International Did You Know #1
Did you know that Iranians do not speak Arabic? In fact, they are not even Arab. They are Persians and they speak Farsi. You probably already knew this. I knew this at one point also. The first international student we met is from Iran. His first name probably would have caused Americans to shudder 5 years ago but it is now the middle name of our president. We were talking about languages and I asked him if Arabic, like Hebrew, is read from right to left - to which he replied (not in a condescending way), "we don't speak Arabic in Iran, we speak Farsi - but yes, it is read from right to left." He probably should have called me a stupid ethnocentric American but he didn't because he was very kind.
One thing I have learned in all of my global experiences is that Americans are the most ethnocentric people on earth - and with that ethnocentrism comes a sort of global arrogance. I was in China at a tourist market and a chinese vendor asked me where I was from. I told her to guess and she thought I was German. When I told her I was American she was surprised. I asked her why she was surprised and she said, "because Americans are not very 怎么说？ gentleman." I apologized for Americans everywhere and thanked her for the (of course fake) sunglasses she sold me and went about my day. We hosted many Americans on short-term trips while we lived in China and fielded thousands of questions. Let us just say that some of those questions were more...informed...than others. We were asked some pretty silly questions. Maybe they seemed silly to us because we had been exposed to what China is really like, but these questions just confirmed my belief that Americans are the most ethnocentric people on earth.
The world is a huge and wonderful place. America is becoming more diverse every day (we can't believe how many more internationals live in America now compared to 4 years ago). Let us embrace that diversity, learn about our neighbors who may be from a foreign land, and follow the most basic command of Jesus to love them.
One thing I have learned in all of my global experiences is that Americans are the most ethnocentric people on earth - and with that ethnocentrism comes a sort of global arrogance. I was in China at a tourist market and a chinese vendor asked me where I was from. I told her to guess and she thought I was German. When I told her I was American she was surprised. I asked her why she was surprised and she said, "because Americans are not very 怎么说？ gentleman." I apologized for Americans everywhere and thanked her for the (of course fake) sunglasses she sold me and went about my day. We hosted many Americans on short-term trips while we lived in China and fielded thousands of questions. Let us just say that some of those questions were more...informed...than others. We were asked some pretty silly questions. Maybe they seemed silly to us because we had been exposed to what China is really like, but these questions just confirmed my belief that Americans are the most ethnocentric people on earth.
The world is a huge and wonderful place. America is becoming more diverse every day (we can't believe how many more internationals live in America now compared to 4 years ago). Let us embrace that diversity, learn about our neighbors who may be from a foreign land, and follow the most basic command of Jesus to love them.
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