Week 2

This week in class on Tuesday we first talked about our ancestors, and some of our family history. It was interesting to hear some of my classmates’ stories. I think it was good for all of us to find out a little more about our family history. Then we talked about monochromic time and polychromic time. Monochromic time is more schedules, and calendar so very sticking to times, and a schedule. Polychromic is more multi talking, nothing is set in stone, and family comes first. Say if a culture is more polychromic and you have a doctor’s appointment a two your show up at two the doctor might not be there until later if he had to do something with his family. Also they say in the US at school and work we’re monochromic, and then when we go home we are more polychromic because then we can multi task more often than not. Then at the end of class we talked about some of the things we thought that people should know about coming to North Dakota. Our class came up with many things including sports, oilfield, food, and language differences.

On Thursday we started out talking about othering which is like discrimination, or prejudice which is judging someone before you know them. It is the mentality of you vs. them.  We talked about things from our reading including whiteness, Latinos vs. Blacks, and stereotypes with language. Whiteness is the privileges that you gain from your skin color being white, and is also a social structure. The Latinos, and the Blacks supposedly to not get along because the Latinos are soon to pass them for the largest minority on the US. Also because they believe the Latinos skin color is closer to white which they believe makes a difference. They don’t seem to get along even though a lot of the time they can find common ground on being discriminated against. Then stereotypes in language the big one we talked about was people with accents. How a lot of the time someone with a southern drawl you think to be uneducated. Then at the end of class we started a movie on hate crimes. The one we got through was on Shepard who was a student at UW which I knew some about since I am from Wyoming. I think it was terrible what happened to him, and hope as a people we can stop hating each other for being different.

Ancestors

First off I talked to my grandpa on my dad’s side. His great grandpa was Irish, and his great grandma was German.  They came to America because they were starving were they were from. His mom’s and dads’ parents lived in the Ozarks in Missouri. The name Robirds has not always been the same. It used to be Roberts, and there are a couple of stories that go along with it also. The first one on why it was changed was that brothers got mad at each other so one changed his name from Roberts to Robirds. The second story is that during the Revolutionary War one Roberts name got screwed up on his papers following the war. His great grandparents’ occupations are unknown, but his parents were farmers. The status of his family has change going up in education, and wealth. Some strong values he said passed to him were education and honesty.

Then I talked to my grandma on my dad’s side. She only knew history from her mother’s side of the family because her dad would never talk about his. Her mother’s parents were from Denmark and came over around the 1880’s. They came over voluntarily, and spoke Danish. They did not change their name at all from Frederickson which is a very Danish name according to my grandma. Her mother’s parents came over and were quite successful farmers.  Also she would say here great grandparents had a higher status than her parents. Then some values passed down to her would be hard work and honesty.

I thought it was really cool to learn about some of my family history, and where I came from. I can defiantly see the values in my grandparents that were passed down to them. I also believe that they have done a very good job of passing the same values of education, honesty, and hard work down to me.

I just interview my grandparents on my dad’s side because my grandfather on my mom’s side is going through a rough time right now. However I do know that her mom’s family is from Germany. Also I know that my grandpa’s parents started a farm on the highline in Montana where my grandpa still is at. I also know both of my grandparents have and had values of very hard work.

Week 1

I was entered into the class late so I only made it to class Thursday. So I went through the syllabus, and signed up to bring food one day. Then we broke into groups to look at differences in cultures. My group had to look at the differences between individualism and collectivism societies. The main points that stuck out to me about individualism societies is that they use “I” a lot and that everyone is supposed to take care of him- or herself and his or her immediate family only.  Then collectivism they are more about their whole family, and use “We” more.  We said the United States was definitely more individualism, and countries like Russia, and Mexico would be more collectivism. Then as a class we also talked about the differences between small and large power distance societies. This means in large power distance that if you were a teacher at a college you would probably never get to talk to the president. We also talked about feminine and masculine societies saying that the United States was right in the middle. That is all that I have for this week I will have more next week when I make it to both classes.  

Week 1

I was entered into the class late so I only made it to class Thursday. So I went through the syllabus, and signed up to bring food one day. Then we broke into groups to look at differences in cultures. My group had to look at the differences between individualism and collectivism societies. The main points that stuck out to me about individualism societies is that they use “I” a lot and that everyone is supposed to take care of him- or herself and his or her immediate family only.  Then collectivism they are more about their whole family, and use “We” more.  We said the United States was definitely more individualism, and countries like Russia, and Mexico would be more collectivism. Then as a class we also talked about the differences between small and large power distance societies. This means in large power distance that if you were a teacher at a college you would probably never get to talk to the president. We also talked about feminine and masculine societies saying that the United States was right in the middle. That is all that I have for this week I will have more next week when I make it to both classes.  

Goals for Class

My two goals for this class are to gain more knowlege about other cultures, and really look into the culture of Ethiopia. I want to learn about other cultures because I think it is very intersting to see what other cultures do that is different from what I do every day. Then I am really interested in Ethiopia because I have two adopted cousins from there, and think it would be really cool to learn more about the culture that they come from.