Learning about diversity through cross-culture-conversation

By Christopher Michael
College of Education
Long Island University, C. W. Post
October , 2010

Today’s class was really fun and exciting. I really enjoyed learning about other people’s ethnicity and culture. We were all divided up into groups based on our ethnicity. We then had to answer some questions about our ethnicity. For example, we had to list some stereotypes about our ethnicity, do they affect our learning, what we are proud of in terms of our ethnicity, and what would we like people to know about our ethnicity. We then had to come up with some questions regarding another people’s ethnicity. After each group answered their question, each group presented them to the class.

The presentations were very eye opening. I knew a lot of the stereotypes, however, some of them were new to me. I also learned some new and interesting things about some of the other ethnicities. For example, I learned that Haitians speak many different languages. For example, they speak English, French, and Creole. I also learned about Asian culture. I did not know that men are looked down upon if they do not drink. Lastly, I learned something about myself from a question that was asked to our group. The question was “are all Italian people body concision”? Before day I would have said no, however, I feel that I am. I would not have realized this on my own. This activity was very educational.

I believe the Cross-Culture-Conversation is a great activity for kids to learn about other cultures. It also illustrates how people are different to children. Threw an activity like this children can see how different people and also how the same they are.