Carlos-CO2

On Tuesday morning, I observed Olga Garmash's intermediate listening class. She began the class with two videos that the students had to listen to. The speaker used quite an advanced level of English in the video. I was quite surprised when the students were asked comprehension questions and how well they understood everything. The video section of class took a good half of the class to finish and was pretty routine. Afterwards, Olga assed out homework regarding their own culture. She briefly skimmed this homework and began asking students what they thought of American culture. This discussion was extremely interesting because of the diversity of the class. There were a number of Asians, Central Americans, Europeans, and Arabs in the room. It was very interesting to hear what they thought of our culture and our people. Many of their opinions were conflicting which was extremely good for sparking conversation. Some were a little narrow-minded in their answers while others saw the big picture more. Olga allowed me to give my own American input after every question she asked. Although I defended Americans to some extent, I also explained to them that I understood why foreigners feel certain ways towards the states. Overall though, I tried to send a message that it is impossible to stereotype all Americans, just like it is impossible and unfair for Americans to stereotype people of other cultures. I really enjoyed these exchange of ideas, although i felt like the class was no longer a listening class, and more of a speech class.