Unfold your own story

Reading through the book “Where two seas meet”, the author describes the importance of being an open person. There are two positive things of being open to the others, first is that you have to talk with the others and tell them your own story, and second is that it makes you a good listener of the others stories. It doesn’t matter what kind of story you are going to tell to the others, being that from your earlier childhood or from the latest past. The important thing here is that when you hear somebody’s story you learn more for that person and for his/her experiences, and on the other side they can learn more about you. This is an important fact which brings us back to D. Pinto’s theory “know your own culture first, then know the others culture”. This theory makes you more complete as a person because you may easily discover differences between them, and you may choose the best from both of them and create your own personality, your own opinion, and your own views.
I think that people should be free to move from one country to another, because this is the best way to interconnect people with one-another, to exchange cultures, to see what is good and what is bad, what is right and what is wrong, with other words to let them percept the world from their own experiences and from their own views. We are all witnesses that if we know the English language we will be able to communicate with the people from all around the world, so this is an international language, and maybe in the future we will forget our own language because of the globalization, who knows?!
On the other hand, there are differences between people, some of them are open and want to talk, but some of them are closed to themselves and want not. For teachers it is important to show to their students the possibility of packet book, so they can express and know themselves better, and this also makes the possibility to have their own “Mappy Road”. We learned that everybody has his/her own perspective of seeing things. Not everybody will speak or write for somebody else story in the same way, even if they are told the same things.
However, to summarize all this being said above, I think that in the end all of us agree with philosophic words of Masao Abe: “I’m not I; therefore I’m you. And that is precisely the reason why I am really I. You are not you; therefore you are ‘I’. And that is precisely the reason why you are really you”.

Challenges of teachers from today’s perspective

Being a teacher today is very challenging profession. Challenges of this century are different from the old once, since today we are living in a world that is changing rapidly, and the technology is helping on it, and making things easier for the worldwide, but difficult for the teachers. More to the point, there is difficult work for teachers to do in order to get the students attention and get to know their interests. Teachers have many factors to consider when teaching the students in their classrooms. "No Student to be Left Behind/Alone" has increased the pressure to make sure students perform on a certain level. Another challenge to be considered is that not all students are the same, so they have different learning styles and temperaments that the teacher should take care of. Sometimes, student’s attention depends from the teacher’s methodology and what the techniques that the teacher uses for making things clear. There are many instructions that we should keep in mind as a teacher, but the important things that you should repeat to yourself as a teacher, at least once per everyday that you teach (like professor Zisi mentioned) are:
• Thank you very much!
• You are the best!
• I am proud of you!
• I love you!
By repeating these sentences above automatically we are able to love our job and our students, but not only love them but also we can listen, understand, help and make things easier for their lessons. So, in the end you can get what you want from them, and they can get what they want from you.
In the end, I think that all teachers agree, that being a teacher is a challenge.

Analyzing the Culture - Hofstede's Method

The notions, culture and society are closely related. Culture is defined by Tylor as a complex thing which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man (meaning human, a man or a woman) as a member of society. Society consists of people living in the same territory who share a common culture. Culture is created from people of society; also it outlines the way people act together and understand the world around them. We are all witnesses of changes on societies and countries, because people are moving in a continuous way. They change places, or they emigrate from one country to another. While the immigration the only thing that a man (woman) can take with himself (herself) is a culture.
Sometimes for some reasons we are interested to know more about our culture or the others culture. There are few authors that describe how to do that, like E.T. Hall, Geert Hofstede, D. Pinto, W. Shinkel etc. But the best way of knowing yours or the other countries culture is by applying the Geert Hofstede’s method. This method analyzes the culture in depth and explains it in more details, in such a way you can do statistics and make conclusions which gives you a clear idea about naming culture. In his study G. Hofstede demonstrated that there are national and regional cultural groupings that affect the behavior of societies. Even though sometimes we mistakenly tend to think that deep inside all people are the same, they are not. So we have to keep in mind that there exist differences between the average of the country and the individuals. This model has been quite often correct when applied to the general population, but we should be aware that not all individuals or region groups represent that population, because sometimes the group might not be representative. According to G. Hofstede there are five dimensions to analyze the culture of one society:
• Power Distance Index (PDI)
How much the less powerful members of institutions and organizations expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. In some democratic countries the distance is low like for example in Germany, but in Arabic countries this distance is high.
• Individualism – collectivism
Individualism is the one side versus its opposite, collectivism, that is the degree to which individuals are integrated into groups. Western countries are individualistic countries because everyone looks only after him/herself and his/her immediate families, while Arabic countries are collectivist countries.
• Masculinity – Femininity
Masculinity versus its opposite, femininity refers to the distribution of roles between the genders which is another fundamental issue for any society to which a range of solutions are found. Woman’s values differ less among societies than men than men’s values.
• Uncertainty Avoidance
Uncertainty avoidance deals with a society’s tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity; it ultimately refers to man’s search for Truth.
• Long term orientation – short term orientation
o Long term orientation
-persistence
-ordering relationships by status and observing this order
-thrift
-having a sense of shame
o Short term orientation
-personal steadiness and stability
-protecting your ‘face’
-respect or tradition
-reciprocation of greetings, favors, and gifts

From my point of view, I prefer Hofstede's method the most because for example if you have to visit, do business, study, or only travel for whatever reason in another country, all you have to do is to check on the net and find out easily, and have a clear idea for the culture of that place before going there. I liked the other methods from the other authors as well but if I compare Hoftede's method with Pinto's there are differences, because with Pinto's method first you have to visit the country of your interest, and only then you might discover the culture of that place, but you cannot do it without being there and see it with your own eyes. So I think that Hofstede's method takes advantage over the others in this aspect and from this point of view.

Education for the Teachers

Today I just have finished the second day of the course "Challenges of Education in the New Century / Communicative Skills as European Teacher", and I am positively impressed with the way that we are learning things, also the way that we are doing things during the class hours. I have to mention that I was curious to know the general teaching methods, and to go deep into it, exactly in the way that we are doing now. One of the most important things that I have learned in today's class is that, it is important to be a good teacher. Furthermore, to be a good teacher you must have in mind three basic things:
1. You should be careful not to make mistakes during the lectures that you are teaching,
2. You have to be prepared before every class, and
3. You should be enthusiastic during the lectures.
I totally agree with these ideas, and I think that if these three things mentioned above are applied by teachers in every class that they teach, we will already be a successful teachers.
in addition to this, another important fact that I remember and which also fulfill the conditions of being a good teacher is: build trust relationship between you and your students, don't shout, and move freely during the class hours. because this will improve the relationship teacher-student and will reflect positively in the quality of student's interest.
Despite the fact that the hierarchy excises teacher-student, the respect should be reciprocal.