Taylor CP#2

On Friday morning 1/19, I expected to be observing a class but instead found myself at a CIES Cultural Workshop, which was a very pleasant surprise. The entire CIES program was split into groups in an auditorium. When I arrived, every group began working on a worksheet where we had to exchange pieces of cultural information. The groups were very diverse, in ours we had students from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and Colombia.
It was awesome to hear about new and different customs in other countries. For instance, in Saudi Arabia it is extremely impolite for guests to refuse snacks or beverages offered to them. Even if one does not enjoy coffee, it is best that they accept the offer anyways.
I enjoyed talking about each countries specialty food the most, because I missed breakfast that morning. I'm very interested in trying the signature spiced coffee from Kuwait as well.
The students seemed very confident in their English abilities and did not hesitate to speak even if there were small grammatical errors.
I had to explain to Yousef what same-sex marriage was, and I think I handled it well even though it is a delicate topic and at first, he might have made a slight judgement. In his home country, it would not even be a topic for discussion but in Colombia, it is a trending topic of discussion in hopes to move forward.
All in all, it was a great, eye opening experience.