Yesterday was the first day of class for the premeds, and ever since, it feels like we've been nonstop busy throughout the day. This week, it was my turn to teach the recitations, for which there are three sections, all of them one right after another on Sundays.
We started all of the recitations by going around the room and asking for everyone to introduce themselves, partly so that we physics TAs could start to memorize their names. Most students here are either from Qatar or come from countries in the surrounding region, so the majority of them have Arabic names. In addition, there are quite a number of students who share the same given names. Now, having spent the last 22 years surrounded by people with predominantly Western names, it's takes somewhat more effort for me to accurately remember and pronounce our students' names -- over 50 total -- so the introductions exercise is especially important for me. (It doesn't help that there's no consistent transliteration between the Arabic and English alphabets.)
Anyway, during the first round of introductions, we made our way around the class of about 15-20 people. After we finished, I told them all with total honesty, "Ok, I apologize in advance, but I'm going to forget your names almost instantly. Please, just keep reminding me, and I'll get them eventually."
And one of the students said, only half-jokingly, "It's ok, if you're not sure, just say 'Mohammed,' and we'll all respond!" -- to much laughter from the class.
So it was my first day teaching, but I got a pretty good lesson as well in keeping a sense of humor.
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Hehehe, make me laugh too...Mom
ReplyDeleteIn China, many Muslims also came from the Mohammed family. But the name had since been Chinese-ized and called Ma. So if you know some Chinese whose family name is Ma, most likely he/she is (1) a Muslim, (2) from the Mohammed family.
ReplyDeleteI love it. Still a fantastic story the second time around. I may steal it to tell to my classmates.
ReplyDelete-JO