Due: Monday, February 18, 2013, 10am CST
1. What are some things you look for when you look at
someone? Do you compare yourself to see if you share similarities?
2. Think of a time when there were cultural differences
between you and another person; how did their expectations of you affect the
way you perceived them
1. When I look at a person, I tend to look at their looks first. It is not like I am only concerned in looks, but it is the first thing you see. Their race and the way they dress is the most obvious thing about a person. I then try to not dwell on what race they are or what they are wearing, and figure out what kind of person they may be. You can tell a lot about a person’s personality by the way they hold themselves up.
ReplyDelete2. I really do not have any close friends that are not of the same culture as me. All my friends are white and mostly Christian. Because of the places I grew up and where I live now, there are not many different cultures around me.
1) When I initially look at a person, I tend to look for their personality characteristics and the way that they present themselves. I like to watch how they interact with others in order to see if they are personable or if the prefer to be alone. I'm also interested to see if there are any cultural distinctions, just to see if I can tell what general area they are from. The way a person presents him or herself can say a lot to bystanders who are watching. I don't always compare myself to others, just because I can usually tell if I would have any basic similarities to them (ethnicity, education, gender).
ReplyDelete2)Growing up, my community consisted of mostly white, middle-class, Christian families. My high school and even my grade school were not diverse at all when it came to my classmates and their backgrounds. I did not really experience diversity until I came to college. Although the vast majority of students are white, diversity stems from more than skin color. There are so many people from different areas of the country and even the world that are here to study in other areas besides my own. I'm not too sure about the expectations they had of me, but I like to think that I take the time to look at everyone as an individual and not categorize them based on where they came from.
When I look at a person, I look at their looks. Though I do not judge a book by its cover,the looks of a person is the first thing I see but I do not stop there. I look at a person's characteristics and their likes and dislikes. One of the reasons for this is to see if I share any similarities with this person. Another reason is to see if these similarities will help me to get along with this person.
ReplyDeleteI have been raised a Caucasian Catholic and that has been who almost all my friends are. I can not recall a moment where I have had a cultural difference with a friend or another person.
1. When I look at a person, the first thing that I notice is how they physically look. Going off of what we learned in class, my selection is affected by intensity, size, and contrast. Once I notice a specific person, I usually look at his or her face. I feel that someone's face can reveal a lot about the kind of person that they are. I do use social comparisons. I use these to compare myself to others and to find similarities and differences between us.
ReplyDelete2. I went to Paris two summers ago. Before I left on the trip with a teacher and group of girls from school, we learned about some of their customs and ways of life to familiarize ourselves with the country. My teacher informed us that a lot of times people in Paris are not too fond of tourists, especially American tourists. I feel that because we thought that the Parisians would not like us, we made them not like us. This was an example of the self-fulfilling prophecy. We perceived that the Parisians would not like us, and I am pretty sure that not many of them did. To them, we were the loud, obnoxious Americans. We acted in a way that made our expectations become reality.
1. When I meet someone new or see someone in passing, I usually first look at their general appearance – the way they are dressed, their hair, cleanliness, etc. I think this relates to when we talked about contrast in class because if the person is either very put together or very sloppy then that impacts my impression of them. I would say that I do compare myself to others, especially similarities and differences in personality to see if maybe I’d like to be friends with that person.
ReplyDelete2. Since I grew up in a Catholic school and household and a very sheltered community, I really didn’t have any experiences with people who were from a different culture than me. However, I do know that even between groups of students at my high school, perception really made a difference when making friends. I was a student that strived to do very well academically, but I had some friends who didn’t care as much about school as I did. This was mainly due to the fact that they didn’t perceive me as snobby or unreachable and I didn’t perceive them as slackers. I really do believe that an open mind and being careful about perceptions is key to making friends.
1. When I look at someone, I look at their body language and certain facial features. I am drawn to people’s smiles / teeth, so when I first meet someone or are holding a conversation with them up close that is one of the first things I notice. I do occasionally compare myself to them to see what is similar between us, such as do are we both brunette, do we both have long hair, what skin tone they are, if they have freckles, etc. I generally only compare myself to people of the same sex. When I am first meeting someone, I cannot help but to in a non-weird way exam them a little and try to make an opinion of them.
ReplyDelete2. I have been around people of many different cultures. If I could tell they had low expectations from me, for whatever reason, it usually made me perceive them as snobby or think that they were being judgmental and using stereotypes when perceiving me. Because of this, it would make me respond the same way they are. Then I would be judging them just as they are judging me because of how they first reacted towards me. However, if they seem to accept me and come off friendly, then I react the same way in return.
1. When I look at someone, I look for things like their appearance. I try to not judge a book by its cover, but sometimes it is unavoidable. When I look at someone I look at the way they dress, and act around others. I observe their body language and try to imagine how they are as a person. Yes, I do compare myself to people. Sometimes when I look at someone I think about how we share a similar style and I admire things about them such as clothing, hair, accessories, etc.
ReplyDelete2. With in my high school, there was a lot of diversity. I was not very close with many people of different cultures, but one of my close friends is Arabic. I never got the chance to meet his family, but he had mentioned before in the past about how strict his family is and how strict the dating world is in their culture. In my family, my parents were not very strict about things like that. My family is very accepting and I could not imagine being told who I could date or have close relationships with, it seems very unusual to me being raised in a Caucasian catholic household.
1) When I first meet someone I look at how they are dressed, body language and their smile, because those are the first things that you can physically see about that person. With those things I can usually get an idea of what the person likes, if they seem happy, and how they act around others. When I actually talk to them I try to find out what they like and their interests. I then compare their interests and views with my own to see if we could possibly get along or how I can at least deal with that person on civl terms.
ReplyDelete2) Growing up I didn't encounter people of different cultures, there was no diversity in our town or schools. So I have never really interacted with people of different cultures or had cultural differences with anyone.
Some of the first things that I look for when I first look at someone is color. Color will appear before anything else because I can see it even if my vision is unclear, at a glance, or out of my peripherals. By color, I typically mean race. However, that may go for the color of their clothes which draws me to their sense of style. Appearance at first glance is everything. I do not consciously compare myself with the person I look at but I believe that my brain registers the fact that someone who is white is the same color as me.
ReplyDeleteI went to a private high school that was very elite. Most of the students had parents who attended Ivy League universities and made a lot of money. I am not deprived by any means, I come from the upper middle class but the majority of the rest of the students came from families that were a lot higher on the socioeconomic level. They expected me to be just like them which, to be frank, was flaunting all their money. Knowing that this was assumed of me, I began to perceive them as snobby when in reality, some of the people I thought to be that way were not at all.
1.) One thing that I am always drawn to when I look at someone is their smile and their eyes. I feel that those two things give away a lot about a person, even if you do not talk to them you can tell sometimes what they are thinking through what a person looks at or if they are smiling they show that they feel happy about a certain thing. I feel that I am pretty open-minded and that when I meet someone for the first time I am look for their personality based on how they act around me and not solely based off of the way they look. I try to stay away from generalizing people, try not to judge people based off of the way they dress or if they have piercing or tattoos. I definitely compare others to myself; it helps me have an idea of whether or not a person is compatible with me and would be fun to hang out with.
ReplyDelete2.) I have had the opportunity of going to France twice and live with students around my age and their family for a week. Comparing the way my family lives culturally and the way the families I stayed with live culturally there were not many differences. Once though while we were at school, both the American and french students were going to eat in the cafeteria and they had cheeseburgers. I saw many of the French students take silverware and were eating their cheeseburgers with knifes and forks. Not wanting to seem like a typical messy American I also took silverware. Though right before eating I asked one of the French students if it was okay to use my hands to eat. I was very relieved when he said yes and a few of the other French students were using their hands to eat the cheeseburgers.
1. What are some things you look for when you look at someone? Do you compare yourself to see if you share similarities?
ReplyDeleteThe first thing I look at when I see someone is their appearance. I notice their clothes, shoes, and how they present themselves. Although I know it is probably not best to judge someone I have never talked to, I think that clothes are a great way for a person to communicate their feelings and express their personality. I want to say that I do not compare myself to others, but I know I do it. If I see someone that looks “cool”, I tend to note their clothes and compare them to the clothes I might be wearing and the clothes I own. If I do have whatever clothes I was looking at on the “cool” person, I might think better of myself.
2. Think of a time when there were cultural differences between you and another person; how did their expectations of you affect the way you perceived them
My life has been empty of cultural differences. I was raised in a catholic household and attended a private grade school and high school. Because there was no real diversity at either of these institutions, I am sure I will experience many cultural differences later in my life. I plan on facing this challenge by being understanding and not having a preconceived notion when communicating with those of another culture.
1. The obvious thing to look at when you first see a person is their appearance. I feel like you can gather a lot about the person just by looking at them sometimes. I try not to judge a person on solely their looks, but sometimes it is unavoidable. If i actually get a chance to speak with them, I try and figure out some personality characteristics. I would definitely say that I compare myself to others. I generally only compare myself to people I know and usually those people are friends. You almost have to compare yourself to someone if you think there could be a friendship. If you're going to get close to someone, you have to figure out if you're compatible and can get along, in this situation there isn't really a way to avoid comparing yourself with others.
ReplyDelete2. In my high school, there was quite a bit of diversity. We even had foreign exchange students for a couple years. Even though I was exposed to different cultures for most of my life, I never really got close to anyone that was raised in a different culture until college. I come from an extremely non-religious household. Church was never something that was important in my family and my parents let my sister and I make our own decisions about our beliefs. When I came to St. Ambrose, I came with an open mind knowing that it was a Catholic University and I literally know nothing about Catholicism. Most of my friends now were raised Catholic, and from Chicago. While there aren't huge cultural differences between us, I notice a lot of little things. Anything from saying words differently to noticing that people have strong pride in their heritage (which isn't really important around here). I'd say the main thing I've noticed since becoming close with them is really the religion factor. There are certain things that they'll refer to, and I'll literally have no idea what they're talking about. I don't think our cultures have affected the way that we've perceived each other, but it has definitely been an eye opener for me.
1. Well the first thing I notice is their appearance, honestly I think everyone does. We all use stereotypes without even noticing sometimes. I usually look at someone body language to give me hints if they are confident or shy, things of that nature. Yes, I do compare myself; I believe comparison is a natural thing to do. Most of us, especially myself want to be equal to others, so we all feel equality in our class room. I feel as humans we share many similarities, however, we do not share all of our attributes usually so it is hard to tell if we share many things or just a few. Many times people find that they disliked someone before they got to know them, this goes to show that we share arrange of things with many different people and types of people, wether we know it or not.
ReplyDelete2. As a white male I feel cultural differences are not usually as common. However, I suppose being in the theatre in these last few years of my life as brought on many preconceived notions or stereotypes upon myself. Nothing that really offended me. One example of this would be when I received a job at Dick's Sporting Goods. Many people there excepted me and enjoyed me as a fellow colleague. However, ironically there was this women there who was homosexual, and she had thought that I knew nothing about sports, just because I am heavily involved in theatre. Well little did she know that I absolutely loved sports; one day she was talking with another employee and I joined in talking about Basketball in the Olympics. I casually joined in and talked about the same players. She then interjected, "Do you even know who or what we are talking about?" and I then proceeded to show my grasp on the sport and player better then she could. This was just one instance where I feel our cultures clashed, but I showed how just because I like one thing doesn't mean I can like the same thing as other people.
1. When I look at someone, I seem to notice their skin color, eye color, height, weight, hair color, nationality, and the way they carry themselves. I am the type of person that constantly compares myself to others. I think most people also use this social comparison to evaluate themsleve. For myslef, usually it's height, since I'm short, and hair color I compare myself too. Weight as well.
ReplyDelete2. I live in a mostly white city in Iowa, so I don't spend a lot of time with people from other cultures. I have been over seas twice though. Once to Italy, and once to Egypt. In both, the biggest cultural challenge was the language. Another that was especially prevalent in Egypt was the style of clothing worn. My parents and I visited a church in Egypt, and my capris I was wearing weren't long enough, so they brought me a robe to cover myself. Gender differences were big there too, since when we entered the church, my mother and I had to use a different entrance than my father.