Academic Culture Shock

Listen to this song while you read this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmZexg8sxyk
(copy and paste, Mom)

A True Story
For a few weeks my Anthropology teacher was giving out warnings to our class. "I noticed that many of you are not turning in your literary summaries. Don't forget they are a third of your grade". I of course didn't pay much attention to these warnings. I had turned all my papers in on time. Doing our reading and writing these weekly summaries took me about three hours every Sunday evening to complete, if not longer. It was work for me to read these sometimes very long and wordy papers and then write a grammatically correct paper to explain them, but I happily did this weekly task, grateful for an academic routine and a way to improve my Portuguese.

On the very last day of this class, the professor brought up that fact that many people did not turn in enough of the summaries and that a certain boy, the most outspoken in this class, had not turned in even one. Another more-outspoken-than-average boy spoke up, "We didn't like the task. Our articles should have been about critiquing the literature, not summarizing it." Another girl chimed in, "Yes, and also sometimes I didn't understand certain aspects of the article until after discussing it in class. Our papers should have been due in the class after discussions". While all these indolent students complained, I tried to understand the dynamics of the whole situation. Why are they telling her this now? I thought to myself. Maybe they have reason but why didn't they say anything before?

Instead of reprimanding the students for their late complaints and lack of work, the professor began defending herself. "I know, you all are students of a different caliber" she said. "I know you would have done the readings without having done the assignments, but most students aren't like you" she spoke, misguidedly stroking our ego, "and that's why I made this assignment, I didn't know". I was getting uncomfortable. I and the rest of the thirty students in Anthropology knew damn well that if she hadn't made that assignment none of us would have done the majority of the long, lackluster readings. Furthermore I knew those students, who very shamelessly BS-ed during the classroom discussions and did few - zero of the assignments did NOT read the assigned literature.

And then it happened. "For those of you who did not do the summaries, it will not hurt your grade", the professor said. My mouth dropped. For those of you who did do the summaries, your grade with take said work into consideration. They weren't being reprimanded. They won. They won for not doing their work. I worked long and hard and am symbolically being slapped across the face for doing so.

I was lifted up into a tornado of cultural dilemma. It's not my place to complain. I am foreign. This doesn't make sense to me because I am not of this culture. I thought, trying calm myself. But how can this learning/teaching strategy be right anywhere? What are those students learning? I said nothing. No one spoke out against her decision. The students who won looked as if they received something they deserved. Content with their charbroiled justice.

I went home and complained. My host sister scolded me for not saying something then and there. But what would I have said? "NO, you are doing everything wrong." That is what I would have wanted to say. I would have complained about everything from her lack of leading class discussions and letting Bozo 1 and Bozo 2 completely takeover with unrelated subjects on which they had things to say, to the way it took her 8 weeks to grade our midterm exams. Where would I have started? And do I even have a right to complain about something that is natural to a culture? It's a fine line, that I step on often. One day I am going to step on someone's fine tail and get the crap bitten out of me. What I mean is, when you know that a critique is not going to be received well (in that it will not be received), should you still give it? "Yes! stand up for what you believe in!". "No! You shouldn't try to force your culture on others!"

Sigh...What would you have done?


Days until my flight:
10

Travel Advisory and Tips

Travel Advisory
Last week on the news a noticed passed about the increase of attacks on tourists, specifically in Rio de Janeiro. This was sad, but to be expected. What intrigued and kind of scared me was the last comments of the reporter. "The American embassy will not send out a travel advisory about the increase in tourist targeted crimes". Woah Woah Woah American embassy. The very first thing that came to my mind, a conspiracy theory of course, was that someone got paid off. The last thing Brazil's government wants along with protests, strikes, and tragically falling stadiums, is the US embassy telling rich tourists not to come to the World Cup in June and July of 2014. My eyebrow is raised, but, who knows?

Travel Advisory from Me
Please be careful! I know what the majority of internationals do, especially Americans, when they come to Brazil. They drink too much and search for short-term mating partners. They learn the phrases for "thank you" and "more beer" and happily trust that attractive Brazilian who speaks English. It's going to be a tricky situation. Many Brazilians by nature are very warm,welcoming and are intrigued by foreigners. Many want to take care of the cute helpless stranger who doesn't speak Portuguese and show them a good time. And that is the travelers dream, isn't it; being welcomed into a culture, being taken under some natives wing and shown all the "real" cultural aspects, something outside of tourist destinations and McDonalds. That's what every free-spirited traveler wants.

Well listen up free-spirited travelers, what you want is attainable, however you need to be very careful. The majority of you will stick out with your clothes, paleness or over tanned body, and loud English, and thus become a target of robbery, and hopefully nothing more than that. Luckily Brazilians in general aren't aggressively anti-American, so that is one less thing to worry about.

Em fim, be careful. Practice all the safety measures you do at home and then some.


And Then Some.
The following are general travel tips that one should practice while traveling in general and particularly, to beautiful Brazil:
- Have a phone and make sure your phone can go international. Consider using your domestic plan abroad (convenient but costly) or buy a SIM card upon arrival. In some cases you will need a CPF (the brazilian social security number) to get a SIM/cell plan and in other cases operators will let you register with your passport number. Buying SIM cards can be done at any operator store (Claro, Tim, Vivo, Oi ), but know that some operators work better than others in certain areas. For this reason many, and arguably the majority of Brazilians use more than one operator by either having two cellphones or phones designed to hold multiple chips. So, ask locals which is best.
- Keep list of important numbers, such as for police, consulate, local contact, credit card company in case of   lost or stolen card.
-If possible have a native contact in the area where you are traveling in case of emergency.
- Do not wear flashy, expensive jewelry, watches, apparel.
- Avoid openly demonstrating that you are foreign by talking loud in other language.
- Take copies of your passport with you in case yours gets lost or stolen.
- Ask your hotel or hostel receptionist about the safety of certain neighborhoods where you want to travel during various times of day/night.
- Don't keep all of your money on you at once.
- If you get stopped by gun or knife point, just give up your goods.
- Avoid putting yourself in situations where your good-judgement skills are weakened.
- As Oprah says, "never let yourself be taken to a second location".