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.