How do you teach kids appreciation and respect for other cultures?
Recently, I was walking with a friend from an ESL group I'm in. He speaks Spanish as a first language and I speak English first. We're in a group with other Spanish and English speakers so we can try and learn the other's language. A young friend of mine (let's call her Sarah) started walking next to us, and I introduced the two to each other. After I had introduced them, she told him, loudly, with exaggerated hand motions, "I... Sarah!"
I know she was trying to communicate with him, but that wasn't the proper way to do it. I don't have kids, but if I did and they did that, I wouldn't know how to correct the behavior or explain why it was wrong. How can you teach kids respect for others from other cultures?
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To answer the general question just expose children to other cultures. Children generally take everything as acceptable/normal/uneventful at a young age, they don't see anything different from an Stright American English speaking mom and someone speaking Spanish or a gay/trans/bi man or someone from some foreign land practicing some different religion when a child is so young they are still working on understanding the world enough to have an idea what 'normal' is. So exposing a child from a young age to different cultures goes a very long way to making them respect other cultures. Teaching them to respect anyone, be they from a different culture or the same one, is also important. Modeling proper behavior by respecting other cultures yourself and expressing curiosity/excitement about learning about someone new/different helps. But really just exposing them to different things does 90% of the work if combined with basic good parenting skills.
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