Today, in class, we spoke about romantic love. Every single student had a story to tell. It was so interesting to see how love and relationships are perceived by people who come from different walks of life and various parts of the world. Because of the different cultural backgrounds, every story was closely linked with tradition.
In Lebanon and North Africa, a girl would never have sex with her boyfriend before marriage. If she does, the whole community starts gossiping and she surely becomes an outcast. (It's funny how, still today, it is more scandalous for a girl to sleep around than for a man). In Latin America, sleeping around is not that common, but couples do have sex before getting married.
People who grew up here in Canada, on the other hand, find it natural to have one-night stands, to live with someone and even have kids without being married. One of my Haitian student made us laugh when she told us about the first time she went out to dance at a Club after immigrating to Canada. She had been dancing all night, just having wonderful time. Through the night, she kept exchanging glances with a good looking man. At the end of the evening, he went up to her and asked her: "Your place or mine?". She didn't understand what he meant. When she found out, she was shocked. How could he have thought she wanted to sleep with him?
As we were talking, I realized that every student in the class was truly involved in the conversation. Romantic love and relationships are universal topics. People suffer broken hearts in all corners of the world and everyone is ultimately looking for love, hoping to share their life with someone and increase their happiness.
I walked in class, ready to work on the present perfect progressive. In the end, I spent three hours animating a discussion on love and relationships, listening to funny and captivating stories. We laughed a lot. Relationship anecdotes can really be hilarious, that's why most comedians use them in their shows. As I came out of class, I had a smile on my face. I truly have the best job in the world.
2 comments:
romantic love, I really thought that the subject was about love, but at the end of the story I realized that it was about sex....
Love???? what's love excluding sex???
It is true that whenever romantic love comes up, people often start talking about sex to add humor. Love is such a complex notion. Love is often selfish... and then, can we really call it love. I believe that true love is something that ought to be given unselfishly, generously, unconditionally.
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