When George Met Abdullah....

Nobody wants to look racist, or insensitive to those from other cultures. However, watch the following video, with music added for comedic effect. What did you probably do while you were watching it?

You giggled didn't you? Why? Think about the norms of American culture. Men are not supposed to hold hands, but if you were to take a trip to the Middle East, this is expected behavior, and it's considered rude if you don't (and it doesn't have any homosexual overtones to it either). Our giggling (and the fact that the person who posted it felt the need to add it in) shows our ethnocentrism. Explaining the Saudi Arabian culture, and the expected behaviors that go along with it, shows cultural relativism.

That's Freegan Gross!

Or is it? We discussed the concept of subcultures and countercultures this week. Subcultures being those that are defined as those groups that set themselves apart from mainstream society due to their age, ethnicity, class, location or gender (thanks, Wikipedia). They may wear clothes to set themselves apart from the mainstream crowd, which sometimes backfires when their type of clothing becomes popular and everybody is wearing it. If you look to your left and right in the classroom, you will see subcultures all over the place. If you're on a sports team, that's a subculture. If you're part of a particular ethnic group, that's a subculture. You all are young, and I am old, which causes us to dress differently, especially as I would look totally ridiculous in Hollister clothing. My 87 year old grandma would look EXTRA ridiculous wearing a pair of Aeropostale sweatpants. We are part of different subcultures. If you look at COUNTERcultures, they reject the social norms and values of mainstream society that your garden variety subcultures ascribe to. Think hippies: they rejected the norms of 1950s post-war America and created their own society within America's borders that embraced sex, drugs, and rock and roll....all things that were seen as destructive to our country. Now fast forward to the freegans we talked about in class. What kind of culture are they....sub or counter?

They definately reject the mainstream American values of consumerism and consumption, however when they are dumpster diving for their groceries, or looking on the curb for a new couch or a great new pair of pants, they are looking for things that are part of mainstream America. Think back to the woman we saw in the video clip. She followed a freegan lifestyle, yet took her money that she saved and went traveling around the world. I love to save money as much as the next person, but I just can't bring myself to camp outside of an Einstein's Bagels to grab my breakfast. Thoughts?

It's Totally NORMal....

If you're reading this post right now, it's because it's a norm of our school culture to stay on top of your homework. If you're wearing clothes while reading this, that's a norm too. Which way do you look when you cross the street? You look left first, then right, correct? Go to the UK and you need to look right first, then left. I can't tell you how many times I almost got hit by one of those big red buses when I went to London because I'm so trained to look left first. This is why they have signs like this painted on their street corners, so that dopey tourists like myself don't end up in their hospitals:This pictures is not even really accurate. They usually post "Look Left Last". Use your imagination (and knowledge that they drive on the opposite side of the road than us) to think of what would happen if you looked left FIRST. If people don't look the right way when they cross the street, it's not just breaking a social norm, it's breaking the social norm called a more. You're causing some major social disruption if you don't look the right way when you cross the street. There is definately a "right" and a "wrong" way to how the chicken crosses the road both here in the US, and in other places around the world. You can go to San Diego and they cross some streets on a diagonal....choose not to take that path and you're slowing down traffic.

Another big norm that we have is going to the bathroom. Yes, it's grody to talk about bodily functions, but take a second to think about how that whole process works. I don't need to go into the details as we're all potty trained here. Now here's what a toilet looks like in Japan:

???? How on earth does that work? Well, you squat. Think about it. People in Japan traditionally don't sit on furniture, why would they sit on a toilet? If we went to Japan, especially after the long flight to get there, I'm sure we'd have to go...imagine walking into a bathroom and you see this? Confusion and pandemonium! If you understand Japanese culture, however, you realize not only are they germ-conscious, they also are big on preserving resources, and these potties use less water than ours do. Now I've done it. You'll be thinking of sociology the next time nature calls :)

While We're Talking about Communication...

I was looking for political cartoons for my Geography class and stumbled onto this one, which fits in beautifully with our discussion of language and communication within the US. Agree or disagree with its message?

Like, I Need To, Ummmm, Write a Post

Time was spent over the past few days discussing the role of language in the transmission of culture from generation to generation, as well as how the language itself is symbolic of the culture it represents. I know that a majority of you spent Thursday speaking extra slowly making sure not to use the word "like" in your sentences (I sure did during parent open house!), or listening to others speak, making tallies of how many times they used the word like in their sentences :) Language sure has changed! Text messages have abbreviated how we speak, we speak so quickly we've added in filler words to buy us time to come up with the vocabulary we need, we're dumbing ourselves down by using basic vocabulary instead of stretching our intelligence and using "big words," technology has turned nouns into verbs, i.e. friended, to Google, Facebooked, and we're a much more vulgar bunch than we have been in the past. I mean, take a look at this sign here.....honestly people, how many of you saw 'lol' instead of a drowning person?

Volunteer Alert!

Copied from the GivingDuPage website....

Volunteer Recruitment Fair is quickly approaching! It wil be held on September 25 from 10-4 p.m. at Cantigny Park. We will share the day with the popular Green Fair! So come on out and meet representatives from 30 agencies and learn how to "Recycle Your Talents!" in a new and exciting volunteer opportunity this fall.

Volunteer Alert!

Poached from today's Trib Local.....I worked at a PADS shelter in college and it was a great experience.

From October to May, the First United Methodist Church of West Chicago is "home" to the DuPage PADS (Public Action to Deliver Shelter) homless community every Thursday evening until Friday morning. This is the 25th year to provide this service and new volunteers are always needed. A new volunteer orientation with be held on Thursday, September 23, 2010 at 7 p.m., 643 E. Washington St., West Chicago. Shift work is scheduled for once a month. The shifts are 6:30 p.m to 9 p.m. setup and dinner; 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Light clean-up, personal laundry, make lunches; 1 am to 5 a.m. complete personal laundry and towels; 5 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. breakfast and clean-up. Also needed are volunteers to help prepare a home-cooked dish for supper or to provide essentails for breakfast or sack lunches (eggs, breakfast meat, lunch meat, bread or fruit). All the bed linens need to be laundered each week. The frequency for being assigned laundry duty depends on the number of volunteers and may be designated as few as three times during the entire season. Laundry is picked-up on Friday mornings and clean linens must be returned before the following Thursday. Can't commit to once a month? Sign-up to be a substitute volunteer for any shift. For more information please call Brian Hendricks at 630-231-7532 or 630-840-2448.

Heelo! Hsssssss....Five!

I'd love to see what a random stranger would think of that title :) We've moved on from our introductory unit and are entering the world of culture through our Heelotia simulation. Through all the hisses, shoulder taps, number listing and "heelotias," we can reasonably assume that we made a microcosm of society as a whole when two different cultures come together. We may not hiss at those from another culture, but we definately have our moments of unease when encountering those who are different than us.

Today we began our class definition of what makes up America (and by extension, us being Americans), containing the good, bad and ugly of the fine US of A. We're freedom-lovers who live hectic lives while going through the Starbucks drive through lane reading our latest celebrity gossip :)

It's easy for us to determine what makes up our culture, but even more interesting to look at an outsider's viewpoint on what make our country what it is. I'm curious to see what you had to think about Stefan Schirmer's take on America as compared to his native Germany. Or what you think about these little French kids (click HERE for the video) and how they view America. Are they correct in their assessment, or do they have a twisted look on our country?

Volunteer Alert!

Here's another option for you if you're stumped on what you can do for your service learning project...I am boosting this word for word from announcements :)

Attention all students interested in being a fabulous Snowball Teen Director! Applications are now available! See Mrs. Ventimilla in the Counseling Office to obtain a Teen Director Application and to sign up for an interview time. The applications are due on Wednesday, September 22nd to the counseling office. Interviews will begin the following Tuesday, September 28th. If you have any questions please contact Mr. Winquist in room 236 or Mrs. Schoenbeck in room 247.

I had several students do this last fall and it was a great experience and lots of sociology to be found!