Selling tea in Osh. Image by Flickr user eatswords (CC-usage).

Everyone knows the proverb, “When in Rome do as Romans do”. It means to show respect to the culture and traditions of a society in which one arrives as a guest. And Stephen Scott, the president of CICA (Cornerstone Institute in Central Asia) in Osh, who has been living here for two and a half years, lives by this proverb.

Q: Mr.Scott. What country are you from and how long have you been living here?

A:I am from Canada. But I lived in the US for four years, and here we have already been living for 2,5 years.

Q: Tell us something about your family, job?

A: Well, my wife is American and we have four children. I am president of CICA in Osh.

Q: Did you have a culture shock and what was mostly impressed you when you firstly arrived?

A: Of course I had a culture shock. Everything was different: people, culture. The thing that made a great impression on me was people’s hospitality. They were so kind and understandable. When I lived in Azerbaijani, I noticed that the life there is more Arabic. But here life is more Asian. Even when people wear European clothes they are religious and more traditional.

Q: Did you know one of the local languages before coming why did you choose an Uzbek language? Who thought you?

A: No, I did not know. But I knew some Azerbaijani. That is why it was easy to me to understand Uzbek. And that is why I started to learn it. Actually the best way of learning a language is socialize with native speakers. My tutor was Munojat, who taught me during one term.

Q: What topic did you learn first? Did you find it difficult to socialize in Uzbek?

A: When we arrived in November, it was too cold – 15 degrees. We did not have any heat or food. So the most important thing for me was to feed my family. And to socialize in Uzbek was not difficult at all. You know when you are immersed in the culture it is much more easy to learn the language. And people are understand my problems and help me a lot.

Q: What kind of situation did you have on your first days I Osh when you had not learnt anything?

A: Well, others might tell more funny stories about me. I do not know, I always worry that I can offend people with my rude Uzbek. But as I have mentioned people are understanding.

Q: What language do you want to learn? Maybe Kyrgyz or Russian?

A: Of course I want to learn both of them and I have already bought a dictionary. I am afraid “oruschaga akilim jetpeit”. But my job requires me to speak some Russian because of a lot of paper work. But I want to learn a Kyrgyz, too.

Q: Do you agree with a proverb “When in Rome do as Romans do”? And what proverb do you know in Uzbek?

A: Yes, I agree with it.  We are just guests here, and so our task is to be just a good guest. My favorite [Uzbek proverb] is: “Besh manja ten emes”. I use it every day.

Editor’s note: Cross-posted with the Oshington Post. To learn more about Osh’s only English language newspaper, read Maksud’s earlier coverage (ENG).