Student Project: Shared Respect

During this program, the participants worked in groups to create projects reflecting their experiential learning from the last three weeks. The following is a selection from Sabrina Addo and Maya Sertsu's project titled "Shared Respect." 

How the people of Ghana have welcomed us and shown us respect

The wonderful people of Ghana have shown us and our classmates an endless amount of respect as they graciously welcomed us into their home country. Over the course of these amazing three weeks were have been treated with nothing other than kindness.

Throughout our trip we have gotten to meet individuals young and old, who all share the common factor of kindness towards strangers instilled within them. These captivating people have gone out of their way to make sure we had an amazing trip, and we will be forever grateful. 

How we have been taught to show Ghanaians respect

The ways of displaying respect varies across different cultures. Specifically, in Ghanaian culture there are signs of respect that are similar to our values in American culture and a few signs of respect that we had to learn. 

Similarities

• “Yes thank you” , “no thank you”, and “kindly” 
• Addressing students with a morning cheer; it is formal and practiced among all the grades which we saw when picking which basics to go to 
• Using titles like sir/ madam when talking to locals in the city or in the school setting 

Differences

• Greeting people from right to left 
• Don’t use left hand. It is seen has a dirty hand because it is the hand you use in the washroom 

Words of Respect in Twi

• Akwaaba : which we experienced immediately upon arrival at the airport translates to “welcome” or “you are welcome” 
• Mepaakyɛw : or “please” in english. It is a phrase we learned in Twi class to help us bargain in markets like Kumasi
• Medaase : or “thank you” in english. We were taught this phrase by our program directors moments after leaving the airport because saying thank you is one of the most important words of respect 

The Extent to which Respect is Expressed in Ghanaian Culture 

One of the main differences we noticed about respect in Ghana versus America is how much it is displayed between people and how we are reminded to display it more. During orientation we were informed on the specifics of how to greet people and interact with others by limiting the use of our left hands. However, it still took a few days being in Ghanaian society to understand and get accustomed to how much of an effort we should make to greet people who do us service every day like security guards and people in the office at the school. 

We Showed Respect By

Saying thank you at the end of every activity, or tour we always made sure to give a heartfelt thank you so that the people who welcomed us would know how much we appreciated it.

Trying new things while we were here we all made sure to try new things to be able to fully experience all that the country of Ghana has to offer