Yesterday two of the classes prepared cultural presentations. The students came dressed in traditional clothes and talked about local customs, food, and historical sites (all in English, by the way), and sang traditional songs. It was pretty amazing, especially since they put it together on their own initiative and on their own time.
As I was watching I kept trying, and failing, to imagine American students doing something similar. It's not that American students lack volition or hospitality, what stumped me was our lack of common culture. The closest I could envision was a presentation on different ethnic origins, but that kind of begs the question since that would entail other country's cultures.
What is American culture? As a nation we can be quite self-righteous, but as a country we are very young with nothing like Morocco's thousands of years of history. We don't really have regional costumes or even a national cuisine (grilled hamburgers?).
As a nation we are diverse, but I wonder if the down-side of the melting pot is a certain cultural homogeneity. And Morocco, which I originally thought of as a sort of mono-culture, continuously reveals layers of richness and diversity of which Moroccan's are very proud.
Here's a clip, see what you think we have to offer in comparison.
VIDEO