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Monika interviews Daniel Adsit, a professor at American University in Bulgaria. He teaches business ethics and philosophy. Daniel's interest in philosophy started at a young age and he decided to study it further. He left Canada to pursue a professorship job, applied to various universities, and ended up in Bulgaria. He enjoys the European lifestyle and prefers it over the North American lifestyle. Daniel didn't know much about Bulgaria before coming here and experienced more culture shock when moving to the United States. He noticed differences in attitudes towards COVID and government trust. He acknowledges the corruption and unethical behavior in Bulgaria. As a younger professor, Daniel finds it manageable to connect with students, though there are cultural differences. He believes that Gen Z has a lot to offer and recognizes the challenges they face in a rapidly changing world with technology and social media. Hello everyone, my name is Monika and today I am here with... Daniel Adsit. Okay, so can you please introduce yourself and tell us something about you? Yeah, so I am teaching at American University in Bulgaria here in Lugovgrad and I've been teaching here since the fall of 2021 and I teach primarily business ethics although last semester in the spring and then this coming semester in the spring I am also teaching introduction to philosophy. Okay, and why did you decide to study philosophy? Yeah, so from like a young age I was kind of interested in bigger questions like what's, you know, the meaning of life or how can we know what we know, those kinds of questions and in high school I read a couple philosophy books, one of which was a survey of the history of philosophy and I really enjoyed it a lot. So I also knew some people who had studied philosophy, some people around me and so yeah I figured okay I'll see how far I can take it. Okay, and you're from Canada, right? Yeah. And what is your opinion on the country and why did you leave Canada and came here? Yeah, so I mean Canada is a great country in general. I mean it has some big flaws as well but on the whole it's a great place to grow up and live. I mean we have pretty good quality of life, that's pretty multicultural, especially in the big cities. There's a lot of space, if you like nature, there's a lot of places to go in nature and the people are generally pretty nice. One of the reasons I left, so getting a job like a professorship job in philosophy is quite difficult and so I completely anticipated leaving North America and actually I was kind of excited about leaving as well, kind of like visiting other parts of the world. So then I looked at a number of jobs, I also looked at a number of American universities. I actually had looked at American University in Bulgaria and thought oh that'd be a cool place to teach but then I thought oh it only has a thousand students, they're probably not going to hire anyone, they're probably not looking for anyone to teach philosophy. So I applied to some other places like I don't know I think American University in Central Asia or Nazarbayev University and like one in Iraq and other places and then a job came up for business ethics at AOBG and I had some experience teaching business ethics both in Canada and the United States and so I applied for it and I got the job and then I'm here and I actually I mean I really like it. I like Bulgaria, I mean I like the kind of European lifestyle a bit more than the North American lifestyle. The North American lifestyle is very like car-oriented, you have your own individual house, you're separate from like other people whereas here it's more interactive, there's a lot more like it's more people-focused. And did you know about Bulgaria before applying for the American University in Bulgaria? I mean I knew it was a country but I mean I didn't really know very much about it, right. I mean yeah not not much at all about Bulgaria. And did you experience some like culture clash when you came in here? How did you feel like the people, everything in general? Yeah that's a good question. I mean the strange thing is I actually probably encountered more culture shock moving to the United States because I expected the United States to be more similar to Canada, right, whereas I didn't expect Bulgaria to be similar to Canada. I was expecting it to be like very different, right. So coming in with that expectation, of course, you know things are gonna be very different. And yeah there's a number of different things like yeah like like for example here's one one big thing like in Canada we took COVID very seriously on the whole. So I mean when I was flying out of Canada in the Montreal Airport it was like almost all shut down, just a few people walking around, everyone's wearing masks, you know, I was very cautious. Back in my home province, you know, my family even some of my friends, you know, were complaining that the government was being too lenient with COVID and they need to be more strict, right. So then I arrive in Bulgaria and everyone's wearing their masks on their chin, you know, people are telling me you don't need to wear a mask and then I'm like wearing a mask and then people are saying like you know you feel like you're making a political statement by wearing a mask but you're like I just want to protect myself, right. So I mean there's very like that was I mean a very very big difference when arriving in Bulgaria. It was just the attitude towards vaccine, the attitudes towards masks in general and and that kind of stuff. Like whereas in Canada, you know, they're like complaining the government's not doing enough in Bulgaria. People are like I don't, you know, for example we went to Sofia at the time and and apparently it was a rule that restaurants and bars had to close at like 10 p.m. and then outside the restaurants and bars they said we're not closing at 10 p.m. I was like what, like what is going on here. So that was that was actually kind of quite different and and a lot of it had to do with sort of distrust of the government. I mean I think that has historical reasons for people why people distrust the government. In Canada there's a lot more trust in the government than I think even in a lot of other countries but yeah. Bulgarians tend to think that they can be the system and like be the smarter one. So it's something like normal here and so you're like a professor in business ethics and you teach us how to be ethical and stuff. So like have you, do you know about like Bulgaria, the corruption in Bulgaria and the unethical behavior which is spread all around Bulgaria? Yeah yeah so I mean I I don't know how much I knew before I came here. I yeah I don't I mean it's hard to say. I don't know how much I knew about it before I came here. I probably would have thought like yeah there's probably some corruption but I didn't know that Bulgaria had like mafia and stuff and or what people call a mafia. I didn't really know exactly how it works right. How it's not like it's not so much like it seems like gang violence you know that kind of corruption which you might find say in like North American cities. Yeah more like yeah exactly kind of that sort of and then the idea that like people don't wanna there's like a gray or like a gray economy kind of going on. People don't really want to pay taxes even though the tax rate is here is extremely low. I mean it's only like 10% right. I mean in Canada like it's it's way more than 10%. I mean it's like 30, 40% something like that. So like it's kind of surprising to me that people don't even want to pay 10% right. Like for example in my home province whenever you buy something it's I think right now it's like 15%. So you see the price and you have to add 15% to that in tax. Yeah so in those states it depends on the state. Like so in Canada it also depends on the province but in my province it's like quite high sales tax and then like that's that's more than 10% on every single like purchase other than some things like books are lower rate, vegetables, fruits lower rate. It doesn't have any tax or whatever but like yeah so the idea that people don't even want to pay 10% tax I'm like oh you know like what about your roads you know like what about your you know kind of public services and stuff how do you want to fund them. But anyway that's a sort of a cultural difference I guess. Let me go back to the point where we're getting things they can outsmart the system and cannot pay taxes. And so you're like quite one young side like you're one of the younger professors here. So how do you like cope with students? Do you find it easier or harder? Yeah I mean I actually started teaching at a university teaching my own classes when I was like 24. So I am significantly older than that now so I've kind of just been like actually as every year goes by I'm of course older than the students but when I started I actually like got a comment or two being like this guy's like too young or something you know I mean or he's young and and but I mean I don't find it very difficult actually. I mean I'm still a different kind of generation like I'm technically a millennial. I think students are Gen Z's and there's there's significant cultural differences between me and the students. Like I don't I don't use TikTok. I have like absolutely no interest in TikTok. I don't you know use Instagram or Twitter like I just I so I don't know like a lot of like what goes on among I'm totally like uninformed partly because I just don't care about a lot of like the trends going on among Gen Zers and stuff. So there is a bit of difference it's not like everything's overlapping. Do you think you can learn something from us? Yes for sure I think I think you guys have a lot to share. Unfortunately in the popular conception I don't know if you're familiar with this Gen Zers don't necessarily have like the best name. Are you familiar with this? You know like whenever you see articles about like Millennials it's always like Millennials are taking advantage of new things and then Gen Zers it's always like Gen Zers are plagued with anxiety and are stuck on their phones. So it's often with like critical stuff about Gen Zers. But I you know I really I think you guys have had a probably even like a more difficult situation right now. I mean the world's changing so fast. I mean you've had to undergo COVID right which I never had to undergo as a student like you guys. And you also have all these technology going on. I mean you have smartphones everywhere. I mean people are obviously addicted to their smartphones. And you have like the extent of social media. I only joined Facebook I think like I think either in my final year of high school or like just after my final year of high school like right around the end. And that's when I joined Facebook. So I didn't have it in high school. I mean I didn't have a smartphone until 2000 until I graduated had my undergrad degree. And actually I didn't have a smartphone throughout a lot of my PhD either. I didn't want one. But like your generation has continually bombarded with these issues. And now it's like chat GPT and all these things like it's like on the one hand some of this technology brings benefits. On the other hand it can bring a lot of like problems too right. And so it's difficult for your generation to be like navigating all of this. And you have these social media companies which are trying to exploit as much as possible. You know so they want your attention as much as possible to do everything you can to keep you on whatever app they've made as long as possible. And you know it's working for a lot of people. Right. And it's it's it's hard. Right. I mean it's hard when you're continually confronted with things that are designed to make you addicted to them. You know. So I think you guys have a you know it's it's you have probably more struggles maybe than the millennial or something. I agree to a certain extent. It's like if I go on Tick Tock I will probably stay there for four hours or five hours. And I know it's like dumb but I still do it. And you mentioned COVID. So what was your opinion on like online classes. Do you think they were beneficial or. Yeah I mean I think they had to be done. I think you know I believe that we did need to you know like socially distance and things like this and the technology was in place to make it easier to do that. I'm I'm kind of like you know even though I like people I like talking to people and meeting people. I'm still like pretty introverted. So for me being like locked in an apartment and not being able to leave like it sounds weird. I didn't actually mind it a whole lot. So I have a very different approach than other people like other people. They need to be around large groups of people. They need to be like social and going out and all this stuff. So for them I have to understand it was like way more difficult for them. And so naturally they're gonna react in a different way for me. Because for me it was just not as difficult to stay at home. And for other people it was much more difficult. So I just got to recognize like the difference in my personality where I'm like I don't mind being you know trapped in an apartment compared to other people who like hate it and it ruins you know. So so and there was a lot of like mental health issues going on. I mean there are teenagers and this was really bad like teenagers who like one in my province she committed suicide because she forgot what her friends looked like you know. And so this isolation did have bad effects on people. As far as teaching online though I don't like it. I taught at one University in Canada for a year and they had a policy where you could not force the students to turn on the cameras. So I teach a class and you also couldn't force them to come to class either. There was like I don't think it was an attendance policy. So I had a class of like 70 people in business ethics and maybe like 20 would show up 20, 30. And if I was lucky one person would have their camera on. So I'd go and teach these classes right and I felt like I was talking to a wall because there's just a bunch of black screens and maybe one person if I was lucky like maybe one maybe two right would have their video on and it was just so like demoralizing because you're like you could say you feel like you could say anything and it has no effect because you don't see any facial reactions to what you're saying. And then that's the problem because if you start saying things that are like problematic you have no feedback right. You're gonna end up just talking about like nonsense and you have no idea because. So that was really difficult from the teaching perspective like not having any kind of facial feedback to see like are people listening are they understanding and things like that. So but I mean I still think it had to be done at least to some extent but it wasn't ideal. And I don't like having hybrid classes either. I mean as you probably know I don't yeah. Okay and so we have been talking about classes. I have one like follow-up question. In your class you're like not strict but you want us to not use our phones to be functional. So were you like this in university when you were a student? Yeah for sure. I'm like you know I mean of course I didn't have a smartphone in university so I and there really wasn't that issue as much. But what I've read and what has happened with me too is I find like they say with people who use laptops or smartphones in class even if they're able to concentrate on the lecture it distracts the people around them right. And I notice this with me too. Right if I'm in a class and someone's on a laptop in front of me and they're like playing chess or poker I'm just gonna start staring at that right. So they you know so in the one one approach is like everyone that's just responsible for themselves. So you use your phone and that's your own responsibility or whatever. But that's not really the way it works because whether you use your phone is gonna affect how other people are able to concentrate and what they expect right. Or if they see that other people aren't paying attention then they're gonna feel like oh I don't have to pay attention either. So I mean yeah so I just like instead of being kind of ambiguous and being like okay you know you can use it if you want or whatever. Like I just just try to be like don't do it. And I've heard from other people I don't know what you think. I've heard from other people that some students want you to be strict because they know they're addicted to their phones. And there's like no way for them to to like stop looking at it unless they feel like there's a penalty you know. And I don't know if this is how you feel or whatever but but I know with some people this is what I've heard. And like my actually my sister who teaches a bit she recommended to me that I put like a box in front of the class. Jailbox. Well I don't force students to put it in but they can voluntarily put their phones in because they know that if they have their phone on them the temptation to look at it is so strong that it will like override other things. And it's yeah this is a problem that I haven't really had to deal with. I actually hate like I don't like my phone. I don't like having it. I wish I didn't have a phone. But I kind of need it you know. But a lot of people it is yeah a big a big issue. I don't know like do you like how do you feel like what's your relationship to your phone? Well like sometimes I can like leave my phone and not look at it like for hours. But it's like it really depends on the situation because like when I was on the vacation this like in the break I was doing some activities. I was going for diving and stuff and my phone like I got a notification that my time on my phone went from like eight or ten hours to two hours. I was so fascinated. But like when like when I'm in a lecture and sometimes like I see a notification and I'm like okay I will have to check it. I feel the urge to check it or if I'm bored like I still check it. So like this like the jailbox or whatever you call it I will definitely put my phone in there. But like if I'm not trying like to impress or something but like your lectures are one of the ones which are like interesting to me. Like finance and stuff. Like when I'm in finance class I'm like oh okay I will have to check my phone. But like I think it's like a problem for everyone. Like the gyms it's like one of the general problems. Like technology being involved. And like when COVID hit and we were in school we were still using technology like in order to study. But I remember like my whole class sleeping in the first class. It was like 7.30 class and everybody was asleep and I had to be awake so I can tell them like what's happening. We were just taking like shifts for example. So we will stay for 20 minutes. So this is when it was online? Yeah. In high school. Yeah it was in high school. Not here. Okay. So wait you were in high school when COVID started? Yeah I was 11th grade and I don't know if you know but like in Bulgaria like graduating is something like of a high importance. Like you get into those gowns and the suits and like basically go and get wasted in clubs. So it was for me personally it was really bad because I was like in 12th grade and I wasn't in school. And this was my last year so I felt really sad. But like the previous classes like O1 they didn't have any classes other like 12th grade. Because we were at school for some point but generally we were online most of the time. Wow. So when you graduated it was like lockdown right? Yeah. Wow. Did that affect your, I don't care if I interview you, but like did that affect your graduation a lot? Well I was, there was one thing because in 12th grade I had like physics and I was really bad at physics. I sucked but I tried my best. And like one of my close friends she was like a genius in physics and math. So we went online and I had like I think I had a C and B or something like this. And when we went like in 12th grade online I have like she was getting tips and sending them for me and I got A in the end. So I was like okay that's pretty fun. But I mean it's expect physics. I was really good student. I had, this was the one thing I couldn't do myself and COVID helped me to a certain extent. Okay interesting. That's interesting yeah. Yeah that's and now like I mean when I was in university like all our exams, almost all the exams were on grounds, writing them in paper right. And now when you say to students okay we have to write the exam on paper, people are like wait is it open book? Like how am I going to remember this stuff? How am I going to do it? But like in high school and university I remember, I remember like having to read everything and study it and memorize it and everything because like you don't know what questions are on the exam and stuff. So it's just differences and here's the other thing. In my generation the professors would look at us as being lazy right. Because they're like when I was a kid I didn't have a calculator. I didn't have you know something like all this stuff right. So they look at us as being like you know lazy and too dependent on technology. And now the same thing is happening between you know my generation and you guys because we're like oh you guys depend too much on technology and stuff. It's just like a continual, I mean I think the main point is you have to be able to like know how to do stuff right. And even if like you use tools and stuff you still like just need to know how to do it you know. And that's the key point. And even if you use technology as long as you know how to like do the stuff then that's the key point. Yeah I think like right now with like chat GPT and the other platforms it's like turning to like something like mechanized. Like you basically go there, you copy paste your like exam or whatever and it just starts generating and you just copy paste it. And there's like to me like I use it sometimes. But it was like for one, it was a briefing paper in my political science of course. And I like generated it and I start reading it and I saw that it didn't make any sense. It was basically just repeating like the same things. And there was one guy who like basically copy pasted it. Hi. Okay. Do you have a? Yeah I have another meeting after this. But how? No it's okay. Okay thank you so much professor. Do you have any more questions? No that's it. Are you sure that's gonna be enough? Yeah. Okay. Okay if you need anything else just let me know. Okay thank you so much professor.