Weekly Overview 2/21

This week we talked a lot about other countries. We discussed things like the laws that they have and follow and also about the different dialects they use along with some of the different things that they believe in and choose to follow.

I think one of the things that most interest me was the fact that in Germany some parts of the country cannot understand other parts of the country because they use different dialects. I found this interesting because here we also have different dialects but we can, for the most part, all understand each other because most of us have the same meaning for words. I could imagine what it would it would be like to not even travel out of your own country and still not be able to communicate amongst with each other.

It’s different to hear what things are different in other countries compared to here. There are also a lot of similarities too. Most everywhere has modernized just as we have but it’s cool to hear that some still follow rules that were set years and years and years ago. Most of our rules are still there but whether or not states choose to still follow them all varies.

We also talked about some of the weird laws that are set in certain areas, though most never follow them. One of the funny ones in North Dakota is the law that you cannot sleep with your shoes on.  I always wonder what someone did that there is now a law like that. The other law that always makes me curious is in certain states you cannot walk around with an ice cream cone in your pocket on Sundays. Who does that anyway?

Even though we were way off topic this week it is always cool to take time to discuss the random stuff that a lot of people either don’t know or are curious about. That is what makes a class interesting!

Weekly Overview 2/14

Since I was gone on the 14^th I am going to talk about the guest speaker that we had the 16^th. Dr. Porthen, who is a teacher here at the college, came in to speak to our class about her culture which is very different from what we typically see around here. She is from India but was born in South Africa. Her parents were brought from India to South Africa before she was born. In her culture women are not allowed to get a job until they have finished schooling. It is either that choice or become a housewife and they would have to cook, clean and have children. She said she wanted to have a family but her education was important for her to receive. She became the first woman to graduate from the college in South Africa which I think is pretty cool!  

Seeing what a culture that we don’t know much about is something that is pretty interesting. I knew that the male was the dominant feature but I didn’t know things like they were depended on to have kids and clean house. Here, having kids is something that most women want but some also want to have the education and not have to just rely on the husband as well what is exactly what she did.  Another thing that I thought was different was not getting a job until you have finished your education. Here, most of us kids are going to school, working, doing extracurricular activities and also the chores that most parents assign their children. We are expected to multi-task while they are expected to focus on things one at a time.

I had had her for a class last semester but didn’t really know much about her background and where she really came from so it was kind of nice to finally here what her culture is all about!

Holiday blog: Ramadan

Ramadan is a holiday that is celebrated in the ninth month on the Islamic Lunar Calendar. It is celebrated by many Muslims all around the world. During this month Muslims do not eat or drink during the daytime. The proper term for this sacrifice is called fasting. It is a time for people to focus on God. This holiday is also about more than just restraining yourself from food. It is about being holy in all aspects. You are to restrain yourself from talking back; you must not look at unholy things and other sorts of things like that.  I understand this to be an important holiday to the Muslims because it is a time for them to cleanse themselves and bring themselves closer to the Lord. I chose to research this holiday because it is something that Americans are aware of but it is a holiday that most overlook and don’t take time to learn more about.

Extra Credit: Crash

We were given the opportunity to receive extra credit by watching the movie Crash. The movie was about people of different races and different job positions and what kind of hate that these people had or developed over the span of the movie. This movie showed so much hate when people didn't even know the person that they hated. I decided that I was going to discuss some of the characters in the movie and the types of hate that they showed. It made me think about the times that I have done this and how I probably should have handled the situation that I was in.

In the movie the character that Sandra Bullock played was very hateful after the two black characters in the movie stole their vehicle.  She didn’t even want someone who was Hispanic changing the locks on her door and she also began to be very rude to her maid as well. She didn’t know that the Hispanic guy had a kid and wasn’t a “gangsta” as she had called him but I think she was so freaked out that she didn’t really know what to do in that situation. She didn’t feel comfortable at that moment.

Another moment is when the two black kids came out of the restaurant. The one, who was played by Ludacris, thought that everyone was either scared of them or didn’t serve them the same way that the waitresses served the white people. He was overthinking everything and didn’t stop and think that maybe he was just imagining these things.

He thought that everyone was discriminating against him which brings me to my second point in the movie. There was a lot of discrimination that went on. Besides the incidents with the two black kids there was the white cop who was played by Matt Dillon. He pulled over the black couple in the movie because he thought the girl was performing a sexual act on the man. When he saw that they were black he instantly searched them and was trying to embarrass her husband and herself by feeling her up.

One other act of racial discrimination is when the Persian man was trying to buy a gun and the guy who sold the guns got into an argument with him and refused to sell him the gun because he thought the Persian man was Arab.

The final thing that I would like to talk about is stereotypes. The black kids in the movie automatically thought that they were being stereotyped in the restaurant and when they walked out and thought that the character Sandra played was scared of them because they were black.

This situation also gets flipped around with Sandra’s character as well. She thinks that she was being stereotyped as being a scared white lady after she had had her car stolen.

When everyone shows hate like that then it is very hard for everyone to get along in society. Here, you don’t really see quite as much of this because we are really not as culturally diverse.  With the oilfield we are becoming more diverse and everyone is having to adapt to and learn how people from other places act and the reasons that they may act in that manner. This movie showed what bigger cities can be like and the kind of hate there really is here.

Weekly Overview 2/6-2/10

This week we had a guest speaker over IVN from Ole Miss. She was asked to come speak to us about the Islamic religion and about Muslims. The one thing that surprised me and I think the rest of the class as well was that most of the Muslim population are from Indonesia. Most people assume that many of the Muslims are from places like Iraq, Iran and other places of that sort. Ever since the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers Americans have stereotypes all Muslims and all people that practice the Islamic religion as bad people, as terrorists. For us I think we are just scared that something like what happened in New York is going to happen again. The fear we have of that creates the hatred that we build for "those people."  We were told by Mary what all the Islam’s practice. The people who choose to practice this faith are typically very strict about it. If they are considered unclean they are not allowed to touch their holy book. To me, it’s very different to hear about these things that they have to follow since my religion isn’t as strict, or that my family and I are not as strict about it. It’s different to hear about religions that are different from yours.

On Thursday, we watched an episode of Sister Wives. I also watched this in our Cultural Diversity class so this was my second time seeing what their Polygamist lifestyle is like. It is very hard for me to watch this show. I personally do not think that the practice of Polygamy is right. I know it is just what they believe in and it is accepted in their religion but in mine it is frowned upon. I am a more jealous person so I would most definitely never be able to be a part of something like that. I don’t know how these ladies can handle sharing someone like that and still feel normal. It’s just something that I would never get used to.