My first tutoring session was with an older woman named Manal from Saudi Arabia. This was my favorite meeting to date, for I found it to be the most eye opening; challenging the stereotypical norms I held about Saudi Arabia prior to our meeting. In the US, I find we often hear about Saudi Arabia tagged along with the words "no women's rights," "oppression," and merely nothing positive. After talking to Manal, who described Riyadh as her home that she loved and missed, it made me realize how much I was negatively judging and assuming the role of women in society in Saudi Arabia from a Western lens. I find it common that we as a western culture look down on the way women are treated in several Middle Eastern countries, from the clothes they have to wear to the fact they just recently got the right to drive. In our minds, at least among my peers, I find we view these women being forced to live potentially "meaningless lives" under the control of men. However, after talking to Manal I found she is currently pursuing a PhD, being paid to come learn English by her job back home, she has a driver that she appreciates (for she thinks driving would be scary), and doesn't mind the clothes she has to wear. She's raising two lovely daughters and brought one here to the US with her, while the other remains at home with her family. She spoke nothing but positively about Saudi Arabia, and it reminded me to always remember that although our cultures may be different, it doesn't mean one is merely "better" than the other. There is of course a difference in the level of rights women here have compared to Saudi Arabia; however, when we as a society try to improve these rights of women in places like such, we must remember the cultural implications of these attempts of change. Things may be depicted differently to those there than from us over here, and just because we can't relate, doesn't always mean its "wrong." When it came to tutoring we focused on practicing listening as well as speaking skills, and plan on working on composition skills during our next session.
My third conversation partner meeting was with Josue, my conversation partner from Paris, France. He suggested that we go to a restaurant for this meeting, and recommended the Colombian restaurant on Tennessee St. called "Super Perros". I had never been to this restaurant before, so it was interesting to not only converse with someone from outside of my culture but also at a cultural restaurant with an atmosphere and menu different than what I am used to. Most of the menu was in Spanish, so we were able to bond over trying to figure out what the menu was saying, and ended up sharing a lot of laughs over it. During our meeting, we caught up on how he was doing at CIES, what he's involved in in Tallahasee, and discussed deeper topics such as the current political affairs going on in France. This led to a grander discussion about American politics, and it turned out we had similar views. It was interesting to connect our ideas across border lines, realizing we all want the ...
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