That's Stupid vs. That's Different

It's the first couple of weeks of learning another language and students are really curious and asking some great questions like

• Why are there upside question marks? 
• Why are there accents on some words?
• Why is the date in front of the month?
• Why is the adjective in front of the noun in a sentence?

Some of the questions I know the answer to, some of them I don't. In the past I have "Google" many of those questions myself. Some of the answers make sense to me, some of them I just shrug my shoulders and say "OK." Some of the answers I can never truly understand.

It's great that students notice the differences between Spanish and English and want to understand! However I've also heard some students notice these differences or hear the explanation and just reject the logic by saying something like "that's stupid."

No. It's not. It's just different. You are learning something new. New information is not stupid. It's an awful habit to develop negative feelings for anything that doesn't immediately make sense to you. It will ruin every day of your life because you will probably learn new things about the world every day for a very long time! 

The world is full of different, complex languages and cultures that have completely different ways of thinking about the world than we might be used to. These diverse cultures and people are not stupid, they are different. 

You don't have to learn all the differences, or completely understand them. I don't! Be excited that there are so many different ways to think about things. It makes for a fascinating world to live in!