My View of American Undergraduate Culture - Essay Example

?Yan Li Jelena Runic English 1003 21 Nov My View of American Undergraduate Culture American undergraduate culture is a totally brand new knowledge for me, since I came here, so I read a book, which is named My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student written by Rebekah Nathan. The book mentioned that, after fifteen years of teaching anthropology at a large university. Rebekah Nathan had become baffled by her own students. Their strange behavior---eating meals at their desks, not completing reading assignments, remaining silent through class discussions---made her feel as if she were dealing with a completely unrelated culture. Therefore Nathan decided to do what anthropologists do when confused by a different culture: Go live with them. She enrolled as a freshman, moved into the dorm, ate in the dining hall, and took a full load of courses. And she came to understand that being a student is a pretty tricky job,too. Since everyone's campus experience is brand new and different, I am going talk about somethings she did not mention in her book. Moreover I would like to discuss something she mentioned, because I have an differing view on those things (Bryson 93). Rebekah Nathan intended to participate in every step of being a freshman. And she was trying to learn how to integrate into campus life, in order to touch students better. During this particular type of research, Rebekah Nathan tried her best to observe all the details around. For example, "at the first day of the new semester, every freshman had to go to the designated place, because they should check in and get keys of their dorms. While Rebekah Nathan got the key, her roommate was a little depressed, because she knew that her roommate was not a girl who got a similar age to herself. However, when Rebekah was looking at her roommate, her roommate was still smiling to Rebekah."( Nathan 20) This is only a part of her experiences, she also participated in activities as many as she could, on account of understanding students' thoughts. In addition, she tried to communicate with other students on her own initiative, as she wanted to know what they were doing everyday and how students manage their college lives. Nathan spend much of book discussing individual student experiences and not much time on peer groups. I consider that Rebekah Nathan does not involve every type of situations, hence I am going talk about something she did not cover (Nathan 56). Gym is the first step for me to learn of American undergraduate culture, because this place is a public place for all the students to exercise, no mater where you are from or what language you speak, students just play together. Additionally, in my opinion, it is more comfortable to playful learn, because it is a kind of leavening influence. For instance, when I just came to UConn, I was too shy to talk to any American student. However, one of my Chinese friends told me that I could go to the gym, people in gym were pretty nice and easy to talk, because when you were playing with them, it meant that you guys had same hobby, therefore it would be easier to communicate. After I arrive at gym, I straightly walked to the basketball place, because I played it a lot when I was in high school, and it was also my most adept movement. I stood on the sidelines, a little while, some American students ask me if I wanted to play together, I said" Sure!"with nodding. During the game, a strong guy ran me down incautiously, but he put the ball down and help me up rapidly with saying" Sorry." From these point, I found that American students were greatly friendly in human behavior. To communicate with American students is the most orderly way to learn of American undergraduate culture.Since I was a truly freshman, I was easier to communicate with American students than Rebekah Nathan. As I was talking to my American friends, I found that American students could say anything they want. Sometimes they even played joke of their won country, it really shocked me, because in my country, people all respect our own country, due to the profound historical culture. However American history only lasted about 240 years, American culture also was contributed by many other cultures. Additionally, American students also allow the law of freedom of speech that was the most essential reason. Payable to this cause, American students talked to me what they wanted (Bryson 98). To listen to the conversation between American students is also a good way to learn their culture as an international student. For instance, one day, I was watching Television with my American friend, Max. Suddenly, a strange man came in our dorm and talked Max. He just said something so fast that I can not even catch up with it, after he talked, Max just said "it looks cool!", then that strange guy nodded his head and left. Then I asked Max "What did he talk about?" Max said " I do not know." I was confused, " Then why did u say it looks cool?" "It is a kind of slight over, just do not want to talk to him a lot."Max answered. I just realized that American students usage of phrases like"see you soon", "what's up" and"how are you".For Americans, these often friendly greetings or endings to conversation. I found that Americans do not truly mean what they say. Moreover, I also learned that, there were many words do not truly mean what they mean when you were speaking them. For example, when American students found a car very fancy or great, they would not say " it looks fancy"or " it looks great",they said "it looks super sick!" In this sentence, the "sick" means cool and fancy. Thus, I found that American undergraduate culture was so diversified, because everything was changing and integrate more other culture or elements (Nathan 36). The process of learning foreign culture is a complex task and the cognitive research has previously indicated that it has been difficult to learn and understand culture that it was thought. It has been assumed that the gradual process of committing historical narratives constructed around significant events, names, details to memory would most certainly result in the sturdy of understanding the culture. The most recent research on learning culture largely focuses on expert-novice studies and relationships between how teachers teach the current history and how the students learn the process of thinking historically. The various views on historical thinking and the understanding on development from expert novice research show how the teaching has influenced the development among the novice (Rothenberg 106). As students become more sophisticated regarding their understanding, the simplistic view has been abandoned even though the history remains relatively inaccessible. Schlesinger’s argument has based a thesis on the current cult of ethnicity of imperils which are very basis with regards to the American experiment. Despite the multiculturalists thought on the patent diversity Schlesinger’s think that the diversity has for long been the America’s trademark since inception. The unique admixture of people has largely prompted with both native born and the foreign observers’ thought. The Americans hold in common that the most explicitly expressed system of the general ideas, in that the ideals of equality and the inalienable rights of freedom, opportunity and justice. It is the adherence to the ideals not one’s race, ethnicity or originality that makes one an American (Rothenberg 108). Schlesinger’s argument states that the American identity has been in jeopardy as the multiculturalism and thus, the afro centrism elevate the racial and ethnic over the national, affiliation. He warns that at the end of the road lying in Yugoslavia and the contemporary battlegrounds of the racial and ethnic separatism. The analogy might seem a touch overwrought; there can be no question that the multiculturalists are playing with weapons which can wreak havoc in the inadequate schools, the social culture and the economy. During the previous waves of the American ethnic consciousness shows the similarity fabricated by the compensatory versions of history which is doing the real work approach to the American history. The crucial difference is that the earlier movements never sought to impose the ethnocentric mythologies in the public school curriculum (Schlesinge 96). According to Schlesinger’s argument, the militant’s ethnicity has contended that the main objective of the public education should be the protection, celebration strengthening and perpetuation of the ethnic origins and identities. Separatism however nourishes prejudices, magnifies the difference and accelerates antagonisms. The has been consequent increase in the ethnic and racial conflict that lies behind the hullabaloo over the concept of multiculturalism together with the political correctness over the notion that history and literature should only be taught as therapies whose function is to raise the self esteem of the minority and not as intellectual discipline. He quotes that “let us by all means possible teach the black history which includes the African history, women history, Hispanic history and Asian history. This ought to be done as history and not as filopietistic commemoration (Schlesinge 103). This is because the purpose of history is not to majorly promote the group self esteem but to understand the current world and the past with its dispassionate analysis, perspective, judgments and respect for the divergent cultures and its traditions. To conclude, American undergraduate culture is not changeless, it keeps absorbing new cultures or new elements. And the culture was influenced by students behaviors. As an international student, it would be a little bit hard to understand all those cultures, but I would like to try to fit into this campus, because there are still a large number of recent adventures waiting for me to discover. Rebekah Nathan. “at the first day of the new semester, every freshman had to go to the designated place, because they should check in and get keys of their dorms. While Rebekah Nathan got the key, her roommate was a little depressed, because she knew that her roommate was not a girl who got a similar age to herself. However, when Rebekah was looking at her roommate, her roommate was still smiling to Rebekah.” Works Cited Bryson, Bill. The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way. New York: Harper Collins, 1990.Print. Nathan, Rebekah. My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned By Becoming a Student. New York: Penguin,2005. Print. Rothenberg, Paula S. Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: An Integrated Study. New York: Worth Publishers, 2007. Print. Schlesinger, Arthur Jr. The Disuniting of America: Reflections On a Multicultural Society. W.W. Norton, 1998. Read More