Achievements

What have I learned? I have learned a lot. First, I have understood how important know other culture is. Second, I am really aware of many different cultures such as Jamaican, Muslim, Zimbabwean, Comorian cultures and others because of that course. Third, now I can at least try to understand the different traditions, manners, etiquette, customs, gestures and everything about those cultures. Also, now I am more interested on knowing more about the rest of the world. Fourth, I know that most of my classmates have learned a lot about those cultures, as well. Finally, all the presentations, songs, and movies have made the knowledge stronger because we can not only understand but also see the reality.

Fond kiss

Can we love each other even thought we are extremely different? I think there are many possibilities because people are trying to know more about the world traveling and making friends.

That movie shows us how a couple can love although they are really different. Also, it shows us how big the understanding can be if we really want to share everything with the person who we love.

That couple are really strong because they can overcome all the fairs that they had when they met each other. Moreover, although, they had many problems because of their families, they keep together. Their families were against to that relationship because both families are different and the lifestyles, as well. So, they had to continue with that relationship in secret, but because of that there have been many problems that they overcame. I think we can climb as high as we really want to; even there are people who are against to us.

Arranged

Is there a Culture mixture? Many people think that people from different cultures will never be friends due to their differences, but that movie shows us that friendship has no religion.
That movie is about friendship of two women, a Jew and Muslim, which work in the same high school as teachers, they started being good friends, but they are criticized by many people because of their religious beliefs. I think understand other culture is really difficult, but we have to be open-minded because we never know when we will be close to someone different from us.

On the other hand, their friendship was more powerful than all the comments that people used to make whenever they see those women together. I think most of people used to discriminate others just for their appearance and stereotypes, but if we really think about our similarities instead of that, we can understand better the other cultures.

I really liked that movie because I understood how important be not only open-minded but also reliable is. Regarding stereotypes we can notice that not matter what people think about other culture, we cannot generalize because every culture not only is different it is important, as well for our culture understanding.

Muslim experience

I went to the Muslim Mosque, located in Moravia, some weeks ago. Everyone who wants to be there has to cover the head and the body because that religion asks for it.
I had to cover my head that is why that experience was a little bit shocking. When we were already a Muslim person started talking about that culture. They told us that any many things that have been shown and said in the media are false. The man told us that it is just a stereotype of them.

I was really wondered about being there, but I assimilated it some hours later. Then, I started asking many questions about that culture, because I have heard many things and I wanted to know more. I asked about the marriages, if women are discriminated as many people have said. As a result, he told me that it is completely false; he told us that women have the same rights as men. It was surprising because during many years I used to think different. Also, he told us how women are benefited, for example he said that women are given of many gifts in the wedding and the house and all the furniture have to be bought by men. Moreover, he said that polygamy is common in that culture, but they have to follow what the Koran, the sacred book, says about it, for instance each wife has everything in the same quantity, each one has to be loved in the same way.

Then, he introduced to us a Costa Rican man who built the Mosque, and he said that when he was building the Mosque he started feeling “God call” as he said, and because of that he realized that he needed to be converted a Muslim. Now, he is a Muslim person, and he is really happy.

Then, they told us that it was time to pray and they started doing it. That event was amazing, because we can see how interesting that culture is. Some hours later, one of them read the Koran and I realized that this book is read from right to left completely opposite as we used to read. Also, they talked about many celebrations and traditions that they have.

As a conclusion, we have many ways to know many cultures such as Media, but I think that just being with people from that culture we can really learn. Now a days, there are many soap operas based on Islam culture, but we can not believe in that because most of the times everything is not true. I was interested on that experience and it was amazing. After that event I realized that covering my head worked to understand a little bit more from that culture.