Culturally Relative

This week in sociology we studied cultural differences around the world. One thing we talked about was the different hand gestures that people make. Sal mentioned the gesture/sound the Japanese make when they are embarrassed or don't want to say no. My student teacher in french is Asian. He has only been in the U.S. for a couple of years. Everyday in class he always does that gesture/sound Sal showed us. He does it when we asked him question that he possibly didn't know the answer to or when he was just simply thinking. All of us were really confused about that gesture. We were also starting to get a little annoyed too because it happened every day more than once. However, now, I understand it and respect it. I know that he is nervous when he teaches and his way of teaching is so different from the way we are used to. His way of expressing uncertainty or embarrassment is normal for his culture, but it isn't normal for us. I guess I was being a little ethnocentric by mocking his hand gestures, but now that I understand what it means, I am culturally relative. Everybody has different ways of communication- writing, speaking, and using hand gestures. Every culture also has different norms. We talked about all the different kinds of toilets in class. When I was in France, I noticed that the bathroom is separate from the actually toilet. The toilet room is just a small room with only a toilet and that is it. The bathroom has everything else. It took a while to get used to it. I would go to the bathroom to expect a toilet but realize the real toilet is across the hall. When I think about it, it makes a lot of sense. If you translate the word "bathroom" literally it means I room to bathe in, not do your business in. That is why in France, you ask 'ou est les toilettes? meaning where are the toilets. If you want to ask for the bathroom, you use a different expression. All these other countries- France, Japan- they are so much cleaner than the U.S. Wow, we should really learn from those countries and transform our "bathrooms" into clean and germ-free places.

A Bronx Tale

While watching "A Bronx Tale" I really understood how it relates to sociology. The movie explained how the people around you influence you differently. Calogero's neighborhood has socially constructed their own reality. Because Calogero (C) lives in a very racist neighborhood and hangs out with extremely racist friends, he is unintentionally influenced by them. As hard as he tries to treat everyone equal, when he got in a fight with Jane's brother he made a racist comment. He didn't mean to, but it just slipped out since he is so accustomed to hearing his friends and his neighbors talk like that. C's roles in each group he belongs to are actually very similar. With his friends, with Sonny, and with his dad C acts as a bystander. He tries to not get into trouble, but he doesn't back away from the fights either. I feel like he really wants to share his mind, but something is just holding him back. This is probably because of how and where he lives. Nobody wants to be seen as an outsider or less of a man. In addition, I was really surprised to see how beneficial the relationship between Sonny and C is for both of them. Sonny keeps C in line while C makes Sonny feel more human, and less of a respected/feared figure. Sonny and C's relationship reminds of "A Gang Leader for a Day" when the gang leader befriends the interviewer. As C starts molding into his own person and stops worrying so much of what others think of him, his statuses change. I starts dating a black girl, something his neighborhood would never think of doing. He also stands up to Sonny and starts to "love" him rather than "fear" him. Finally, he starts to disobey his father. C is breaking away from his socially constructed reality and is building a new reality for himself.

Ascribed Status Fading Away

In class we talked about the many groups you can be apart of. Once you put yourself in that group, you define your status. We said that an ascribed status is something involuntary- you are born with it. This really got me thinking because even if you are born as or with something, you can always change it nowadays. You can convert to another religion, dye your hair, wear color contacts, reconstruct your face, change genders, and you can even runaway or emancipate from your family. So, why do sociologists even include ascribed statuses? Although you were born with this status, it has no importance to you anymore. I feel that statuses (especially a master status) should be important to you and you should want to have that status. Today, we are able to change any part of our lives because we are free to make our own decisions. Because we have free will, we create our own statuses. We make decisions that shape the way we live our lives. Thus, I believe that we place ourselves in groups voluntarily. We are never forced to stay in one group- there is always a way out. Centuries ago, people didn't have a way out of their group. In many third world countries people are stuck with their ascribed status. With modern medicine and technology, we Americans living in 2009 can always change our statuses. Whether you can change your status or not all depends on your culture, where you live, and what time you live in.

The Social Construction of Reality in School and in "Lost"

I thought today's lesson was very interesting. It made me think how everything we do was based off of one person saying it was socially expected. For instance, everything about school was created by the people. We have a bell that dictates how long we are in each class for. Our day is revolved all around time. At 1:47, sixth period ends on a second day of the week schedule. RANDOM. Also, we were trained from the start to go into our classes and wait for the teacher to stand in front of us and talk. Now I understand why Mr. Sal began our class with the awkward silence. The lesson about F-227 also got me thinking about the TV show "Lost." They were stranded on this island and knew that rescue would never happen. So, they created rules and organization. They had the hunter and the leader. In addition, everyone's backgrounds were deleted. It no longer mattered that Kate was a felon, Sawyer was a con-man, Charlie was a drug addict, or Locke was a paraplegic. They created their own destinies now that they were detached from the real world. However, when six of them were found, they too decided to keep their experiences on the island a secret (just like the survivors of F-227). All the strange and mysterious events were too out of the ordinary for the norm to handle. Yet, the people on the island grew accustomed to the oddness of the island. The Social Construction of Reality is different all over the world because of our traditions, morals, and culture.