Teleconference
Nov 6th, 2008 by etannura
The conference that we had with the students from Iran was both eye opening and slightly frustrating. I definitely enjoyed hearing how the students think of Americans and which things they are particularly interested in with respect to our government. I definitely noticed that they seemed a lot more educated about the American system and the way things are run over here compared to how much we all knew about Iran and their customs. It is very obvious that we do not know a whole lot about Iranian culture and what it means to live over there. I do agree that Americans need to get better sources of information so that we will be informed about global issues.
I felt that the Iranian teacher was being a bit aggressive and was treating the conference as a means to “change” or come to an agreement with our class about how Americans should behave. I didn’t really like this approach because most people from outside the US tend to be very judgmental of American culture. I agree that we are self centered but there is also a big focus on America everywhere outside the US. Our country is constantly under a microscope and I think this is part of the reason why we are self-centered.
Overall I think the teleconference was pretty one-sided. I felt like the other students really wanted to know a lot about American culture but I left feeling still pretty uninformed about Iranian culture. I wish that they would have told us more about our system and more about why they are so interested in the US to begin with. I think that if we had another conference it would be helpful allot time equally to both sides so it doesn’t feel like we are being interrogated. Obviously a big focus of the conference was our election was I think it would have been more helpful for us to learn if we hadn’t done this on that day.