Over the weekend we had lunch with Luis's family, and a conversation got me thinking about perception. One thing, that I really enjoy about teaching is we are constantly having sessions about brain research in order for us to teach in the most effective manner. I have learnt so much and I can say if a lot of this research had been around 100 years ago, half of us would be living on Mars teleporting all through the galaxy. This particular conversation got me thinking about perception, or maybe experiences is a better word. Two people can have had the same experience but come out with totally different feelings or beliefs about that experience. For instance, when I was robbed at the beach with my three friends in May, we had totally different descriptions of the man who robbed us. The police came and I was positive he had black shorts, and something over his face, others said red shorts, no mask, bald, hair, crooked teeth, fine teeth, but none of described the same man. Trauma can do funny things to your mind, we were all positive each one of us had the right description (brings into question eye witnesses). We use this sort of thought process in class, as it is amazing how different the students experiences are with the same teacher and same lesson. Some will come out raving about an amazing lesson and others will think it was a disaster. Neither student is wrong of course, their experience of the same thing is different.
ANYWAYS, this all stemmed for a conversation about crime. His family were so surprise that us foreigners feel a little fearful in Quito and that a good percentage of us had been robbed. This is probably for many reasons one possibly is that crime is under reported, a lady was robbed outside my flat on Thursday (5pm) the cops were called and they never came (this is common). Also because they know the city, where to go where not too, they look like Ecuadorians (probably as they are) and maybe therefore are not as targeted. It was just so surprising to me how we have totally different real opinions and experiences about the state of crime here. And also a good reminder of how different people can see the same thing or event.
It was a lovely lunch as usual, they always have a delicious spread. I really need to work on my Spanish, but must say my understanding is coming along, slowly slowly, but coming along.
ANYWAYS, this all stemmed for a conversation about crime. His family were so surprise that us foreigners feel a little fearful in Quito and that a good percentage of us had been robbed. This is probably for many reasons one possibly is that crime is under reported, a lady was robbed outside my flat on Thursday (5pm) the cops were called and they never came (this is common). Also because they know the city, where to go where not too, they look like Ecuadorians (probably as they are) and maybe therefore are not as targeted. It was just so surprising to me how we have totally different real opinions and experiences about the state of crime here. And also a good reminder of how different people can see the same thing or event.
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