personal reflection essay

Personal Reflection Essay Assignment Prepared by: Howard He A00688012 Instructor: Julie Nolin Date: 2012-8-15 KMS is a very useful tool when travelling around the world. Culture different and language are the two biggest challenges, it takes time to adjust myself melting in the society. As an international student, I have experienced the culture different for ten years. After learning the KMS, I have better idea how to “change” myself to fit in different countries. Hofstede’s five culture dimensions give me clear indication because it tells me which type of the country is; what kind of people I am going to deal with; what custom I should be aware of; and so on. The following I will discuss about the difference and similarities among Canada, Ukraine, and China. Canada is a low context country, lower power distance, low uncertainty avoidance, individualism and low long term orientation country. When I came to Canada, it gives me a very good impression: people are open-minded, and they are easy to make friends. It takes short time to build up a friendship. They would like to share their stories about jobs, family, friends, and movie. There is no discrimination against the international student, and it makes me feel warm in a strange place. They have their own distance management-individualism. When having a conversation, personal space is required. They don't like sticking each other. In class, instructors are very close to student. They are like friends, and there is no power distance between them. Student can have food or drink in the class, and they can interrupt the instructor anytime they come up the questions. People are very self-discipline, and they will not bother other student. Students are free to bring anything, so they can play cell phone or any devices in the class. You can not imagine that happen in China. China is high context country, so it has higher power distance between. The higher position people have, the more respect should get. Therefore, all the students in school have to stand up and say hi to teachers before the class begin; also they have to give thank by bowing after class. In the class, everyone is quiet and the teacher can keep talking for forty five minutes. You have to raise your hand and get permit from teacher before asking/ answering questions. No cell phone or any electronic devices are allowed in the class; also, no talking/chatting is permitted in the class. If the student breaks the rule seriously, the teachers have right to ask the student leave the school forever. When the tests hand back, the teacher will speak out the marks from high to low. If someone do well as they expect, they praise the student right in front of the class; if someone does not do a good job on the test, they just ignore them, and try to pay more attention on top student. Therefore, students in class are dividing in two extreme. Bad students never make friends with good students. It leads to a bad circle: the better become better; the worse become worse. When I first study in Canadian class, I feel uncomfortable. Students are free to do anything in the class. However, I just sit up straight and listen to instructor carefully. I feel that I am not belonged the group. Everyone knows what they are you doing, but I don't. I get used to the “quiet mode” while I am listening to the teacher in China. Their interruptions distract me to listen what teacher says in the class. Also, the teaching style is different from Chinese teacher. In China, instructor tells us what to do step by step; they tell us what is going on the test; where should pay more attention; they give us lots of practice question for us; therefore, Chinese student are very good writing the test. It is totally different in Canada. The best thing teacher can do is tell us where to buy the textbook, and we learn the material by reading the material. I am so confused and frustrated in the beginning. I lost my direction because teacher is not with me all the time. We spend more time on the textbook not the teacher. The teaching style is hard for me to adapt Canadian education system. I feel so lost during the first semester; I don't know the material, and I don't know how to change this embarrassing situation either. At that moment, I feel shame with myself. I lost my confident to ask questions because of the language barrier. I am a top student in China, but I feel that I am a loser in Canada. With poor English, I can not speak out what I think. I am afraid of the colored judgment by others, so I become a quiet person. I have so many ideas, but I am just scare to express in the public. My marks are struggling passing line; I try so hard to adapt the teaching style. I have to change my old “study mode”, or I will fail the course. As mentioned in the beginning, Canadian is easy to approach, and they like to help us if they can. My first move is to ask instructor questions in their office. I find that it is very relax to talk to instructor. There is almost no power distance between us. With broken English, instructor listens to me patiently. My inferiority feeling seems to disappear when I try to speak to instructor. Although I make lots of grammar mistakes during the speaking, the instructor never interrupt me. They always let me finish the speech, and tell me what to do step by step. They understand what I am suffering, and they give me as many chances and encourage as they can. This interaction is very helpful to build the relationship between teacher and student. Chinese teachers need to improve it because they always sit on top of student. There is no equality between teacher and students. Teacher is always right, so students have to show respect to teachers. After I talk to my instructor, I feel better. I start building up my confident and friendship with my instructor. Under their help, my English improve a lot. However, I still feel uncomfortable when I talk to stranger. With my level of English, I am still not confident enough to talk to native people. The first day I get to Germany, we are all new to each other, so I keep quiet. They are all native, and I am the only one speak broken English. My interiority feeling comes back again, and I am scare to speak to them in the beginning. It is out of my expectation that they are friendly to me, they try to raise a topic to me. However, I am not familiar the topic, we stuck in the silent. All the classmates are nice to me, and they try to talk to me. Nonetheless, the conversation is not last long enough. My impression to them is quiet or even silent. As I learn the KMS, I realize that culture different and language are the biggest challenges.