ABSTRACT
Many teachers of international students seek brief, straightforward information about the students they are asked to teach. How do Korean students interact with their teachers and fellow students? How do students from the Middle East regard their sporting heroes? What topics of conversation are considered impolite for Scandinavians? Teachers who ask such questions are gathering knowledge about their students’ cultures, in the hope that this cultural knowledge will make them better instructors. Before I discuss the merits and methods of gathering cultural knowledge, I should state that teachers who show genuine curiosity about their students’ backgrounds are already well on the way to being better mentors. Far too often, the flow of cultural knowledge in teacher-learner relationships is seen as a one-way business. Teachers who gather cultural knowledge at the same time as they are imparting it are aware of the processes of learning about another culture, and that awareness deepens their rapport with the students.
