Memoirs of a Saudi Ph.D. student: The biggest culture shock

When saudis travel abroad especially to Europe and the US, they talk about “culture shock.” Usually when we hear that phrase, various images come to mind. We visualize strict queues where no one dares to take your turn by pretending they did not see you. We also visualize streets without reckless drivers, where traffic moves smoothly and where people actually abide by traffic laws, and so on and so forth.
Personally, I have gotten over that stuff, and those matters don’t attract my attention anymore. They have queues in the West? So what! We don’t, but it’s no big deal — we’ll get the hang of standing in line – eventually. Traffic laws? Boring! Where’s the sense of adventure?
However, what I will never get used to, is dealing informally with professors at University. For example, while I was doing my Masters degree at Lancaster University in 2008/09, and I met the program director for the first time, he smiled at me and introduced himself to me in a very polite and humble way “Hi I am Niall Hayes, you can call me Niall.” I was in a complete shock! Is he serious? Is he really a professor?? He must be joking! Professors never smile, and even if they did, it must be with a sardonic twist. You have to call them Doctor or Professor and if by mistake you called them Mr. or Mrs. you will be given a withering look that may strip you of your dignity.
Well, I starred at him in shock and I said, “Hi Mr. Niall, I am Hatoon.” He smiled at me again and said: “please either call me Niall or Mr. Hayes, but the latter is too formal, I prefer Niall.” As a Saudi this was new to me, so needless to say, I decided to avoid calling him anything altogether and I thanked God that he only lectured us once a week! So I planned to find another strategy on how to address him: I will sit in the front row and if I needed to say something or ask him anything, I will just raise my hand and that’s it; for I will never do the totally disrespectful thing of calling a professor by his first name. However, that was not the end of story. During the induction weeks, I discovered that all professors there were weird; yes, they all preferred to be called by their first names, how strange! How come they don’t enjoy being called Doctor or Professors? Never mind, I will try to get myself used to it and try my best to avoid adressing them, and if I need to send e-mails, I will never write “Dear Niall”, I will write “Dear Dr. Hayes” and be on the safe side. Again, that was not the end of the story. Something else completely shocked me: professors here are not only informal; they actually accept criticism from students and that killed me! Whaaat? Criticism from a worthless student? (You see I was raised in the Saudi educational system, where we never could have expressed opinions nor have we ever argued with educators, this was too much for me). At first I thought I had misunderstood, or that they might be fooling us. Maybe they want us to present our ideas so they can make fun of us later on, (conspiracy theories were one of my obsessions), so I decided to be brave, went to the program director and asked with a puzzled and confused look on my face, “Mr. Niall, is it really possible to argue with professors? I, the young student, and who has come here to be taught by highly educated and respected professors like you, and who has very little knowledge — can actually criticize professors? How come?”
He looked at me with an understanding smile and replied, “first of all, I am Niall, and to answer your question, yes, you can argue and criticize if you are sure you can support your idea from accredited sources. I understand where you come from; we face this issue with students who come from Arab countries and from the Far East and India. We understand that the educational system there is quite different.” Surprisingly, he was too polite to criticize our educational system and of course I did not comment. I was happy enough to get ready to argue and criticize, yaaay! I can actually discuss issues, now that’s exciting! No more textbooks and no more memorizing, I believed my Master year was going to be amazing.
And yes, I spent an amazing year studying there, but it was one of the hardest and most challenging years in my life. I thought critical writing and discussions are easy, but that was naive wishful thinking. I still remember the long nights spent at the library and lengthy discussion groups, but I consider that the skills I have acquired during that year alone, was worth 16 years spent in our educational system.
However, keep in mind that matters are not always that bright and cheerful here in the British educational system, and not all professors are nice, professional and objective. I myself went through a very challenging experience with my previous PhD supervisor, but I will tell you about it next time, so stay tuned!

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