- Learning Journal 8: State your learning goals for this week and how you went about accomplishing these goals.
This week, as I have been jumping around within my learning plan and goals, I will be talking about the cultural context of the Israeli communication norms on the street in everyday life. This subset in under Task 1, Goal 1: To understand how Israelis communicate on the street in everyday life. The following will be specific to two cities, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, as these cities represent an interesting divide in terms of practiced norms and other societal qualities. More specifically, on transportation and the dining scene. Starting in Jerusalem, as a general rule, there are a lot more religious people in Jerusalem, and, therefore, more interaction between those who are religious and those who are secular. Religions such as Judaism and Christianity both call Jerusalem home to many of its most revered sites and locations, while, in Islam, the Al-Aqsa mosque is the third holiest site -- at least to the Sunni sect. Moreover, as a general rule, religious males will interact with males, and religious females will interact with females because there is tension that is upheld by religious belief when interacting with the opposite sex. Jerusalem is very much a high-context city. Most people know their boundaries and roles and observe them strictly. The street life is physically sectarian. For example, East Jerusalem and West Jerusalem serves a salient example of considerable friction. And the Old City with four different groups within its walls -- Christian, Armenian, Jewish and Muslim -- creates an environment of ambiguous identity should you cross into another "zone." There are different contexts at play when you interact with those espousing different beliefs. Also, in general, people don't interact on the bus (this rule holds true for Tel Aviv too but to a less extent.) Naturally, religious women will go to the back of the bus and religious males will cover their eyes so as to not make eye contact even if it occurs accidentally (both of these phenomena are marginal in Tel Aviv). During Shabbat, from sundown to sundown -- Friday to Saturday -- public transportation does not work in any location in Israel. Sheruts work, but they are a private organization and they must pay a fine. In general, Tel Aviv is the complete opposite from many of the rules concerning Jerusalem listed. Since Tel Aviv is a progressive city, there are more seculars than those who are religious, and thus this reality is reflected in its city's norms. Men and women freely communicate on the street, for example. Tel Aviv is a low-context city where diversity reigns supreme and thus no horizontal hierarchy exists, for the most part.
Comments