Why do you think a head of an institute wear a tie? Funny question? It might be but listen to this: As you may know people here in Iran don’t wear ties, I mean the custom of wearing ties isn’t common among us, you don’t see a lot of Iranians wearing ties walking in the street but, this head of our Institute wear ties and black suits in “special” occasions and become a lady-killer though he is a bit ugly _Thank God he isn’t reading my blog, otherwise I had to kiss my ass goodbye for goods_ but you cant deny how shrewd he could be in times of registration(Sabte nam).He acts upon this motto “first impressions are the most lasting”. I mean if you enter the institute you will be amazed to see the beauty and the glamour but beauty is only skin deep; He starts talking to you as if he is Noam Chomsky The linguistbut, I have been in his class a couple of time to observe his teaching methodology and I know he is an average teacher as I am but, he pretends to be the Alfa and beta of all heads and teachers in the world and that’s why a lot of people come here to register and by looking at this guy they think they are in the” right” place and this guy manages to screw them real good and in a big way! The other day a father and daughter were in his office. The poor girl had failed the term but I noticed that he(the head) wrote s.th on a piece of paper and asked the father to give the paper to the registration room for the girl to be registered in a higher level so, the girl doesn’t miss the opportunities the institute is going to provide for the girl. That’s interesting how the head ended his conversation with the girl” You are entitled to go to a higher term this time but you should promise to do your best” Why do I have this irritating habit of repeating the same phrase over and over that Money Talks?
"People don’t think they just rearrange their biases"(Anonymous) I normally don’t chat but I remember I happened to chat once with an American who was in one of those rooms. I started like this: A (me) B (American) A: ASL? B: 19, Chicago U? A: 31 Iran The word Iran sent through him a BIG shock. The next words were all the **** words that you can imagine. Hey, I am just an Iranian, not a monster and the next word was You goat F******s and all that. Unfourtunatly, I did the same. That was my first reaction, I mean I didn’t want to but, what would you have done if someone started calling names without even knowing you? Just because you are an Iranian and live in a country which is thought to support terrorists? Why can’t they differentiate between us and them? (The government) Now that I think of it, I wish I had spoken to the teenager rather than ending the conversation like that. I don’t know but, the knowledge of geography is almost absent among Americans or at least a lot of them according to a National Geography statistic. I was thinking about the whys and I couldn’t help thinking that one of the reasons might be this: This is just an example: If an average American knows where Iran is and if they get to know that we are people with feelings and emotions like them, they would definitely react against Anti Iran policies but, it seems that a lot of them are “brainwashed”. when some Americans think Iran and Iraq are the same country and even don’t know where Iran is, so we aren’t in their heads therefore: "out of sight, out of mind".(read if you don’t know me, you don’t care about me) See? Against those who believe love toward humans doesn’t know nationalities (Ehsasat e bashardoustaneh) a lot of people who live in “first” world countries think: we are the same but they feel superior inwardly toward “third” world countries though they are clever enough to hide THE feeling. Ain’t I a bit cynical ,suspicious, and pessimistic? I think I am.
Misunderstanding is in our blood, isn’t it? To get your meaning across whether spoken or written is a hard mind boggling task that can’t be fulfilled unless you talk as clearly as possible if it is oral and you have to be more careful if your message is in written forms. As a “blogger” I don’t know much about Breeze background and of course other bloggers who have been very kind to me and that’s problem number one. If Farzadgives a comment about fear on TopSpot9,nyx interprets it something else and Farzad has to make things clear by writing a post in her weblog. Where I was going to say “happy birthday to you Cyrus” through Farazad’s weblog to make Cyrus surprised, Cyrus misunderstood things and I think got upset with me . Where Shirinthinks of me as a “racist” and despises me in her weblog, I don’t blame her too much as I know if she knew me more, she would definitely change her opinionated ideas and talked and wrote more cautiously and didn’t pass judgment so quickly; though as she says it rightfully, one can’t change people’s mindset about things easily. World would be a better place to live if we were a bit kinder to each other but, that’s an If and a BIG if. Happy Birthday To You Cyrus
I recommend this movie to all who want to think freely and specially teachers. What was impressing for me besides the story and Robin Williams’ acting was, how I can touch someone’s heart through THE words. I have a student who studies chemistry and by nature is a very talented student but I remember that at the beginning of the term he wasn’t doing a good job and was really carefree about his assignment; to be frank, I hated the assignments, the school and almost all my teachers and I wished they all went to hell and be entertained with burning fire and boiling water J(too harsh I think) Any way, I don’t know but I think the age of miracle isn’t past. for a couple of times, I said”Ali, I expect you to be better than this, I am sure you can do a much better job than this and bla bla bla….” And I encouraged him to participate more in class activities; it didn’t take a long time that he showed every one in the class how clever he could be. 2 Days Later: The students are put in a group of 4 to discuss about 3 important things which must be done in a society to live a better life and this student of mine acts like the leader of the group and manages the group wonderfully. I was really impressed as to see how much these students have progressed; they have been my students for about 2 months. This inward satisfaction in me sends me energy to be a better teacher. Motivation+ winning someone’s heart+ a kick in the pants=SUCCESS
Sometimes these girls are very strange, I mean they ask you questions that in normal situations you wouldn’t have any idea what to say, let alone in a classroom with other girls. The topic of today’s discussion was “Why do people tell lies?” I started the discussion with this “when did you last tell a lie and why?” I myself really hate being preached especially when it comes direct. A:(a university student) Last time that I told a lie was, when I needed a lot of money and I knew if I told the truth, my dad hadn’t given me the money. B :( A graduate university student) If my boyfriend makes a mess with dinner, I prefer to stretch the truth and tell him a white lie like “hey, you did a really good job.” The teacher: If I were your boyfriend I’d take your words as an insult. I would think you want to make a donkey out of me (Bala nesbat mikhi mono khar koni)because I know I have done a terrible job. C:(A teenager) When a guy woos a girl (Khastegari kardan) the guy tells lies to feed his ego (inferiority complex) .One of my relatives told white lies like I have this big house, this amount of money to his would be wife so they agree to his proposal and they got married and after the marriage she found out that every thing was rental but the guy did his best and bought all the rental things . D: (A married woman turns to her teacher and says :) By the way, did you enjoy the wedding party you told us about? The teacher: No I didn’t. D: why? Didn’t you dance with your wife? The teacher: No, I didn’t. Because the party wasn’t mixed (women and men were in different floors) D: Why didn’t you dance in the men’s floor? The teacher: For Gods sake, because nobody invited me to and after all, I was a complete stranger there and it was one of my wife’s friends wedding party. D: That’s a pity that the party wasn’t mixed( Che heif ke ghati nobodand) Here, every one LOL and the class is over.
This 80 year old man who is deaf and dumb has never gotten married (how fortunate:) And other villagers say that he hasn’t taken a bath in his whole life too. The photo you see is where he lives.
Who is this man?What do you think of this man? Gimme your guess and in my next post I will tell you about him.My cousin took this photo with his cellular phone
Stressed out Iranians Overheard in the street (in the heavy traffic) A teenage boy riding his bicycle among other cars yells” move on!! You shit.” 5 minutes later while I am in a cab, a car has an accident with another one and one of them who is a middle aged guy gets off the taxi and yells” hey, ****! “What the hell are you doing?” you have f****ed my car and act as a bully too? ( ye chizi ham talabkari?) The cabdriver who is an elderly stops somewhere in the street because a car (peykan) has parked in the wrong place, he yells to the man with Peykan “Couldn’t you find a better place to park, you **** !
They all happened in my 20 minutes drive home, so be happy where you are and don’t feel nostalgic for being here.
Today the students were listening to an English tape about a restaurant that not only serves food but also one can see other things including one of Elvis’s (Presley) cars , The teacher: what did the man say? The student: one of ahhhhh lises? The teacher corrects the student and says: Elvis baba joon Elvis!!! The student: Is Elvis a kind of food? The other students LOL and one of them corrects his friend and says he is a musicianJ One of the students says mockingly:”Bebakhshid, Adam khoor be englisi chee mishe?”(How do we say Adam khoor in English?) The teacher laughs and says “cannibal”. The student turns to his friend, giggles and says “then you must be a cannibal!” The teacher turns to the first student and tells him to tell his friend that “with friends like you who needs enemy?”
Location (Inside the classroom with six 20_30 year old students)They are listening to a tape which is a part of the conversation between two Americans: A man with long hippy like hair: Excuse me madam, where can I find a drugstore around here? The woman: the drugstore is right across the park. By the way, there is a barbershop next to the drug store too! The man: A barbershop? (The conversation is finished) I turned to the students and say” see, interfering into peoples personal affairs isn’t nationality based rather it depends on peoples manner and their personality. One of the students turns to me and say” but I think women are nosier than men generally. I laugh and say” why do you say that?” “Can you prove it?” Yes of course he says: The other day two of my cousins(dokhtar ammeh) and I were walking together to our house when I noticed two of our female neighbors are looking at us and whispering and saying things as if we have eaten the forbidden fruit. The teacher: Do you all agree that women are nosier that men? 3 out of these singles say a big yes and one of the married is neutral, and the other two say no. when I ask them as why is it so? They say because women have much more free time than men and don’t have anything else to do. The teacher turns to the students and says” Did you dare to let out these words if you were studying in a coeducational institute? And they gave me a big no. Wachamacallit? (Zan Zalil) or hen pecked says the word.
Disclaimers:D The ladies who happen to read this shouldn’t take this personally as I myself am Zan Zalil(hen pecked ) but, I am not Zalil e zan(too dependent on the same wife if you get what I mean)
Oh God, School starts again: When I was a student I counted the moments impatiently so that I don’t see the school anymore and enjoy every moment of the summer and I always asked God “Am I going to get rid of my teachers somedayJ” Now I have turned out to be a teacher and I have to go to school every day. I have to breathe and suck every moment of the summer because it will be over less than 2 weeks and I have to work 60 or more hours a week and I would be flat on my ass to write “B.S.” in this blog.When those days come (for me its another Katrina mentally) I would have to kiss my ass goodbye if you excuse my French.I am not bitching or am I already? I don’t know who knows? Maybe I can change someone’s attitude toward life and that’s the reward. I really don’t think I can update this blog unless I know I can get enough support from my readers. We always need each other support no matter who we are and where we are from. I don’t mean I write for others to show off and feed my ego as one of my friendFarzad puts it but not only share the stories of my teaching experiences (XP) but also to say” I write therefore, I am.” And ofcourse a little of showing off too.After all ,I am an Iranian:)
Today in my class, we were talking about “what would you have done if…. Structure. The students are from different backgrounds: high school student, housewife, university student and you name it. Here is the conversation I had with one of these girls: The teacher: what would you have done if you had a magic lamp? What was your number one wish? The student (pause for moments) I wouldn’t have done anything. I just wished my son not to be an “attack”. The teacher: You mean addict? The student: OH, yes.and I want to have my own big private company. The teacher: what about your poor husband? Does he have any share in your wish? The student: smiles openly and while giggling says: No he isn’t that important and laughs with two of her classmates. The teacher: What if your husband leaves you to go to the US or Canada? Wouldnt you get upset about it? The student: No (smiling) as long as he sends me money, that no problem. The teacher: And if he remarries there??? The student: Marry? Noooooo, Ok.no problem. he can get a second wife but he can keep her for himself but all the money is mine.(Taghsim e arazi).I am only worried about the future of my son.(when he grows up )Its up to him to marry any girl he likes to. Only he doesn’t become an addict.
