good educator should be a good role model to their students by respecting their heritage and their language.
Every summer growing up, I would spend 2-3 months living with my grandparents in rural Poland. As much as I loved visiting my grandparents and cousins, the transition was always difficult when I first arrived. I had no problem getting along with my classmates back in America. However, it wasn’t the same with the people living in the Oscieczany neighborhood. Even though I didn’t look very different from anyone, I was labeled as an outsider. I had an American accent and structured my sentences based on English grammar instead of Polish. The kids and teenagers would judge me because of where I came from. They would stereotype me based on the portrayals they saw from television shows and how they depicted people from Southern California. It was
Today I am going to write about St. Nicholas Day and the tradition in my village on that day. Every year, children are very excited about December 6th. The night before, on December 5th, children have to clean their winter boots and then they put their winter boots near the window because they believe that, in the next morning, their boots will be filled with presents. But they also know that if they were really bad all year, for example if they didn’t listen to their parents, used bad words many times, or if their marks at school are not good, then St. Nicholas is going to fill their winter boots with potatoes and onions. Of course he knew who listened to their parents and who didn’t.
Verma , G., Martin-Hansen, L., & Pepper, J. B. (2008). Using sheltered instruction to teach English Language Learners. Science Scope, 56-59.
Emma, Marissa and I are in charge of the making the lefse. This has been our job ever since we were little girls, becoming experts through all our years of experience. My grandma makes the most amazing food and always has enough to feed us for a week. After we stuff ourselves full of delicious, lasagna, salads, and hot dishes all made with love and while the adults lean back comfortably in their chairs, us kids go put on our pajamas and troop downstairs to open our gifts. The most memorable gift would be the ring my grandma gave me that used to be my great-grandmothers who died a couple days after my grandma turned fifteen. My great-grandma loved to travel and had a great passion for fashion, so this circle of metal with a little diamond in the middle and a floral pattern surrounding it, had been bought in California and has been in the family since. “Bang, bang, bang!” A huge pounding comes from the front door. Dogs bark, adults grin, and we race to open the creaky door. Santa Claus, eyes twinkling, dressed in red with coal-black boots, and swinging a sack over his right shoulder, steps inside. He plops down heavily; ringing merry bells and passes them off to David, my brother, telling him seriously to keep ringing them so Rudolf won’t fly away without him. With wide eyes, little David shakes the bells with such rigor that if Rudolf was in the North Pole he would be able to hear them. We each take a turn perching on his knee, hesitant at first but then opening up and telling him our age and that, “yes we have been really, really, really good this year.” As Santa’s beard tickles our chin as we lean in close for a picture and his big belly shakes as he laughs at the same time as you start to giggle. Then he opens his sack and pulls out gifts wrapped in colorful paper for each of us. With a few cookies for the road, crumbs in his beard and a
Among the deprived and polarized are children. They are usually denied a variety of culture as many gated communitites tend not to be richly diverse in class or ethnic standing. This deficiency of being raised surrounded by diversity can play a key role in the increase of feelings of apathy toward those of different ethnic or social background; and in extreme cases, can lead to school violence.
Simultaneously by letting children know that their uniqueness is valued they are learning that others differences are also to be tolerated.