Teaching: Reflective Teaching and Motivation

(photo by M. A. AL Awaid)

It is lovely when students who took my classes, graduated and are now teachers in their own right with their own students, come back to chat. We have wonderful talks, reminiscing about old times, funny stories that happened when they were students, teachers who have left, happy memories of Steve Cass and future plans.

It’s good to learn from them about how I was as a teacher, to hear the positive and negative things they remember. A different perspective about effective and not effective instruction methods is always useful and they always help me see my teaching in a new light. It turns out I am not as good as I thought I was about catching students using cell phones in class. But I do amaze students by being able to wrap up class exactly on time – 25 years of practice pays off!

The struggles they have with their students are the same struggles I have. Meeting up gives me a chance to reassure new teachers that teaching has ups and downs and to give examples about choices and mistakes I made when I was teaching them.

One of the things that we talk a lot about is motivation which reminds me of an article I wrote more than 10 years ago:

“Understanding the Impact of Culture on the TESOL Classroom: An Outsider’s Perspective,” TESOL Arabia’s Perspective 18.2, 2011: 15-19. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277562823_Understanding_the_Impact_of_Culture_on_the_TESOL_Classroom_An_Outsider’s_Perspective

In that text I explain that usually in Omani cultures, it is not polite to make negative comments in public. Thus, if a teacher says “You are bad students” – students will take that to heart, making the classroom more confrontational than it has to be. In some cultures it is expected that teachers raise their voices at students, refuse to answer questions, speak brusquely or use “negative motivation.” These are not effective tactics in Oman.

Former students and I discuss how a teacher’s words are important and that even one sentence can have a huge impact on a student’s life. Many students have told me positive and negative remarks from teachers which either increased or destroyed their confidence.

I have seen teachers declaring “If you don’t study and work hard, you will fail” and students interpreting this as “I will fail you.” Thus, it’s important to phrase motivational statements to be realistic but not defeatist. This means finding a delicate balance between explaining that the student needs to make more of an effort but not making the student feel that success is impossible or disaster is foreordained. It’s a challenge to explain that the choice is in their hands; they have to decide to do the homework, come to class, etc.

Teaching Literature and Staying au courant – The Man from Nowhere and the Ancient Greeks

Reflections/ Research on Teaching Cultural Studies and Literature

Teaching Literature

Communication in Dhofar: Getting Information and (not) Giving Compliments

General Bibliography for Research about Dhofar, Oman – updated spring 2023

General Bibliography for Research about Dhofar, Oman – Dr. Marielle Risse, updated spring 2023

Neither despise, nor oppose, what thou dost not understand – William Penn

Below is the list of texts I have used for research on Southern Oman from the fields of Arabian Peninsula studies; archeology; architecture; anthropology; cultural studies; education and pedagogy; folklore; foodways; history; Islamic studies, literature, literary compilations and secondary writing on literature; memoir; military history; Modern South Arabian languages including grammar, linguistics and translation; ornithology; political science; travel writing, secondary writing on travelers, tourism; women studies; zoology

bibliography for my Houseways project: Selected references related to Houseways in Southern Oman, Oct. 2022

other bibliographies: Bibliographies

my publications about Dhofar/ Oman in the fields of anthropology; architecture; cultural acquisition, education and studies; education/ pedagogy; fairytales and folklore; fishing; foodways; gift/ gift theory; honor killing; houseways; literature, literary compilations and secondary writing on literature; translation; travel writing, travelers and tourism; urban studies

books

Risse, Marielle. 2023. Houseways in Southern Oman. London: Routledge.

—. 2021. Foodways in Southern Oman. London: Routledge.

—. 2019. Community and Autonomy in Southern Oman. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

articles/ book chapters

Risse, Marielle   2021. “Questions About Food and Ethics,” in Emanations: When a Planet was a Planet. Brookline, MA: International Authors. 403-08.

—. 2020. “Ok Kilito, I Won’t Speak Your Language: Reflections after Reading Thou Shalt Not Speak My Language,” in Octo-Emanations. Carter Kaplan, ed. Brookline, MA: International Authors.: 233-36.

—. 2020. “Teaching Paired Middle Eastern and Western Literary Texts,” in Advancing English Language Education. Wafa Zoghbor and Thomaï Alexiou, eds. Dubai: Zayed University Press. 221-23.

—.  2019, October 7. “Teaching Literature on the Arabian Peninsula,” Anthropology News website. http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2019/10/07/teaching-literature-on-the-arabian-peninsula/

—.  2019. “An Ethnographic Discussion of Fairy Tales from Southern Oman,” Fabula: Zeitschrift für Erzählforschung / Journal of Folktale Studies / Revue d’Etudes sur le Conte Populaire 60.3-4 (De Gruyter, Berlin): 318–35.

—. 2017. “Understanding Communication in Southern Oman.” North Dakota Quarterly (Special Issue on Transnationalism) 84.1: 174-84.

—. 2015. “Generosity, Gift-giving and Gift-avoiding in Southern Oman.” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 45: 289-96.

—. 2013. “Throwing Children in the Street: Explaining Western Culture to Omanis.” Emanations: Third Eye. Carter Kaplan, ed. Brookline, MA: International Authors. 265-74.

—. 2013. “Who Are You Calling ‘Coddled’?: ‘Cloistered Virtue’ and Choosing Literary Texts in a Middle Eastern University.” Pedagogy 14: 415-27.

—. 2013. “Frosty Cliffs, Frosty Aunt and Sandy Beaches: Teaching Aurora Leigh in Oman.” Ariel: A Review of International English Literature 43.4: 123-45.

—.  2013. “Verstehen/ Einfühlen in Arabian Sands (1959): Wilfred Thesiger as Traveler and Anthropologist.” Journeys: The International Journal of Travel and Travel Writing 14.1: 23-39.

—. 2012. “Reader’s Guide” for the English version of Khadija bint Alawi al-Thahab’s My Grandmother’s Stories: Folk Tales from Dhofar. W. Scott Chahanovich, trans. Washington, D.C: Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center. 17-23.

—. 2012, May 31. “To Learn Arabic, You Have to Talk the Talk,” The Chronicle of Higher Education. http://chronicle.com/article/To-Learn-Arabic-You-Have-to/132057

—. 2012. “Do You know a Creon?: Making Literature Relevant in an Omani University,” in Literature Teaching in EFL/ESL: New Perspectives. Rahma Al-Mahrooqi, ed. Muscat: Sultan Qaboos University Press. 302-14.

—. 2011, July 10. “Bringing Theory Home in Oman,” The Chronicle of Higher Education. B24. http://chronicle.com/article/Bringing-Theory-Home-in-Oman/128139/

—. 2009. “Cultural Refraction: Using Travel Writing, Anthropology and Fiction to Understand the Culture of Southern Arabia.” Interdisciplinary Humanities 26.1: 63-78.

—. 1997. “White Knee Socks vs. Photojournalist Vests: Distinguishing between Travelers and Tourists,” in Travel Culture. Carol Williams, ed. Westport, CT: Praeger. 40-50.

Bibliography – updated spring 2023

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Abu-Lughod, Lila. 2016/1999. Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society. Berkeley: University of California Press.

—. 2013. Do Muslim Women Need Saving? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

—. 2011. “Seductions of the Honor Crime.” Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 22. 1:  17-63.

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—. 1985. “Honor and Sentiments of Loss in a Bedouin Society.” American Ethnologist 12: 245-61.

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Abu-Zahra, Nadia. 1974. “Material Power, Honour, Friendship and the Etiquette of Visiting.” Anthropological Quarterly 47: 120-38.

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Akehurst, John. 1982. We Won a War: The Campaign in Oman, 1965-1975. Wilton, Salisbury: Russell.

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Al Balushi, Khalid, trans. 2016.  Contemporary Omani Poetry in English. Muscat: Ministry of Heritage and Culture.

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Al Farsi, Sulaiman. 2013. Democracy and Youth in the Middle East: Islam, Tribalism and the Rentier State in Oman. London: I. B. Tauris.

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Al-Marshudi, Ahmed Salim and Hemesiri Kotagama. 2006. “Socio-Economic Structure and Performance of Traditional Fishermen in the Sultanate of Oman.” Marine Resource Economics 21: 221-230.

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—. 1991. “Recent Epigraphic Discoveries in Dhofar.” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 21: 173-91.

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Websites

Enfleurage

Environment Society of Oman

J.E. Peterson

Janet Watson

Janet Watson and Miranda Morris

Janet Watson has a comprehensive “Bibliography of the Modern South Arabian Languages” which includes some works concentrating on history and anthropology, as well as languages – it can be accessed through: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345983960_Bibliography_of_the_Modern_South_Arabian_languages_Compiled_by_Janet_Watson_and_Miranda_Morris

التحدث – Houseways: Talking Privately in Crowded Rooms – التحدث :على انفراد في الغرف المزدحمة

[I am very grateful to Arooba Al Mashikhi for this translation and to my colleagues Dr. Ali Mohamed Algryani, Dr. Amer Ahmed and Dr. Yasser Sabtan for additional assistance in translating.] first published: Houseways: Talking Privately in Crowded Rooms

 

In an earlier essay, I discussed how rooms were arranged: https://mariellerisse.com/2021/07/03/houseways-comparisons-types-of-rooms-and-sightlines/

ناقشت في مقال سابق كيف يتم – ترتيب الغرف:

https://mariellerisse.com/2021/07/03/houseways-comparisons-types-of-rooms-and-sightlines/

This essay is one of three related pieces about the interplay between behavior and space: how certain behaviors create a need for a certain kind of space (entryways), how a certain kind of space creates the need for certain behaviors (talking in the salle) and the intermix of house design and behavior (front doorways).

هذا المقال هو واحد من ثلاثة مقالات – مرتبطة بالتفاعل بين – السلوك والمساحة: كيف – تولّدُ أنواعٌ مُعينةٌ من السلوك – حاجة لنوع معين من المساحة (المداخل) ، وكيف – يولّدُ نوع معين من المساحة الحاجة إلى سلوكيات معينة (التحدث في الصالة) والتداخل بين تصميم المنزل وسلوكياته (المداخل الأمامية)

majlis and salle are usually large enough to seat at least 20 people and square/ rectangular with all the furniture pushed against the walls. Houses are built from concrete block and have tile floors, sometimes partially covered with an area rug, thus everyone in the room can see and hear each other – in a sizable, echoing space, how do people manage to have private conversations?

عادة ما يكون المجلس والصالة كبيران بما يكفي لاستيعاب 20 شخصًا على الأقل ومربع / مستطيل مع دفع قطع الأثاث بمحاذاة الجدران. – تُشيَّدُ المنازل من كتل خرسانية ولها أرضيات من البلاط ، وأحيانًا تكون مغطاة جزئيًا بسجادة تغطي فقط جزءاً من الأرضية، وبالتالي يمكن لكل فرد في الغرفة رؤية وسماع بعضهم – الآخر – في مساحة كبيرة ينتشر فيها الصوت ، كيف يتمكن الأشخاص من – التحدث على انفراد؟

Two types of behavior, non-verbal and talking very quietly, [as discussed in: https://mariellerisse.com/2021/07/03/houseways-comparisons-types-of-rooms-and-sightlines/ ], work for short communications such as imparting information, asking a question and giving a command. In this essay I would like to talk about another strategy: Dhofaris tuning out/ turning away/ politely ignoring visitors. This behavior means that people can have private conversations, after the requirements of hospitality and respect have been met, and that a person who is new to the group has time to adjust.

هنالك نوعان من السلوك؛ السلوك غير اللفظي والتحدث بهدوء شديد (كما تمت مناقشته في: https://mariellerisse.com/2021/07/03/houseways-comparisons-types-of-rooms-and- sightlines/

يعملان على التواصل القصير مثل نقل معلومة أو طرح سؤال أو إعطاء أمر. في هذا المقال أود أن أتحدث عن استراتيجية أخرى: كيف الظفاريون  / يرفضون /  يبعدون ويتجاهلون الزوار بأدب. يعني هذا السلوك أنه يمكن للأشخاص إجراء محادثات خاصة  بعد تلبية متطلبات الضيافة والاحترام ، وأن الشخص الجديد في مجموعة ما لديه الوقت للتكيف.

A female Dhofari friend (A) lived outside of Dhofar for several months where she met an Omani woman (X). When A’s brother (B) came to visit A, he met X’s husband (Y). So when X, Y and their children came to visit Dhofar, A invited them to dinner at her house with the understanding that B would host Y in the majlis with other of A’s male relatives and A would host X in the salle with other of A’s female relatives. I was invited as I had also met X previously.

عاشت صديقة ظفارية (أ) خارج ظفار لعدة أشهر حيث التقت بامرأة عمانية (س). عندما جاء شقيق (أ) المدعو  ب لزيارة أ ، التقى بزوج (س). لذلك عندما جاء أطفالهم لزيارة ظفار ، دعتهم “أ” إلى العشاء في منزلها على أساس أن “ب”  يستضيف “ص” في المجلس مع أقارب آخرين من “أ” وأن “أ” ستستضيف “س” في الصالة مع أقارب أخريات من الإناث. . لقد دعيت لأنني التقيت أيضًا  “س” سابقًا

When X and Y arrived, they were greeted by A and B who stood outside the door, then brought to the respective sitting rooms. When X walked into the salle, all the women (X’s mom, sisters, sisters-in-law, and nieces) greeted X and she was led to a sofa in the middle of the south wall, a few spaces down from A’s mom. A sat in the middle of the east wall and I was in the middle of the north wall. The first twenty minutes was the necessary polite, general conversation in which X asked about everyone’s health and everyone asked X about her health, her family’s health, her trip to Dhofar, where she was staying and did she like the hotel while A was offering drinks and snacks to X and her children. The first round done, the second round started in which more specific questions were asked about X’s health, the health of X’s children and female relatives, their trip to Dhofar and X started to ask about how A’s mother was doing and who were the other women in the room. A’s mother was included in all the questions and responses; X looked at her more frequently than anyone else and the other women, including me, listened to everything with polite attention.

عندما  وصل (س) و (ص) – ، استقبلهم (أ) و (ب) الذين وقفوا خارج الباب ، ثم أدخلوهم إلى غرف الجلوس الخاصة بهم. عندما دخلت (س) – الصالة ، استقبلت جميع النساء ( والدة (أ)  ، والأخوات ، وأخوات زوجها ، وبنات أختها) (س) وأجلسوها – على أريكة في منتصف الجدار الجنوبي ، على بعد مسافة قليلة من والدة (أ). (أ) جلست في منتصف الجدار الشرقي وكنت في منتصف الجدار الشمالي. كانت أول عشرين دقيقة محادثة عامة مهذبة سألت فيها (س) عن صحة الجميع وسأل الجميع (س) عن صحتها وصحة عائلتها ورحلتها إلى ظفار وأين كانت تقيم وإذا ما كان يعجبها، بينما كانت (أ) تقدم المشروبات والوجبات الخفيفة لـ (س) وأطفالها. – انتهت المرحلة الأولى ، وبدأت المرحلة الثانية حيث – طُرِحَت أسئلة أكثر تحديدًا حول صحة (س) وصحة أطفال (س) والأقارب الإناث ورحلتهم إلى ظفار وثم بدأت (س) في السؤال عن حال والدة (أ) ومن هن النساء الأخريات في الغرفة. كانت والدة (أ) مشتركة في جميع الأسئلة والردود ؛ ونظرت اليها (س) أكثر من أي شخص آخر ، – وأظهرت النساء الأخريات ، بمن فيهم أنا ، تأدباً في الاستماع إلى كل شيء -.

Then we moved to the dining table (on the south side) to eat dinner, then back to the sofas. A few minutes later, with hands washing after dinner and X given a plate of sweets, there was a gradual change in that A’s mother and other female relatives turned their attention away from X by saying prayers using a misbaha (prayer beads), looking at their phone, talking to children or each other. A and X, more than 1 1/2 hours after X had arrived, were able to talk freely about people they knew/ experiences they had had in common.

ثم انتقلنا إلى طاولة الطعام (في الجانب الجنوبي) لتناول العشاء ، – وبعدها عدنا إلى الجلسات وبعد بضع دقائق ، مع غسل اليدين بعد العشاء و بعد أن قدمت (أ) طبقا من الحلوى ، كان هناك تغيير تدريجي في أن والدة (أ) وقريباتها الأخريات صرفن انتباههن عن (س) من خلال التسبيح باستخدام مسبحة خرزية، والنظر إلى هواتفهم ، والتحدث إلى الأطفال أو بعضهن البعض. (أ) و (س) ، بعد أكثر من ساعة ونصف الساعة من وصول (س) ، كن قادرات على التحدث بحرية عن – معارفهن من الاشخاص و تجاربهن المشتركة.

There were the same number of people sitting in the same places as when X had arrived, but instead of one person talking at a time with X and A’s mother as the twin focal points, now A and X were a dyad. A’s female relatives and I sat quietly, sometimes listening, sometimes talking to each other. As the time to leave grew closer, the talk again became more general with people offering X suggestions about where to go site-seeing and what restaurants to eat at. X was invited back to the house, which she parried with how short their stay was and how they had relatives to visit.

كان هناك نفس عدد الأشخاص الذين يجلسون في نفس الأماكن عندما وصلت (س) ، ولكن بدلاً من تحدث شخص واحد في وقت واحد مع (س) و والدة (أ) كمحاور الحديث ، أصبحن (أ) و (س) ثنائي. جلست مع قريبات (أ) بهدوء نستمع أحيانًا، وأحيانًا نتحدث مع بعضنا البعض. مع اقتراب وقت المغادرة ، أصبح الحديث مرة أخرى أكثر عمومية مثل  اقتراح حول الأماكن التي يجب أن تزورها (س) والمطاعم التي يمكن تناول الطعام فيها. – دُعيت (س) للعودة مجددا إلى المنزل ورفضت ذلك مع قصر فترة إقامتهم والتزامهم بزيارات عائلية أخرى.

In thinking about this visit beforehand, I had thought that it was too bad A and X would not get time alone (such as meeting at a coffee shop) to catch up. But what happened was that A’s family created that conversational freedom for them, without changing the space or their locations, by shifting their attention away. In a room with 10 women and five children, A and X were able to share reminiscences and catch up on mutual acquaintances.

عندما فكرت في هذه الزيارة مسبقًا، كنت أعتقد أنها كانت سيئة للغاية لأن (أ) و (س) لن – تنفردا بإحداهما الأخرى -(مثلما كان عليه الحال لو أنهما – التقيتا في مقهى) للحديث. ولكن ما حدث هو أن عائلة (أ) أوجدت حرية المحادثة لهم ، دون تغيير المساحة أو مواقعهم ، عن طريق تحويل انتباههم بعيدًا. في غرفة بها 10 نساء وخمسة أطفال ، تمكنت (أ) و (س) من تبادل الذكريات و تعويض مافات من الامور المشتركة. .

To look at this issue from another angle, I was once visiting a Dhofari friend when an older female relative (M) stopped by. I had not met M before and was surprised that the younger women (N) with her was wearing elaborate make-up, a lot of jewelry and a highly decorated dress, shorter in front than in usual for normal visiting. My friend looked at me and said, “bride” in Arabic; women who are newly married usually dress up for visits in the weeks after the wedding. N had recently married M’s son and M was bringing N to meet M’s/ N’s husband’s relatives. N sat silently, looking bored, as we spoke; I felt kind of sorry for her as she must have had several of these types of visits with her new mother-in-law.

للنظر في هذه القضية من زاوية أخرى ، كنت أزور صديقة ظفارية عندما توقفت إحدى قريباتها الأكبر سنًا (م). لم أقابل (م) من قبل وفوجئت أن الشابة معها كانت –قد بالغت في وضع مستحضرات التجميل- ، وتلبس الكثير من المجوهرات وفستانًا مزخرفاً  وأقصر في المقدمة من المعتاد في الزيارات العادية. نظرت إلي صديقتي وقالت: “عروس”. عادة ما تلبس النساء المتزوجات حديثًا  بهذه الطريقة للزيارات في الأسابيع التي تلي الزواج. (ن) تزوجت مؤخرًا من ابن (م) وكانت (م) تحضر (ن) معها لتلتقي بأقارب زوجها. جلست (ن) بصمت، متمللة، بينما كنا نتحدث. – اشفقت عليها قليلاً لأنها لابد وأنها قامت بالكثير من هذا النوع من الزيارات مع حماتها الجديدة.

But about two years later I saw that situation from a different angle. A female Dhofari friend invited me to her wedding; I agreed but with some trepidation as I had not met any of her family before. I arrived at the house for the party and her mother took me into the salle. I could hear quiet comments of women “placing me” (telling each other who I was) as I walked around to greet each woman. But once I sat down, all the women ignored me. This might sound negative, but it was very freeing – I was in a tightly packed room with every seat taken. All the women were in pretty, loose dresses with lots of perfume, children ran in and out, maids came around offering tea, coffee, juice and water, as well as snacks – there was lots of see and do. Women who came in shook my hand and the women next to me encouraged me to eat and drink so I did not feel any hostility, just a sense that everyone had collectively decided to leave me alone. After about an hour, the woman next to me asked me a few simple questions, I think to test both my level of Arabic and my willingness to engage. When I answered readily, other women joined in with questions and we ended up having a lovely time – joking about husbands and driving cars and studying.

لكن بعد حوالي عامين رأيت هذا الوضع من زاوية مختلفة عندما دعتني صديقة ظفارية لحضور حفل زواجها. وافقت ولكن بتردد لأنني لم أقابل أيًا من عائلتها من قبل. وصلت إلى المنزل من أجل حفل الزواج وأخذتني والدتها إلى الصالة. كان بإمكاني سماع تعليقات صامتة من النساء يحاولن معرفة من أنا (ويخبرن بعضهن البعض من أنا) بينما كنت أمشي لأحيي كل امرأة. لكن بمجرد أن جلست ، تجاهلتني جميع النساء. قد يبدو هذا سلبيا ، لكنه أشعرني بالحرية للغاية – كنت في غرفة مكتظة كل مقاعدها مشغولة. – كانت جميع النساء يرتدين ثيابًا جميلة وفضفاضة مع الكثير من العطور ، وكان الأطفال يركضون ويخرجون ، وكانت الخادمات يقدمن الشاي والقهوة والعصير والماء ، بالإضافة إلى الوجبات الخفيفة – كان هناك الكثير من المشاهدة والحركة. صافحتني النساء اللواتي جئن ، وشجعتني النساء اللواتي يجلسن بجانبي على تناول الطعام والشراب ، لذا لم أشعر بأي نشوز ، فقط شعرت بأن الجميع قرروا بشكل جماعي أن يتركوني وشأني. وبعد حوالي ساعة سألتني المرأة بجواري بعض الأسئلة البسيطة، وأعتقد أنها اختبرت مستواي في اللغة العربية ورغبتي في المشاركة. عندما أجبت بسرعة ، انضمت نساء أخريات لطرح الأسئلة وانتهى بنا الأمر بقضاء وقت ممتع – المزاح حول الأزواج وقيادة السيارات والدراسة.

As I drove home, I thought about the silent bride (N) and wondered if perhaps what I marked as boredom was relief that the women in my friend’s house had given her the same sort of emotional/ psychological break of ignoring her so she could be with a lot of unfamiliar people without having to make conversation. These were women she would know and visit for the rest of her life and rather than perhaps making a misstep at the start of the relationship, she had the chance to look around, listen to the talk, and start to form ideas/ opinions about the women before being expected to join in.

– وبينما كنت أقود سيارتي عائدة للمنزل ، فكرت في العروس الصامتة (ن) وتساءلت عما إذا كان ما أشرت إليه على أنه ملل هو الارتياح لأن النساء في منزل صديقتي قد أعطوها نفس النوع من الراحة العاطفية والنفسية بتجاهلها حتى تتمكن من التعايش مع الكثير من الأشخاص غير المألوفين دون الحاجة إلى إجراء محادثة. كانت هؤلاء النساء ستعرفهن وتزورهن لبقية حياتها وبدلاً من أن ترتكب خطأً في بداية معرفتهم ، أتيحت لها الفرصة للنظر حولها والاستماع إلى الحديث والبدء في تكوين أفكار و آراء حولهن قبل أن – تتوقع  منها الأخريات – – الانضمام إليهن.

The spaces within a house for visiting are few and large, thus Dhofaris have created a series of behaviors that make accommodations for others. In certain circumstances, everyone will tacitly ignore 1) people who want to talk about someone that is interest only to them and 2) people who they feel might not want to or be able to join in the conversation. Being able to see and hear others in the same room does not automatically mean it is necessary to engage with them, so privacy is possible even in a crowded salle.

المساحات داخل المنزل للزيارة قليلة وكبيرة ، وبالتالي ابتكر الظفاريون– أنواعاً من السلوك لإقامة الآخرين معهم. في ظروف معينة ، سيتجاهل الجميع ضمنيًا أولا، الأشخاص الذين يرغبون في التحدث عن شخص يهمهم فقط وثانيًا الأشخاص الذين يشعرون أنهم قد لا يرغبون في الانضمام إلى المحادثة أو قادرين عليها. القدرة على رؤية وسماع الآخرين في نفس الغرفة لا تعني تلقائيًا أنه من الضروري التعامل معهم ، لذا فإن الخصوصية ممكنة حتى في صالة – مكتظة بالناس.

Another example of creating privacy for others was discussed in https://mariellerisse.com/2021/07/10/houseways-who-visits-which-rooms/ . Women usually return to their mother’s house after they have their first child. One family I know lives in a house with a mother, several unmarried daughters and several married sons and their families. When a married daughter came back to stay for a few weeks with her new baby, she and husband met in the majlis. The husband was not a close relative so it would not be appropriate for him to spend a lot of time in the salle and it was not possible for him to come to her bedroom as this would mean entering the private area of the house. The men in the house willingly did not use the majlis at certain times so their sister’s husband could visit her and the baby alone.

تمت مناقشة مثال آخر لخلق الخصوصية للآخرين في:

https://mariellerisse.com/2021/07/10/houseways-who-visits-which-rooms/

تعود النساء عادةّ إلى منازل – أمهاتهن بعد إنجاب طفلهن الأول. عائلة واحدة أعرفها تعيش في منزل مع أم وبناتها غير المتزوجات والأبناء المتزوجين وأسرهم. عندما عادت الابنة المتزوجة لقضاء بضعة أسابيع مع طفلها الجديد ، التقت هي وزوجها في المجلس. لم يكن الزوج من الأقارب المقربين، لذلك لن يكون من المناسب له أن يقضي الكثير من الوقت في الصالة ولم يكن من الممكن أن يأتي إلى غرفة نومها لأن هذا يعني دخول المنطقة الخاصة بالمنزل. الرجال في المنزل لم يستخدموا المجلس – في أوقات معينة حتى يتمكن زوج أختهم من زيارتها هي وطفلها بمفردهم.

Houseways: Entrance Ways – Form Follows Function; طرق المداخل – الشكل يتبع الاختصاص

Houseways in Dhofar: Placement of Furniture and Sightlines – التقاليد المتبعة في ترتيب المناز بظفار

Houseways: Who Visits Which Rooms? – التقاليد المتبعة في ترتيب المنازل: أي حجرة يحق للشخص الجلوس فيها؟

– طرق الطعام : بحث في ممارسات الصيد في ظفار وببليوجرافيات مختارة – Foodways: Researching Fishing Practices in Dhofar (in Arabic) and Selected Bibliographies

 

New essay: “Ṣâd is for Zero” on the Arabic alphabet website

The Arabic Alphabet: A Guided Tour – http://alifbatourguide.com/

by Michael Beard, illustrated by Houman Mortazavi

“Ṣâd is for Zero” – http://alifbatourguide.com/the-arabic-alphabet/sad/

excerpt:

The shape of Ṣâd shares something with the letters of the Roman alphabet: the appearance of weight, the feeling that it stands, or reclines, rather than floats. Granted, that cushion shape doesn’t look particularly heavy or solid. In fact it looks a little squishy, rounded on the right, flattened down to a point on the left, but it’s wide and substantive enough to have some substance, to function as a base or stand.

The sound in Arabic is not quite that of Sîn. The term for the sound of Ṣâd is S “velarized.” It has to do with the position of the tongue. It feels more emphatic. Non-native speakers of Arabic who don’t always hear the distinction may try focusing instead on the vowel sound which follows it, particularly if the vowel is an A. After Ṣâd, that A is lengthened a little. In other words, ص is pronounced something more like the S in English “sod” than the S in “sad.”) A cunning student might learn to approximate it by lengthening that A before learning how to pronounce the consonant. Textbooks may not say this, but non-native speakers of Arabic who don’t differentiate Sîn from Ṣâd will still be understood. They’ll have a speech impediment, but there are worse obstacles.

In fact your listener may prefer you to have the accent. There is a funny and profound essay by Abdelfattah Kilito in which he confesses to discovering an anxiety in himself: “One day I realized that I dislike having foreigners speak my language…” and adds that the anxiety increases with the fluency of the non-native speaker. “What if this stranger speaks exactly, and expresses himself as clearly as we do?… This person who came from a faraway place causes confusion, not only because he undermines our sense of superiority but also because he suddenly robs us of our language, the principle of our existence, what we consider to be our identity, our refuge, ourselves.” He gives the example of a meeting with an American woman who spoke Moroccan Arabic like a native. He is surprised at his own reaction: “for the first time I felt that my language is slipping away from me, or rather that the American woman had robbed me of it” (Kilito, Thou Shalt not Speak my Language, 87, 91). Perhaps it’s a little like the paradox of animation technology: we admire the skill that makes the image on the screen look real, as it imitates the world outside more and more accurately, but there’s a point beyond which, if the images become too realistic, they start to look a little creepy. I’m not saying you shouldn’t try.

New essay: “Shin is for Saracen” on the Arabic alphabet website

New essay: “Sîn is for Zenith” on the Arabic alphabet website

New essay: ‘Zhe is for Bijan’ on the Arabic alphabet website

New essay: “Za” on the Arabic Alphabet website

New essay: “Ra” on The Arabic Alphabet website

Houseways: Including/ Excluding Expats in Discussions about Housing

All authors know that as you write in detail about a topic, you sometimes lose sight of the bigger picture. In my first draft of  Houseways, I wrote:

And as only GCC citizens can buy land in Dhofar, non-GCCexpats live in Dhofari-designed houses or various types of apartment buildings designed for expats, without affecting the choices for house designs. In the one small, expat compound I lived in for a few years, I had Italian, French, Indian, Iraqi, American and English neighbors. In the two Omani neighborhoods I have lived in for a total of 12 years, I am the only non-Omani in whole area.

As I looked over my draft later, I realized I was not being clear; of course there are many non-Omanis in my neighborhood. I rewrote the section to read:

In the two Omani neighborhoods I have lived in for a total of 12 years, I am the only non-Omani who rents an apartment or house in whole area.

Other expats move through the neighborhood for various reasons. Some expats work as cleaners, either living in or coming a few times a week. Some expat men work as house builders; others come through regularly to go through the dumpsters for anything salvageable or recyclable. Knowing this, Omanis usually put anything that might be of value next to (not in) dumpsters so that it is easy to take. In the afternoons, men who work for small grocery stores bike around ringing a small bell, signaling that they have snacks to sell come.

Another issue is that sending in a manuscript and getting back the published book back is sometimes like sending a beloved pet for grooming. The animal that returns is your pet but looks completely different.

My abstract for the book is:

Houseways in Southern Oman explains how modern, middle-class houses are sited, designed, built, decorated and lived in with an emphasis on how room-usage is determined by age, gender, time of day and the presence of guests. Combing ethnography and architectural studies, the author draws on over sixteen years of living in the Dhofar region to analyze the cultural perceptions regarding houses and how residential areas fit within the urban areas of the southern Dhofar region.

From the average height of the walls surrounding houses to the color schemes of kitchen to the use of curtains, the book examines the material features of houses using formal interviews, visits to many Dhofari houses and the author’s ten years of living in Dhofari-designed houses in Dhofari neighborhoods. The book also discusses cultural expectations such as how and when rooms are used, who is in control of decorating choices, which spaces a guest might see and how to understand if a house is ready for visitors or if its inhabitants are celebrating or mourning. Dhofari houses are also compared to houses in other Arabian Peninsula countries and positioned within the theoretical frameworks of the “Islamic city” and the “Islamic house.”

the official abstract is:

This book explores how houses are created, maintained and conceptualized in southern Oman. Based on long-term research in the Dhofar region, it draws on anthropology, sociology, urban studies and architectural history. The chapters consider physical and functional aspects, including regulations governing land use, factors in siting houses, architectural styles and norms for interior and exterior decorating. The volume also reflects on cultural expectations regarding how and when rooms are used and issues such as safety, privacy, social connectedness and ease of movement. Houses and residential areas are situated within the fabric of towns, comparison is made with housing in other countries in the Arabian peninsula, and consideration is given to notions of the ‘Islamic city’ and the ‘Islamic house’. The book is valuable reading for scholars interested in the Middle East and the built environment.

The line: “This book explores how houses are created, maintained and conceptualized in southern Oman” is somewhat problematic for me as “houses” here is too general a term. My work is on modern, middle-class houses designed by and built for Dhofaris. There are other types of housing which I don’t have expertise in and don’t engage with.

To illustrate my point, I would like to explain one housing example I know of. For many years I visited a large nursery on the eastern side of Salalah. There was a high wall around the area, with a monumental gate as an entrance, as if eventually a large house would be built there, but in the meantime the land was used to grow plants/ turn a profit.

There were large trees planted on the perimeter, inside the high wall, and the middle area was netted over and planted with small shrubs and flowering plants. To the right was a small path which meandered past the planted areas into a section with trees which had small bags of soil tied to limbs so that the trees would put forth roots; the section would then be cut off and a new tree could be planted. To the right of this area was a small, paved courtyard, surrounded on three sides by a variety of one-story rooms made from cement blocks where the men who worked in the nursery lived.

In front of one of the rooms was a large trough sink and a basic open-air kitchen with a woven palm frond cover. A few of the rooms had open holes for windows, a few had window panes and doors. There was electricity and running water. The air was rich with tropical fragrances and birds were chattering everywhere. When I first saw it, my reaction was “I want to live there!”

I imagined how lovely it must be to sit outside at night and watch bats flit among the trees, the sound of palm fronds rustling and the air thick with jasmine. Or maybe not. Maybe there were endless swarms of mosquitos and the sound of insects was maddening. Did the men who worked there love their small courtyard? Did they wish they were in a big compound which was closer to stores with lots of other men to talk to? I don’t know; we didn’t have a language in common besides all of us knowing the names of the plants and the basics of “sun,” “too much sun,” and “no sun.”

It is with this (and many other) examples in mind that I have tried to clear that my focus on Dhofari houses means houses that are Dhofari-designed, -built, -owned and -lived in.

As a final note, I wish I had photographs of house builders as to not include them seems in a way to erase them and their work. But I haven’t figured out a way do this ethically. The person who takes most of the photographs I need is young, female and does not speak the languages common among house-builders. I do not feel comfortable asking her to engage in conversations requiring her to ask for permission to take photos and explain how those photos would be used. At some point I hope to find a way to have pictures taken with informed consent.

Teaching Literature and Staying au courantThe Man from Nowhere and the Ancient Greeks

There is a profound joy in introducing students to classic texts. I am very grateful that I have spent so much of my working life among the splendors of ancient Greek plays, Romantic Era poets, Jane Austen and Oscar Wilde.

And I am happy that as I teach I have gotten better at choosing classics which speak to my students, from 20th century writers such as Tawfiq al-Hakim to more modern writers such as Mohammed Al Murr and Badriyah al Bashar. And it’s fun help them get over the newness of Moushegh Ishkhan, Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Ryszard Krynicki, T’ao Yuan Ming, Tomas Tranströmer and Wisława Szymborska.

When I start the poetry class, I know that there is at least one student will be blown away by the Cold Mountain poems, Basho, Mary Oliver, Naomi Shihab Nye or Fowziyah Abu-Khalid. Someone will fall in love with  “Embroidered Memory” by Lorene Zarou-Zouzounis; someone else will champion “About Mount Uludag” by Nazim Hikmet.

It’s a delight to read familiar lines and see how students relate to familiar characters. Who is going to defend Ismene this semester? Who will argue on Creon’s behalf? Who is going to laugh when Patty in Quality Street talks about her hopefulness?  If we read Rebecca West’s The Return of the Soldier, who will my students pick as the one who deserves Chris – Kitty, Margaret or Jenny?

At the same time, it is good for me to be in the position of not knowing, to remember how it feels to be confused by a text. I became a better teacher after I spent two summers studying Arabic in Muscat. Sitting in a classroom as a student, panicking when a teacher asked me a question I did not understand, studying for a test and waiting anxiously for my grade made me more understanding of my own students.

So I try to seek out new texts to read and, perhaps, use for teaching. I scan shelves in bookstores and ask friends for suggestions. Since I don’t know Spanish writers, I asked a friend who has expertise and, following her suggestions, found “Marta Alvarado, History Professor” by Marjorie Agosín and “New Clothes” by Julia Alvarez, as well as “Tula” and “Turtle Came to See Me” by Margarita Engle.

Over the past few years, I have realized that I few students are into K-pop (BTS! Blackpink! Twice! NCT!) and so I decided to dip a toe into that cultural tradition.

The easiest way to start was movies so I duly looked at “top 10 Korean movie” lists and rented The Man from Nowhere (2010). One review mentioned that it was similar to Léon: The Professional (1994) in that it involved a young girl who is taken in and protected by a hired assassin. I thought knowing the plot would help me but there were a lot of differences, making the movie both interesting and confusing. For example, the ending surprised me. At the end of Léon, the girl is re-enrolled at her boarding school and she finally plants the small tree that she has been carrying around with her, symbolizing that she is now rooted.

At the end of The Man from Nowhere, the anti-hero asks the police for one favor and he brings the young girl he has been trying to protect back to her old neighborhood, goes into a small convenience store and buys her some composition books, writing supplies and a back-pack. Then he asks her if she will be ok. She nods, they hug and then he turns to go back into the police car.

I stared at the screen in astonishment. “That’s the end?!?” I wondered. Her father left long ago, her mother died at the start of the film, the girl was kidnapped and brutally treated for weeks, and now, with a few stationary supplies, the girl is now alone and supposed to take care of herself?

Over the next few weeks, I watched a few more and was astounded by whole new levels of plotting. It often feels like I am watching several movies at one: Assassination (2015) has freedoms fighters betrayed by team members (shades of Guns of Navarone), funny but doomed killers (shades of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) and twin sisters on opposite sides of an immense cultural, educational and temperamental divide (a grown-up, super spy equivalent of the Parent Trap).

I am often bewildered as I try out comedies, historical fiction and modern thrillers such as The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008), Masquerade (2012), The Villainess (2017) and War of the Arrows (2011).

It takes a lot of concentration to understand each movie, not because of the sub-titles but the  work of trying to create new templates and figure out new tropes. How can I visually tell the difference between good guys and bad guys? Is the behavior of this woman showing that she is good or bad? Does this style of house indicate that the owners are rich, poor, old-fashioned or trend-setters? Is the meal the characters being served haute cuisine or everyday fare? Is this behavior normal or odd?

Sometimes it is good to be lost.

New essay: “Shin is for Saracen” on the Arabic alphabet website

The Arabic Alphabet: A Guided Tour – http://alifbatourguide.com/

by Michael Beard, illustrated by Houman Mortazavi

“Shin is for Saracen” – http://alifbatourguide.com/the-arabic-alphabet/shin/

excerpt:

Shîn is distinguished from Sîn by a triangle of dots over the teeth (as with Tha or Z͎ha). To my ear it makes sense that the Sh sound would be represented like an S with something added. Shîn sounds heavier, thicker, as if it utilized more of the voice-making apparatus. Arabic adds the three dots to Sin (as we add the letter H next to the letter S). 

In manuscripts of sufficient age you will also see the clearer sibilant Sîn carrying the same three-dot load, but underneath, i.e., ڛ, (no doubt to make the difference between Sîn and Shîn unmistakable). In contemporary Turkish (in Roman letters), the SH sound is represented by ş, an S with a cedilla, as in şaşmak, to be surprised, or şişlemek, to pierce to stab, or şiş, a skewer, as in şişkebap

Spring

The great Greek poet Constantine Cavafy lived in Alexandria. He knew enough Arabic to entitle one of his early poems (1890s), «Σαμ ελ Νεσíμ» (Sam el Nesîm), the name of an Egyptian spring festival. Or almost the name, since the festival is properly speaking Shamm al-nasîm, with a Shîn. You cannot blame him, as there is no SH sound in Greek.

Shamma in Arabic means to sniff or breathe in. Shamm al-Nasim means “inhaling the air,” “enjoying the air,” to greet the coming of spring. It can be traced back, before Arabic, to a word with a similar sound, in ancient Egyptian, a proper noun Shemu, the season between May and September. Shamm al-Nasîm is observed by both Christians and Muslims according to the Coptic calendar, the day after Coptic Easter. Edward Lane, writing in 1834, translates shamm al-nasim “smelling of the Z͎ephyr”: “the citizens of Cairo ride or walk a little way into the country, or go in boats, generally northwards to take the air… The greater number dine in the country or on the river” (Lane, 483). It is, Lane adds, a festival observed with persistence: “This year (1834) they were treated with a violent hot wind, accompanied by clouds of dust, instead of the neseem; but considerable numbers, notwithstanding, went out to ‘smell’ it.” 

Cavafy didn’t keep “Sam el Nesîm” in his complete works, perhaps because the premise is too simple. (It’s a poem which says this is a time of celebration, but down deep we know we’ll return to our usual grim lives soon enough. Or, more personally, “it’s their celebration, not mine.”) There are many ways to describe the grain of daily life in a culture other than ours; you can’t help but suspect that even in the most neutral descriptions there is something suspicious or demeaning. If Cavafy knew the etymology, as is likely enough, it would have been possible to make more use of the fact that the contemporary festivals traced back pre-Islamic sources. Poets (شعراء, shu‘râ’) love that.

 

shin4

New essay: “Sîn is for Zenith” on the Arabic alphabet website

The Arabic Alphabet: A Guided Tour – http://alifbatourguide.com/

by Michael Beard, illustrated by Houman Mortazavi

“Sîn is for Zenith” – http://alifbatourguide.com/the-arabic-alphabet/sin/

excerpt:

The sound of Sîn (pronounced “scene”) is the clear sibilant we represent with our letter S. The S we know is all curves. Sîn is usually more angular, a little closer to the W shape of its Phoenician ancestor. Greek Sigma comes from the same source, the W shape tipped up 90 degrees clockwise.There was a Nabatean predecessor of Sîn in the form of a bowl shape with an upright growing out of it, something like Hebrew Shin. The shape of Sîn grows out of it: two miniature half-circles resting side by side. What strikes the eye are those three short uprights, referred to as “teeth” (Sîn word sinân in Arabic, the plural of sinn). It is not my job to say what is beautiful and what isn’t, but what I’m taken by in the most elegant handwritten Sîn is a slight asymmetry: the space between the first two teeth (reading right to left) is slightly narrower than the space between the second and third.

In terminal form Sîn ends with a rounded clockwise sweep, a shape which fledgling calligraphers struggle over, the clockwise descent and return, thickening along the bottom, tapering to a point as it rises on the left. The same curve reappears in Shin, Ṣad & Ḍad.

Sîn went through a period in its evolution when it had a triangle of dots suspended below the line, to distinguish it from the letter Shîn, the next in sequence, which has three dots above. (Shîn kept them. Present-day Sîn goes commando.) A streamlined variant of Sîn, still used, was developed in interests of efficiency: it can take the form, perhaps as a visual representation of the smooth prolonged sound of sibilance, of a straight unrippled line, often descending slightly, throwing the base line down a notch and continuing at a lower level. Easiest letter ever. In the initial or medial position the line simply continues on for a bit with nothing else happening.

The source of sinn, “tooth,” is the Arabic stem S–N–N, which, as a verb, means to sharpen, mold, shape. In one form, sunna, it means, in Hans Wehr’s definition, “habitual practice, customary procedure or action, norm, usage sanctioned by tradition; al-sunna or sunnat al-nabîy, the Sunna of the Prophet (nabîy), i.e. his sayings and doings, later established as legally binding precedents…” In other words, the ahl-al-sunna are the follows of the sunna, in English “Sunnis.” It’s an admirable definition, if only because Wehr defines the etymological stream of meanings without getting excited, or lost in detail. A history book, once it has said “Sunni,” has to go into teacher’s mode, including the actors and the theology, plus the alternative, Shiism, and to describe how Shiism ended up breaking away from “Sunnism.” Today everyone knows it, or can look it up, and the history hardly seems necessary. Hans Wehr defines shî‘a, the other major branch, as “followers, adherents, disciples, faction, party, sect”; al-shî‘a, the faction of Ali, the Shiah, the Shiites (that branch of the Muslims who recognize Ali, the Prophet’s son-in-law, as the rightful successor.)” It’s all the definition you need. They’re just words, ordinary words. Neither sunna nor shî‘a occur in the Qur’ân.