CAPS Blog #3

This weeks reading was very straightforward and self-explanatory.  It is not until you actually make meaning and apply it to everyday life that it then becomes useful.  After reading the UNL Haters Tumbler did I realize how important it is to make sure everyone learns about language, nonverbal communication and cultural spaces of different cultures.  I hold a relativists position when it comes to language in believing that language influences our cultural patterns.  Our cultures define how fast week speak, how much information we give, our voice tone and many other things.  Our culture also affects our nonverbal communication and spaces.  Every culture has their own set of unwritten guidelines regarding proximity, use of eye contact, chronemics and how we define ourselves based on our surroundings. 

When I was looking at the UNL Haters Tumbler, I felt my blood boiling inside of me.  I just cannot imagine how people can make such ignorant comments against groups of people they don’t even know.  I had a situation like this my freshman year at UNL.  I had a friend that I played tennis with all through high school who was racist.  I didn’t really notice it in high school but when we got to college it was over the top.  She made racist remarks like, “I cannot go eat in Selleck because I see all those Asians and want to punch their squishy faces.”  I asked her if she had any personal experience with Asians that she had this hatred for them and she responded no.  She said she was not racist but acted the opposite.  I was amazed and outraged.  After a week of this I stopped talking to her and haven’t hung out with her since.  I do not want to associate myself with a person who has those types of views.  I am so glad people are being called out for being ignorant.  Other cultural groups are just like your own if you learn the way they act and think.  Once you understand the way their culture works then you can understand why that culture does the things they do.  The people on this site need to sit down and stop being so egocentric and learn to love everyone and their differences. 

This week, I got to experience one of the coolest things ever.  I am part of a business club called SIFE and our team went to the SIFE World Cup to watch the presentations of the top teams in 38 different countries.  I have never got to be a part of something so culturally diverse and eye opening and probably never will be again unless I go to the Olympics someday!  We got to go to a culture fair where each country set up a booth and handed out a gift from their country and dressed in their traditional clothing.  Putting myself in a situation where I was the minority for a change and could not understand what everyone was saying was such an eye opener.  I saw all these language differences and space barriers.  I have already been informed so I was not offended when a man would shake all the men’s hands in our group but not the women’s.  I believe everyone should live a day in someone else’s shoes and learn the way they live then there wouldn’t be so much discrimination and hate. 

Here is a video of the opening ceremony of the SIFE World Cup 

and all of the different flags

!