True Challenges

On occasion I have to deal with students who are cheating or even worse parents who cheat for their children. I have to deal with unruly, lazy, and sometimes vulgar students. But dealing with parents is tough. In Asian society there is a massive amount of respect given to those who are older or have authority. While in the west we also have a level of respect for our elders it is a bit different over here. It is universal and is not reserved for someone who is significantly older but can be as little as 2 years older. That is what strikes me, someone can be 1 or 2 years older and yet must receive massive respect.
Anyway, so in dealing with parents I must of course be respectful but I must also be aware that I am much younger and therefore must be extremely cautious when confronting an issue. In the west we typically are very blunt and say what we feel is wrong and how it could/should be fixed. Over here you must dance around the issue apologise for even bringing it up and then possibly confront it as delicately as possible. I am good about being direct, dancing around an issue is just frustrating for me. But this is all part of living in a different culture. I was watching a travel program the other day and this one man mentioned that when he first began to travel all he noticed were the differences but the longer he traveled he began to instead notice the similarities. That is very true, when you first step out of your own little world all you can see is how different and strange things are. But as you travel more and see more you realise how similar we all are and how the things that seemed so different are usually trivial.


Last night I went to see Tintin which I am happy to say was a great movie. I remember when my family was living in Brighton England the owner of the house we rented had a massive Tintin collection in the original French. I became obsessed and eventually began collecting the English translations. I still have a great love of those books and the adventurism they implanted in me.