I'm really interested to see where our video conversations lead with the Russian class. Monday, I had a hard time understanding everything they were saying, but hopefully that gets progressively better for all of us the more we communicate. I hope we are able to have interesting conversations that are revealing of things we accept as typical norms and beliefs which aren't actually standards of life but cultural, family, or social influenced ways of life. I hope we can see their norms and understand the significance of their different values and further question are their beliefs worth having? Do we have any beliefs not worth having? Which norms, values, beliefs do we have that they find peculiar? I really hope we get beyond the surface level kind of "What type of food do you eat, and what sports do you have?" and talk about deeper things like religion. This is honestly probably easier said than done though, because I feel like it might take us a while to break the awkward ice. With this, comes a sense of hesitancy of what to say and how to present ourselves. If I'm being totally honest, my sense of hesitancy and nervousness probably stems from having no background knowledge about Syria, and I'm afraid they'll realize how little I know about their geography, history, or anything else I should probably already know.
Ann Magnuson
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