September 28th was World Languages and Cultures day at CHS. A day when students learn about many different cultures in our community.

However, there are some students that are unwilling to learn about other cultures. There are some students in the Clayton community who make fun of the presenters and their cultures; sometimes to look “cool” in front of their friends and other times just because they can’t accept the differences of other cultures.

I saw an instance of this today during a presentation on Germany. A student next to me had been texting with this friend and laughing at the presentations for the entire time and it had been getting on my nerves. I turned to tell him to turn off his phone when I saw something he typed. It was a comment on how the kid that was presenting couldn’t speak English very well and how all the German words sounded strange.

Well, I really don’t think that’s a reason to make fun of him. How would he feel if he went to a different country, say Germany, and got made fun of because he couldn’t speak German very well and because his culture was different from German culture? I don’t think he would feel all that great. In fact, I think he would be quite upset.

I think maybe, in order to make these kids learn, they should be sent as exchange students to different countries so they can know what it feels like to be in a foreign country where they don’t know about anything. Maybe then, they’ll finally learn their lesson and become
less intolerant people who are able to accept cultural differences.