Moving from Zimbabwe to the United States of America has opened my eyes to a number of biased stereotypical values I held. I perceived American children as children with little respect compared to African children, but now I can assuredly say that there is a story behind every behavior mostly influenced by the society or the sub-group an individual comes from. I have noticed that in most of my classes, some American students respond/talk to their professors like they are of the same age. To most international student this can be viewed as being rude but to some of them this is completely normal. For example, one day in my mathematics class our teacher was explaining a complicated concept on the board and urged everyone to pay attention. For participation, she randomly asks students to give at least some feedback to a question that she asks them regardless of the response being correct or not. Professor then asked a boy who was sitting next to me to give at some feedback or contribution to a question she had just asked. I am going to call this boy, boy A. Boy A looked at the professor and bluntly told her that he was not paying any attention. The professor just said ok and went on with the lesson. Another instance where I observed a different behavior concerning the same issue of respect was in my economics class. My professor was explaining a point she had just stated. She did not explain it quite clearly so many of us did not understand what she was saying.
