"Stereotypes"

According to our book, stereotypes are generalized second-hand beliefs that provide conceptual biases from which make sense out of what goes on around us, whether they are accurate or fit the circumstances, are one kind of preconception. In my own words, I believe a stereotype is something that we hear from others to be a norm of someone or something else and make that fallacy become a reality. Stereotypes are used ALL THE TIME whether we want to admit to using them or not. I agree with some stereotypes because most of the time the 'norm' is what the majority of that category does/is. The stereotypes we need to avoid are when it comes to ethnic culture. There are some harsh slang stereotypes that are said on a daily basis that are simply not true. One example of this is the 9/11 tragedy. When all that chaos went down, it started a stereotype that all Arab people are 'bad.' The way I see it is the people who say are scared. I don’t believe that the ones who say it aloud actually believe it themselves. Stereotypes can either be used in a way to understand cultural diversities. It doesn’t have to diminish them.

"Rationality, Perfectability, and Mutability Premises"

These three premises are based off of Larry Samovar, Richard Porter, and Nemi Jain. They argue that most Americans hold three basic beliefs about our human nature; that we are at heart, rational and that human nature is highly susceptible to social and cultural influence. I do believe in the first premise, rationality. It is the belief that most people are capable of discovering the truth through logical analysis. Most of the time the truth is right in front of us, we just have to think and process it correctly in order to use this premise. I do not believe in the second premise, perfectibility. It is based on the old Puritan idea that humans are born in sin but are capable of achieving goodness through effort and control. I think this premise is a bit scientific to the religious world. Yes we are born into a world of some negative scenarios, but not born in sin. Babies just arrived on the planet to enrich lives and create beauty for themselves. Being born is not a negative situation, that is what death is for... I do believe in the last premise, mutability. This premise assumes that human behavior is shaped by environmental factors and that the way to improve humans is to improve their physical and physiological circumstances. When we are surrounded with a negative atmosphere, we are more likely to become a part of it. Just like they say, you are who you hang out with. We need to evolve ourselves in such a world with positives and change.

"Creatures of our Culture"

When it comes to anthropologist Ruth Benedict, it is hard to agree or disagree with her theory that we are "creatures of our culture" and that our habits, beliefs, and impossibilities are shaped by our culture. I very much go back and forth. When it comes to our culture there are many things we believe in because of what we are surrounded by. When we get to a certain age, I believe we create a voice for ourselves and communicate to our culture through what we believe in at the time. As we grow, we learn to appreciate different things and learn about ourselves and what we like and or dislike on the way. When we are young though, I find that our culture defines the base of who we are. The culture we are surrounded by is different from the culture of another city, state, country, and atmosphere. We learn the habits and beliefs within our culture and then go from there. At the beginning of our lives, I believe in Ruth Benedict’s theory, but over time I believe we make the decision of how we want our lives to be shaped.

"Emblems"

As we already know there are many ways to communicate. Whether it is through vocals or not. This chapter focuses on communication without words and/or sounds, in other words, non-verbal communication. Once we break down non-verbal communication, we study many different ways to communicate which surprised me a lot. One of the terms that interested me was Emblems. Emblems are kinesic behaviors whose direct verbal translations are known to all of the members of a social group. In other words, Emblems are like silent words. One example is when we are disappointed in someone and we want to say 'shame on you' we simply point our finger from right to left. Other examples the book provides are 'I can’t hear you' (put our hand to our ear) "Come over here' (wave hands toward our body) 'I’m hot' (wave hand in fan motion) and 'I’m cold' (shiver) the thing about emblems we have to remember is that emblems is not the same as sign language. They are silent words to express to ourselves and others around us.

"Differences in Non-Verbal Communication"

It has not been in my prime yet to travel. I have not been able to really see many different cultures in action besides the little amount in our community. Saying that, I have actually been really privileged to learn a lot about the Chinese culture. My boyfriend lived in China for two years with his family's business. He has told me numerous differences between China and the United States. One of the biggest differences is the non-verbal communication of the general term politeness. Here in America it is polite when talking to others to make direct eye contact. It shows a great appreciation to our speaker that we are paying attention and listening really well. Over in China however, it is considered extremely rude to make direct eye contact for a period of time. This non-verbal gesture is considered extremely rude. My cousin is also adopted from China. My aunt has taught me so much about the culture and especially a lot of the differences between the two countries. Another example is the communication of beauty. In America we view beauty as being super tan. It sends the message of beauty in our country. In China, they view beauty as being pale. The Geisha’s wear white make-up to showcase their beauty.

"Non-Verbal Messages"

Non-verbal communication is a very exciting concept to discover, think about, analyze, and act upon because there is so much to it. Non-verbal communication does not just refer to sign language, it refers to body language, facial expressions, and daily routines that other people can visually see and catch an interpretation about. There are many times in life where I have miscommunicated something. At one of my jobs we hold a staff meeting at the first of the month. At this meeting, our boss describes some issues, some new, and/or anything a normal staff meeting would hold. We can also share how we feel if something is not right. I decided to speak up on behalf on a matter with a student’s behavior and how to solve it. As I looked around the room I noticed a co-worker had a stern look on her face so I approached her after the meeting asking why she was being rude. She simply replied that she was not; she had the same problem and had the look on her face due to curious thinking on how to solve the issue. This is just an extremely small issue regarding non-verbal communication. One way to increase the understanding of non-verbal communication is to simply read this chapter, but because not everyone has access to this book, we should avoid negative connotations like I did and respond to non-verbal messages according.

"Phonology"

Language revolves around many complex ideas. One of those ideas include being able to hear, and hear correctly that is. The study of phonology is the study of significant sound patterns of language. There are so many sounds that we as humans can make, yet only a small portion of it includes language. We have to be able to listen to the specifics of language like the differences of certain letter sounds. Being able to grasp the difference between a B and a D is key in understanding language to its fullest. More specific, phonemes is the sound distinguishes in any given language. I thought this part of the chapter was really interesting simply because I cannot hear all the sounds of our language correctly. My left ear has hearing loss and I grew up wearing hearing aids. When I was young I heard the incorrect phoneme for the letter S. Because I heard it differently, I said it differently, and that led me to have a lisp. My parents tried to have therapy sessions as a kid, but I wasn’t havin it. Let’s just say I was really stubborn. The funny thing is, is that I am now pushing 21 years of age, and I still CANNOT say slither correctly.