I was just given my Culture Sensitivity List for this semester’s class…
Basically, if you’re considering teaching in Riyadh, prepare to get creative!
Here are the topics you must either avoid, or proceed with caution:
1) Adopted children and children conceived out of wedlock
2) Alcoholic drinks and intoxicating drinks
3) Birthdays
4) Blended family concepts (e.g. a step-brother/ step-sister living together)
5) Boyfriends or girlfriends
6) Celebrities: actors, actresses, musicians, dancers, etc.
7) Christmas
8) Concerts
9) Dating
10) Dramas
11) Drinking alcohol
12) Drugs and drug abuse
13) Devil and demons
14) Euthanasia
15) Eating pork
16) Fashion
17) Film-making
–turning page–
18) HIV or AIDS
19) Holidays outside the two Islamic holidays
20) Homosexuality
21) Love stories, being in love, falling in love, love at first sight, soulmates
22) Magic, magicians
23) Mental situations, mental diseases, etc.
24) Mixed gender situations (men and women working together, socializing, etc.)
25) Movies: only when talking about a particular movie or when the word movies is used to refer to the cinema
26) Moving out (not living with the family in the same house) at the age of 18
27) Music, musical instruments
28) Neuroticism
29) Partner relationships (unmarried couples)
30) People not dressed properly, e.g. wearing shorts (men or women)
31) Plastic surgeries, physical appearance changes
32) Political topics, elections, etc
33) Professional dancing and dancers
34) Psychologists or psychiatrists
35) Religion
36) Sculpture (human/animal faces)
37) Singing
38) Sexually transmitted diseases
39) Spirits and witchcraft
40) Social networking
41) Superpowers or superheroes
42) Superstitions: beliefs not based on facts/scientific knowledge (crossing fingers for good luck, the number 13, walking under ladders)
43) Theatre
44) TV shows or programs that discuss inappropriate themes like music, dancing, (American Idol, So you think you can dance, etc)
45) Tobacco and smoking
46) Women driving
**Scratching my lesson plan, before today’s class**
