It Is Not A Problem For Not Thinking

Due to the pressures and discouragements from others, my motivation to against their doubt of my abilities is stimulated. These forces unintentionally enhance my perseverance and provoke me to take firm action in order to show that I am better than what they think of. When I was in primary school, my home teacher suggested me to lower the bandings that I chose for my secondary school places allocation form. The teacher explained to me that, my ability to apply for band one schools is insufficient. Besides, in doing so, the percentage that the students can be admitted to their first choice will be higher. In turn, the school’s reputation will strengthen as well. At that moment, I felt humiliated and my anger of being looked down arise. Rather than giving up myself and confess to the distress, I determined to work even harder and try to learn extra knowledge in order to reinforce my foundation for the internal examination of the SSPA. I reviewed the lessons that I learnt every day and did all the extra exercises that my parents bought for me. Owing to these forces, I was encouraged to do my best out of the best and to prove that I am worthier than others’ expect. From then on, whenever I come across with adversities, I would think about this experience and utilize it as my motivation to overcome difficulties. Thanks to these forces, I discovered how to manage my ability to a larger

Throughout my teenage years, I was the embodiment of the average introvert. The pressure to succeed and become a first generation college student in my family was overwhelming, and the constant battle of not being good enough defeated me. My parents only spoke Spanish, and were unable to help me with my school assignments. As I struggled with my academics silently, my self-consciousness and insecurities grew. The fear of speaking out in public was a lingering shadow that developed more, as I grew older. Being that English was my second language, I had always felt inferior to those who spoke English as their primary language.

I experienced a cultural barrier when I was working down in the main floor as one of the service users was Indian. Trying to communicate with this man was a weakness for me as I had never been put in this type of situation before. I was aware that in his culture eye contact was considered disrespectful and I always tried my best

I grew up here in the U.S.A and my parents from the U.S also. I live in an ethnically diverse community that the residents show a deeper understanding of their ancestry’s culture. The term of senses that I witness is sight and audio. Since on the daily basis I hear, people speak other languages such as Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Hindi, Arabic, French, and Japanese. In the term of sight, I see who are from Asian background bow to each, African American nod at each other when walking pass, and people just slight smiling at each other. From my culture since I am African American we really do not that many of greeting each other. We would slight nod or smile and make eye contact or for the males who do a doing the handshake and shoulder bump maneuver.

Throughout the years many people have experienced where he or she does not fit in a certain type of group or society because they are not accepted through the rest of society. In the short stories, “How to Tame a wild Tongue by Gloria Anzaldua and “How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization” by Franklin Foer both authors talk about how society didn’t accept them because they were different from the “social norms” through the relationship of the individual and the community. With so many expectations from society the individual feels pressured from the rest of the group because they are different than others. With the pressure from others in the group, the individual becomes different by not acting like themselves just so they can f but the individual sometimes tends to forget what they believe in or even causing equality between each other.

Being prepared to adapt to a culture I keep an open mind when having a conversation. Doing this helps me to not be quick on judging but to think beyond from what I know then responding. This is a good skill when it comes to communicating with another culture because it prevents miscommunication from occurring. Adjusting to a new culture it is always good to know the rules. Everywhere you go the rules change or are different. This includes the law as well. Also, body language tends to mean all sorts of things in every culture it is different. For example Asians considered it rude to meet gazes too long. Where I came from the island of Oahu if you gaze at someone for a long time you are either admiring them or trying to remember where you seen that person

I recall when I was a mere five years old, when my mother and I were talking about my difficulty in making friends. “I know you are different, but you will find your way,” she told me through a tired smile. Back then, I had no idea how I was different or why it had to be that way. My mind started putting the pieces of the puzzle together in elementary school. I never finished my assignments on time. Not because I didn’t do them, but rather I found myself overwhelmed by each little detail. I remember my frustration as I wrote an essay on Egyptian mummification. All the other students were perhaps on their second or third page of the essay. Meanwhile, I had just crumpled up my third piece of paper to restart my essay. It didn’t do this because my essay itself was bad. Instead, every time I made mistake and crossed it out, the only thing I could focus on was that single pen scribble and how it ruined the rest of my paper. I had to get a new paper and start over, or risk feeling like the world would collapse in on me if it didn’t look

I want to follow my own mind and in doing so, I believe my future will become healthier than living with the pressure of those surrounding me. However, not following your mind would only lead you down a path that you might not want to take. My school experience changed me on a very big scale and the thing I care most about school is marks. Studying and keeping up to date with evaluations is stressful and inevitable, but it affected me positively. These practices are helping me develop into somebody who is a lot stronger and responsible. In this short story, Jing-Mei deals with her mother’s disappointment by discovering the better side of her in the mirror (717); I raise my expectations of my own marks to the maximum to encourage myself to become my greatest without disappointing myself in the grades I get. When Jing-Mei is met with the apparently genius Waverly, Jing-Mei could not help but mention, “pull[ing] her braids and punch[ing] her stomach” (723). The bad influences by people like in this scene can really make you lose a lot of confidence. At the same time, it forces you to get back at them; it forces you to not follow your own mind and just forget about it; it sucks you back in. I am especially familiar with this feeling because I keep seeing others doing better than me academically and that is why I feel so empty about getting a “bad” mark on a quiz or a test. However, these feelings are alike and I

During my high school career I began to realize and soon convinced myself that I had not found my niche yet. I looked around me and saw that unlike me, many of my classmates had something that they were amazing at that stood out. With a closed mind, I tried to compare myself to others, some were good at sports, others artistically gifted. However, the things that I was good at didn’t add up to the rest of the picture. I never took

Lauren Willcox ,a famous writer, once said, “Being original is more important than fitting in, especially if you have to change to fit in.” This quote demonstrates how fitting in and being original is a daily struggle amongst people. Along with fitting in many people judge others before looking at their point of view or learning the struggles they may be facing. Taking a walk in someone's else's shoes or seeing their point of view may turn a negative situation into a positive one. A past experience of mine has resurfaced in my head and allowed me to realize the other person's perspective on the situation.

During a heated argument with her, she impassionedly retorted,”Look! These scores don’t define you! You are more than a writing on a piece of paper!” And, in a moment of revelation, I finally understood the profundity of her central point: test scores don’t define you as an individual. From that time on, I decided to stop letting these numbers define me. After all, there were just numbers! Why did I allow them to consume my being? The cancerous tumor of self-hatred that churned and boiled in my brain dissipated into a feeling of pure ecstasy and release. I found her within the flurry of happiness and bliss. I found myself. Finally, I was me again. My drive, once produced from a fear of failure, transformed into an ambition to do well for myself. I wanted to be happy. But how? From that point on, I made a promise to be kinder to myself. I no longer based my value as an individual on the numbers I get on a standardized test. I no longer harass myself with the “undeniable knowledge” that academics make or break me. There is so much more to me than “writing on a piece of paper”. I am more than my test scores. I am my talents, my passions, and my drive. I. Am.

My life in many ways has not aligned with the norm. From kindergarten through all of high school, I was homeschooled. This made me different from many of my friends who went to traditional school. However, I was also different from many of the children in the homeschooling circles, in my interests and more outgoing personality. As a child, while I enjoyed playing with my friends from church and the neighborhood, I also really enjoyed listening to NPR, radio dramas, and watching documentaries. I am comfortable and accustomed to being a little different from others. When I was 16, I began to attend College of Lake County. There, my age is what separated me from my peers. I was never afraid or ashamed to talk about what made me unique, and one of my favorite things is learning what makes others individuals and their quarks. However, there is something that makes me different than many of those I’m surrounded by, that for many years I hid, denied, and felt ashamed of.

Intercultural communication is commonly explained as an interaction between people of 'different cultures whether defined in terms of racial, ethnic or socioeconomic differences.' Human communication consists of verbal and nonverbal messages (language and gestures) which are shaped by gender, social class or culture. Thus, what perimeters define the intercultural exchange and what primary messages do we need or try to convey?

I have faced many challenges throughout my life like test anxiety, experience with homesickness, and poor study habits. Within the five years, I have been trying to make better improvements. However, the central challenge that I have been struggling with is my lack of confidence. Since I was a child, I never thought I was good enough for the people around me. I often heard compliments from my teachers about how other students were really smart, when “my friends” judged me by the way I look, and even when my parents used to compare my sister and me. I never wanted to compare myself with others, but all these little situations affected my self-esteem. One thing that I cannot forget is when I came to the United States when I was fifteen years old. I first believed that I would be able to start my new life again. I expected to meet new friends, to study hard, and what I wanted the most, to be myself. However, one of the big things that I realized at first when I came to the United States was that I did not fit in. Since I did not know English before, I was not able to communicate with many people. Even though I wanted to speak up and express myself, I had the mentality that people would laugh at me because of my accent or my lack of vocabulary. In this seminar, I want to overcome the insecurity of being criticized by someone else and also stop comparing myself with people who are different than me. I want to become confident with who I am and understand that I don’t have to be

Throughout my self-observation, I felt the need to start with a baseline of who I am. Being raised in the south I learned to respect myself and others, but sometimes people are just right down obnoxious. Also, I hold myself to high standards because there’s no reason why I cannot make my goals a reality if I give it my all. This is known as Self-Concept: “The relatively stable set of perceptions you hold of yourself.” (Page 63) For example, in my observation I notice my patience level is very thin for people who do not have respect for other’s education. There's one girl in particular yesterday, who texted the whole class, which my nursing class is from 8:30am to 2pm. Therefore, as I'm trying to listen and highlight in my book, only thing I hear is the sound of her long nails tapping on her keyboard or her phone vibrating. Than during break she wants to ask me for the notes, because the teacher was moving too fast. Since this is still the first couple of weeks of school, I try to be a little more understanding, but I will not do someone’s work just for them not to pay attention. Therefore today, when the test came around I had studied my butt off and scored very well. But for the girl that sits next to me, she complained that the test was too hard and how we didn't have the appropriate information to study for the test. In that moment, I found myself comparing our differences, I work hard for my grades. I study and work my butt off then there's those people that don't do anything in class but are the first ones to complain. The book recognized this as Social Comparison: “Evaluating ourselves in terms of how we compare with others.”(Page 66) Throughout the rest of my day, I noticed I compare myself to a lot of different people without even noticing. Like when I was driving home I saw all these people texting and driving, and I just could not help thinking like “what the heck, I can’t even look to the side without going into the other line so how in the world are they texting!” I do not compare myself to other to prove whose better but I believe it just natural to compare others to yourself.