Voluntourism
What kind of tourist are you (can’t find the link for this anywhere)

Soliya

How language shapes the way we think

If by “intellectually” you mean what new information have you learned there has been some topics we covered in class that I already had background in but there have also been a few topics I had no prior knowledge of. For instance, in the “How languages shape the way we think video I had no clue the extent to which some languages can change your personal experience in the world. The first example that comes to mind is the fact that some cultures don’t count in the same way you would in Arabic or English, so they have trouble keeping track of exact values which I found fascinating. In general that video was very interesting to me, b/c I realized that a lot of the differences I notice in Arabic and English are pretty superficial with respect to how different other languages can be in terms of how they influence your perception and interaction with the world around you.  Another video was “voluntourism” which is a concept I have never heard of and never knew existed that really got me thinking about what role tourists may be able to play in helping poorer countries. I also think its a very interesting concept to think about through the lens of colonialism and how these countries are more than likely poor due to exploitation and manipulation from major powers, and now citizens from those nations are visiting in order to help in a rather patronizing way. The whole thing was very cool food for thought. Another cool learning experience was Soliya. In terms of intercultural learning I think Soliya didn’t offer me as much opportunity as maybe other students b/c in my ~9 person group we were all either Arab or American except for two people, Carl from France and Maneeha from Pakistan. For me, as an Arab-American, a lot of what was being discussed were things I already had a lot of personal experiences with due to my cultural background but my interactions with Maneeha in particular I found to be pretty interesting. I’ve never met an Asian Muslim and I thought some of the differences were interesting. She mentioned visiting a shrine which I know is not common in Arab-Muslim traditions, she had different pronunciations of many islamic concepts (the first that comes to mind is thata she said Ramzan not Ramadan, even though there were other Arabic words that she said in an Arabic way). Unfortunately b/c of the difficulties with my other courses this semester I couldn’t fully take advantage of what I could’ve learned in Soliya, but these experiences with Maneeha were very interesting.

Moving on to what I’ve learned about myself in the area of intercultural learning; I have to say that I think I’ve definitely learned more about myself more than anything in this area. I feel like I became aware of a lot of biases/shortcomings in my thinking when it comes to the subjects of other cultures. The “what kind of tourist are you” activity really got me thinking and discussing with my friends b/c I realized I literally don’t think about the local population of countries when I think about travelling somewhere. I’m not someone who is well travelled (nor do I really think of travel frequently), I’ve only ever been to the US, Egypt, and Malaysia. Even in the US and Egypt, I have only ever been in California in the US (visited Vegas once) and in Egypt I have never spent any significant time outside of Sa7el or Cairo, so I’m very much confined to my bubbles. Getting back to the point about local populations, I always talk with my significant other about where we would honeymoon, and we talk about all of these different places but not once do we talk about different *peoples*. I talked about this in the reflection for the tourist activity, I really only think of these countries as different physical spaces, not different cultural environments, and I think there is something very perverse about that sort of thinking. For instance, when I think about travelling to a place like Italy or Japan or Andorra (all places I’d like to visit once) I think about purely the physical spaces and the environment, and what I could enjoy in that environment. Not once does it cross my mind “oh what about the people” other than if I’m worried that there are high crime rates in the area (which is even worse than not thinking about people at all) and it all felt so yucky (for lack of a more sophisticated word). I felt like I was a super disrespectful house guest who just enters your home, without you welcoming them in, and looks into your fridge, sits on your couch, goes through your stuff, all without permission or conversation, just silence. The whole thing threw my head for a loop I must say, and I really haven’t resolved these thoughts yet. I really want to re-examine my preconceptions and understanding of tourism so that I feel can think about travelling again without feeling like I’m trespassing within another person’s space. Since then I’ve started thinking about places and cultures I could visit to actually experience and appreciate a different culture.

Lastly, I wanted to talk about what I would’ve done if the issue of Palestine came up during the Soliya sessions. I am of the opinion that dialogue is incredibly important, especially when you can speak to someone who is personally invested in a conflict. I can’t claim that I am “effected” by the genocide and ethnic cleansing happening in Palestine, b/c I personally am not experiencing any tragedies or difficulties in my life like I know my Palestinian friends are. I have a Palestinian friend who has lost 3 family members since I met her in our class together in September, so I want to make it clear that I’m not someone who is personally effected in that particular style. But as someone who is Muslim and Arab ofc I am incredibly emotionally invested in the Palestinian issue and I experience microaggressions related to my Islam, me being Arab, and my position on Palestine all the time from Americans (I consider Palestine and Islamophobia to be incredibly intertwined, the rise of Islamophobia coincided with the rise of political Zionism and Zionism played a large role in the normalization of Islamophobia and anti-Arab sentiment). My approach, in all contexts to speaking about Palestine is that first there has to be an agreement to be respectful of each other, even if our beliefs encroach upon one another. Secondly, the way I would direct that conversation (with Americans specifically) is I would like to find common ground on so called “American values” like the right to a fair trial, equality, etc. From that point on I would try and respectfully point out how those rights are all completely violated CONSTANTLY by Israel. My strategy with Americans specifically is that I try to point out how the image they have in their head of “American values” are values that the US itself regularly does not uphold in international relations and they aid and abet the violation of these rights by other countries as well. So that’s how I would have handled it.