Friday, October 4, 2013
A phone call with Jon
On the 28th of September I received a hilarious but learning experience phone call from Jonathan. It was a Saturday so I was busy studying because as previously stated that is all I do. When I looked at my phone I had two missed text messages from Jon that seemed very urgent. large amounts of exclamation marks, some pleases thrown in, you know the thing. I called him back immediately and asked what was up. He said "Ryan, What is the American custom of birthday parties?" Admittedly I was stunned. I had never thought of this as an american custom until i really thought of all the times I've not seen foreign people doing birthday parties. I asked him to clarify in order to better understand the situation. He explained that he had recently been invited to a birthday party and that he did not understand the whole present situation. I explained to him that it is nice to get someone a present when they invite you to there birthday party and get them a card. about an hour later I received a call. "Ryan what should I get her?" Now I am stumped. I have no clue. I am a male and I don't get invited to as many parties as i would like to brag about. I sat down where I was to think. I made a large amount of mmm's and ha's before i admitted that i just didn't know. I asked the girl working the front desk and luckily she saved my life on this one. Starbucks. Girls love Starbucks. Boom. I told him to get her a 25$ gift card to Starbucks and call it a day. the funniest thing I guess would have to be the thought that something as seemingly simple as birthday parties are literally foreign to different people. I wonder if I was to visit France, DR Congo, or India what normal everyday tradition for them would I have a hard time wrapping my head around?
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First of all, Jonathan is great. I met him during our ice cream social, and he was such a sweet and talkative person, so I hope you're having a great time talking with him! Second, I think that it is awesome how he came to you for help with this. I hope that other conversation partners feel that they can come to us for help in situations where there is a slight cultural gap, where they don't really understand what is happening or how to act in certain situations that are normal in America, but maybe not so much where they are from. Birthdays are tricky sometimes, even for us, in choosing birthday presents. I even have a difficult time sometimes finding a present for my best friends, even with the knowledge of birthday "practices" and gift givings. So the fact that even you had a hard time figuring out what he should give her was funny in itself, because all of us have experienced that at one time or another. I think this was an awesome thing to happen and I enjoyed reading about it!
ReplyDeleteI think it's so interesting how practices we assume are universal normalities are considered foreign to people from other countries. I had never thought about birthday parties as an American tradition until I read this blog post. I'm sure that every other country has institutions that they assume are universal. Every culture has its quirks and traditions and the IEP students are so brave to completely throw themselves into American culture. When talking with my partner, I often wonder if I would have the strength to go so far from home for so long. Even when friends of mine study abroad for a semester, I am amazed at how well they adapt to their new culture. What I find particularly interesting is how easily and permanently they adopt certain practices of the places they visit. I wonder if Jonathan will have a birthday party when he goes back to his country!
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