Cultural Reflection Paper

Here’s a joke. What do we call a person who speaks two languages?: A bilingual. What about a person who speaks three languages?: A trilingual. What about a person who speaks only one language?: An American. The joke may not be funny, but it tells one piece of truth about the American education system; despite the multicultural background of the American society, our students are not quite multicultural when it comes to their linguistic ability. Recently, the debate on bilingual education has been brought to public attention. While both proponents and opponents of bilingual education pose valid arguments, those rooting for bilingual education hold a stronger case, as the lame-but-sadly-true joke introduced earlier demonstrates that the lack of exposure to the world culture and language is a pressing issue for American students.

My Culture is that my Grandpa was in the military for two years. He was a Military Policemen. He served in VietNam for one Year. He Was 19 when he went in and 21 when he got honorably dischanged. He Took basic training in Ft Lewis Washington,took military police training in Fort Gordan Georgia,and went to Fort Campbell Kentucky for more training before he went to Viet Nam. Got out in July,1969.He Had lots of friends. Everybody that he met usally goes their own way and Grandpa met Grandma and got a job and worked hard to raise a family. He misses a couple of his friends , and he kinda liked the training because it built muscles and learned respect. He didnt met John F Kennedy was assassinated before grandpa went to the army,so didnt meet him because

As a future educator it’s important to understand that diversity will be seen in classrooms. As a result, it’s the educator’s role to become cultural competence, which is the ability to successfully teach students who come from cultures other than your own. Diversity can be different types of race, religions, gender, languages, customs, and culture. Teachers need to see all their students equal regardless of their diversity and culture background. This course helped shape my character and broaden my views toward other cultures. I had many memorable experiences due to taking this course.

Relatedness is the socially recognized ties that connect people in a variety of different ways. It attempts to understand and record the ways in which people in specific ethnographic contexts articulate and engage in the relationships that are important to them in everyday life. Relatedness can take many forms such as friendship, marriage, parenthood, shared links to a common ancestor, workplace association, just to name a few. These forms can be shared via many different means as well. They can be shared physically by a body substance such as blood, semen, genes, or mother’s milk. It can be through spiritual means such as soul, spirit, nurturance, or love. You can also have cases where more than one substance is shared.

For my second culture immersion project I went to eat at a Mexican restaurant. I went with my group members Ryan, Brian and Brian's girlfriend. I went this pass Tuesday after we had our group meeting. I don’t recall the name of the restaurant but I know it was downtown Appleton near by the Walgreens. . This was good choice for the project because I never have eaten at an actually Mexican restaurant before.

My cultural background is American, Jewish, Israeli. My grandparents are from Austria and Romania. Times were tough for the Jews living in Europe, so fortunately my father's parents came to America in time for a safe haven, while my mother's parents had to bear the holocaust. After WW2, my grandparents would rotate between living in America and Israel, which is why I was born into a Zionistic and modern orthodox family. Years ago, an American living in Israel lived a pleasant life. I remember them telling me they once got around 100 shekels for the American dollar and now you only get maybe 4. My parents sent me to the Hebrew Academy of New City in order for me to learn American and Jewish values. Even though I was barely exposed to Austrian

In the beginning of the observation I noticed the small food and liquor stands that, thirty people at a time, were gathered around of. The subjects were all socializing with other members of the town like how a Wine Festival normally goes but, I noticed something very odd about this particular festival, live music. At German Festival, such as Wine Festival, there is no music because it causes people not to socialize with each other, which it did. The songs that the local band sang American songs such as, “Dream On” by Aerosmith. I was greatly shocked about the lack of German songs that were sung at this cultural event. My Aunt Manuel was talking to her friend and stated, “Germans are scared to admit they have pride in their country and

To do my journal assignment for cross-cultural learning class I met my Korean friend Hyung Jun. We met in Gilgal café after we had our lunch, so since it was the peak hour for Gilgal café we have moved to the 2nd floor where it is little quitter, while I have treated my friend with a drink. I started the conversation with question that I really was interested in Korea and told the fact that I am planning on studying my graduate degree in Korea.

My culture is really unique because there is a different language, costumes, and dancing. I am from Erbil, Iraq. Most people never heard of Kurdistan and it is complicated for me to explain. Kurdistan are the parts of Iraq, Turkey, Syria, and Iran. My family is Kurds and we speak the language called Kurdish. Kurdish music is really odd yet interesting. Parwana is a popular folk music from Kurdistan and I honestly don't know who sang it. We didn't have rich history of music. When you listen to Parwana (Spin), it is very happy song that leads people to dance. It is hard for me to translate what is the song actually means. My uncles played the song and they are using unique instruments like Daf (frame drum), tanbur( a fretted string instrument),

My culture is known to the Igbos. We originated from the southern part of Nigeria. For this assignment, I selected the India culture. I chose this culture because both cultures have one thing in common. That is only a male family member such as brother; father, son, and husband can do the last rites. When woman losses are husband, neighbors are immediately aware by the loud cries and screaming coming from the house. Immediately after people are aware of the news, people start visiting the house all day with food for the family. Friends and well-wishers will continue to visit the family even after the funeral with food and other means of support. The widow will be surrounded by women whose job is to provide the inconsolable wife with encouraging words and moral support. It is customary for a widow to cry out loud, if she doesn’t, people might get the impression that she is not affected by the death of her spouse. They might start accusing her of been responsible for his death.

The world we live in is such a unique and diverse place, and with new technological advances being made every day, we are becoming more intertwined and in tune with each other. With a click of a button, we have to ability to view and chat with others that live on the opposite side of the world. With that being said, we are also being exposed to a multitude of cultures, beliefs, and traditions that may be quite different from our own, and some cultural practices can be seen as immoral when viewing them from an outsider’s perspective. In order to evaluate these practices practically and properly, there are three theories that can be used when evaluating the morality of practices from other cultures. These three theories include ethical relativism,

Cultural Diversity can have a multidimensional context of many aspects of the life of an individual which includes age, gender, faith, sexual orientation, profession, tastes, socioeconomic status, disability, ethnicity, and race (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), 2011).

For this investigative assignment, I interviewed three of my closest friends about their perspectives on bilingual education in the United States. One of my friends, who I will call “A,” said that bilingual education is important for students because it helps them broaden their perspectives on the world. Students are exposed to learn different cultures and respect them, promoting multiculturalism in our country. “A” said that if students were only exposed to English-only classroom setting, they would most likely be ignorant of other cultures. She also told me about her experience when she was in an ESL program during her middle school year. She described the program as useless because she and her classmates learned broken English from each other. She somehow managed to get out of the program and put herself into the mainstream English class. My other friend, who I will call “B,” stated that bilingual education is helpful in developing a wider cultural perspective and cultivating a person suitable for the globalized world. As a foreign-born American and working as an international student coordinator, she emphasizes the importance of acknowledging and respecting different cultures. She believes that bilingual education can help students to achieve better knowledge on growing multiculturalism in our country. My last interviewee, who I will call “C,” also believes that bilingual education is important to cultivate young minds by helping them to respect not only their own but

1. Culture is perceived as a way of thinking that influences the behaviors of a group of people.

As a culturally responsive teacher, one must “accept all students as they are” (Glickman et al., 2014, p. 374) and take the responsibility to help students learn. Howard recommends, as noted in Glickman et al., (2014) building relationships that convey genuine feelings for student’s success. A caring teacher accepts all students just as they are and, encourages them to learn and to be fruitful. A culturally sensitive teacher that incorporates all students’ backgrounds and linguistic diversity propagates a multicultural classroom (Glickman et al., 2014, p.374). In such a classroom, bilingual students feel included and perceive that the community will benefit from their input; therefore, they participate actively in daily activities.