I mentioned in an earlier post how reading doesn’t seem to very popular here. I recently gave one of my classes a writing assignment where they had to describe their favorite story or book. Predictably, 4 out of the 14 said the Qur’an. That’s fine, if you’re in a religion based around a book, that book should be important to you. Another three wrote about how they don’t like to read. I then asked my other class to tell me what their favorite story is. 4 out of the 12 could not give me a single title, in English or Arabic. They were all women incidentally… We’re talking about people that have graduated from high school and are at least 20 years old. One of my friends pointed out that I would be saddened by a similar poll in the US. I don’t doubt that, but I’m positive that if we asked Americans what their favorite story is, we would have a far greater percentage of people responding with an answer. I am now trying to emphasize how important reading is to my students. I figure that even if the ones that don’t read now don’t start, at least the ones that do will make sure their kids do…
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