Hello New Readers in UAE!

Welcome to my personal blog. I wish I had known it was going to have new readers who are unfamiliar with the author and his writing style, so I could have provided some background information beforehand. But better late then never, so here goes...As part of my advanced writing class in the Spring of 2008, I required students to post comments in response to our often controversial class readings, films and discussions to our academic blog - http://www.cesltalk.blogspot.com/. At the end of the class, which used the book American Ways, 2nd Ed (Althen, 2002), when I told the students that I would soon be leaving for Spain, all of them laughed and teased, "Now, Robert, YOU can experience what WE have gone through as foreigners in YOUR country!" One student suggested writing a new blog, so they could read about my awkward moments in a new land. I had also taught these students that certain writing styles are required for certain audiences. This blog, whose primary purpose was to entertain, is a written version of the Italian-American oral narrative style (see Coté, 2005; Falassi, 1980; Gardaphé, 1996; Malpezzi & Clemens, 1992; Moramarco & Moramarco, 2000). I was "telling" stories of my experiences as an outsider in a new culture. Of course, there was some embellishment, but all of the stories are true. More importantly, they were written to show my students that even their teacher, who is well-traveled and in an inter-cultural, dual-language marriage, was living exactly the same mistakes, embarassments, and social faux-pas that they all new so well. As I told them time and time again in class, this is the risk we all take when we leave the comfort zone of our homeland. Too often, my international students become so self-conscious of their "foreign-ness" that they withdraw from the host society, sacrificing both their linguistic and cultural development, the entire reason they went abroad in the first place. So my hidden agenda was to show my vulnerabilities as a foreigner to the students so that they know it is OK to say and do "stupid" things, and see these actions as funny, not cause for embarassment. If we can't laugh at ourselves, who can we laugh at? I just hope some of the stories did not offend anyone. I cleaned up the language and deleted two that were, perhaps, not appropriate. In any event, I invite you to say hi, comment, respond to this or any of the posts, and most importantly, Welcome to my world!
Sincerely,
Robert