One story, two ways

Giving a speech, with money pinned to him

The other day I went to a ceremony for English students to receive their certificates of completion. This was the first ceremony of this type ever held in that particular village, and it was quite the experience. I've been to dozens of ceremonies, but this was by far the most intense. And while the style wasn't particularly to my liking, it occurred to me that it might have been very much to the liking of another person. So here's a description of a couple notable parts of the ceremony, told two different ways:

There were so many people at the ceremony! The town square was filled with chairs, but there were far more people than chairs. And what an excited crowd! There were old people and kids, and everyone wanted to see what was going on. 

The number of people was intense. Even though they'd set out chairs, the number of people standing dwarfed the chairs that were set out. And the crowd kept getting closer in on the stage too. Teachers had to stand guard to stop the crowd from completely blocking the view of those in chairs.

It was such an exciting day! Everyone had to compare notes on what was going on, explaining the skit to each other, talking about all the people who came to the event, criticizing anything that went wrong. What great topics for conversation! It's a shame the speakers kept trying to talk over the crowd.

The speakers had to yell to be heard, despite asking the crowd to quiet down multiple times. It was surprising that the emcee didn't lose his voice. The poor students who were giving speeches hardly had anyone listening to them.


Speaking of speeches, every student had the chance to give a speech to demonstrate his or her new skill in English. And what beautiful speeches they were! (even if no one could understand them) They used wonderful phrases and at the end their family and friends showered them with gifts and flowers.

Oh, the speeches! Every. Single. Student. gave a long speech, using phrases that were far beyond their level of English. They each spoke for a minute, with the crowd speaking over them the entire time, then their family and friends bombarded them with affection. Flowers! New clothing! Money! Some even interrupted the speech in order to wave money in the student's face (obviously helping them in their speech making) and then toss it on them.

So, was it a good ceremony? That probably depends on who you ask.

Things you say in a restaurant.

A restaurant meal

Lately I’ve been working on a “Ramadan Special” English program for the radio. Basically, we just take an easy dialogue, say it once in just English and once with translation, then ask questions about the topic. Each week there’s a different dialogue and every day we ask a different question which listeners can answer by sending a text message to the radio station. Well, we chose topics which interest islanders who travel abroad, trying to think of phrases or words they might want to know.

One of the scenarios is at a restaurant.

What things do you think are important to know when you go to a restaurant? Things like the bill/check, menu, order, to go, and how to phrase your request for food and drink, right?

What about how to ask where the bathroom is?

It occurred to my islander counterpart and I that learning the location of the bathroom is a common part of going to a restaurant. But it caused a fun discussion between the two of us.

Islanders can go all day without using the bathroom. Between the amount you normally sweat, and the lack of liquid intake, well, they’re probably dehydrated as an entire nation. Add to that the factor that most restaurants here (unless located at a hotel) don’t have a bathroom, the thought of pairing those two activities seemed very strange to him.

Now, maybe you’ll tell me “Abby, you’re weird. Restaurants and bathrooms don’t go together.” But think about your habits a little… maybe I’m more right than you realized.

American culture has its weird elements too….