Thursday, July 14, 2011

Culture Interview

For this assignment I wanted to choose 3 people with very different back grounds to compare their views.  I interviewed Ernesto who is a 34 year old Hispanic male, Jonathan who is a 17 year old with a Causation mother and African American father and Belinda who is a 53 year old Caucasian female. This is what they had to say:

Ernest:  Culture is the environment a person is raised in and makes them what they are.  Diversity is people coming from different backgrounds-being different from one another not just because of race but as an individual person.  My twin brother and I are both Hispanic but still very different people.
Jonathan:  Culture is society’s way of life. It is a person’s customs, religion, food and the way they wear their clothes.  Diversity is each person’s individuality. 
Belinda: Culture is how we are raised and what is passed down to us from the generations. It is where we come from and what we believe in.  Diversity if the differences in us all that make the world what it is today.

In this course, culture as a person is raised and heritage have been mentioned.  Also customs, religions, food and dress have been pointed out as specific examples of surface culture.  Nothing about power struggles or dominant cultures were mentioned.  I was surprised that everyone’s definitions were pretty similar.  I think that is a positive sign that society is progressing in our understanding of culture and the appreciation of others.
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Established Contact with My German Childhood Professional

My contact actually changed from Tonya Schmidt to Thomas Volz. He studied in New York and Turkey. He taught school in Turkey and in Boveria at the Abuture, which they call the place of higher learning durin ghte first years. He also taught Turkish students to speak English for 4 years. He has 3 boys of his own that are 11, 12 and 15 years old. Whe I asked him to tell me about povery in Germany that he might have experienced and how it affects children, this is what he wrote to me:
"In Germany the federal social security system is (still) so comprehensive that you hardly notice any differences between rich and poor students in class. As (still) most of our schools end at 1pm, lunch, nutrition and healthcare is predominantly considered a private matter. People are very touchy about the government interfering in these questions. So it is left to health care providers to inform and teach the public on a voluntary basis. Of Course schools support this, but not as an integral part of the basic curriculum. The stress is on academic subjects".
"However, times are changing. More and more schools exand their lessons into the afternoon and the schools provide lunch. This is generally a cheap alternative to private lunch served at home. Here the schools monitor ingediences and nutrition very closely because many parents are very aware of this topic"
"The gap between rich and poor is, however, quite obvious on a higher academic level. Children that are academically supported at home are more likely to proceed to higher education and achieve better results on the long run. This more a question of how educated the parents/families are. But as education and income are unextricably entwined the link between academic achievement and income is a sad (German) fact"