What I learned in China

This spring I took an educational tour of China. This tour was meant to teach me about the country of China in general, along with the culture that the people live in. The most important thing I learned when on this tour was just how crowded China really is. I also learned how the people and the government deal with the overcrowding. China does not have much space for its more than one billion people, but somehow it seems like a peaceful place. Having such a high population gives china a very large workforce. With the government funding the building, many people can be put to work on one project. This allows the Chinese to finish a project in months when the same project would take years in the united states. First, I will discuss space.

            Space is at a premium in china. There are many people and not much room. Because of this, the cities have built up. Shanghai was all skyscrapers as far as I could see, and most of them were apartments. If not in an apartment, the Chinese live in hutongs.

            A hutong is a set of four buildings with a shared courtyard. Typically there is one family in each building, but some of the more wealthy families can have one to themselves. Around the hutongs are many shops and stores where things can be purchased for use in daily life. The stores in china are very different than those in the united states because of the limited space.

            Shops in china are very departmentalized. Think of the local Wal-Mart, each department is in a different part of the store. In china, each store is a separate department. At one store you may find meat and poultry, in another you might buy house wares. Each shop is usually owned by a family, and many of them live very close to, if not in, the shop that they own. This makes the shopping experience in china a unique one.

            When shopping in china, the first thing you do is look at the store’s display to see what kind of things they sell, chopsticks for example. When you see something you may want, you simple point. After that, the salesperson will show you a calculator with the price typed in. If you do not accept their offer, then you type your offer into the calculator. This is all done very close together. The salespeople will be standing toe to toe with you and they will get in your way to attempt to get you to purchase something. In the united states, this aggressive sales technique would result in some very harsh words, or worse. The sales people will always bother you, as they are very aggressive and they will get in your space.

            When I was shopping for the first time I was trying to be very polite to the salesmen, but I learned being polite was difficult because the sales people would not leave you alone. So what I started doing was not look at the salesmen, and just completely ignored them. I felt bad at first ignoring them but that is the only way a person could just look, or simply grab what they needed. The way people travel in China takes a while to get around.

            With lots of people in China it is hard to get from one place to the next. When we were on the tour bus it took a high amount of time in only not in that many miles. The same thing with walking, but with walking a person has more of an advantage. I found it interesting that in China if you push someone to get through they do not really mind. If a person was in the United States and push someone to get through. The person would get really mad. That just goes to show how different the culture is in China compared to the culture in the United States.

            The people in china seemed to be very passive. They were mostly quiet and reserved, their culture values continuity more than self-centeredness. In the united states a person may get angry with a salesperson being so aggressive and will make his anger known to all those around him with loud angry words. In china the people will quietly accept what is happening and make every effort to keep a good relationship with those they see.

            When our group went to one of the Universities in China. We were able to talk among the students. And the person that I was talking to said a word to me that I do not remember how to say. This word meant that I was very quiet. Which is a very good thing in Chinese culture for a women to be. I thought that was really cool. I was able to somewhat be a good part of their culture when I was there. In the United States if you are quite people usually think something is wrong with that person.

            Part of the reason for this is their strict government. The Chinese government does not take lightly to people who are aggressive in their opinions and actions. China has very strict weapon laws, and harsh punishments for those who do not obey. This governmental control allows the country to achieve goals impossible to other countries.

            With all of those people and a government that rules as strict as China’s, they are very good at getting things done. Specifically, building. Construction is very important in china, everywhere we went we saw new buildings going up, and old ones being repaired. With so many people working on one project, it gets completed much faster than in the United States.

            China’s population is very massive. But in Chinese culture it works out for them. Even though I might not fully understand how. I would have to say the United States is very spoiled. Which I do not mind at all. I really enjoy my space and privacy.

            I am very glad that I was given the opportunity to go on an educational tour with Williston State college and community. Going to China has opened my eyes to many new things. I never realized how different another culture really was until I went to China. What we should have done was taken the China classes the first semester of college that way we were more prepared. Having the classes this semester did work out and did help out a bit. I really enjoyed taking intercultural communication class I learned a lot about different cultures, it was a very fun class even though I did not do so well on my assignments for class.

           

           

           

             

Freedom Writers

I was afraid that this move was going to be an oldy and it was going to be very boring. But to my surprise it was a very good movie, and it was not an oldy. Also the movie was late because of me not Vincent even though it was under his name.

The movie starts out with a new young teacher and she teaches freshmen and sophomore English. The class that she has is very difficult at first the kids are always getting into fights, they have there own little groups.

The kids in the Freshmen and sophomore classes in the movie were brought up their entire lives being told that know one except their own culture could understand them, but as they read about the horror stories of others they realized that they were not alone. They learn caring for others can be hard, and probably learned a lot more then we may not understand.

 There is a scene where Eva goes into a convent store and one of the guys in the car which she was with try to shoot a guy and missed and shot the guy behind him. Eva runs out and jumps in the car and drives away. The guys that shot the guy said it was the guy in front of him. Getting that guy into trouble and Eva was the only one who really saw what actually happened. So it was up to Eva to tell the judge what happened.

Then the next day in class there was a kid who had drew a picture of one of the guys in the classroom with a big nose. The teacher gets a hold of it asking them if this was funny. Then she gets into talking about the Holocaust. The students did not know what it was. So she decided the next class time she would teach them. So she goes and talks to the vice Principal about using some books and she would not let her. She said that they were not smart enough to read these books, and plus they would tare them up. So the teacher could not get any help from the school. So she decides to  take matters into her own hands. She got another job so she was able to get books for the students. And takes her kids on Field trips so they can learn more. Her students eventually start using respect and are determined to learn more.

She asks her students to write in diary's. They could write whatever they wanted. If they didn't want her to read it then they could just flash the page to her to let her know it was done. And if they wanted her to read it they could put it in a cabinet where she locks so no one else can read them. To the teachers surprise all the students left there dairy's in the cabinet.

When it came time for Eva to testify she tells the truth. Which I think is very brave of her. I was so proud of her.

When it came close to the end of the year the students did not want a new teacher for the Junior year and senor year. So the teach asked if she could teach them the next years and of coarse the vice principal said no. So then she went to the school board and they said she could.

This movie was a very touching movie it shows how someone Else's culture can affect there lives in a big way and also other peoples lives. I hope that there are many teachers out there trying to make a difference just like the one in the movie.

I have made my goal for this class. I have learned a lot from other cultures. The first speaker we had in class was Anastasiya from the Ukraine came and talked with us about her experiences in both Ukrainian and American cultures. We learned Ukrainian is most influenced by there religion, which is mainly Catholic. They are focused on there eduction. They do not get to pick there classes like we do. There classes are picked for them. Those are the things I remember about Ukraine but there is a lot more to that culture.

 The second speaker was Mary Thurlkill she covered on Islam. They pray five times a day and the prayers were to purify themselves not just mentally but also physically. They can pray any where, most will us a rug, or anything that marks sacred place. There is much more in this culture as well. Then we did a family tree for class where we had to go find out where we came from and stuff we did not now about our ansiters. That was fun I learned that my family came from Germany, France, and England. And also my great grandmother was adopted.

We had two guess speaker in one class period. One from Canada, and one from South Africa. I found them both interesting. I learned South Africa was forced to feel ashamed of there culture by the Caucasians. The culture is still alive despite apartheid. The culture is still alive because people now are deliberately reliving their culture, they no longer feel ashamed. One of the problems they faced in South Africa was they have eleven officaical languages. The missionaries from the united States would help them learn because there schools would not. I learned  Canada has a prime minister instead of a president. Winters in Canada are allot colder than they are here in North Dakota. There are 33 million people in Canada. 

We had a guess speaker named Lauren Yellowbird.  He was born in white shield on ft berth old reservation. His tribe has lived in the North Dakota area for about 750 years. His Indian name is medicine horse, giving to him when he graduated high school. This is very important to there culture.

We had a guess speaker who goes by Ed. Ed is a transgender. I think I have learned more about this than anything else, because I never thought about it before. We learned how hard it is to go through this change, and how people react and how we should react to those people who are transgender.

The guessed speaker for this class was Matthew Peterson. He is one of the professors at Williston State College. He talked to us about disabilities. There are allot of things people should consider or not do.

I have to say I have made my goal with this class leaning wise. I have learned a lot. I have learned how to approach others who are different from me and not being offensive. I really enjoyed the class for the most part.

blogg...

For this day we watched a movie called the lost boys. It was about the lost boys left to Suedan to go to America to get an education and earn money to send back to there family. And that doesn't quit work out.  And the people did not do a good job telling them about getting a insurance for they vehcel. or let them now how to pay for there bills.

Discussions was fun like always especially when Vincent, Kara, and Matt go at it.

Snack

For my snack I chose holland rusks. They are toast like light airy and are as big as an english muffin. Ingredients
Wheat Flour, Glucose Syrup, Eggs, Sugar, Yeast, Salt, Vegetable Oil (Contains One or More of the Following: Palm Oil, Canola Oil, Coconut Oil and Castor Oil), Emulsifiers (Sodium Stearoyl-2-Lactylate, Soya Lecithin).
Warnings
Contains: wheat, egg, soy. May contain traces of sesame seeds.
(http://www.wegmans.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=390372&storeId=10052&langId=-1).

They come from the Netherlands, the Dutch.

week 11

The guessed speaker for this class was Matthew Peterson. He is one of the professors at Williston State College. He talked to us about disabilities. There are allot of things people should consider or not do. One thing is people should treat people with disabilities the same way they would treat any other person. There are disabilities that a person does not physically see. make sure you start with a normal conversion and expect one back in return, and adjust if you need too. There is allot of do nots that Matthew Peterson mentions,
1. Don't stare
2. Don't treat him or her like they are not there.
3. Don't make initial assumptions about some one's disabilities that are perceived lack there of.

I think that we all have our own disabilities. There are certain things I can do and somethings I cant do.  I really enjoyed having Peterson as a guess speaker. He is a great guy.

I liked the article "Being a teen in North American culture" Its talking a beauty and how It is different depending on the way you think beauty is or should be. And in this article it talks about the way we look at beauty in our culture.

Ummm...day 9?

For this week we watched  "Middle sexes, redefining He and She"  It was about sexuality in different cultures. I think the most intresting part of  movie was when they were talking about the ladyboys. When you look at them you would never guess that they were ladyboys. They looked like really pretty ladies. I found it intresting that men like the idea of  ladyboys.

 Also in the movie there was apart where there is a person that can go either way with there sex. I think that has to be so confusing. How stressful is that! It was amasing to see that they could have a close to normal life.

One thing that gets to me is people killing people because they are different, and because they are afread of what other people are going to  think about them. Also people with lost gender do not have much family support at all. Most of the time the will band them, not claim them. Also it is hard for most to find place to live or a good job. Sexuality is a big part of todays life.