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.

Sociological Imagination & Sociological Mindfulness

This week, in class, we learned about Sociological Imagination and Sociological Mindfulness. Sociological Imagination involves individuals and how they're influenced by when and where they live. For example, my dad was born in the sixties in the countryside of South Korea. Therefore, while growing up, instead of going to the movies or amusement parks, with his friends, he went fishing in the lake and hiking in the mountains. As a result, as my brother and I were growing up, instead of taking family trips to places with fun attractions and shows, we visited places with a nice scenery. Even if we were in the middle of Wisconsin Dells, my parents would take us on the boat tours rather than the amusement parks. One time, we were driving through California, and my mom and dad started freaking out because they had seen a sign for a nearby farmers market! As crazy as that sounds, throughout the years, my brother and I gathered a love for mother nature. Through my mom and dad's obsession with nature, we learned to appreciate the world around us; however, that isn't the case for most people our age. Most of the people, in my grade, don't appreciate nature, as much as my brother and I, because we live in a society where weekends are spent indoors due to the new Call of Duty game that just got released for X-Box. This week, we learned that Sociological Mindfulness involved realizing that people had unique qualities and appreciating them. Since the American culture is so different from Korean culture, I often find myself in arguments with my parents. Since respect is such a key aspect, in the Korean culture, I can't even call my own brother by his name. Instead I've been raised to call him "oppa," which is older brother in Korean. I have become sociologically mindful because I learned to understand that my parents were as strict, as they were, about respect, due to when and where they were born. I realized that I might have thought that they were being unreasonable with me; however, I now realize that due to the differences in cultures, I had as much of an influence on them.

My life

My name's Grace, and I was born on January 26, 1995 in Chicago, Illinois. Although I'm South Korean, my family is freakishly tall. My dad is 5'11, my mom is 5'9, and my brother is 6'4. My parents love art, so I have a very deep love for music. Ever since I was little, I loved listening to music, and I've been in choir for ever since I can remember. My idols are Taylor Swift and Neil Patrick Harris, so, naturally, I am in love with the tv show How I Met Your Mother!

 Since my grandparents live with my family, I've been raised to help others, so as I grew older, helping others became one of my passions. Therefore, when searching for a career, I looked for a major that would help lead me to a career in the health profession. I want to be the person that relieves someone from their pain or the person who helps give birth to a new life in this world. My biggest influence in my life is definitely my dad. Ever since my brother and I were little, the nickname we called our dad was "The Dictator." Since my grandpa was never there for my dad, since we were little, my dad made sure that he was always there for us. You might be thinking, wow, he must've been a great dad though! While he is a great dad, he was there for us a little too much. He can be very strict, and whenever he goes out of town, it's probably the most relaxing month of my family's life! 

My biggest goal in life is definitely generic. I want to grow up to be successful, and I want to get married and have a family. I absolutely love kids, so I really want to have children that think I'm the coolest mom ever! Wait, no, I want my kid's friends to say that my kids have the coolest mom ever! Since my mom was born in South Korea, the culture is totally different than it is in America, so she's totally awkward when she enters a room. You know the parents that don't put their phone on silent, in public, and it goes off with the most embarrassing ringtone? Yea, that's usually my mom...