This post is not
an update but a story that I found very interesting.
On Friday in my
economics class, a student and my teacher had what started as a conversation
about the economy and what ended up as a debate about politics. This discussion
lasted for 35 minutes and there I was all content about wasting time when my
teacher asked me a question about US politics and economics. Just like that, I
was now in this discussion. Somehow this ended up as a debate on communism. It
was basically me versus my class and I am not even kidding, the kids from the
sciences group (I am in the humanities and social sciences group) were now in
my classroom circled around me and the few kids I was talking with.
After this, I go
to my next class (which I am obviously very late to) and I am starting to think
to myself that never have I ever in my life had a conversation about communism
with positives included. In fact, I don’t think I have ever been taught in
school the pros of communism, the only thing we learn is that it is bad and
here are a few reasons why it doesn’t work. We talk about this a lot in my
economics class about how capitalist the US is and this affirms it. I was
talking to one of my friends during the next class about this and he told me
that a lot of people in Spain are open to the idea of it and there are strong
groups of communists all around Spain. I then explained to him that it is not
illegal to believe in communism in the US but I think the general sense is just
that you don’t verbalize it if you do (of course, I could be totally wrong
about this whole thing, but this is my opinion and what I have observed
throughout my life).
The point of me
writing this post is because something as little as this was such an eye
opening experience. I saw a whole new mentality and I was able to see something
in a new light, from a new point of view.
This is really
what being an exchange student is about. Yes, it is also about learning a new
language and culture of your new country, but I think one of the most important
things about going on exchange is being able to look at the world from the view
of a different group and type of people, people who live their lives completely
different than you do, where your normal is not so normal anymore. It is
important to step outside of the box that living in the same place your whole
life puts you in. Not to say that I have turned communist, but this is just a
little example of how people from a different country think about things has
opened my eyes and as my friend Claudia told me: “it is important to be more
open minded”
Hasta Luego!
(JK, I´m ´bout to do another quick post:)
No comments:
Post a Comment