One of the best pieces of advice that I received early in my teaching career came from a Japanese administrator.  Over the years he had witnessed visiting American instructors showing their frustration with Japanese students vocally or through their body language.  He said that with Asian students, these demonstrations can have the opposite effect of what the instructors were hoping for.  According to him, only children or someone immature is unable to control their emotions, so the students will probably lose respect for the instructor.

I can say that in my 35-plus years of teaching international students, I’ve never been in a situation in which my only option was to show anger.  This isn’t to say that I’ve never felt inside like screaming; I just know that nothing would have been gained by actually doing it.

My “never show anger” mantra was recently challenged by a student.

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