As Vera and I approach finals the
cross-cultural and cross language fears associated with finals begin to set in.
While her classes are much more narrow than mine, I believe they may be harder.
The reason that I can at least read and understand what the question is asking.
While reading the questions is part of the test for her. This lack of
familiarity with the language that the test is worded in is some that I find
scary.
This unknown of what the question
is even asking scares me more than her. I believe that this is because of
something else that we have talked about previously. Vera and other Chinese
students are used to pressure. They have to succeed to get put into the high
school they wish and ultimately their tests and schooling are more rigorous
than ours in the United States is. This obvious pressure leads to some of the
differences in our culture.
Our talk again returned to food. She
loves the food here to my surprise while she says that the Chinese is not very
realistic. Her favorite food also surprised me. She said it was noodles that
apparently are a staple in China. When an American is asked what type of food
is their favorite they generally respond with: Chinese, Italian, or Mexican. I
thought that a specific aspect of food being named was interesting. However, I guess that there are many ways to
cook noodles that I haven’t thought of
and that is a possibility I hadn’t previously considered.
These conversations that started as
a chore have started to become of the parts of the week that I look forward to
and I am sorry to see them approach an ending.
Canon,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see your interactions with your partner have turned into such a positive experience. I know for a lot of people scheduling a meeting, or even getting their partner to respond, has been a major issue and has caused our classmates to lose the experience of the assignment. Becoming friends with Youness has enriched my life so much and my meetings with him have become a break from my busy week instead of just another meeting I have to attend. It makes me sad to know that communication and scheduling conflicts have made this experience taxing and frustrating for some. However it is good to know that this isn't the norm and that at least some of us have been able to enjoy it!