Activity Twelve

I would have to say the most important thing I've learned is that all cultures are just different from each other and that we need to be respectful of others traditions and manners. Also we shouldn't judge other cultures or ethnicities based on one experience we had or by watching their television shows. It was really eye opening to see how just one bad experience can create a very bad misconception about someone. I also reevaluated our own culture and how many things we do seem very odd to other people.

I would say that I haven't been exposed to different cultures or ethnicities very much, mostly because I grew up in a small town without much diversity. I have traveled to Mexico multiple times and I absolutely loved being submerged in their culture. I know that I am by no means an expert but I'm willing to listen to others and alter my behaviors so I don't offend anyone. I know I could make a better effort to talk to people from other backgrounds just to learn about other societies or traditions. I do feel I'm more open minded than many people and am willing to get to know people and maybe correct some misconceptions that I have. I feel this class has made me more knowledgeable in the subject and that I can look at conflicts from both perspectives now rather than just the one perspective I normally view everything from.

This course has been eye-opening, but it didn't involve going out and actually meeting new people and learning about them and who they are and why they are this person. I guess I want to be able to learn about intercultural communication in a more direct manner and go visit other countries and learn their traditions and mannerisms. I plan to study abroad while I'm still in school. I want to go to Spain and Scotland and live out daily life there rather than just being a tourist.

Besides traveling I could simply just talk to people around here more often and ask more questions and be more curious. I have a friend who was adopted from Korea and was totally brought up in regular American culture, but he has such a desire to learn about where he came from. My family came from somewhere else too but I'm so disconnected from my heritage that I have never really even thought about what German culture would be like. I think I just need to ask people more questions about who they are and what made them become that person.

I'm going to school for broadcast journalism, and I feel like this course is extremely relevant to the job I could have in the future. As a journalist I'll be expected to go places I normally wouldn't go and to talk to people I normally wouldn't talk to. I want to be able to report based on what I learned directly from a certain group or culture rather than on what I think I know.

Question: Do you think the concepts we've talked about in this class will be relevant to your job in the future? Why or why not?

Activity Eleven

I'm sure you've all heard a lot about this intercultural conflict happening in Arizona. The governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, signed a bill on illegal immigration and essentially the goal of the bill is to identify, prosecute and deport illegal immigrants. If an immigrant is caught without their immigration documents it is considered a crime and the police have broad power to detain anyone suspected of being in the country illegally. In addition, it allows people to sue local government or agencies if they believe federal or state immigration law is not being enforced. There are many opponents to this bill, including President Obama, and they feel that it gives Arizona residents the right to harass or discriminate against hispanics. It won't actually go into effect until August, if it ever does go into effect due to many court challenges. Many people support this bill because illegal immigration is a problem in the border states, but many do not, especially the hispanic citizens of Arizona because they feel the law will encourage racial and ethnic profiling.

There are really two major conflicts involved in this debate. Basically, the citizens of Arizona want to ideally eliminate illegal immigration or if not that at least decrease it, but in doing so will be profiling, judging, or discriminating, even though they say these will not be tolerated. I don't see how they won't be profiling because the illegal immigrants are coming from Mexico, but there also many legal immigrants who will still be questioned or possibly worse.

The culture of the US is very individualistic, and in this situation it's not individual as in one person, but individual as in one state. They decided they wanted the illegal immigrants out and so they created a bill and sent it through the system to be approved instead of maybe making negotiations or somehow involving the other side of this argument. They were obviously much more concerned about their own agenda than about the well-being of the hispanics who weren't doing anything wrong. I don't know that hispanics have a collectivistic culture or individualistic, but they have been opposing this bill using phone calls and protests which are still direct forms of voicing their opinions. In this situation I feel they have the right to be verbal and direct because there is a great chance that they will be treated very poorly if the bill is put into action.

There should be a way to resolve this issue other than this bill. Put more guards at the borders or hire other hispanics to become informants of some sort. I don't think this problem will ever be totally eradicated, but there are better approaches than this. Both sides just need to sit down and formulate a plan rather than just arguing with each other constantly. I understand both sides of the argument. I think if people want to come to America they need to do it the correct way and abide by our laws, but I don't feel those who do abide by our laws deserve any sort of punishment for being a part of the same ethnicity as those who don't. I feel that no matter how much the state of Arizona promises that racial profiling won't happen, it will. I don't see how else this bill would be effective at all.

Question: What do you think the governor of Arizona could have done to address this issue in a better manner? What are alternatives to solving this problem without creating racial profiling or discrimination?

Activity Ten

Members of a family in American culture include parents, children, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, nieces, and nephews. Also when people get married their significant other becomes part of the family and they might be considered part of the family even before the marriage happens. I also think that best friends are oftentimes considered part of the family because they are often closer to the family than some relatives such as cousins.

The role of parents is to care for the children and I also think that it is now becoming their duty to entertain their children. It is also not solely the role of the father to make money but is now very common for both parents to have to bring home the bacon. I think the older children of the family are partially responsible for caring for the younger children. Children have some duties, such as making their bed or doing dishes but aren't expected to do heavy duty farm work in most cases. Grandparents are babysitters and are supposed to spoil their grandchildren to no end.

Children are expected to go off to college as soon as they graduate or if not to college at least to get their own place or start paying their parents rent. It's seen as part of becoming an adult and learning their own responsibilities. I remember in my family my one brother wanted to move back home after graduating from college to save money but my parents would not allow it because they wanted him to learn to make his own money.

People in our culture are expected to date within the same socioeconomic status. It would be out of the ordinary for a woman from a rich family to date a poor man. The education levels also need to be similar and the level of attractiveness also needs to be fairly equal. People often comment on how "she's too good for him," or vice versa. A model isn't going to be seen dating a "starving artist."

Marriage proposals in our culture are always done the same. The man first has to ask the woman's father for her hand in marriage, and when he says yes the man buys a ring, which is supposed to cost 3 months of his salary. He then takes his girlfriend out to eat, on vacation, to a sporting event, or whatever event they enjoy doing together and he gets down on one knee and asks her to marry him. If she says yes he puts the ring on her ring finger and they're engaged.

A typical wedding consists of a short ceremony in a church and is conducted by an ordained minister. After the ceremony everyone heads to some event hall and waits to eat while the bridal party takes hundreds of photos. The bridal party then marches in to some song and then the party is started. The food is served and the best man and maid of honor give their speeches. Everyone clings the glasses to make the new bride and groom kiss. After the food is taken away the cake is cut and the bride and groom shove cake into each others faces. About this time is when the DJ starts playing music and the alcohol begins flowing. Once a few people are brave enough to venture to the dance floor everyone starts to relax and enjoy themselves and continue to get really drunk.

Divorce is seen as being fairly acceptable and recently has become something to celebrate. I've seen television shows discussing the topic of throwing a great divorce party. Many people view divorce as the only way to fix a relationship and to regain happiness. Not everyone views divorce in this way. Many Christians still see it as something that should be avoided if at all possible.

Each divorce situation can be very different, but typically the belongings are split in half and the children spend one week with mom and the next week with dad. If for some reason one parent seems unfit to take care of the children, preference is usually given to the mother.

Homosexuality is acceptable to many people, especially in larger cities. In certain areas gay marriage has been legalized, but is still being debated in many areas. In rural areas it is more frowned upon but still accepted by enough people that no one can harm them.

Women in our culture are supposed to be loving and caring and are expected to take care of the children for the most part. Young girls are supposed to play with barbies and wear pink and boys are supposed to wrestle and wear blue. Men are supposed to work hard, make money, and not cry. I do think women are more sensitive to others emotions and therefore can be more supportive emotionally. I sometimes wish men were more sensitive to emotions, but not to the point that it's all they talk about. There definitely needs to be differences among men and women and I like when men are tough and hard-working. I don't think it is solely the role of the woman to take care of the kids and the man's role to enforce rules and punishments. I think marriage is more about compromise and agreeing on how to raise the children. I think it should be acceptable for girls to play with trucks and for boys to play with dolls. I know many people don't like it but I think people would be more confident if they were allowed to do what they really want to do.

Question: Are all of these social norms a cumulation of things that have been brought from other countries or are they learned behaviors from television and what our parents expect of us?

Activity Nine

The show that I picked to use for this activity is "How I Met Your Mother." I haven't watched this show much recently but when I was still living in the dorms I watched it all the time. I think this show is hilarious, but it isn't the greatest portrayal of Americans. The main character is Ted Mosby and the whole premise of the show is that he is recounting to his children how he met their mother. Besides Ted Mosby, the main characters include Marshall Eriksen, Lily Aldrin, Barney Stinson, and Robin Scherbatsky.

Like many other popular shows, "How I Met Your Mother" shows that Americans live in a big city, and in this case that city happens to be New York. They all have excellent jobs including an architect, a news reporter, a teacher, a lawyer, and an unnamed corporate job. The women in this show are both very thin, dress nicely, and have perfectly manicured hair. The men aren't entirely attractive but they are fit and portrayed as being successful. I think these characteristics would give the idea that all Americans are successful and live in the big bustling cities. Many shows portray this lifestyle versus the lifestyle of a farmer or other small-town employee.

In this show the five main characters eat at the same diner every day with the same exact people. This gives the impression that we eat out all of the time, which some people do, but not everyone and that we don't like to try new things. It also makes us seem very exclusive in our groups of friends and that we don't like to bring in new people. In this show the only new characters brought to the diner are new girlfriends or boyfriends. New boyfriends and girlfriends occur often in this show and I think it makes Americans look desperate and like they can't maintain stable relationships.

My favorite character in this show is Barney Stinson, who is also probably the most morally corrupt character. He is essentially the "player" of the show and is never in committed relationships but always has a woman by his side. Basically every scene with him in it is him at a bar checking out girls and trying to convince them to have sex with him. While this is always portrayed in a funny manner, it still gives the impression that Americans are promiscuous and don't take relationships seriously.

This show is a comedy and uses stupid humor often. The men who are all best friends get in stupid fights often about unimportant events and everyone sort of dates everyone. It basically is an overdramatized version of high school. I think this makes Americans look very immature and that we get all worked up over petty little issues.

While I do think this show is hilarious, I don't think it sheds a bright light on Americans. Many shows give the same ideas as I gave here. For example "Desperate Housewives," "My Sweet Sixteen," "Sex in the City," "Gossip Girl," and "The Hills" all portray Americans as rich and promiscuous. For many people these characteristics may be valid, but for the majority they are not a reality.

Questions: Do you believe people from other countries view us as we actually are or as television portrays us? Do you feel that sexual content on television is accurate of Americans? Is there too much sexual content or do you feel it is too explicit?

Activity Eight

When I was little I didn't go to friends houses very often because I had four brothers at home to play with and our house was hardly ever quiet. Because I grew up in a big family I sort of became a homebody because I didn't need to go anywhere else to find entertainment. In eighth grade I was the only left at home because all of my brothers had graduated and gone off to college. I went from having a huge family to essentially being an only child, and I was bored. Because of this I had to learn how to become a lot more outgoing and get used to leaving the house more to find entertainment. At first I hated having to start conversations and sleeping at other friends' homes. It felt so unnatural to me because I had never had to work to have friends before; my brothers had always been there to play with or talk to. Eventually it became a lot easier to strike up a conversation and I felt more comfortable at my friends' places, but it definitely took a while to get used to. I still wouldn't say that I'm the most outgoing person in the world but I'm so much more outgoing than I used to be and I can pretty much be comfortable in any situation now.

Question: Do you think your family influenced how outgoing you are in any way? Do you think it was more from watching their actions or other factors (such as family size for me)?

Activity Seven

At first I was really afraid to do this little experiment because I'm not the most outgoing person in the world and I really don't like awkward situations. But after doing it and explaining it to the people I did it too it was pretty funny and we all had a good laugh about it. The first one that I did was not breaking eye contact and I did this to someone who is more of an acquaintance rather than a good friend because my friends already know my mannerisms. At first it was normal and she made eye contact with me for maybe fifteen seconds but after a little while she started to look away. After a minute she was very uncomfortable and I started feeling bad for making her feel so awkward but I kept it up. I could tell that this girl literally wanted to run away from me. She kept looking anywhere but at my face and pretended she was texting someone. If she turned away from me I would move in order to get in her line of vision again and then she would turn her head again. She finally ended the conversation by saying she had to go get ready for work. After she started walking away very quickly I stopped her quick and explained to her that it was for a class and that I'm not a crazy person. She had lied about having to go work which I guessed was probably the case.

I did the second experiment of not making eye contact to one of my roommates who I'm much closer to. This one went a bit differently. I didn't make her feel awkward so much but she thought I was really mad at her and kept asking if something was wrong and if she had done something that made me mad. I just kept saying no and continued talking but she did not believe me that nothing was wrong. After a couple minutes I finally explained why I was doing it and she was thankful that nothing was wrong.

For the last one I again did it to someone that I didn't know very well so they wouldn't know that it's out of the ordinary for me to be closing in on them. I did this one to my roommate's boyfriend who I've only met a couple times and this was hilarious. I just started talking to him and would slowly take a step toward him or make some action to go along with the conversation and overemphasize it and move closer. Every time I took a step in he would take one back a couple of seconds later. I don't think he really realized I was moving in on him but he did notice when we were too close together and then would back up. I didn't get to the point of having him backed into a corner but we definitely moved across the room a ways. After a little while of doing this I told him what was up and he just thought it was weird that I was comfortable being that close to his face, which in reality I wasn't comfortable.

I thought this was really interesting to see how when someone doesn't follow social norms everyone else involved in the situation with that person feels incredibly awkward. I've been in situations before with people who are close talkers and it is incredibly uncomfortable when you're not used to people doing that.

Question: Do you know anyone who is socially awkward in any of these ways? Do they realize how awkward they make others feel? If you don't know anyone who does this have you ever been in a situation where someone made you feel really awkward?

Activity Six

I did the quiz that tests on how you interpret vowel sounds first. I did awful on this one and the only word that I had correct was desk. Even with the phrases it was really hard to understand what was being said. I know I'm not the best at understanding different accents but I did a lot worse than I thought would. I think it was much harder because it was taken out of context. It's easier to understand something when it's a part of a whole conversation versus just hearing a single word. Along with that I also think it would be easier to do if you were listening to the person directly instead of through audio.

For the other quiz on regional dialects I actually did better than I thought I would. I still had quite a few wrong but even when I did they were in the area next to the correct one. The easiest ones for me to pick out were the ones from the south. I haven't really spent much time in the south but I do listen to a lot of country music which maybe gives me an upper hand. I think the hardest ones to differentiate between were the north, midland, and the west. They all were quite similar and to me they have a "lack" of accent so they all seem the same. I feel like there could have been much more variety in these regions.

I thought these activities were pretty fun actually. When I attended school at the University of Minnesota my freshmen year I realized that the Minnesota accent really does exist and I remember being pretty shocked by how strong it was. I thought accents were from the south and the east and there was some invisible line you had to cross to encounter them. Not true! I find it amazing how much variety there is just in what we say and how we say it. The big fight at U of M was whether it was a bubbler or a water fountain. I still think it's a water fountain by the way. I also remember going to Florida one year and stopping at a McDonald's and asking for a pop and the cashier immediately knew I was from Wisconsin or Minnesota. I also love when I go down south and eat out and the waitress calls me sweetie or honey. It's something that never happens up here and I think it's kind of fun. I think it's pretty cool that even just the way we talk can define who we are in a way. Some people may see this as a bad thing but I'm proud of being where I'm from and I think it's good that people can somewhat tell where you're from just by the differences in your voice.

I have a lot of memories where differences in dialects were noticeable and started some funny conversations or had some sort of impact on me. My question is do you have any experiences of speaking with someone with a different dialect or accent that really had an impact on you?