The Great Debate

                Today I listened to an argument between an English teacher and one of his students over a research paper that he had assigned. The argument lasted almost twenty minutes and was quite interesting actually now that I think of it. At the time I don’t think I was awake enough to care or give my opinion, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to do so now as my assignment.

                The teacher had assigned a research paper and said we could choose our own topics. This particular student wanted to write about how the Albanian and American cultures clash when it comes to being in a relationship with one another. She is currently in a relationship with an Albanian man which is what sparked her interest in writing about this topic. As one of her sources she wanted to interview an Albanian but the teacher didn’t find this a credible source and told her that. This student disagreed with his opinion and decided to talk to him about it after class.

                I believe that both the teacher and the student had valid points in this debate. The student argued that the Albanian knows his culture and the morals and values of Albanians. She argued that they are all alike because there country was communist for over fifty years so they didn’t have much of a choice. They weren’t allowed to be different, they all shared the same values and morals or they were shunned. The teacher argued that one Albanian can’t speak for the whole country and that what he said would be just an opinion. He said that just because he’s Albanian doesn’t mean he’s an expert on Albanian culture. He made the statement, “Just because you are in this English class doesn’t make you an English professional” to try to put things into perspective. He also made a point that just because this one Albanian says something, doesn’t make it true about the whole culture. The student stood her ground and wasn’t changing her mind and neither was the teacher. The result of the argument was that the student could use the interview with the Albanian as a soft source as long as she could find a hard source to back up what he had said.

                I see where both parties in this argument were coming from. I myself have dated an Albanian for almost three years and I understand exactly what she is saying. Most Albanian’s seem to have the same morals and values when it comes to a relationship because that’s just how they were brought up and think that there way is the correct way to do things but it’s not fair to say all Albanians are the same, and it is most definitely not a fact so that is where I agree with the teacher. I believe that the outcome of the argument turned out the way it should have. The student can still interview the Albanian without being stereotypical.