Getting to Know a New Culture

English culture, at least that of the north of England, is sufficiently different from our experience in California that navigating relationships and events here requires some attention. The fact that folks walk down stairs to the left, just as they drive on the left, requires attention so we don’t keep bumping into the natives. Describing “exits” as “way out” requires just a moment’s attention to realize it is pointing to a door, not commenting on someone or something.

Things look different. The buildings are old and, surprise, surprise, kind of have an “English” style so that as we walk around, the environment is constantly reminding us of the new context we inhabit. The sky looks different and the sun comes up at a time different from what we expect in California.

Daria had a little mishap on Monday and hurt her ribs pretty severely. She had to go to a doctor and ended up at Newcastle General, a gargantuan old Dickensian building that was, in fact at one point, a work house. She was seen, treated and sent on her way. (Sans bill for $400 which is about what one can expect in a U.S. hospital.) And people in the US resist socialized medicine! The argument is that the taxes would be too high. My friends here say that since everyone is in on the deal that it is, in fact, quite inexpensive and it buys complete coverage for everyone. Damn socialists!

Janine asked me what the folks here thought of Bush’s inaugural address. In general, the response in the papers and by commentators was that the “addicted to oil” line was just a stunt-seeing as how he has no program in mind to reach the goal he set for a government twenty years from now. I think it is safe to say that every portrayal of Bush has been as a clown or fool—he is roundly despised by everyone here.

What has had the media exercised has been a 10 day, intensive discussion of the nature of free speech in modern society as a response to the Muslim response to the Danish cartoons portraying Mohammed as a terrorist. The discussion has been stuttering at the level of liberal, self-censorship v. conservative self-expression, but at least the struggle to sort out the issues is ongoing and energetic. Really—the discussion has dominated all media for well over a week which is about six days longer than the news cycle allows in the U.S. I’m very impressed with the effort expended on an issue at the core of any democratic system. How freedom of speech works out in Iraq which has been defined by the Bush administration as “democratic” is one we all should put our mind to. What are you seeing in regard to this in the US?

Yesterday, I attended an interesting meeting between the Centre for Learning and Teaching and the Centre for Rural Development. It was a group of about 14 folks with each centre presenting something of its mission and challenges. From that the discussion worked around the question of how each group deals with the problems of learning and teaching in very different contexts with very different constituencies and expectations. What was fascinating was the ability of each group to listen and value the other’s ideas and contributions. Very significant questions emerged from the discussion such as: what differences does working in collaborative partnerships make on research and practice? (that’s one Jo Sprague would love, I think.) How does such work change perceptions of the university and its role in the community? And before the benediction, a plan for further discussion was designed. Very impressive. We need to do more of this kind of stuff.

Tomorrow I start visiting some classes and am very anxious to see how they proceed. Many folks have volunteered to let me sit in and seem to have no fear of evaluation or criticism (not that is my role or intent anyway, but they don’t know who I am). I’ll report my experiences later.

PS: I'll post pictures as soon as my laptop is properly configured here.