Culture!

 All of a sudden I found myself thinking sociologically when I was in my American History class; we currently are doing an immigration unit. To think how much many cultures have to assimilate to America's society is incredible. To leave your native country, where you can find yourself at home with all your believes and traditions ( for the most part) and come here and incorporate those into your new life is a lot of change. Although the assimilation process doesn't occur with every immigrant population in American like we saw in the move My Big Fat Greek Wedding; it surely is seen more often. This all got me thinking and I asked my grandparents what it was like to come to America and their reactions were culture shock and culture clash. They described to me that they felt very odd eating some of the food like peanut butter and jelly, and Fluff ( which is a marshmallow like paste). My grandparents were farmers in Cuba and they were not used to seeing so much technology and when they came to America they were in awe. They also didn't speak the language which was a huge barrier for the obvious reasons. For the most part they assimilated well, however they do miss their original home land;but don't which to go back because of the type of government found in Cuba. 


 My grandparents had culture shock when they ate fluff and peanut butter and jelly. Specially fluff because they just thought it was a gross thing and that it tasted bad. They also thought it was wrong that in the American culture most of the families don't live as close to each other as they do in Cuba. Culture clash was when they came to America and were not able to speak the language and didn't know how to use all the technology . My grandparents didn't come here with much ethnocentrism, because they were accepting of the new culture. They were more of a subculture, because although they keep their Cuban roots very strong they still are able to assimilate to America's culture very well. Culture is a barrier itself , because since we don't understand all the cultures in the world we are quick to judge with our culture shock and create misunderstandings.

GRAPEWAY.

  All of a sudden I found myself thinking sociologically when I broke a folkway of my own. I probably have broken a couple of folkways without noticing or thinking anything of it at the time. When I broke the folkway for the project I totally was thinking sociologically since I was doing homework lol. The idea of dressing up as a grape came to me when I was watching Let's Make a Deal; which is a game show where participants dress up in costumes. There was a girl dressed as a grape and that was my inspiration. I dressed up as a grape by having a lot of balloons taped to me. I went to many public places and walked around. I went to Hobby Lobby where the manager came out a bit mad. He asked me why I was dressed up as a grape etc. I felt really awkward breaking that folkway because people were starring and asking me questions. However at the end of the day I had a lot of fun and enjoyed the whole process.COSTUME  LIKE THAT
This experiment besides having to do with a folkway also can have to do with functionalism theory and group terms. As a culture we all work together and do our job to fit in society; by dressing as a grape I think that I wasn't "functioning" in society because I wasn't filling any particular role. By me going to all the different store the people there were social aggregates (including myself)  we shared the same space, but lacked interaction. This of course wasn't always true, because as people approached me we did have interaction. I think I saw the Contagion theory in my experiment , because people laughter spread as a whole at the grocery store. A lot of the people approached me together and took pictures ( talk about awkward). Last but not least going back to the group term I would consider myself part of the out-group ( even if I was alone) because people were a bit hostile at first . This experiment taught me a lot , it taught me that I was more comfortable than I thought with the braking of folkways, that there are some RUDEEE!! people out there, and that society as a whole has way to manny norms etc.

FOLKWAYS!

 All of a sudden I found myself thinking sociologically when I was in math class. Earlier this week we learned about folkways;we actually have a project dealing with folkways. I was in math class and there instead of having rows we have groups of fours. Basically like the sociology classroom. This gives me a chance to people watch. In my table there are two boys and two girls.I was observing one of the boys who sits at my table ( who I will refer to as Billy). Billy was taking notes and all of a sudden he reaches in and picks his nose. He flicks whatever it was he got out to the ground. This was really gross to watch and it surprised me that he did it so calmly. He definitely broke a folkway . He continued taking notes just as he was before. He saw that I was watching him, and that didn't seem to bother him the least bit.To make matters worst this wasn't the first time I had seen him do this. It is strange to me that he was able to do this like nothing. I for one couldn't do that, and if I did people would view me differently because I'm a girl.  

The definition of a folkway is :" a norm that describes socially acceptable behaviors, but does not have great moral significance attached to it. Billy by picking his nose in public broke a norm. However the idea that different people are more likely to brake folkways than others came to me. I think that also like I mentioned different people breaking the same folkway cause different reactions. Billy is a boy and even though he broke a folkway, he is viewed a lot different than what I would be viewed as if I broke the same folkway.I also think that society as a whole has basic norms , and individuals may have different ideas of what they should be,so they are more likely to break these"basic norms".Not everyone follows what is expected from society like Billy. I'm really excited to break a folkway and see the different looks i get from people. I won't do anything gross like Billy did, but something a little more funny. I talk to Billy everyday and he sees this a normal thing. He said, "everyone does it." Breaking a folkway isn't an easy thing but we all probably have done it through out our lives. 

America in 5

The "All-American hot dog" symbolizes Americans to me because the hot dog itself is one of the most popular consumed food in America. On average an American person consumes 60 hot dogs per year. When I think of spotting events or barbecues in, Chicago hot dogs come to mind.



America is one of the fattest countries in the world, and we keep getting bigger. We have a lot of fast foods, and feed our children unhealthy food from birth. We are inducing fat into our future generations by feeding them fast/fat food.

      This is the U.S. Army symbol which is obvious,because it says
 U.S. Army, but there's more than meets the eye. America is known for a strong Army and for fighting for its place. We are a strong country, and are not scared of using our forces!

This to me symbolizes two things in our society: we're influenced strongly by the media, and we have have a stereotype on how women should look .We are influenced by the media, and buying the next best things. Our women model looks are influenced by the celebrities we see inside magazines, tv etc.



In America we are always super busy and have very little time to relax. We as Americans live a fast paced life for the most part. This busy city view symbolizes American society because it's so upbeat and hectic.We know how to work hard,and play hard.

3-3-11

 All of a sudden I found myself thinking sociologically when I was volunteering at the hospital today! I've been volunteering at Central DuPage Hospital for about a year and a half now. I love it there it always has such a warm environment. Even though it's a hospital, and most people have negative schemas towards it, I love it there. I can experience a little bit of everything and get an attempt at helping people! Today I was at outpatient services(where I normally am) and there people usually go and ask for patient room numbers,directions, wheelchairs, you name it! Today this lady came up to the desk, and she didn't speak english or spanish :(! I didn't know what to do she wanted something and we couldn't understand what it was. Judie (lady that works there) tried her hardest, but we couldn't figure it out for a while! I figured she was middle eastern and maybe Muslim, because she had a head scarf.We had her draw what she needed and at last we figured it out after about 10 minutes!This was really odd, because it had never happened before.It turned out that all she wanted was to know if there was a lost and found at the hospital! 
  This all made me think of this week's lessons because we did the whole activity with the two cultures! This reminded me of it because of the language/communication barrier, and how hard it was to get the answers that we wanted.It really showed me how in real life is just as hard as in the activity, because people don't always understand each other, and come from different places.Also it really emphasis how different cultures can be distinguished.What was really special about the whole interaction was that at the end we were able to help each other out just like we did on the classroom.What this thought me was not get frustrated because of differences, but to work around them. Something as simple as drawing resolved our communication problem. In class we talked about all the different cultures, and I appreciate cultures,but I think that if people don't attempt to accept that we all are different and assimilate to that fact our life's are going to be filled with conflict.