As mentioned previously, my ELL student is from Tibet. Tibet is located between many countries including India and China, which all have an influence on the Tibetan culture. While the traditional culture in Tibet is currently being suppressed by the Chinese, it is still deeply engrained in the land and the people together. Some important parts of the Tibetan culture include the importance of families, religion, social structures, music, art, and the Tibetan Language. These are all things I have been able to learn a bit about from my time spent with W.
W has mentioned to me that his family structure when he had still lived in Tibet was a bit different from the "traditional" structure we see here in America. Starting at a very young age, W stopped living with his family. It wasn't that he never saw his family or that his family wasn't still important to him, but rather the way his education was set up. Instead of living with his family, he lived at his school with his classmates. In his school there were house mothers who helped take care of the kids, while enforcing rules on them as well.
This past week, W was working on a Psychology project where he could pick any well-known figure and analyze them in order to connect it back to what they were learning in Psychology. W chose to study the Dali Lama. The Dali Lama is well-known around the world, but in Tibet he is seen as an extremely important religious figure. While I can't say for sure that W is Buddhist, many Tibetan people are Buddhist, implying that either way, it would be greatly influential on his life. This can be seen by the fact that the Tibetan social structure is broken up into three different classes the laypeople, lay nobility, and the monks. Monks are religious figures, and in Tibet they make up their very own social class. This in itself shows just how great of an impact religion has on the Tibetan culture.
I have only learned a few things about the music, art, and language in Tibet from W. Sometimes when W and I are doing work together he starts softly singing or humming in another language, which I have assumed to be Tibetan. However, I have never actually heard any songs where there was actual music playing with instruments and everything included. As far as art in Tibet goes, I don't know much about your classic drawings or paintings, however, W has mentioned to me that movies are very prevalent. Specifically, he enjoys watching love stories. I found this interesting because here in America, that is rarely something you hear come out of a male's mouth. I couldn't help but wonder if this was something that was common in Tibet when he told me this. Lastly, while I can't speak Tibetan at all, W has taught me how to say a few words at the end of each of our sessions together. This gives an opportunity for a roll reversal where he can be the teacher and I can be the student. This allows for both of us to continue learning. Some of the phrases he has taught me are how to say hello, goodbye, soccer, and follow the snow.
One thing I have been able to realize through looking at the Tibetan culture, is that many cultures have the basics in common, art, music, language, religion, etc., but it is what the people do with each of those pieces that help to create a unique culture.
