Cultural Event: May 2, 2008

On Friday, May 2 2008, I attended a discussion group session at Chico State University in the BMU room 313. In honor of National Education Week, there were five students, all whom were from different countries. They were there to discuss about the countries they were from and how their upbringing and culture related to the United States. They also answered any questions that were brought up by the audience.

The countries each student represented was China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, India, and Costa Rica. The first topic that was covered was the education system in each respective country. In Costa Rica, it was similar to the states, in that both boys and girls attended the same school. The difference, however, was that the men would have career jobs, while the women would go into teaching. In India, only the boys would go to school, while the girls stayed home and trained to be housewives. Saudi Arabia’s education system was unique in that from Kindergarten to grade 3, there would be mixed classes of boys and girls. After that, there would be segregated schools of boys and girls. They did study the same subjects, despite the separation. There were also separate colleges. China did have both sexes in the same class, although there were fewer girls in school. In college, there were separate dorms. Japan had schools of both mixed classes and segregated school. The junior colleges in Japan had only women attending them, while the men attended the universities there.

The next topics discussed was relationships and working. Saudi Arabian women were not forced to work, although there were many who did. It was up to the man in the family to provide for everyone. In Costa Rica, women didn’t need to work and so they did chores around the house. There is a saying in the culture in that if the woman can cook, then she is ready to marry. She also stated that there is peer pressure to get married before the age of 30 because after that, it just seems odd to everyone. Also, the only time a man and woman live with each other in that country is if they are husband and wife, unlike the states where it is common for a boyfriend and girlfriend to live in one home. The student from Japan brought up a statistic that showed that 96.3% of students were able to earn a job right after graduating from college. Also, the average age that women marry in Japan was 29.4. If the woman was working prior to getting married, generally she did quit her job to become a housewife and take care of the kids. There were cases, however, where the woman kept working. China had both the husband and wife working because only one source of income was not enough for a family to live on. In India, it is very difficult to accept outside relationships.

All in all, this meeting didn’t really give me any new information that I did not know already. A particular incident that happened that was kind of funny was when the student from Saudi Arabia was talking about how she didn’t really want to get married, all while her husband was in the room. She just said he proposed and she couldn’t really say no.