Cultural Post: My Classmates' Culture Presentations

[Yazmeen Nunez]

It was very interesting to see the different presentations.  Unfortunately I was not able to attend the last day of presentations, but I did still learn a lot about the many cultures that we are trying to explore as language learners.

The first I saw, Pete's, was about the evolution of pop music and the different kinds of music in Turkey.  This was very enlightening; the only Turkish band I have ever listened to was very similar to some American bands and so was hardly representative of the different styles of music that Turkey has to offer.  It surprised me that there was a form of rap in Turkey that was not much different from some genres of rap in the United States, but when I look back on it, I am not sure why it surprised me.  I suppose that I did not expect such diversity in musical styles and tastes in a nation that is fairly homogeneous ethnically.  I very much enjoyed the music that we listened to in his presentation as well, and have actually explored Turkish music more since then.

Haley's presentation was about Iranian cinema and a famous director whose name now escapes me.  However, I do remember that he or she was protesting the artistic censorship that destroyed the art being produced (or not being produced) in Iran.  This was very enlightening to me; I have read several books on the situation in Iran but they were always in the context of human rights.  It was interesting to see this struggle take place in a field that is both not as human and just as human at once.  The plight of those who attempt to create great films in Iran is just as notable as the men and women who attempt to be politically uncensored and unsuppressed.

Kristen's presentation on the Turkish population in Germany was very in-depth.  I had known about this movement of Turkish people to Germany for work opportunities, but she presented many details that were extremely interesting to me.  The detail in particular that struck me was that Turkish communities are so self-involved that Turkish pre-school children end up not even learning German, which will severely hinder them in life if they choose to later on live in the nation permanently.  It reminded me of the present-day situation in the Southwest US and their struggles with the increasing Mexican immigrant population.

Melanie's project concerned the death rituals practiced by Jewish people, and although it was very morose at times, it very much opened my eyes to things I did not know.  I am not familiar with much of Jewish culture, so learning about the intricacies of this one practice that seems so simple in average American culture gave me a lot of awareness about the many differences between cultures all over the world.  What interested me the most was that there are certain things that will prevent the body of a dead Jewish person to not be buried in a Jewish cemetery, which seemed novel to me, as I don't think there are pre-requisites to being buried in many other burial grounds.  On the flip side was Rebekah's project about wedding rituals in Jewish culture.  It was very interesting, but unsurprising, to see that in both presentations, religion plays a major role in all of the Jewish ceremonies.  All of these projects gave me a new understanding about all of the various cultures represented by their language-learners and made me further aware of the existence of other cultures besides my own, and that there is more than one way of doing things.