Alaskan Bulgarian

The Culture Mirror

The problem with entries on Thursdays is that I either overreact to the end of the week, or fear the overreaction and write about something weird. Fortunately the week ended well enough for a post-vacation scramble. I'm a bit tired at the end of a good week, but at least I'm not frustrated or enraged by the students' inability to keep their mouths shut for a few fleeting moments. They're getting better, day by day.

For the last couple of days the different classes have done different activities around the opinions of Americans visiting Bulgaria. I made clear that none of the essays they read were mine--I give them enough of my views--but I encouraged them to take them seriously. They ate them up. After seeing them focus more on these essays and the activities I'd assigned them than they had on anything else this year, it occured to me that they don't often get an outside perspective.

It's a rare event when Euronews shows a story about Bulgaria, and CNN will only air something about the country if it's in World Report or part of something larger. As far as print goes, well, from what I've seen the kids aren't spending their time in the internet clubs looking at Eastern European opinion pages. Newsweek and foreign papers are only available in the larger cities and for a nasty price.

It's a completely different experience being an American in that respect. I get the international Newsweek through Peace Corps, I spend most of my time in the internet club hopping blogs, and most of my TV time is spent on CNN International. I might know more about what France thinks of America than I know about France. When I'm talking to Bugarians, the subject of America and what Bulgarians think of it (or of its TV shows and movies, anyway) inevitably comes up.

I'm not sure if the students liked looking into a mirror, some for the first time, but they sure wanted to keep reading. By the end of the intermediate classes the students had page-long lists of vocabulary they were anxious to get translated, and each had a good supply of questions and comments about what they thought was true and what wasn't.

The subject of race, which came up in a couple of essays, was pretty much ignored in their comments but for where it was convenient ("Yup, those gypsies sure can beg and steal from people!"), and the students were far more focused on the little aspects of cultural trivia. One made it a point to let me know that I can reay give a baby as many gifts as I want and that giving them an even number of gifts isn't really as bad a thing as her essay had noted.

They were really pleased by the descriptions of Bulgarian parties, which are pretty universal. Long tables, drinking, dancing, repeat. And they thought the descriptions of eating a meal were pretty spot-on. One essay talks about how Bulgarians eat a bite, chew, drink, smoke, then eat another bite, the whole meal lasting more than a few hours. The non-smokers in the classes liked the barbs about smoking a lot.

Overall, it was pretty enlightening for all of us. They really had a fascinating desire to know more about the outside looking in, and it showed me a lot about how they see things, too.

Anyway, it ended the week well enough, which was a nice birthday present in itself. Now I get to relax a little before taking off for Sofia tomorrow. Expect a good entry Monday.

Posted by Rob at April 15, 2004 05:33 PM