Opening Our Minds to People, Cultures, and Opportunities - Admission/Application Essay Example

What advice might you offer Ligua to help her deal with the difficult dialogues she encounters in her classes? Ligua faces a number of challenges during her classes since the other students do not treat her equally in class despite her goo d performance and the fluent English. She studies in a predominantly white class where she has worked hard to ensure that she performs well in class. She tries to be inconspicuous in her class to ensure that she is not recognized in class, but tries to teach students and teachers (Bucher, 149). The dialogues that take place in class since she understands he classmates better should not scare Ligua. Coming from a minority group, she has tried to ensure that she can speak fluent English. Social inequality in the society has largely affected many students especially from the minority groups. Therefore, she should ensure that her classmates realize her in order to appreciate her diversity. She should be bold enough to educate the teacher and fellow students on the importance of diversity. She feels that her classmates feel that she is taking advantage of the political, economic, and legal changes in the U.S. If you were one of Ligua’s classmates in Intermediate Spanish, what would you do, if anything? Why? I would help Ligua understand the importance of diversity in any community. I would also ensure that classmates understand the importance of diversity in order to ensure that they respect Ligua. Ligua has tried her best in an attempt to learn fluent English and she has been successful. Therefore, the teacher and other students should learn appreciate Ligua due to her efforts. Many individuals make assumptions about Ligua due to her Spanish-surrounding name and her complexion. She has worked hard to ensure that she speaks fluent English in order fit in the school. Additionally, the teacher has acknowledged the ability of Ligua to learn the English language. Therefore, Ligua has the ability to perform well in school if she receives the best treatment in school. If you were Mary, how would you feel in the situation? Why do you think Mrs. K reacted the way she did to Mary? I would feel discouraged since she expected the patient to appreciate her efforts. Mary appreciates the background of Mrs. K, who is not white. Mrs. K does not know the racial background of Mary, but does not appreciate her racial background when she met Mary. I would feel bad about the situation since people should appreciate good deeds regardless of where they have come from or whoever did it. Mrs. K should have appreciated Mary’s effort of taking care of her child since she offered her the best treatment. Mary’s profession requires her to be kind to patients and individuals related to the patient. Therefore, she played he r role well as a social worker to establish a good rapport between Mrs. K and her child (Bucher, 186). The situation largely affects Mary’s career since she expected that Mrs. K would appreciate her efforts regardless of her racial background. Additionally, Mrs. K hurt Mary since she should have appreciated since there were no African-American social workers in the children’s mental hospital. I think Mrs. K reacted that way because she does not appreciate cultural diversity. Coming from a minority group, she was afraid that Mary would not offer her child the best treatment. Maybe she thought that Mary was not aware of her cultural background and she felt that she would not offer her child the best treatment anymore after realizing the cultural background from the mother. Additionally, maybe she had a feeling with dealing with whites since she had a back experience previously. Once a person from another cultural background mistreats an individual, they tend to hate the whole race instead of the individual. In several instances, whites have been found to discriminate African-Americans. Therefore, it was difficult for Mrs. K to understand how a white social worker would attend her child regardless of her social background. If you were Mary, what would you do? Specifically would you call Mrs. K and talk with her, or would you handle it some other way? Explain. I think I would first explain to Mrs. K that my cultural background should not limit me in my career. I would love to talk to her to know the reason why she does not appreciate whites. Maybe she was discriminated by a white or one white mistreated her. Therefore, it does not mean that she should not appreciate other whites who have even proven to be good to her. Additionally, the hospital does not have any African-American social workers to take care of her child. Therefore, she needs to change her attitude towards whites because no one will be allocated he child since all social workers are whites. Michael is being confronted with a number of barriers to effective communication. Discuss two of these barriers. The barrier of cultural differences faces Michael since the accent; norms and social interaction largely vary in different cultures. Different cultures have different ways of expressing their emotions and ideas. For instance, Michael being African-American has a different way of communication approach compared to a pure white. Therefore, language barrier largely affects Michael and his clients since they have high expectations towards Michael, which are lowered when they meet Michael personally. A large number of individuals are not fluent when they are in new locations and find it a challenge (Bucher, 215). Therefore, many Michael’s cultural diversity affects his communication, which largely disappoints his customers. Additionally, he is faced with the difficult to understand unfamiliar accent as well as language differences. Michael is not a Native American and experiences several challenges in his communication. He is always reminded that he belongs to the African-American culture and he is not a white. This cultural barrier Michael faces makes a number of his clients despise him and do not feel comfortable working with him. What micro aggressions does Michael encounter? If you were Michael, how would you respond to these micro aggressions? Michael faces a number of micro aggressions, which affect his performance at work. Many customers do not appreciate his cultural background and are not comfortable dealing with Michael. They even prefer talking over the phone with Michael instead of meeting him personally. Additionally, customers feel that Michael id not competent enough because he is African-American and feel that they should consult a white man. I would ensure that I deliver quality work in order to ensure that customers refer other customers to me. Performance is not determined by one’s cultural background, but ones effort. Work cited Bucher, Richard D. Diversity Consciousness: Opening Our Minds to People, Cultures, and Opportunities. , 2015. Print. Read More