Job Discussion Forums

[trapezius]

007, watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHhveITz8Dc and the 3 other lectures by the same person, and tell me what you think!

[Chthon]

Generally, I think the students (in Saudi or in other Muslim countries) will generally have a similar conservative-liberal dichotomy to the one found in certain North American and/or European countries. The people with more conservative values will not listen to music amongst other things they will not do, and the people who are more liberal will not have a problem with it. For more or less the past thousand years, there was consensus amongst the theologians of Muslim people that music was not allowed in the religion, with a small handful of exceptions (such as those mentioned in Mr. 007's post). I think in the modern times, the kids who listen to music won't do so because of some complicated religious debate; they just want to rock. (That's my little historical rant for the week.)

Anyway, this is one of those things that you as a foreign teacher living and working in a culture other than your own will have to deal with. What do you do when there is an internal conflict in the host culture? Use your judgment, I guess. If some of the students may be offended or may feel that their teacher isn't sensitive to their beliefs, they may not perform as well or take as much of an interest in the class. Alternative assignments for them or getting creative and finding other ways to teach an audio-visual lesson never hurts.

[Cleopatra]

[12 Monkeys]