Language teachings - mirror of society?

After having been asked several times, I agreed today to join in the English class offered to colleagues from our field office in Hirat. The teacher was a young and enthusiastic guy, who pronounced each word with an English accent that would make many of my non native speaking friends jelous. When I entered the class, they were just about to read words that were written on a white board. The words on the board included among others "protest march, subversion, demiliterization". They also included other words such as "superman, sabotage, knifing and militarize".

It took me some time to see the heading written above these seemingly random words: "political words". Astonished I asked the teacher if these are common political terms in Afghanistan. With a broad smile and perfect English accent he said "yes" and continued to read the words superman, militerazing, knifing, mixed with terms like political party and constitution, explaining to the students how important it is to have sufficient vocabularly in political discussions ... Language teaching, mirror of a society?

I once had a similar experience when I tried to find a language course for Somali. The first one that I found was from the seventies and was written for tourists and business people who plan to visit Mogadishu. I assumed that most of the things mentioned in this language course, such as arrival at the international airport of Mogadishu, or sending a post card from Mogadishu wouldn't be relevant for my work in Somalia, given that it was the year 2005 when I planned to go there. The second one was from the early nineties and was in essence a small pocket guide for UNOSOM soldiers, with useful phrases such as "I am a doctor, I am your friend, don't shoot!". Hoping I would never have to use such expressions in Somali, I decided not to buy it. When I openend the third language course, I only had to read the first two sentences before closing it and giving up on my ambitions to learn Somali: "Where is Ali? He is dead". This guide was from the late nineties.