A New Culture

A’ole I ke’ehi kapua’I ike one o Hauiki.

"Has not set foot on the sands of Hauiki." 

Translation: One does not know much about a place until one has been there.

This is the online blog that I will be using to post about my experience as a student teacher in Kihei, Maui in Hawaii. Through the Teaching Across Borders program at the University of Calgary, I am lucky enough to be immersed in another part of the world, another culture where I will be exposed to differences, a new culture, a changed viewpoint of teaching but yet the similar engagement that music brings to students and everyone around the world. 

The above quote represents the newness of landing in a culture different from your own. What do you do when you are planted in new ground? There are certain ways of being that may not nescessarily be what you are used to. Becoming a teacher, I've experienced this situation all the time in the classroom. The students will change, things will not be the same from one day to the next. The energy shifts. Students act in new ways, causing me to question my approach, and this has transformed my ways of teaching.

Thinking about this, I imagine that being in a new culture along with being immersed in a new classroom will be a fresh, changing way of learning how to have an engaging classroom in a culture where you may not have been engaged yourself. How can one engage people they cannot relate to? Could there be universal engagement in school?

When I first told others that I was going to Maui to student teach, the reaction I received was one of disbelief. I received the reaction that it wasn't possible to learn new things in a culture where people go to vacation. The image that came to mind was the beach, the relaxing vacationers, the easy life, and that it was too similar to Canada to be considered culturally different where one could learn something new. 

What they do not see is how the locals live here. I've seen that the economy is low now. I've heard that this has brought the students back down to earth, therefore behave differently in the classroom. The students are similar to Canadian students in ways but different in other ways. Some of them speak Pigeon English (broken English) and some speak their parent's language at home, English at school. The island has a slow pace to it. Time is not of the essence. Instead, I am witnessing locals taking the time to enjoy the process, and taking time to recognize each other on the street. The music and non-music students like to carry around their ukulele with them around the school as a status symbol. Ukulele has become a big fad here among the children. Also, the Hawaiian language is seen and heard around the island. Aloha is practiced in the schools, and companies use the notion of Aloha to promote their products, for example, "the spirit of Aloha".

Some qualities are similar, but others are quite different. I believe that I will be learning more about them as I practice my student teaching here in Kihei on Maui.

Until then,

Aloha!!!