No, I’m not looking out through a window of a Starbucks coffee shop as I write this out. Neither am I through one of an aircraft. It is a free period for me from my English as a Second Language classes here at the university where I now teach and this time, I am looking across the expanse of the main library. It’s not the volumes of books and bookshelves that arrest my interest! Not the convenience of tables and chairs for quiet study and writing and computer research. Not the luxury of lounging sets all around where one could rest out both one’s physical and mental exhaustion - or could exhaust one’s self mentally. I am taking in the diversity of academic people sharing this moment with me and I am over-whelmed with realization.
A good number of our students with the ESL Program are basically Chinese.We used to have hundreds more of Japanese at one time even. But this Fall Semester, I have had the pleasure of coming into contact with other nationalities, not only within the student body, but also in the faculty and in the administrative staff as well. Okay, I am in America, thus, it goes without saying that the academic population is necessarily and at best American. But what makes for the icing on the cake is, if I may say so - the presence of a host of other nationals. We have Brazilians, among others...... Frenchmen, too, - Russians, Albanians, Lithuanians, Serbians, Germans, Austrians, Ecuadorians, Turks, Britons, (and I may not yet have mentioned others I haven’t met), added to one Filipino more than me. It is certainly not just the number of diverse nationalities I interact with that spells phenomenal for me but the diversity of cultural aspects that unfold to me that simply fascinates me.
Starting with language, I can’t explain the pleasure I get out of listening to the way they, the above mentioned nationals in my university, would speak English with an accent that gives away their country of origin. I smile at how the feeling that the sounds of a foreign language, superimposed on the English language I am so familiar with, simply transports me to that very country the non-English sounds belong to - what with the melodic interference of phonetic items like pronunciation, stress intonation, and all those other supra-segmental aspects as indicated in the world of Phonology.
And when they share with me strains of their music, these, in turn, transform into stories of their native loves and friendships, of courtship and marriage, of their own ways of family and home, of their own idiosyncratic expression of joys and sorrows. These stories further bring me to a world of discovery in terms of tradition and modernity and into levels of comparison and contrast, not only among this diversity of nationals but also between them and my own beloved countrymen.
In this ethnic diversity am I also given an enchanting panoramic vision of distinctive ways in greetings, for instance. According to the dictates of their culture, some comment on the weather, some will ask how healthy you are, some will ask you where you’re going, some will hug you with a kiss, - and the number of kisses depending on what country they come from. The point of contact may not only be on the cheek because it could be on the forehead or on the hands. Some will even have to greet another in silence if only to show respect, rather than with language or with gesture and more.
Naming males or females can be a cultural distinction too. Forms of address can vary from country to country where some put a lot of significance on relationships, especially within the family
hierarchy, in which case, among others, there is such a thing as honorifics, or terms of respect, for elders or for authority and strangers. But on campus at my present moment, some faculty encourage
students to address them by their first names rather than be called Professor or by their formal titles, and this is especially for foreign students who may find it difficult to pronounce names. Of this, I
must be honest and say I, for one, am not sure if I am comfortable with it.
As for time and concerns of appointment, I find that this, too, can be a cultural item. Some find it a necessity and a sign of respect to be punctual while others look at it in a different way. Some nationals, thus, consider being late as normal. In fact, the more respectable and prominent a person is in their native lands, the less punctual he is expected to be. So I am guessing that for our students from such countries, they must have some difficulty adapting to the American demand for strict punctuality, be it academic, business, or social.
Space, on the other hand, is yet one more aspect I find interesting. Some nationals apparently need certain dimensions in space like distances to be near or far - when conversing with people who are not within their comfort zone. Others simply find the same constraints comfortable enough and aren’t bothered a bit. Some have their sensibilities confronted with the local food and clothing and still, others worry about climactic conditions and many other things - which might naturally be expected.
But with all this diversity identified in the international community of my present academic world, I feel that the cultural idiosyncrasies of each individual is actually synthesized in the English language. Whatever his food or religion; however he greets me or decides to express his thoughts and feelings, whenever or whyever might he digress from the protocols of the university, one thing will definitely draw them together for me - the English language. Which is why, even if their morning greeting in class would sound like either Miremengjes!, or Zaoan!, or Bonjour!, or Guten Morgen!, or Bom Dia!, or Dobroe Utro!, and so forth and so on, - each of these, in my heart, will be a smile that translates to Good Morning, Professor!
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