Culture clashes?
Sunday, January 13th, 2008 06:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mothwingSo, I want to become a teacher. There are many slightly derisive voices saying that our teachers are only really fit for teaching the middle class population they came from, and they do have a point. Now most of the students in my class have far more experiences with different cultures than I do and radically different backgrounds. Most of them migrated to Germany before they came to school here in Hamburg. I can't imagine what it must be like to be from Turkey, from Albania, from Bolivia - even from Bavaria in Hamburg. Germany must be the most xenophobic country I have ever been to, and living in Willhelmsburg on top of that is not likely to make it any better, as that is one of the areas that other Hamburgians usually tend to look down upon.
I must say that I keep feeling intimidated. How can I, with my rather limited background, be the right teacher for people whose experiences and contexts are so different from mine?
For example. I try and use topics that might interest my students and relate to their world (using popular books, movies, TV shows in my classes), and with my suburban, upper middle-class grammar school classes that usually worked and was not too difficult, as their experiences were very, very similar to mine, but with my current students, I haven't got a clue.
Another example for differences: I looked up some of their favourite artists I didn't know. I didn't have to look up Rihanna or Christina Aguilera, but I'd never even heard of Massiv or Muhabbet. So. Contrasts.
This is a song by John Dowland, one of my favourite composers:
And this is Arben's favourite artist, Massiv:
I don't really... get rap, somehow, but I like this one, especially "In den Schulen müsst ihr euch beweisen / damit die Kultur nicht drunter leidet / Achwas, ich bin kein Berliner / Che Guevara war auch kein Kubaner."
(You have to prove yourself in the schools / So culture doesn't suffer (I think this is a nod to the German concept of "Leitkultur" much-discussed by our government that demands that immigrants strive for integration into the "German culture") / Nonsense, I am not from Berlin /and Che Guevara wasn't Cuban, either). Although the comparison between Massiv and Che Guevara is not really ... that fitting, he does have a point.
It is so arrogant to ask someone to simply forget the culture they were raised in when they set foot in this country, it's unbelievable. No wonder that aggressive nationalism is the reaction of many of our newcomers, of many of my students.
This is Aslihan's favourite artist, Muhabbet:
I must say that I keep feeling intimidated. How can I, with my rather limited background, be the right teacher for people whose experiences and contexts are so different from mine?
For example. I try and use topics that might interest my students and relate to their world (using popular books, movies, TV shows in my classes), and with my suburban, upper middle-class grammar school classes that usually worked and was not too difficult, as their experiences were very, very similar to mine, but with my current students, I haven't got a clue.
Another example for differences: I looked up some of their favourite artists I didn't know. I didn't have to look up Rihanna or Christina Aguilera, but I'd never even heard of Massiv or Muhabbet. So. Contrasts.
This is a song by John Dowland, one of my favourite composers:
And this is Arben's favourite artist, Massiv:
I don't really... get rap, somehow, but I like this one, especially "In den Schulen müsst ihr euch beweisen / damit die Kultur nicht drunter leidet / Achwas, ich bin kein Berliner / Che Guevara war auch kein Kubaner."
(You have to prove yourself in the schools / So culture doesn't suffer (I think this is a nod to the German concept of "Leitkultur" much-discussed by our government that demands that immigrants strive for integration into the "German culture") / Nonsense, I am not from Berlin /and Che Guevara wasn't Cuban, either). Although the comparison between Massiv and Che Guevara is not really ... that fitting, he does have a point.
It is so arrogant to ask someone to simply forget the culture they were raised in when they set foot in this country, it's unbelievable. No wonder that aggressive nationalism is the reaction of many of our newcomers, of many of my students.
This is Aslihan's favourite artist, Muhabbet:
