Aleqab 1 Mees Aleqab English 113B Rebecca Lawson 29th September 2013 The Impact of Culture on Education Nowadays the opportunity to get a valuable education is an important issue in people's life studies. However, whether you are disabled, normal or having a limited language, everyone should get the opportunity in having a valuable education. In addition, we all know that without education, a person will not get the chance to live a proper life that will suit him in living a good life and finding a better future job to support his needs. Therefore, people with disabilities should live a normal life as a normal person and that is usually depends on their culture. Therefore, the way a culture behaves and responds to people with disabilities can have a huge impact on their ability to gain a valuable education. I will discuss the differences between the ways American society and Kuwaiti society responded to disabilities such as deafness, limited language, and blindness. The more Kuwaiti and American culture shows respect and appreciation, the more people with hearing impaired feel comfortable and earn an education easily. Since I was studying in Kuwait high school, I had never seen disabilities such as hearing impaired student. Somehow, later I figured that Kuwaiti culture offers a special deafness high school and it is a private school where all students with disability studies together. I was wondering why they were having their own school and could not get the opportunity to study with us as any normal student in public high school. In addition, the way Kuwaiti culture offers a private school for the hearing impaired student is actually not a good idea, which I completely disagree with. From my own perspective, this because it will let normal people feel that they are different than the hearing impaired students and that is the way I felt from the beginning, until I meet my friend Talya who lives in the United State. She was a senior who soon graduate from high school, she was talking about her deaf friend who was studying with her, and how they were in a good relationship. Actually, I was shocked the way Talya talked about her friend who was hearing impaired maybe because in my home country I have never gotten the chance to meet people with disabilities such as Talya's friend. Moreover, Talya has changed my mind about disabled people and suddenly let me reconsider their situation. Moreover, I like the way of United States culture and how people in society deal with hearing impaired people in a respectful and a behavioral way. In addition, I think that the American society has given the chance for disabled people to feel comfortable to study with others as normal people, which will not let them feel different and can help both normal and disabled people in education for example, they can exchange ideas and opinions about their life studies which could help improve both sides education. Language is one of the important aspects of one's li.

1. Aleqab 1
Mees Aleqab
English 113B
Rebecca Lawson
29th September 2013
The Impact of Culture on Education
Nowadays the opportunity to get a valuable education is an
important issue in people's life studies. However, whether you
are disabled, normal or having a limited language, everyone
should get the opportunity in having a valuable education. In
addition, we all know that without education, a person will not
get the chance to live a proper life that will suit him in living a
good life and finding a better future job to support his needs.
Therefore, people with disabilities should live a normal life as a
normal person and that is usually depends on their culture.
Therefore, the way a culture behaves and responds to people
with disabilities can have a huge impact on their ability to gain
a valuable education. I will discuss the differences between the
ways American society and Kuwaiti society responded to
disabilities such as deafness, limited language, and blindness.
The more Kuwaiti and American culture shows respect and
appreciation, the more people with hearing impaired feel
comfortable and earn an education easily. Since I was studying
in Kuwait high school, I had never seen disabilities such as
hearing impaired student. Somehow, later I figured that Kuwaiti
culture offers a special deafness high school and it is a private
school where all students with disability studies together. I was
wondering why they were having their own school and could not
get the opportunity to study with us as any normal student in
public high school. In addition, the way Kuwaiti culture offers a

2. private school for the hearing impaired student is actually not a
good idea, which I completely disagree with. From my own
perspective, this because it will let normal people feel that they
are different than the hearing impaired students and that is the
way I felt from the beginning, until I meet my friend Talya who
lives in the United State. She was a senior who soon graduate
from high school, she was talking about her deaf friend who was
studying with her, and how they were in a good relationship.
Actually, I was shocked the way Talya talked about her friend
who was hearing impaired maybe because in my home country I
have never gotten the chance to meet people with disabilities
such as Talya's friend. Moreover, Talya has changed my mind
about disabled people and suddenly let me reconsider their
situation. Moreover, I like the way of United States culture and
how people in society deal with hearing impaired people in a
respectful and a behavioral way. In addition, I think that the
American society has given the chance for disabled people to
feel comfortable to study with others as normal people, which
will not let them feel different and can help both normal and
disabled people in education for example, they can exchange
ideas and opinions about their life studies which could help
improve both sides education.
Language is one of the important aspects of one's life, therefore
Kuwaiti and American society has to deal with people who do
not have the opportunity to get a higher education in their
language skill in order to push them forward toward their life
studies. For instance, in the Article "Mother Tongue", Tan
illustrates how her mother was suffering from her limited
language and how people treated her. We can see that when Tan
mentioned that the people "at banks, and at restaurants did not
take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not
to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her"
(257). This shows us how people can treat those who do not
have the opportunity to have an excellent language in an
impolite way that might make them feel unexpected in their
society. Also, it will not only make them unfortunately feel

3. disappointed but will not motivate them to study and improve
their language skills. I disagree with people who treated Tan's
mother while she was trying to communicate with them and
express her needs. From my own personal experience, when I
used to study in Boulder, Colorado at the International English
Center, I noticed that some people in class usually laughed at
the Chinese and Japanese who were coming to study English
and that is because of their limited English language.
Back then, I used to have a Chinese classmate who left the class
because of those students who laughed at her; therefore, she was
not having a motivation for people to complete her study and to
improve her language skill, which affects her education. The
difference between Kuwaiti and the United State society dealing
with peoples such as Tan's mother and my Chinese classmate is
that Kuwait gains people who have a limited language with
motivation so that they can feel that they are accepted in their
culture and they are free to participate in their society.
In addition, Kuwait offers a special school for those who need
help to improve their language and it doesn't matter whether
their old age or citizens from other countries. On the other
hand, some people do not have the opportunity to get a chance
to attend school and get a valuable education, and improve their
language. In fact, it was not a big deal for them for example, I
was with my mother in the mall back then in Kuwait, and I saw
a woman in the restaurant. She was trying to talk with the server
and express her need and the server was trying to understand
what she wants add to that he was so helpful to her, which is
opposite to way, that Tan's mother got treat. This can show that
even though people with limited language does not have the
chance to improve their language skill, dealing with people in
their society can help them to gain language.
In my opinion, Kuwaiti society has gained those people the
feeling of being as normal and got their need as everyone else
in the country. This shows culture respect and behaviors for one
with limited language and without culture appreciation those
people will never get the chance to feel free to express their

4. needs or even to feel comfortable, get accepted in their society
and help them to succeed with their education. However, the
more they talk to others in society the more they will gain
language and get the chance to let their limited English to grow
and improve.
Visually impaired has their own life and the way of
communication with each other, and culture as Kuwaiti and
American has to deal with those people. In Kuwait I used to see
in malls, cafes, and gardens blind people with others who might
be their friends or relatives or family helping and guiding them
around. Since I was born until I graduated from high school, I
did not know that visually impaired people have their own
language. Later on, my personal experience in the United State
has changed my mind about them. One of those incidents was
when I was standing with people and we were waiting for the
traffic light to light so we could cross the street and I was
heading to the university then I saw a visually impaired man
alone was holding a long stick. He wanted to cross the street
and I was wondering how he could do this if he could not see
the traffic light. Suddenly, the traffic light made a sound. At
first. I didn’t know why it made that sound, but then I found out
that it was built that way especially for visually impaired people
to help them navigate through the streets by hearing that sound
and by following it. Also, in my complex's hallway I saw an
unfamiliar shape written on my door where the apartment's
number is. However, I asked the office of the building about it
and they told me that it is Braille language, written for those
who are visually impaired. The difference between both
American and Kuwaiti society is that American society has let
those people walk individually which will give them more self-
dependence in their life and that shows the culture respect and
behaves toward people with visually impaired which will help
them reach success in their education.
In conclusion, behaviors and respectfulness are very important
aspects of culture and society. Somehow, it does not only
improves and motivates people's studies, but also provides

5. success in both Kuwaiti and American societies. For instance,
those manners in both Kuwaiti and United State culture can
show other people from different countries how they see that
even though you have a disability it doesn't mean that the world
is going to end or you don't have a goal in life, but by helping
them and motivating them, they could get over these thoughts
and live a happy normal life, just like normal people. Also, it
will help other societies and open their eyes more about these
people and could help build a better developed country with an
amazing culture and society, which will help these people
achieve their dreams and reach successes after having a better
education. Also, it might let other society and countries get
benefits from these learnings, get new ideas, and opinions that
can help visually impaired, hearing impaired and those who
have a limited language to gain a valuable education in different
cultures.
Work Cited
Tan, Amy. "Mother Tongue". Models for writers: Brief Essays
for Composition. Rosa, Alfred and Paul Eschholx. Boston and
New York: Bedford/St, Matin's, 2012.254-
261.Print.