Culture Shock

This week in Sociology, we learned about culture shock, cultural relativity, and ethnocentrism. Culture shock is when we are exposed to different rules and ways of living life than we are used to. Ethnocentrism is when we experience that culture shock, but we choose to think of our way of living as superior to another way of living. Cultural Relativity is the way that sociologists try to think. They make an effort to accept other new ideas and ways of living that are different from their own. One way this applies to my life is that I live in a traditional Korean household while attending a school centered around an American mindset. At times, it can be hard for me to adjust from my life at home to my life at school. That's because, in the Korean culture, respect for elders is the most important aspect. For dinner, we all have to eat together, and I'm not allowed to start eating until the oldest person at the table has had their first bite. When I get home, I have to bow from the waist up, and greet my elders. I'm not allowed to talk back or call anyone older than me by their first name. Once, when I was young, I went to my friends house, for dinner, and I greeted her mom with a little bow. Her mom looked at me strangely, and I was really confused. Then, she greeted me, and when I called her Mrs. Smith, she told me to call her Ashley. At that moment, I had experienced culture shock. I didn't know how to call her by her first name because I was never allowed to call my elders by their name. Since I felt uncomfortable, I continued to call her Mrs. Smith, and when we sat down for dinner, I waited for my friend's parents to start eating. When they saw I wasn't eating, they asked me why, and I explained my culture. At first, they didn't understand, but as I continued to explain, they began to have cultural relativity.

The Bronx Tale

This week in Sociology, we watched a movie called "The Bronx Tale." This movie was about a boy named Calogero, who lived in the Bronx, and grew up under the direction of a mobster, Sonny. Throughout the movie, Calogero showed to belong to many groups. He was a part of his family, his childhood friends, the Italian mobsters, Italians in general, and his girlfriend. However, although he belonged to many different groups, his master status was with the Italian mobsters. That's because, as soon as he covered Sonny's crime, he was given lots of respect, even at his young age. People seemed to see him, and have immediate fear just because he was associated with Sonny. However, although that was his master status, it wasn't the group that he was actually a part of. For example, when Sonny and his group beat up the cyclists in the bar, Sonny was hiding in fear. Although violence is associated with the Italian mobsters, Sonny shows no act of violence throughout the film because the group he's actually a part of are the Italians. Calogero is associated with the mobsters, but it doesn't mean that he is also a violent person. Also, this movie showed examples of the Social Construction of Reality because of the racial mindset throughout the movie. For example, when Calogero was young, he was with his group of friends when a bus passed by with an African American boy. Although the boy didn't do anything to harm or offend Calogero and his friends, they used violence and language against the boy. Since Calogero and his friends were young, it was clear that they hadn't been exposed to many African Americans enough to develop their own hatred towards them. Therefore, it was obvious that their society had made hatred towards African Americans an acceptable thing to do. Also, they had learned to swear at a very young age, and their parents didn't seem to mind. That shows that in their society, swearing is a way of expressing anger that has become normal to them. One way this applies to my life is that one day while I was babysitting, this little boy thought it would be okay to swear at me when I told him that he couldn't touch a glass vase on the counter. Although I thought that it was absurd that he was swearing at such a young age, it didn't surprise me all that much. However, it's amazing how much I was scolded for swearing in my household, in my teens, but how this little boy wasn't scolded at all by his parents.   Although we were both doing the same thing, our society has rationalized everything that little kids do because they say "they're too young to know what they're doing/saying."

Categories and stereotypes

This week in Sociology, we learned the difference between categories and stereotypes. Categories are  when objects or people are put into specific groups depending on specific characteristics. In my life, the categories/ groups I'm a part of are my church, Stevenson, my family, and my friends. On the other hand, stereotypes are loose assumption or generalizations that people associate with different groups depending on little or no evidence. For example, since my brother is a very tall male, whenever meeting someone, everybody asks if he plays basketball. Although he does, it's interesting to see how people can just assume that tall people must play basketball.

Social Construction of Reality

This week in Sociology, we learned that the Social Construction of Reality involved how our society influenced how we experienced the world. That means that our actions are based on what is socially acceptable at the given time. For example, this week during class, Mr. Salituro decided to come to class in a Pitbull outfit. As I saw students entering the room, everybody seemed really confused as to why he was dressed as Pitbull. However, when he showed us the picture of him dressed as Gru, from Despicable Me, with his family on Halloween  the whole class seemed alright with the idea, and he even received a lot of compliments. This is showing Social Construction of Reality because Halloween is recognized as the day when people can dress up as other characters; however, when Mr. Salituro showed up to class as Pitbull, on a random Thursday morning, the class seemed confused. That's because it isn't normal in our society for the teacher to randomly dress up on a typical school day.