Middle of Everywhere - Mary Bray Pipher [79]
"Americans have bad ideas about, Muslims. We are not all terrorists. Islam is a religion of peace," Nadia said. "We offer food for anyone who comes to our home. We treat others as if we were all one family."
Anton said, "American kids ask me how to say dirty words in my language." He laughed and said, "I tell them the words for 'butterfly' or 'flower.' They think they are cool, but the joke is on them."
Mrs. Kaye said, "Good use of an idiom, 'the joke is on them.'" She explained it to the class.
Nadia was amazed by how disrespectful American students were—talking to their friends in class, mouthing off, and sleeping. She could not imagine interrupting a teacher or calling an adult by a first name.
Zlatko had been taught to help his friends, and he didn't like the competitiveness of American kids.
Anton was shocked by American kids kissing in the halls or shouting, "Fuck you."
Everyone looked at Mrs. Kaye when he said that. She only said, "Swearing in public isn't good manners."
Tharaya said, "I hate how teenagers here talk about their parents. My mom is my best friend." She choked up a bit. "My mother works all the time, then she bakes bread on her days off."
"American teens are always talking about sex and alcohol," Velida added. "In the Ukraine, virginity is more respected. The music here is too sexual and has many bad words. Eminem would never be allowed in my country."
"American kids brag about getting drunk," Liem said. "In my country, alcohol was no big deal. Here teens are desperate to drink."
"American kids are superficial. They have too much freedom, especially sexual freedom. Russian kids respect their parents and never talk back," Zlatko said. "My parents told me to never use alcohol or drugs and I will obey them."
"In Vietnam we were taught that if kids talked badly about their parents, we must walk away immediately," Patti said.
Velida protested, "Some American kids are nice."
"They are nice to their friends," Tharaya agreed. "But not their parents."
"How can they be rude to their parents?" Velida asked. "Parents gave us the gift of life."
The talk moved from teenagers to American media. Zlatko said he hated American TV. He liked a few American movies— Patch Adams, Contact, and Deep Impact. But he'd walked out of American Pie, which he said was filthy. His family rented Russian movies.
Nadia said her family only watched Iraqi movies. Homera had never even seen a movie. Once Tharaya had watched the Jerry Springer Show and she wondered how the show found people who would talk badly about their own families. Faisal defended Springer. He said, "That's where you learn what America is really like."
Mrs. Kaye said, "America isn't as bad as that, really."
Anton said he liked the court shows. He joked he was learning to be a judge. Khoi said, "Are you sure you are not learning to be a criminal?"
Alberto said, "At first I was shocked by Americans, but now I like them." Cahn pointed at Faisal, "He likes X-rated movies."
Faisal looked embarrassed. Recently, he'd been caught in the media center on a triple-X web site. As the year had progressed, Faisal had become contemptuous of women and less respectful of authority.
Once when Mrs. Kaye had said that a heart filled with goodness was important, Faisal sneered that he preferred a house filled with money. In an earlier class, while discussing Driving Miss Daisy, Mrs. Kaye had asked the class about the feelings of Miss Daisy in a particular scene. Faisal had asked scornfully, "What do the feelings of an old woman matter?"
Mrs. Kaye was angry at Faisal, but she felt for him, too. He couldn't read; his parents were not learning English or becoming bicultural, and he had no real adult guides. Previously, he had worked with a mentor and he had been happier. One glorious day he had come into her room and shouted happily, "I am learning to read." But the school had to cut funds and the reading mentors were gone. Faisal had become angrier and more misogynistic.
By now Faisal seemed to be inhaling the worst influences in our culture.