Paco and Kohl

It was very nice to meet the two Native American students, Paco and Kohl, in my English 102 class. They gave us an amazing presentation and taught us a lot about Native Americans' culture, and shared their own personal experiences with us. Paco was very passionate when he was talking about his stories. One thing I learned from them is to keep an open mind to learn another culture. The real culture is not from the media and books, but from the personal stories and interactions. In order to know one culture, you have to know the people in person and try to observe the culture differences. I like when Kohl explained how generous that Lakota people are, and it makes me to think of my own culture. There is similarities between different cultures. I really enjoyed listening to them, and I learned a lot from them. 

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

“The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” is a novel for young adults written by Sherman Alexie who grew up on the Spokane Reservation in Wellpinit, which is the same place with his character, Arnold Spirit, in the novel. The novel tells the story of Arnold, a budding cartoonist who leaves his school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend a white high school. During his young age, he deals with poverty, alcoholism, racism, and death, but his hope, love and the power of positive thinking give him strength to fight, and also light the path to chase his dreams. 

In the book, poverty amongst Native Americans causes many negative outcomes such as low-income, poor education, and increased rates of alcoholism. Arnold tells us "Poverty doesn't give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor." When it comes to being poor, Arnold doesn't say that it makes him a stronger or better person, he views poverty as something incredibly to overcome, and a condition that simply reinforces itself. 

Reflection of Summary of Normative Communication Styles and Values

Stereotype is an oversimplified set of beliefs about members of a social group. The problem of stereotyping people has been existing to our society for a long time. In the article Summary of Normative Communication Styles and Values, children are taught how to treat persons with disabilities at an early age. Society views persons with disabilities in certain ways, and it already formalized as social expectations for how to behave in  our society. 

The stereotyping of persons with disability is not the only issue that exists in our society. Racial and ethnic stereotyping are most familiar issues in the United States. For instance, Africans are typically presented as living in tiny hurts in rural village, wearing skimpy clothing. Native Americans may be presented positively, as acutely environmentally conscious, spiritual, wise, loyal, or with extraordinary skill in hurting or tracking. They may also be portrayed negatively, as indigent, drunk, or violent. East Asians are stereotypically portrayed as being smart, and particularly talented with mathematics. I have an personal experience during taking the math class at school. I was in a math class last quarter, I was the only Asian student who was in that class. Every time when the teacher gave the exams back, people thought I was the one who did great all the time. Once, I talked to one of the classmates and told her that I had a very hard time to study in that class. She was very surprised and said, "Really? You are Asian, math should be very easy for you." I felt shamed when I heard this because I thought I should be good at math as an Asian. In fact, not all the Asians are good at math. Stereotyping really shaped the way people view to each other.

After taking the table of Communication Style and Values, I noticed that some of my assumptions were not fit into the form that it was supposed to be because of adaption to other cultures. Some of my assumptions has been changed during the time that I am living abroad. 

All in all, we know that stereotyping is always true because it is a conventional and oversimplified conception of a social group. We should understand that every one is different, and try to be critical of ourself before judging people.