A "critical incident" reported by Mary Williams in:
Michael Byram, Developing Intercultural Competence in Practice, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 2001 (pp. 117-118)

Culture Bump

In this activity, students read a short account of a 'cultural incident' (or 'culture bump' -- Archer 1986), that is, a situation where two or more people find themselves in a conflicting or uncomfortable situation because of differences in acquired value systems (culture).

The account

A British teacher, in Manchester, was teaching a class of learners of English from different countries.  This was the fifth lesson and in the first lesson he had explained the need for punctuality, assiduousness, and class participation.

Today's lesson had be going on for about ten minutes (the teacher was explaining a project to be done for the next class) when the door opened and in walked a student, Salvatore.

(Salvatore had had to wait an exceptionally long time at the bus stop near his home, and although he ran as fast as he could from the arrival bus stop to the school, he was 10 minutes late.)

Salvatore stopped for a moment, before going to an empty seat, and started to tell the teacher what had happened to make him late.

The teacher interrupted him and told him to sit down and not say anything.

Salvatore was irritated: the teacher did not appreciate the effort he had made to get to class as close as possible to starting time.  He began to think he might drop the class and study on his own, rather than continue with such an unpleasant teacher.

The teacher was irritated: she announced that she was thinking of making a new rule excluding latecomers.  This, of course, would make the relationship with the whole class worse.

The situation was a typical "loose-loose"* outcome.

What could the interactants have done to avoid the clash or, after the clash, to restore harmony?

Discuss what the conflicting values are in this account, how they are justified in the minds of each interactant, and what one or both of the interactants -- and the class as a community -- should think/do/say in the future to prevent such ill feelings from occurring.

*According to negotiation theory, there are four possible outcomes to a confrontation:

- win-loose: one person must loose for the other to win -- as in a football cup final match;

- 50-50 compromise: both people get half of what they want -- example: if I say I want that lemon (without telling you it is to make a lemon cake) and if you say you want that lemon (without telling me it is to make an lemonade), we can arrive at a compromise by cutting the lemon in two. But I will end up with just a small cake and you will end up with only half a glass of lemonade;

- win-win: both sides win -- example: if I want that lemon to make a lemon cake and you want that lemon to make an lemonade, and if we manage to talk to each other and open up and say what we want the lemons for, then we can arrive at a 100% solution for both of us. I take the lemon rind (skin) for my cake, which is all I need, and you take the lemon juice for your lemonade, which is all you need

- loose-loose: both sides loose -- for example, in an atomic war where both countries destroy each other partially or totally, in many divorces where afterward both partners are less happy than before, and in the example of the student coming late to class.

(Inspired by Tomalin and Stempleski, 1993)