Matthew_ICCP_#1

When attending the Intercultural workshop with Ramin, I had the pleasure of meeting three Saudi students and one Colombian student. We talked about many different cultural practices such as greetings, weddings in their host country, how to say goodbye, and how one would greet non-verbally. I learned that when two Saudi men are close it is culturally appropriate to do a "little nose kiss".Also, I learned that it is most appropriate to greet somebody with a kiss on one cheek in Colombia. My CIES partners helped me practice their names and also assisted me with the Arabic greeting/farewell: "Asalam walakum". This was a great learning experience for me because I learned a great deal about Arabic culture, especially related to the holiday, Ramadan. I never knew that during Ramadan, one is not allowed to even drink water all day long until the sun sets. This truly shows how important this holiday is to these students, and helps to show me as a teacher the differences that we have in our cultures.  I hope to use these differences to spark more conversations and deeper discussions on similarities and differences between our cultures.