Job Discussion Forums

[ghost]

[FGT]

This was a good thread. Why has it too become a slanging match?

Are we (the Turkish forum users) incapable of discussing something relevant to teaching in a dispasssionate manner?

In an attempt to bring it back on track:-

I believe that helping our students to communicate in a foreign language/culture/society necessitates teaching them non-verbal in addition to verbal skills.

Body language and gesture is an obvious example. From an early stage I discourage students from using the raised eyebrows or tilted chin gesture to indicate a negative response. I explain/demonstrate to them how this might be construed in our culture. Similarly I explain (in graphic detail and with historical background) why indicating the number 2 should not be done with two fingers raised and the palm towards the "speaker"!

"Yum Yum" is another good one, but is that verbal or not?

What do you do?

[molly farquharson]

This is a little bit different slant on this topic: when I got back to my North American culture, my kids ask why I shake my head when I ask "why" and they often get the raised eyebrows and "tch" for no. Once I went to visit a friend and her father answered the door. I enthusiastically went for the Turkish kiss-kiss and shocked the hell out of him. I have incorporated Turkish body language without it being specifically taught. However, I am surrounded by it. I think it is a good thing to teach it to our students (for example, pointing at something with the middle finger is a no-no where I come from), but I think here it is mostly just making them aware of differences and they are unlikely to start actually using it until they are in the culture. At the same time, it might help them for understanding some of the nonverbal aspects of films, etc.

What do you think some of the nonverbal differences are among English-speaking culture? For example, in NA we don't tap the side of our noses and I am not sure what it means. Any others youi may have noticed among your expat colleagues?

[31]

. Any others youi may have noticed among your expat colleagues?[/quote]

I have noticed a lot of teachers at ET throwing up their hands in despair. Also a lot of rolling of the eyes. Often when dealing with admin there is a lot of stomping out of the room. Crying and shaking sometimes too.

[whynotme]

[quote="dmb"]

[molly farquharson]

I think otuzbir is too wrapped up in his own negative communication to accurately read between the lines or even on the lines when people chide him for being so rude.

If my rising to his bait disturbs the other members of the forum, please PM me and I will try harder not to do so. However, some things are pretty outrageous and I can't let them pass.

[ImanH]

ghost, if indeed you do have an MA in Intercultural Communication I would assume that you are aware that there is a substantial body of academic thought which questions the merits of research that arrives at broad generalisations such as the ones you make. I happen to agree with that thinking and in order to convince me otherwise you would have to do better than �guess what - quite a bit of truth in that� or �one should not have a problem with that�. However, since you seem to be taking my position regarding the sociological usefulness of this type of research as some kind of personal attack I would suggest it might be wiser to leave the matter here.
FGT, in case your comment was directed at me in anyway; I personally find it quite difficult to remain dispassionate when individuals make remarks such as �Turks are two-faced, barbaric, banal, etc., etc.� (and it also REALLY annoys me when others tell me what I should or should not do). Nonetheless, as these types of discussions rarely end up in anything but an argument it probably would have been wiser of me not to have engaged in the first place; in which case my apologies to the OP for any part I might have played in taking this thread off track.