Alina Rosenkranz |
Flooded apartments, spicy food and breathtaking views of India’s highest waterfalls might not be included on the average English professor’s agenda, but those are a few of the experiences UP’s Molly Hiro and Lars Larson have had while teaching in India.
Hiro and Larson are on sabbatical, teaching in Mysore, India, through a Fulbright grant. They are spending five months abroad with their two daughters.
Hiro and Larson’s teaching experiences differ from what they are used to at UP. The classes are mainly based on final exams and students have automatic respect for authority – they rise to stand when a teacher enters the classroom and call them “ma’am” or “sir.”
And differences go beyond the classroom. Today, 90 percent of marriages in India are still arranged by parents, according to Hiro.
“Our aim is it to use this semester-long disruption to become humanists more than Americanists,” Hiro said.
When traveling to a country like India, culture shock is a given. When something seems wrong to Larson and Hiro, they try to understand why so many people think it is right.
“So, like humble sponges at the bottom of a bay, we’ve tried to soak in our surroundings,” Hiro said. “That means staying open to the differences, no matter how strange.”
Some traditions have to be kept, though. Thousands of miles away from home, they still celebrated Halloween last month – with some Indian flavor added. The children’s grandparents came to visit for a few days and they had a party , which involved trick-or-treating in traditional Indian dresses, carved pumpkins and pineapples.
Students and professors say the department is not the same in their absence. Genevieve Brassard, chair of the English department, worked with Hiro as she prepared to assume Hiro’s position as chair of the English department.
“They are both wonderful, hard working, indispensable members of our department,” Brassard said. “We miss them.”
Senior Athena Lathos, an English and Spanish major who has taken classes from both Hiro and Larson, agrees that the English department misses them both.
“We call them the Beyonce and Jay-Z of the English department,” Lathos said.
To fully enjoy their five months in India, Hiro and Larson try not to focus on missing home too much. There are enough distractions, like India’s highest waterfall, Jog Falls, and one of India’s most famous temples, Sri Meenakshi.
“But we certainly look forward to Portland’s libraries and bookstores, clean and honk-free streets,” Hiro said, “and pubs for greasy grub, and microbrews, when we return.”
Alina Rosenkranz is a reporter for The Beacon. She can be reached at rosenkra17@up.edu.
