9 February 2006 - 22:04
Tonight at our weekly English conversation practice, we discussed cultural values. Last week, I asked all of the students to write down the five things that were most important in their lives, and then to make a second list of the five things they thought were most important to Americans.
My little assignment pared the number of attendants down a little, and only a few of the ones who came actually made a list, but here’s what they said:
For Mauritanians, solidarity, religion, tradition, respect from other people for their religion, parties, peace, progress for their people, prosperity, prevention of war, learning, good government, and wealth are important. Every person who spoke mentioned religion, which was also at the top of the list that I made of the things I thought were most important to Mauritanians. I also listed tradition and wealth.
The students listed democracy, helping poor countries, prosperity for all countries, organization, humor, fame, and freedom to make decisions as the things they thought were most important to Americans. My list of the things I thought were most important to Americans didn’t include any of those.
Midway through our discussion of values, we made an interesting discovery. I had listed Family as something I thought was important to Mauritanians, but none of the students mentioned it. When I asked why, my friend ‘Med told me, “I didn’t think that anyone had to list their family as being important because family is important to everyone.” He took it as a given. Then when the students were reading their lists of what they thought were important to Americans, it struck me that I didn’t include Freedom on my list for what I thought was important to Americans. I guess I took that as a given myself.
I think that sometimes some of the most important things in our lives are things that we take for granted, and it takes an outside perspective to remind us of what is really important to us.
