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Recently, I’ve found myself nearly overwhelmed by the sudden urge to run away to the Middle East and go totally and irrevocably native.\u00a0 It may pass, but I still want to go back there–really bad.<\/p>\nRecently, I’ve found myself nearly overwhelmed by the sudden urge to run away to the Middle East and go totally and irrevocably native.\u00a0 It may pass, but I still want to go back there–really bad.<\/p>\n
So I looked up BYU’s TESOL certification program, and figured I could apply in January, start fall of ’11, and be on my way to an Arabian adventure in ’12.<\/p>\n
Or…I could bypass the whole certification thing altogether, but I’d probably get a crappier job.\u00a0 Besides, the certification could lead to other things, like perhaps an actual stable day job.\u00a0 Who knows?<\/p>\n
Regardless, I should probably find some way to actually use my Arabic degree.\u00a0 After all, why did I get it in the first place?\u00a0 Better put it to use!<\/p>\n
So why am I tripping out on Middle East stuff?\u00a0 Interestingly enough, I think it has a lot to do with the current novel I’m writing, Worlds Away from Home.<\/em> I started it in fall ’08, just after getting back from BYU’s 2008 Jordan study abroad program, and the influence is definitely very visible.<\/p>\n Sometimes it makes me cringe a little, though; the fictional culture is patterned after my understanding of and experiences with Arab culture, but…it’s very pseudo Arab, if that make sense.\u00a0 Kind of like it looks Arab, but it feels more Western.\u00a0 I don’t know–I guess what I’m saying is that it’s bad (or maybe I just think that because I’m in the middle of the rough draft, when everything I write is utter and absolute crap.\u00a0 Blegh).<\/p>\n But the thing is, if I try to make the culture truly foreign, I’m worried it will be more of a barrier to the reader than a gateway.\u00a0 In other words, it’s the classic science fiction problem of aliens: the more you succeed in making your aliens truly alien, the harder it is for the reader to understand or sympathize with them.<\/p>\n But then again, isn’t that why we read?\u00a0 To be transported to different times and places, experience other people and cultures, and be exposed to new ideas?\u00a0 To expand our minds and enrich our understanding?\u00a0 If that’s the case, there’s got to be something good and healthy about immersing the reader in a totally foreign culture.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, that doesn’t make it any easier.<\/p>\n Oh well.\u00a0 I’m up for the challenge.\u00a0 In the meantime, I’ll keep reading T. E. Lawrence’s The Seven Pillars of Wisdom<\/em> and continuously loop all my Arab pop.\u00a0 Not familiar with Arabic music?\u00a0 Here’s a really good one:<\/p>\n Track 5<\/a><\/p>\n (ps: I’d tell you who wrote\/performs the song, but frankly I have no idea.\u00a0 Unfortunately, copyright doesn’t really exist in the Middle East.\u00a0 Oh well.\u00a0 Enjoy!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recently, I’ve found myself nearly overwhelmed by the sudden urge to run away to the Middle East and go totally and irrevocably native.\u00a0 It may pass, but I still want to go back there–really bad. So I looked up BYU’s TESOL certification program, and figured I could apply in January, start fall of ’11, and… Continue reading Take me to Arabia<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[44],"tags":[213,89,364,418,42,259,150,8,149,232,312],"class_list":["post-2220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ds","tag-aliens","tag-career-decisions","tag-culture","tag-day-job","tag-frustrations","tag-just-for-fun","tag-music","tag-writing-in-general","tag-the-middle-east","tag-why-we-write","tag-work","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-zO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2220"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2229,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2220\/revisions\/2229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}