Last Wednesday I met with one of my conversation partners, Awad, for the first time. We had originally planned on meeting the Friday before but there were problems with his cell phone and I couldn't get in touch with him. We agreed to meet at The Sweet Shop on Jefferson for coffee/tea. It was a very memorable meeting even though I must admit it got a little uncomfortable for a good bit of it. The conversation started by us talking about the basics: our childhoods, interests, and our field of study. Things were going fine and Awad seemed to be a very capable speaker and listener but then, after mentioning his devotion and passion about religion, he asked me what I believed. I passively mentioned that I didn't have any religion but he didn't seem to understand fully so I had to reiterate that I didn't believe in God. The attitude of the conversation changed immediately and Awad became visibly agitated and short. Our conversation turned to more of an interview or interrogation and he began asking why I had my beliefs and telling me that I did not no the truth about things. I was trying to simplify things in order to move on from the topic but he was very persistent. He became even more frustrated because he didn't have the vocabulary or English speaking capabilities to express something that he was so passionate about effectively to me. Eventually the topic got switched to music, something that I'm particularly interested in, but Awad seemed to have already checked out of the conversation.
What struck me about the experience the most was the difference in our attitudes of acceptance. I was fully willing, and even eager, to learn about Awad's beliefs and feelings on anything, especially religion because I find world religions fascinating. However, there was nowhere near the same amount of reception of my own beliefs and, whenever I said anything that he disagreed with, he would immediately shut it down and restate that I "didn't know the truth". All in all I'm using this as a valuable learning experience to try harder to be understanding of people who's attitudes may be shaped by cultural differences. I hope that our next meeting goes better than the first, but unfortunately I have not heard from Awad since Wednesday.
Ah yes, the subject of religion. Although I'm sure you figured it out by your encounter, religion in other countries is much more of a passionate lifestyle and one that is spoken about frequently, whereas in America, it's considered a 'thing' to just not talk about in order not to offend other people. It's just one of those cultural differences. Americans in general aren't very forward in conversation whereas other cultures get very offended if you don't answer anything directly. (By the way, I'm definitely not trying to lecture you, so sorry if this is sounding preachy). If you do speak with him again and somehow religion gets brought up, I wouldn't try to divert the conversation again, because that might just make him more upset.
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