Despite the fact that I came to CMU to take classes, I haven't actually talked about the class I'm taking. And, honestly, today isn't going to be the day that I start because that's just not interesting. Instead, I'm going to talk about working with Ajarn Jah Jaah's class a bit.
I know that I've mentioned Ajarn Jah Jaah's class in passing before, but I had a blast helping teach her class today and I just wanted to talk about it. In a lot of ways, I feel like I'm almost learning more about American culture by taking her class than the students are. Today we talked about "appropriate questions." In Thai culture, it's perfectly acceptable to ask absolutely anything to anyone. You can ask about one's sexuality, wage, weight, opinions on politics, etc and it's seen as perfectly acceptable. If anything, it would be rude to not answer these questions. As such, I enlisted the help of my friends from USAC and we came up with a list of what would be inappropriate questions in western culture. I introduced each question to the class and they had to respond as a group whether or not they thought it was appropriate. The results were interesting to say the least.
I mean, it's easy to say "what's your favorite hobby" is appropriate, but it gets more foggy when you ask "how old are you?" When is it okay to ask "where do you live?" Certainly not immediately after you say hello. For the most part, I feel that the students understood the social structure better, but it made me a little uncomfortable to wonder what they think about me and whether or not it would strain their ability to talk freely to me.
After that exercise, Ajarn asked them to come up with one (appropriate) "who what where when why which" question to ask me. I was surprised that most of the student's questions were concerned with how I felt about Thailand and what I'd done here. It would be easy to ask about my favorite color or what activities I liked, but their questions were very complex- ambitious even! One student even asked me if/how I was experiencing culture shock and I thought that that was brilliant- it wouldn't occur to me to ask someone about culture shock. I guess I'm just continually bowled over by how thoughtful everyone is- knowing that everyone is so kind and welcoming makes it easy to be comfortable here.
After Ajarn's class, I hung out in the USAC office for a bit then went to an orientation for our adventure with the Hill Tribes this weekend. This means, of course, that I leave friday morning and won't be able to post for awhile, but I'll do a masterpost of my weekend and my findings when I get back.
-Haley
I know that I've mentioned Ajarn Jah Jaah's class in passing before, but I had a blast helping teach her class today and I just wanted to talk about it. In a lot of ways, I feel like I'm almost learning more about American culture by taking her class than the students are. Today we talked about "appropriate questions." In Thai culture, it's perfectly acceptable to ask absolutely anything to anyone. You can ask about one's sexuality, wage, weight, opinions on politics, etc and it's seen as perfectly acceptable. If anything, it would be rude to not answer these questions. As such, I enlisted the help of my friends from USAC and we came up with a list of what would be inappropriate questions in western culture. I introduced each question to the class and they had to respond as a group whether or not they thought it was appropriate. The results were interesting to say the least.
I mean, it's easy to say "what's your favorite hobby" is appropriate, but it gets more foggy when you ask "how old are you?" When is it okay to ask "where do you live?" Certainly not immediately after you say hello. For the most part, I feel that the students understood the social structure better, but it made me a little uncomfortable to wonder what they think about me and whether or not it would strain their ability to talk freely to me.
After that exercise, Ajarn asked them to come up with one (appropriate) "who what where when why which" question to ask me. I was surprised that most of the student's questions were concerned with how I felt about Thailand and what I'd done here. It would be easy to ask about my favorite color or what activities I liked, but their questions were very complex- ambitious even! One student even asked me if/how I was experiencing culture shock and I thought that that was brilliant- it wouldn't occur to me to ask someone about culture shock. I guess I'm just continually bowled over by how thoughtful everyone is- knowing that everyone is so kind and welcoming makes it easy to be comfortable here.
After Ajarn's class, I hung out in the USAC office for a bit then went to an orientation for our adventure with the Hill Tribes this weekend. This means, of course, that I leave friday morning and won't be able to post for awhile, but I'll do a masterpost of my weekend and my findings when I get back.
-Haley
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