Culture and Language Mentor Program

 Non verbal communication, like the movement of a hand or the blink of an eye can often hodl many different meanings. I can look at my best friend and we indcate something to each other with just one look. Or we shake hands and can infer from a strong handshake versus a light handshake what th other person is like.

Last night I attended my first orientation on being a Canadian-born mentor in the college's Culture and Language Mentor Program.  It's run by the Diversity and Immigrant Support department at the college. basically the program consists of 10 hours you spend with a new immigrant student. You show them around Winnipeg and introduce them to the culture and traditions of Canada.

What does this have to do with an editing blog you may ask. Well, during the orientation the proram coordinator talked about some of the cultural differences that may occur between Canada and the countries some of the students come from.

She had an interesting example of a Japanese student who came to Canada. He confided in her that one thing that he learned right away was non-verbal communication of pointing. He went on to say that in Japan pointing was a rude hand gesture similar to the middle finger in Canada. So when he came here with very little English people would indicate things to him by pointing. This confused him until he figured out that they weren't being rude they were just showing him things. Later, when he went back to Japan he found that the Canadian way of pointing had rubbed off and he found he had to edit his non-verbal communications.

This makes us realize the differences in cultures across the world. Something as simple as pointing means something totally different in a another part of the world.

To learn more about the Culture and Language Mentor Program please see the video below.

The Cultural and Language Mentor Program from Red River College on Vimeo.