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Feb. 22nd, 2005 08:56 pmToday I went to my Persian teacher's English class. The nationalism in these kids is really overwhelming. I got questions about if I knew Uzbek history (and the greatness of Amir Timur/Alisher Navoi), what my favorite Uzbek food was, if I knew Uzbek singers, if I knew about the national clothing....everything seems to come down to national something, even with 9-11th graders. It seems so foreign to me that nationalism would be so prominent in everyone's minds. American youth certainly wouldn't ask foreign guests what their favorite American food was, if they knew what the US national attire was, etc... I'm not sure how to fit this into my work, but I want to emphasize how much people talk about national stuff here.
Also, the teacher said something very interesting - despite all the talk of nationlism here, he said that in the 80s he saw lots more women wearing national fabrics. He said that the dresses were very short, but that they were of national fabric - his mother and her friends wore them, etc. Now he says that women and girls don't seem to want to wear the national fabrics as much anymore, not even on holidays (apparently it is traditional to wear national fabric on holidays). So it seems like the rhetoric about national items is quite prevalent, but the practice is declining in places. People talk a lot about the population losing interest in traditional music, even though it seems to me that there is traditional music being propagandized all over. Very interesting situation.
By the way, the best moment of the class was when one of the boys in class asked me "What do you do with your husband?" I couldn't help laughing, and it turned out he was trying to ask what my husband did for a living...
Also, the teacher said something very interesting - despite all the talk of nationlism here, he said that in the 80s he saw lots more women wearing national fabrics. He said that the dresses were very short, but that they were of national fabric - his mother and her friends wore them, etc. Now he says that women and girls don't seem to want to wear the national fabrics as much anymore, not even on holidays (apparently it is traditional to wear national fabric on holidays). So it seems like the rhetoric about national items is quite prevalent, but the practice is declining in places. People talk a lot about the population losing interest in traditional music, even though it seems to me that there is traditional music being propagandized all over. Very interesting situation.
By the way, the best moment of the class was when one of the boys in class asked me "What do you do with your husband?" I couldn't help laughing, and it turned out he was trying to ask what my husband did for a living...
