Post 1

There are many issues of culture that Hessler, an American teacher, talks about in the first 25 pages of River Town. In some instances, he does not really understand why the Fuling people do the things they do. A good example of a certain thing they did would be the constant pampering from the school in the beginning of their two years of teaching. They buy Adam, another American teacher, and Hessler a phone when it is not needed and they buy Adam a washing machine when he could just use Hessler’s. It might be because Fuling staff of the school are trying to make Adam and Hessler feel comfortable. However, for Adam and Hessler it is uncomfortable when people buy them expensive things when they can’t give anything in return. Adam and Hessler at one point try really hard to convince them that they don’t need them to buy tennis.

Another good example is that Hesssler doesn’t really understand why the students do these routines every morning.  After reading from one of his student’s journals he was able to understand the importance of the military routines they do. That routine “makes them (the students) understand that it is not easy to obtain our present life (16)”. A lot of these journal entries from the students help Adam and Hessler understand the issues of culture that they accidentally put themselves into. Some examples of these issues would be the way Adam and Hessler casually dress for class or a comment on someone’s freckles that might be interpreted as an insult. However, known of the mistakes they make are taken to heart since they are foreigners and don’t really understand Fuling’s culture.