Job Discussion Forums

[bigbadsuzie]

Is this a sticky subject ? I know some people are adverse to using deodrants for health reasons ,do you have office mates or students who need to be tactfully told something their best friends won't ?

[Jizzo T. Clown]

It seems many students in China have no problems wearing the same clothes for a full week, which can make for quite a task in the summer when the a/c goes out in the classroom...ugh.

Halitosis may be fairly common as well. Don't know if it's because they don't brush, hydrate, or make good diet choices.

So in this case, their best friends wouldn't give them any hygienic advice because poor hygiene seems to be completely acceptable.

[Margot73]

Part of me wants to say that this may be an economic issue for some students. Maybe they can't afford dental care, frequent trips to the laundry or deo, etc. On the other hand, I lived in Nigeria for a year and even the poorest of people there were absolutely fanatical about persoan hygience and neatness. No sane adult would dream of leaving his home without a bath, everyone's clothes were immacuate..People even ironed their underwear and socks! There was a belief that western people smelled, in fact. (which probably was the case with many of the backpacker types.)

[Guy Courchesne]

Whenever you mix people from several cultures and countries, you're bound to have some differences in opinion. Only twice have I worked alongside foreign teachers that seemed a little lax in the hygiene department (I'm being nice here), but neither reflected a country or culture...just individuals.

I've come across a commonly held opinion in Mexico City that foreigners are dirty, stinky, or generally lax on hygiene. It's just a difference in customs though...

[southofreality]

Here in Japan, it seems that most people are quite concerned with personal hygiene. But the deodorant sold here in drug stores and supermarkets doesn't help most of the western guys I know living here.

We have some pretty brutal summers, but I rarely ever smell the stench of BO, even on crowded subway trains. If I do smell it, it's often because I need to reapply my western-strength deodorant.

[gaijinalways]

But we have a few people here who work at home, and they seem to have forgotten where the soap is.

[SueH]

It can be an economic issue: I had an asylum seeker here in the UK who only seemed to have one shirt. My other students, a mixed bag from mainly Europe discreetly offered to help buy him another one, bless 'em. Can't remember how it was resolved but I think we got a male member of staff to have a quiet word.

At another college I had a Chinese individual who didn't seem to wash, and none of the UAE students wanted to sit next to him. I used the threat of making students sit next to him as a disciplinary tool! It also turned out that he didn't bother to use the toilet two doors down from his room and used a chamber pot, which didn't please the domestic staff.

So economic, cultural and individual causes, I'd say.

[Jetgirly]

We had a lot of smelly adult students in Italy. Considering a lot of it was in-company work, I was amazed by the lack of personal hygeine. People actually go to work without showering? We often had to leave doors open and air classrooms after certain students.

I'm now teaching Grade 7 and 8 in Canada, and I've noticed that some of my ESL students wear the same clothes every day. It's mainly Chinese students who do this in my school. I feel bad because they obviously don't have a lot of say in the matter and their personal hygiene is making it difficult for them to make friends (which then makes it hard for them to speak English outside of the classroom).

When it got hot in Italy I would shower up to three times a day (in the morning, before my evening classes and before bed), plus carry around a spray bottle of deodorant in my purse (in addition to the high-aluminum-content stuff I put on the morning)! Maybe I could teach an ESL and Personal Hygiene class!