Some Things Change, Some Things Stay the Same

April 24th, 2008

Living in a different country with a very different culture is all about personal growth and making adjustments. There are adjustments to the food you eat, to the types of clothes you wear, even to some extent your personal values. Furthermore, you would be surprised at which ones do the shifting. Some, which back home seemed immutable, are molded to fit the situation at work or at home, while others, which in familiar territory were vague suddenly become much more resolute.

An example of such a shift is my views regarding cheating. After growing up in America, and attending a University with a very strict honor code, I was a firm believer in the idea that cheating is wrong under any circumstances and that students who engage in it should be harshly punished. However, things are quite different in Kazakhstan. Students openly “help” each other on tests and assignments even if it is a major test and the teacher is standing right in front of them. At first I tried to maintain my strict philosophy, but I soon realized that the problem was endemic and nothing I did or said would change my students behavior. Thus, I began to adapt and compromise. I still do not accept my students’ cheating on assignments, but I now only give assignments that they have to work on cooperatively to complete. In this way, I can teach without feeling like I am compromising my integrity. Some may feel that I surrendered to the status quo rather quickly, and they are probably right, but my acclimatization was made easier by the fact that I have come to realize that the almost forces the students to cheat if they want to be successful. As the year draws to a close, some students face ten major exams on top of portfolio preparation, a workload that inevitably leads to cheating or a nervous breakdown.

On the other hand, since coming to Kazakhstan I have become even more firm and outspoken in my views on women’s rights and gender roles, rather than adjust to the more patriarchal views held by many in this country. One of the biggest influences on this evolution has been teaching at the college. First, nearly all of my students are women. In fact, of the 150 students I teach during the week, only four are men, and I find statistic a little troubling as it reveals that many in Kazakhstan still hold onto the notion that gender is an important factor in a person’s occupation. Still, the boy-girl ratio or my classes has only been a small factor in my becoming a bigger fan of Gloria Steinam and bell hooks. A much larger reason has been hearing some of the things that come out of my students’ mouths. For example, a few weeks ago I taught a class on jobs and occupation. After the vocabulary and sentence exercises, I thought a little cross culture activity would be fun. I put a venn diagram up on the board and had my students decide what jobs were for men, what jobs were for women, and what jobs were for both. Some choices, such as putting nurse with women, and policeman and with men were not unexpected and were similar to points of view held by many Americans. They were even good about putting doctor, lawyer, and politician in the both column. Other choices though were baffling, such as their claim that women could or should not be engineers, electricians, or soldiers to name a few. I was particularly surprised with their stance about soldiers, given the fact that the school is named after a famous woman soldier from WWII and there is a giant bust of her out in the courtyard. I asked them to explain their reasoning and they said, “Girls should not be out doing dangerous or dirty jobs, and are better off doing nice clean jobs and taking care of their children.” Now, that is not to say that it is a bad thing if a young woman sees marrying and having children as the ultimate aim in life or wishes to avoid occupations that are messy or physically demanding, but to make that claim for all women seemed a little much.

Life is the Peace Corps is certainly never boring and it requires a bit of personal transformation and adjustment in order to work effectively in one’s adopted community. Still, the last six months have served to remind me that one cannot, nor should they yield on everything. To be sure, in regards to certain things, it is important to hold as open and as pluralistic a mindset as possible. However, on other issues, one must hold firm to their values lest they risk losing themselves in the cause of cultural acceptance. It is this judgment of which issues to compromise on and on what issues to hold firm that makes the two years of service in the Peace Corps the single most defining experience for it’s volunteers. It is a singular time of discovery and growth when, using another culture as a mirror, we become aware of our true selves.