Since our class has decided to stray away from the syllabus, there isn't a reading for me to comment on this week. The syllabus does mention cross-cultural experiences, so I can talk about a few of the experiences that I have had. I've had a few cross-cultural experiences throughout my life, most of them occurring in the past four years while at the University of Richmond. The largest of these experiences definitely occurred in my time studying abroad in Rennes, France. Not only was I immersed in a completely new culture, but I was also surrounded by people who were also foreign to France. When I first decided to study abroad in France, I was a bit disappointed that I wouldn't be going somewhere exotic like some of my other friends and classmates. I'd already traveled to France before, and thought that European cultures weren't that different from the culture here in the United States. This underestimation of differences, however, proved to make transitioning even more difficult. It was the small differences that I hadn't even considered that actually were the most drastic changes. Meals were different sizes and eaten at different times of the day. Breakfast usually consisted of a cup of coffee and a piece of baguette, lunch was the largest and longest meal, usually including a type of meat, and dinner was eaten very late (sometimes not until 1030 at night) and was a small meal, either a type of salad, a dinner crepe, or quiche. Something that seemed so small (the reordering and resizing of meals) made a huge impact on my day to day life, in that it affected my mood, my level of energy, and even my daily planning. For instance, I didn't have as much energy after lunch because I'd just eaten a huge meal and wanted to relax, or there was the fact that I had to make my night plans much later because I had to take family dinner into consideration.
What I really learned from that experience was not just that meals take place at different times and in different orders in different cultures, but that ever difference (no matter how small) must be considered. The experience in France also made an impact on me in that when meeting with Wadia and Maroof, I asked them more questions about the cultural associations that come with different vocabulary.
This week, I was working on learning the different names for food items and on how to order in a restaurant. Keeping in mind the question of how culture impacts these words, I asked many questions about restaurant etiquette and what types of foods are associated with which meals. First, because Iran and Afghanistan are Muslim countries, pork is not eaten and so I did not learn the word for pork. Also, tips are not left at restaurants, and restaurants are typically much more casual than in the US. I was trying to gain the right vocabulary for ordering in a restaurant, but Maroof constantly told me that all you do is point on the menu and say the name of the thing that you want. Wadia also showed me some menus and we had a good laugh at certain items...like "French Fries" written out in persian letters, but pronounced the exact same way. It is very easy in this way to see the influence that the West has had on Persian-speaking countries. I didn't do too much this week as I spent some time searching for phrases for ordering, and then learned that they don't really exist in a cultural context. So mainly, this week was spent on food vocabulary, which mostly meant practicing pronunciation as many types of foods are specific plates with made with chicken, lamb, or beef. All in all, I learned that the most important thing to know for ordering is the different names for types of meet, as the rest of the menu doesn't really have direct translations into English anyways.
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