Building Cross-cultural Relationships in Two Languages

In today’s world of globalisation, students from various parts of the world are learning together. Developing cross-cultural relationships are very important for the students to get along well and have a healthy social-emotional environment for learning. This is why Johnsy-Haines Elementary School, located in the Chinatown area of Chicago, is trying to build relationships between the Asian majority and African-American kids in the school.

In a school where 80% of the kids are from China, it is of no surprise that Chinese is the most popular language for learning. And yet, the school fosters learning English helping the Asian-American kids mingle well with the African-American kids, which is beneficial for the former in building the foundation for mingling in the English-speaking community. The latter also benefits from the exposure to such a dominant culture present in that part of the state, and because learning a different language is simply exciting.

Bilingual connections are a unique way to foster relationships between two communities, and the teachers of Johnsy-Haines Elementary School have come up with interesting methods to help the connection between the children of two vastly different cultures foster.

Watch the following video to learn more!

Image source: Google Images