Response to Readings for Tues Jan 20

As I was reading "Linguicism" (19), I couldn't help but think about how the high school that I attended handled language diversity. I attended a very diverse high school. There was a large Hispanic student population (of many different ethnicities) as well as students from countries all over the world. It was quite the melting pot, there were many more languages spoken in the hallways than taught in the classroom.
There were classes called ESOL for those that did not speak English fluently, though I have no idea how they were organized. In regular classrooms, there was never formal bilingual conversations between teachers and students. Posters and announcements were only in English. Yet there were many students that did not speak English as a first language. I can't help but think that students whom did not speak English fluently were at a major educational disadvantage: there was no way one could pass the college-bound courses without being proficient in English. English speaking students and minority language speaking students were not brought together to learn each others language better. As Schniedewind suggests, this may have been a great exercise for many students to improve their secondary language skills. The diversity in languages at the school was not handled ideally, but perpetuated the notion that English is the dominating language.
I also wanted to comment about the reading " Develop Cross-Cultural Communication Skills"
I agreede with Ford that when interacting with people whom are culturally different than ourselves, it is our gut reaction to pull back from the situation. It takes consciousness and practice to see all that can be gained from interacting with people unlike ourselves. I think that the most important aspect to take from this reading is that it is crucial to keep an open mind and hold individuals that you are conversing with in the utmost respect. Don't judge people by what they look like or try to fit them into stereotypes that society holds. I thought it was particularly interesting that one should focus on the interaction and not what was said. Its the relationship that is formed that is what is really important to breaking down the walls we put between us and those whom are culturally different.