Culture Shock

A couple of weeks ago, after a friend of mine and I were trying really hard to find time between school and work we finally set a date for me to come over to her parents house. She told me how much her mother likes to have people over and cook Persian food for her guests. I had never had Persian food in my life. I was scared to be honest, because I would have felt really embarrassed if I didn’t like the food for some reason. On the other hand, I couldn’t wait to come to someone else’s house and see what they do when the have guests over. Every culture has a different way of treating guests and I wanted to experience this one.

The food was served, and on my table set I had a fork and a spoon. The food included chicken (delicious chicken I must add) and rice with raisins and lentils and plain yogurt with other herbs. Without waiting too much time I started to eat, with the fork. My friend had her sister and her daughter over as well. They were visiting from Iran. The daughter a nine year old was sitting on the table as well and I noticed that she whispered something in Farsi. I couldn’t understand a word yet with her eyes she was telling me that she was talking about me.

Suddenly, my friend started to laugh and I asked her what was so funny. She said, “Oh nothing is just that she was asking why you are eating your rice with the fork. She is wondering if you don’t know how to use spoons.” Well, the thing is that spoons and forks are for Iranians (I’m not sure if this is true for all Persian culture, that is why I’m saying Iranians) what forks and knives are for us westerns.

I like finding little facts like this one. I’m sure that if I ever run into another group of Persian people and I have the opportunity to eat with them, they will appreciate me remembering that little fact.

Jailed Teacher

Not too long ago I heard about the protests in Sudan where very upset people asked for the execution of Gillian Gibbons. A teacher who allowed her students to call their class teddy bear “Muhammad.” She was convicted of insulting Islam.

She was sentenced to deportation and 15 days in jail, of which she only spent nine. After lawmakers from England, who are also Muslim members of the House of Lords cooperated in the process of asking the president of Sudan to release Gibbons.

The teacher was finally released and taken back home, to England where the media overwhelmed her with all the attention. I had to look more into this news story for another class and I had the opportunity to see some of the press statements that she gave on an interview. She said that she was treated well in jail and that everyone was very kind to her.

I’m glad she had the courtesy of saying exactly how she felt, pointing out that she was treated kindly. When people don’t know about other cultures they say things (that are usually to denigrate that culture) based on the few facts they have heard (if they have heard anything at all). I’m glad to see that the Sudanese government was somewhat lenient towards this educator, because she didn’t mean to offend anyone.

 ::Edit:: This post is to praise the teacher’s attitude towards the Sudanese governmen. I believe that in no way, shape or form have I stated through this post that Islam is evil. I just wanted to give props to people like this teacher that did not use her position, and the media attention to denigrate those who jailed her. ::end edit::

After Graduating

One more semester has come to and end. I started thinking about what is going to happen after I graduate. I still have two more semester to be out of college. The thought scares me a little.

Instructors take a task that is not required of them, but they do it anyway. Is the task of giving us tips for the future. So we can go out there and succeed. I asked some of my classmates what their fears are now that (some of them) are graduating. Others still have one or two more semesters, but they are already thinking about that day that doesn’t only mean we won’t have any more homework but we enter that thing called: the real world.

Listen to some of the answers these students said: Graduating.mp3

Remember that keeping a positive attitude and like one of the students said “keep on smiling” because that is a door opener to that real world we are getting into.