Rezai: You know, Iran is also in Asia. It is in the western part of Asia, but Japan is in the eastern part of Asia. So we have some common points. We’re all Asian people, we have some common points. At the same time, we also have differences of culture. One of the common points is that the Iranian people, like the Japanese people, are very polite towards the foreigners and they pay much respect to the older people, to their parents, to the older generation. But one of the differences is that in Iran. . . of course, let me tell you one of my own experiences. When I came here for the first time, when I entered the class, I was astonished because I found the students sitting very comfortably and doing their own job without paying attention to the teacher entering the class. If you go to an Iranian university and see the students, you will notice that, when the professor enters the class, all the students stand up and they become quiet, nobody will talk. Then the professor asks them to sit down, then they all together sit down and the lesson starts. But here, when the professor enters the class, everybody is doing his or her own job. That was very strange to me, in the beginning, of course. I have been accustomed to it now. And another big difference is that in Iran there are very close relationships between the relatives. And also different. . . we have different types of parties. You know, in the weekend, for example, people go to their friends’ houses with their families. We go to our relatives’ houses very often. We have lunch together, we have dinner together, we go out together. But here, I found that the Japanese people are not so much interested in going to one another’s houses. They always try to keep the distance. They’re very polite and they’re very kind and they pay much respect to the other people, but they want to separate themselves from the other members of the society. They want to have their own private lives. And at the same time in the society, of course, they are very polite and very helpful to the other people. But they do not want to, in fact, have very close relations with the other people. This is my impression. But in Iran it is quite different. If you go to Iran and you stay in Iran for one week, your friends will all invite you to their houses. You can go to their house, you can have dinner in their house, you can have lunch in their house.

Interviewer: Do you have some advice to me when I go. . . the time when I was invited. . . ?

Rezai: To Iran? Well. When you go to Iran as a foreigner, the people of Iran like foreigners very much. They pay much respect to the foreigners. They will help you if they can. And they very soon become friends with the other people. They make friends very easily. And they soon invite you to their houses. And very soon you can make very good friends in Iran.

Interviewer: Is there something I shouldn’t do or say when I was invited to someone’s house?

Rezai: Uh, when somebody’s invited to his friends house for the first time, he or she takes a present. It can be a bunch of flowers, it can be anything, anything, but only the first time. The other times, it is not necessary. It is not necessary.

Interviewer: It sounds very hospitable to me.

Rezai: Yeah, the people are very hospitable. The people of Iran are very hospitable. Of course the Japanese people are also very kind and very polite and also hospitable. That’s also too true. I believe in that. Yeah.

Interviewer: Yeah, and we are too shy. We're almost done. Is there anything else you want to talk about?

Rezai: No, no, no, no. Nothing specific. Nothing specific. I just want to advise the students to be more active.