ESL Class

I (Emily) am going through a training class to become a volunteer English tutor to immigrants coming into Wollongong from various non English speaking countries.

I really enjoyed my first ESL training class last week. I think I learned more about Australians and how they see themselves and cultural transition than I did tutoring English, but it was very interesting and I thought it would be good to share with you all.

During the class, we talked about culture and the various aspects of culture, including the fact that some aspects of culture are seen and some are unseen. The instructor had a picture of an iceberg and the part of the iceberg that was above water had the words “Language, Food, and Clothing” on it, depicting the aspects of “seen” culture. The part of the iceberg that was under the water had the words “Communication, Beliefs, Attitudes, Values, and Perceptions,” depicting the unseen aspects of culture. We then broke into groups to discuss the question, “What do you think are important aspects of Australian culture?” (We were supposed to emphasize the unseen things such as values.)

We later came back together as a large group to share what we had talked about. The instructor first wanted to hear from those of us who had lived in Australia for less than a year. (It had come out earlier in class that I and two other women were newcomers to Australia – one from South Africa and the other from the U.S.) I told the class that it seemed to me that conservation was a higher value in Australia than in the U.S. The woman from South Africa said that people were taken care of more because slums were rare, and the other woman from the U.S.A. said that Australians placed a high value on clubs and groups.

After we newcomers had shared our perceptions of Australian values, the instructor opened up the discussion to others. It was interesting to hear people from Wollongong discuss what they perceived as Australian values. One person said “ANZAC values” (I think she said loyalty and courage were the values of ANZAC soldiers) and another said fairness – her exact words were, “Everyone gets a fair go.”

Later we talked about cultural taboos. The instructor read some scenarios of foreign people making cultural faux pas in Australia. One was a little story about a man from South America who asked an Australian man how much money he made and the Australian man walked off because he was offended. Our instructor asked, “What are some other things that would be taboo to ask someone in Australia?” The answers the Australians in the class gave were “religion” and “political views”.

We then talked about culture transition and the settlement process, as well as problems and frustrations people deal with when they migrate to a new place/culture. We had an interesting discussion because several in the class were immigrants from other English speaking countries. Several talked about how hard the transition was for them to move to Australia and how different it was from their country of origin, despite the fact they spoke English. The other lady from the U.S. spoke up and said that in the past 9 months she has lived in Australia, she had gone through a hard time of transition – a lot harder than she expected. She had visited Australia several times for a month or two at a time before she came over on a permanent visa, but found it a lot harder to live permanently in Australia than visit for a month or two at a time. She had gone through a time where she had felt quite miserable and regretted coming over, but found a friend who helped her through it.

Our instructor told the class that she had migrated to Australia from England twenty years ago and had found Australia a lot different from England and the adjustment challenging (This surprised me because I always think of Australia as being much more British). She also said that she still didn’t feel Australian even though she moved 20 years ago. Another woman who emigrated from South Africa 25 years ago admitted that she still did not feel Australian. The general consensus of the class was that it was rare for someone to emigrate as an adult to Australia (or another place) and ever feel fully from there.

The point of all these discussions, of course, was to broaden people’s understanding of culture and how hard it is for people to transition to a new place and culture, so that as English tutors we would have more understanding of what our learners are experiencing. What I got out of it though, was more of an understanding of how people in Wollongong think about Australian culture (and also more understanding about my own transition here in this place). I really see now that it is going to take awhile to become adjusted and that it is normal to feel cultural stress, even though I come from a somewhat similar English speaking country. I see that it is possible for the cultural aspects that are “at the top of the iceberg” such as language, food, and clothing to be similar, but at the same time, the less seen aspects of culture at the “bottom of the iceberg” such as communication style, values, and perceptions to be different. My guess is the further that we go in this process of getting to know people in Wollongong, the more we will realize the differences in those aspects of culture that are less seen.