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English 113B

Rebecca Lawson

29th September 2013

The Impact of Culture on Education

Nowadays the opportunity to get a valuable education is an important issue in people's life studies. However, whether you are disabled, normal or having a limited language, everyone should get the opportunity in having a valuable education. In addition, we all know that without education, a person will not get the chance to live a proper life that will suit him in living a good life and finding a better future job to support his needs. Therefore, people with disabilities should live a normal life as a normal person and that is usually depends on their culture. Therefore, the way a culture behaves and responds to people with disabilities can have a huge impact on their ability to gain a valuable education. I will discuss the differences between the ways American society and Kuwaiti society responded to disabilities such as deafness, limited language, and blindness.

The more Kuwaiti and American culture shows respect and appreciation, the more people with hearing impaired feel comfortable and earn an education easily. Since I was studying in Kuwait high school, I had never seen disabilities such as hearing impaired student. Somehow, later I figured that Kuwaiti culture offers a special deafness high school and it is a private school where all students with disability studies together. I was wondering why they were having their own school and could not get the opportunity to study with us as any normal student in public high school. In addition, the way Kuwaiti culture offers a private school for the hearing impaired student is actually not a good idea, which I completely disagree with. From my own perspective, this because it will let normal people feel that they are different than the hearing impaired students and that is the way I felt from the beginning, until I meet my friend Talya who lives in the United State. She was a senior who soon graduate from high school, she was talking about her deaf friend who was studying with her, and how they were in a good relationship. Actually, I was shocked the way Talya talked about her friend who was hearing impaired maybe because in my home country I have never gotten the chance to meet people with disabilities such as Talya's friend. Moreover, Talya has changed my mind about disabled people and suddenly let me reconsider their situation. Moreover, I like the way of United States culture and how people in society deal with hearing impaired people in a respectful and a behavioral way. In addition, I think that the American society has given the chance for disabled people to feel comfortable to study with others as normal people, which will not let them feel different and can help both normal and disabled people in education for example, they can exchange ideas and opinions about their life studies which could help improve both sides education.

Language is one of the important aspects of one's life, therefore Kuwaiti and American society has to deal with people who do not have the opportunity to get a higher education in their language skill in order to push them forward toward their life studies. For instance, in the Article "Mother Tongue", Tan illustrates how her mother was suffering from her limited language and how people treated her. We can see that when Tan mentioned that the people "at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her" (257). This shows us how people can treat those who do not have the opportunity to have an excellent language in an impolite way that might make them feel unexpected in their society. Also, it will not only make them unfortunately feel disappointed but will not motivate them to study and improve their language skills. I disagree with people who treated Tan's mother while she was trying to communicate with them and express her needs. From my own personal experience, when I used to study in Boulder, Colorado at the International English Center, I noticed that some people in class usually laughed at the Chinese and Japanese who were coming to study English and that is because of their limited English language.

Back then, I used to have a Chinese classmate who left the class because of those students who laughed at her; therefore, she was not having a motivation for people to complete her study and to improve her language skill, which affects her education. The difference between Kuwaiti and the United State society dealing with peoples such as Tan's mother and my Chinese classmate is that Kuwait gains people who have a limited language with motivation so that they can feel that they are accepted in their culture and they are free to participate in their society.

In addition, Kuwait offers a special school for those who need help to improve their language and it doesn't matter whether their old age or citizens from other countries. On the other hand, some people do not have the opportunity to get a chance to attend school and get a valuable education, and improve their language. In fact, it was not a big deal for them for example, I was with my mother in the mall back then in Kuwait, and I saw a woman in the restaurant. She was trying to talk with the server and express her need and the server was trying to understand what she wants add to that he was so helpful to her, which is opposite to way, that Tan's mother got treat. This can show that even though people with limited language does not have the chance to improve their language skill, dealing with people in their society can help them to gain language.

In my opinion, Kuwaiti society has gained those people the feeling of being as normal and got their need as everyone else in the country. This shows culture respect and behaviors for one with limited language and without culture appreciation those people will never get the chance to feel free to express their needs or even to feel comfortable, get accepted in their society and help them to succeed with their education. However, the more they talk to others in society the more they will gain language and get the chance to let their limited English to grow and improve.

Visually impaired has their own life and the way of communication with each other, and culture as Kuwaiti and American has to deal with those people. In Kuwait I used to see in malls, cafes, and gardens blind people with others who might be their friends or relatives or family helping and guiding them around. Since I was born until I graduated from high school, I did not know that visually impaired people have their own language. Later on, my personal experience in the United State has changed my mind about them. One of those incidents was when I was standing with people and we were waiting for the traffic light to light so we could cross the street and I was heading to the university then I saw a visually impaired man alone was holding a long stick. He wanted to cross the street and I was wondering how he could do this if he could not see the traffic light. Suddenly, the traffic light made a sound. At first. I didn’t know why it made that sound, but then I found out that it was built that way especially for visually impaired people to help them navigate through the streets by hearing that sound and by following it. Also, in my complex's hallway I saw an unfamiliar shape written on my door where the apartment's number is. However, I asked the office of the building about it and they told me that it is Braille language, written for those who are visually impaired. The difference between both American and Kuwaiti society is that American society has let those people walk individually which will give them more self-dependence in their life and that shows the culture respect and behaves toward people with visually impaired which will help them reach success in their education.

In conclusion, behaviors and respectfulness are very important aspects of culture and society. Somehow, it does not only improves and motivates people's studies, but also provides success in both Kuwaiti and American societies. For instance, those manners in both Kuwaiti and United State culture can show other people from different countries how they see that even though you have a disability it doesn't mean that the world is going to end or you don't have a goal in life, but by helping them and motivating them, they could get over these thoughts and live a happy normal life, just like normal people. Also, it will help other societies and open their eyes more about these people and could help build a better developed country with an amazing culture and society, which will help these people achieve their dreams and reach successes after having a better education. Also, it might let other society and countries get benefits from these learnings, get new ideas, and opinions that can help visually impaired, hearing impaired and those who have a limited language to gain a valuable education in different cultures.

Work Cited

Tan, Amy. "Mother Tongue". Models for writers: Brief Essays for Composition. Rosa, Alfred and Paul Eschholx. Boston and New York: Bedford/St, Matin's, 2012.254-261.Print.