Final Blog: Did I Meet My Goals?

After looking back on the goals that I had set for myself at the beginning of the semester I think that I have met those goals. I wanted to be able to better understand the cultures that make up me. With the final project that I have done and our culture day project I learned more about to of the countries that some of my family originated from. The second goal that I had set was to be able to speak up in class and not be so quiet and shy. I can not say that I fully met this goal completely. I will always be shy I'm afraid because it is harder for me to speak up in class.

Freedom Writers

The Freedom Writers movie touched on a lot of things that we talked about this semester. In the movie it shows the amount of hate that people had towards one another because of the color of their skin. The students segregated themselves into their own little groups of the people of their “own” kind. These kids only trusted who was like them in fear of losing their lives. In class we talked about racism and that is exactly what the movie showed. If you were of a different culture, they didn’t like you. Not only didn’t they like you, they hated you. They hated people that they didn’t even know all because their skin color was different. Another thing we learned about this semester was different cultures and how they differ from each other. The culture here was the gang culture. The thing that I noticed from the movie was that all the groups were pretty much identical. They all stood up for their own kind and “protected their own”. At the beginning they didn’t realize that they were all the same and had the same interests but their skin color prevented them from getting to know one another and realizing just how alike that they really were. The last topic that I want to talk about is how they came together and made a change. I know that we didn’t exactly talk about this subject in class but we did a project this semester where we had to choose a country and inform people about that country and how they differ from ours and I consider that as us coming together to better inform people of the unknown. Ms. Gruwell took this class of kids and gave them the chance to be something extraordinary.  She was selfless and knew that if she accomplished the goal of bringing these kids together that the world is one step closer to being a better place.

weekly overview 4/10

This past week I was gone on Tuesday but we had gone through sexual orientation a little more and the class talked about how people who may be transgender or gay are treated in other countries compared to how we in the United States handle the situation.

This week was very busy because we put on our culture day event in the old gym at the school.  I thought that the turnout for our event was very good and it was exciting to see who was anxious to learn more and who actually enjoyed spending their time learning more about our country. I didn’t really try any of the other foods except from the Canadian section and it their food was very delicious! It is very interesting to see how countries are similar and how they are different comparing them to the United States.

On Thursday we were privileged enough to get to me Ed. Ed is a transgender who go to come spend some class time with us via skype and shared his story with us. I think this really opened my eyes and he taught me things that I may have never known if I wouldn’t have got the chance to listen to him speak. I feel like I was so sheltered in my high school. We had speakers but they were usually for bullying and what not and I think that if schools had more diverse speakers come in and talk to us maybe that would eliminate some bullying and then maybe schools would be able to have more diverse speakers in the first place.

Even though this week was crazy and hectic I feel that I did learn quite a bit and that it made me realize how much more I need to learn about someone before I judge them.

Cultural Article

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/11/nyregion/11sexchange.html?_r=1&ref=transsexuals#


This article is about a transgender man who was fired because his job was only a mans job and he was not technically a man to his employer. He is now filing a discrimination lawsuit against the his former employer. This article caught my eye because we had been talking about sexual orientation and what not in class and I was curious about what other situations that others go through. It is sad that the guy was fired just because he wasn't originally a man when that is what he said that he always felt like all his life was that he was a man. It is something that really makes you rethink the things you judge people on.

Cultural Snack: Russian Tea Cakes

For class we had to sign up for a day to bring a cultural snack to class. I decided that the snack that I was going to bring was Russian Tea Cakes. They were very easy to make and there are very few ingrediants! They came about in the 18th Century and were typically made for special occasions such as Christmas. There are many different variations of this snack in other parts of the world and a lot of people know them as Mexican Wedding Cookies. I have also heard them called Snowballs and Honeyballs as well!!

weekly overview 4/3

This past week in class we talked a little more about disabilities and how disabilities are handled here compared to in other countries. It really shocked and kind of upset me that in China some people would use their children to get money off of other people that feel bad for them. I feel that when people do that they are putting their kids in a freak show like image when they are really not. They are normal people that have something that may hinder some of the things that they may like to do.

This week we also talked to Mary from San Diego who shared her work with LGBTQ. This stands for Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer. There is also Q and I that are classified here that stand for Questioning and Intersex. This is a group at the college there that is a safe zone for people that are open about their sexuality. The thing that made this whole discussion even more interesting was finding out that Mary herself was a lesbian.

For me, it was interesting hearing about the kind of ridicule and hate she receives being of that sexual orientation. We hear about all these protests and what not that go on but we don't really see much of it in this area. I also liked how comfortable that she was talking about all these things and how she would say all these terms like queer that most of us are typically very uncomfortable saying.

I really like seeing things from a different point of view in all of the discussions that we have in class. It helps a lot for me to then come on here and talk about what we talked about when I can reference it back to our class time.

weekly overview 3/27

Last week we talked a lot about personal space and languages. A lot of people have different preferences of how much personal space they need.  With me it kind of depends on the person whether or not I am comfortable with them in my personal space or not. If the person is someone that I know and that I have been around quite a bit then I am comfortable with them being close up to me. The thing that makes me the most uncomfortable is when I am at work at the bank and random strangers will lean over the counter and get really close to me. It makes me very nervous because you don’t know what they are going to do!

On Thursday we had Matt Come in and speak to us about disabilities and about his disability. I never knew what Matt was diagnosed with until we spent time talking about it. Matt was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when he was 6 months old. He was very fortunate and was not fully affected so he can do a lot more than other people with cerebral palsy can. He said that is was a lot easier to adjust to it when you become disabled at a young age rather than when you are older because that is what you are used to and that is normal to you rather than having to change your whole lifestyle completely after you are already used to the way things were. The girl who is in our class became very sick when she was 19 and pregnant and she lost the baby and her ability to walk. I can’t imagine having to relearn basically everything and having to give up the things that I love at my age now.

Matt said that people with disabilities do not use their disabilities as an excuse. I never realized how true this was until he had said it. People who have a disability are very independent and try to do most things that they can by themselves. He also talked about doing the simple things like not staring, don’t make them feel like they are less superior to you and don’t talk down on them. Matt’s discussion really put a lot of things into perspective for me.