Personal Space Differences 

May 29, 2021 --- TESOL 103 --- Week 6

    Personal space is a universal need.  It has been observed and studied in animals in the zoo versus animals in the wild.  They call it an escape distance or a flight zone.  And it is neither an emotion nor a behavior.  The space is consistent enough to concisely measure.  

     Personal space is also a human need.   It does fluctuate depending upon your cultural background and your territorial development.  It can be as extreme as starting a war over territory to as little as cringing when someone gets too close.  And each culture has different interpretations on what is the correct space and silent behavior, including eye contact, between people.

     For some people and cultures this personal space extends to personal belongings, but for others it does not.  This can cause clashes between otherwise friends, when they do not understand that they are reacting under a different cultural assumption.  Unfair and untrue judgements can damage relationships when it is only "stuff" that is involved, and should not be the basis for hurting or causing connections.

     As a future TESOL teacher, this knowledge will be invaluable when challenges arise in the classroom such as bickering over personal possessions, or accusations of trying to look at someone's work when they were really only unknowingly invading their personal space.  When you have advance understanding, you are prepared to deal with these types of crises.  Also, because of these insights, I can try to increase my students understanding by teaching culture as well as English in my classroom, and setting a tone of respect and appreciation for other cultures besides my own.  Additionally, by seeing both the negative and the positive aspects of my own culture, I will be able to bring a more balanced view for everyone.

     My American culture has both strengths and weaknesses.  A weakness that was pointed out was the extreme materialism of my country.  This can lead to selfishness and greed.  I admire the Native American culture of sharing and generosity.  I appreciate the comfort that Americans demand on buses and trains so that I am not pushed onto subways in order to fit on more people. I also admire the English attitude that eavesdropping is very rude, so people move away to give conversational privacy; whereas in the United States they seem to enjoy listening in on those conversations.  If a class on cultural good manners were required to be taken when a passport was issued, perhaps we could do away with the epitaph of "the Ugly American".