Gestures

I loved the lesson in class this week about gestures. I talk with my hands all the time and, like most people, I don't even think about it. But I found it so interesting to look into the gestures we make everyday and consider what they actually mean. I never thought about how an innocent gesture in one country could mean something offensive in another, and how different signs can mean something comepletly differnet. The Japanese symbol for the number 6, for example, is something totally foreign to us. Without knowing that it means a number, we could take it for something rude when it's really just a common everyday sign for them. Another example that I thought was interesting was how in most European countries, they think that the left hand is evil. I know a couple left handed people, and they most definatly are not evil. But the fact that if they had lived in a European country, they'd be forced to use their right hand is so interesting. Some people were even saying how their grandparents would make them to use their right hand because of that reason. I now know that if I ever go out of the counrty, I'll have to watch what I do with my hands!

This week in class we played a card game, and we weren't aloud to talk. At first it was fine with our original groups; we all knew the rules and we didn't have a hard time following them. But once we switched groups without knowing that the other people had different rules, it got really confusing. Some people just tried to adapt to the other groups rules and others tried to argue that their customs were right. It was a good activity to experience something similar to culture shock. I've never been in another country so I've never experienced having people do things really different from the way I do. Cultures can be so differnet and, just like in the game, people adapt to the new cultures in different ways. I never realized how hard it can be to accept a new culture and how much culture affects our every day lives. Sal talked about how he went to Japan and how different the bathrooms are there. I don't know how I would react if I were put in a situation like that, but I would probably think that they were crazy if I went somewhere with toliets on the floor!

Cookie Theif

We talked about generalizing and being a "cookie theif" in class this week. It's interesting to think about how much people judge other people before they get to know them. First imperssions are everything, and until you get to know someone, the first raction you had normally stays with you. But most of the time, you can't help from judging the new people you meet. It just comes naturally. A lot of the time I try to stay positive about everyone I meet. I can't say I don't judge people or genealize about them based on what they're wearing or how they talk. But I try to look past that when first meeting them. And we've all been cookie thieves before. There's no denying it. We just automatically think certain ways about people before we get to know them. I was really surprised about the violin player, and how no one acknowleged him just because he was playing in the subway. It just goes to show how everyone makes their judgments. But it also goes to show that we should try to refrain from doing so so we can get to know everything before we judge.

This week we had Odyssey, which I personally enjoy very much. I love that we get to go out of our comfort zones and experiment with things we wouldn't normally do on an avergae school day. When I was actually participating in Odyssey, I didn't think how it could relate to sociology. All I was focused on was the henna I was making on my hand, or the person teaching me a Reggaeton move. But in class today, I realized that it had a lot to do with sociology. There were people in each of my classes that refused to have fun with the activity they were doing because they thought it'd be "un-cool or lame to admit they were interested. People, mostly teenagers, these days will decide what is cool or acceptable, and what's not. And if something falls out of their list of "cool things", they won't try it. What's even worse is that they make other people feel lame or awkward if they give that "weird" thing a shot. It's considered embarrassing to venture into a different frame of mind and try out something you're not used to. Even though the majority of the people in my classes tried out whatever we were doing, there were still those select few who decided to sit out because of their embarrassment. The thing is, no one was there to judge you on if you were able to execute the perfect dance move or design the best looking cake. It was all for fun, and those people who thought it'd be awkward to try something new missed out. That's how it is in a lot of situations too, not just odyssey. It was best to go into each experience with an open mind and try everything. That's what I did, and I ended up having a great time.