Today I held a session on interviewing at Halima's office with teachers of English and then we went to an organization called Intelligent Citizens where I spoke to college students about my school. After my presentation there, student visitors presented information about study abroad opportunities. Our last stop was back at Halima's office where I met with some of her newsletter students. While I discussed interviewing techniques with them, one of the students said she would like to be thought of as humble. This made me think about how we view that quality in the U.S. Do we value the concept of humble? (I am sorry to say the first image that came to my head was Donald Trump.) No, we do not value being humble. We like to be the best, to be the winners, to be "No. 1." We like confidence, and, to an extent, bragging. This made for a very interesting cultural discussion. There is a certain connection to the idea of moving up in the world, to competing, and to voting in a Democracy -- and to boasting. This thought was humbling, indeed.
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