The values Nort American live by....

In the long list of values of Roberth Khols that americans live by, some of them catch my atention: freedom, time, control over the environment, equality and individulism,independence and privacy,competition, optimism, informality,directness,openness,materialism. All of them considered as positive. Probably, freedom and privacy are the most important values that North Americans fight for. Since they enter at school or even star talking those values are teaching to little boys and girls. They are encourage to compete in every step of life, and is very important to them to be self sufficient and indipendent during their life time.

QUILT ACTIVITY ESSAY

Any art form, language, clothing or tales are products of a culture; but exists another dimension that shape in an unconcious level the form that a culture acquire. The weather, the form and shape of the land, how many volcanoes a place has, if the country has a way throug sea, how many species of flora and fauna change considerably the perception and behavior of an entire community. Costa Rica a small country of America has an extraordinary and complex net of connections with the form, environment, a complex flora and fauna with a big territorial sea in the pacific that add to its territory an incredible quantity of sea species. Its important to mention this because someone who was born in the artic probably base his values and way of behavior in the order of survive in the harsh environment, meanwhile someone in Costa Rica use his resources to tune with nature, with its beauties.

Culture in a country exists due this factors, in any part of the world the culture is a reflection of those aspects related with nature. This is probably the reason that some people in a country when someone ask them about a culture, answer with the beauties that mother nature have blessed them. Quilt essay activity in my case was an opurtunity to share how important is nature and its beauties in my personal values and my way to behave. Volcanoes such as Rncon de la Vieja, caves like Barra Honda, beaches like Puerto Viejo, Limon and parks like Isla del Coco are products of a culture that I would like to share with an alien visitor, not any visitor but any that cares and behaves according with a set of values that tunes with life of any species. It was great to find during the activity a biologist, a person tuned with a set of values in order to survive and make all the beauties of nature last.

All the dimensions of culture are important to see the whole, but as has been told previously the place of the world where a culture exists is the link that join all together, without this part a culture cannot be developed. In other words a culture is nothing without its products.

Comparison between Orient and Occident "Shall we dance" movie.

It was pretty obvious that the version of the movie Shall we Dance with Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez is a re-make of a movie created for asiatic viewers. Due the fact that we could see just a little bit of both versions ( I have no intention to see the entire movie), I just have to say that in the asiatic version, it is clear that the race of the people involve is not a problem for them, I based on the fact that all the characters in the movie are asiatic. In the case of the North American version the race is a topic that is always in their mind; that why the main character is the image of the regular north american and to put a little bit of spice, the coprotagonist is a Latin American female, also you can see many of the groups that live in the north; afroamericans, italians. A mixture of races probably with the clear idea of catching the attention of those groups and with them their money. It is difficult to develop a good response with just a little chunk of information, but this is one of the main aspects that I saw in the movie.

Analyzing Artificats( housing)

Housing Style in my Family.

What you see here is more of less, what my house is. Three rooms a bathroom a dining room and a kitchen, plus a yard and a garage. In my case is important to mention that every room has its own TV, computer. In the dining room there is a small TV just to see the news. The table is always full of things because everyone eats in the rooms, the coachs are there just in case of a visit, cause almost anyone of us use them, the small dog use them everyday. As you can see housing method of my family is almost the same of any other Costarican family, a disfunctional arrangement of thins that promote the disunion of the nucleus, displacing the unity to the TV or to the computer.

Analyzing Artifacts Chapter 5 (Week 5) Practical

CULTURE: GLOBAL.

Oriented to conservation and self-responsability.

What it is? Where do you find it?

Object: A bag that works exactly the same as a credit card,you must have with you when you visit the supermarket. In the case that you forget it, it is exactly the same as you do not have your wallet. As a plus, you will earn points and money in the future, imqagine the same system of the cash-back credit cards. Every house must have at least one of this bag. The bags will work in any market or shopping place in the territory, in others words any place that sells a product. At the end all around the world will use this system.

How do you use it? When?

It will come package in a small size to carry with you everytime you shop. Every person that buy a product must carry one of these bags ( A new law will be created in order to implement this practice in the country.

COMMUNITIES.

Group of people: Anyone from 5 years old to 100 years old.

PERSPECTIVES.

Why do people use it?

Because it is necessary for our own survive, in other words, mentality and customs towars the environment must change if human kind wants to survive another century.

What significance does it have in the culture?

A new challenge to humanity.
A change of mentallity towards the us and all the fauna and flora that still last in the earth.

WEEK 4

CULTURE IN SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING PROCESS.

Remember that culture implies the foundations of a country, the values, the way to learn, dress, talk even walk or drive come from the cultural background of a country. It is tremendously difficult to learn the keys of a culture behavior, imagine how difficult could be to teach that vast set of behavior slices. To teach and to learn those details you as a teacher must be inmerse in the culture, leaving the life they life before you cross the gap of another culture behavior. The minimum mistakes you make, and the whole essence of a message could be missed forever. It is also important to be prepare for a shock if we are facing a new culture, because many things they have for granted could be difficult to understand for us. Even in this global village that we live, your neighbor could have customs, totally different than those you have in your brain.

WEEK 3 (SELLO VERDE) INTELLIGENT ENVIRONMENTS

The Sello Verde was full of relevant aspects of neuroscience that are linked to our major. It was very important for me to see how neuroscience could help me in the future with new methods of learning and teaching. The fact that neuroscience studies can help us to understand the brain functions of the bilingual language learning and how to teach a second language, and to know how age affects adults and children in the learning proccess. It was great the topic, but the fact that the auditorium was full was a problem in order to perform questions to the professional in charge.

WEEK 2

How do your beliefs, values and cultural upbringing influence the way you behave?

The place you were born or exactly the place in this world you grew up shape your life, in first instance you are clay in the hands of your parents your protectors, then this clay is in hands of teachers and finally your environment (friends, choices, career and the place you settled) shape your way to behave in the planet.

How does it feel when others see you as different-- or as an outsider?

It really depends of your position in the new environment, is not the same if you are the outsider in a group if them invite you, because they want to hear you giving a lecture in a topic in which you have mastery, in front that being a single inmigrant in a place full of preconcieve ideas against your skincolor, your language and your past, the example of a Latin American in North America or Europe.

How do others' beliefs, values and cultural upbringing influence the way they behave?

As an sponge a human brain learn how to behave since the first steps, the way all this information enters is the key to function in the world as an adult, what is my function in the world, how I see my peers, what do I believe of the different kinds of people in the rest of the world, my education validates my superiority among others or validates the same right of every being to live in this planet( including any form of life). Does not matter if you see the question from your of their side the answer is the same your set of values, beliefs and cultural upbringing influence all the aspects of your life.

WEEK 1 FIRST CLASS OF CONTEMPORARY CULTURE AND SOCIETY OF U.S.A

What are your impressions of other culture? What do you think about an specific group of people in other part of the world? What do you know about the lifestyle, food, values even the way of dressing? what are the religious beliefs and who are their heroes? For many of us, all we know about a culture is what you see in TV, internet or magazines. Probably many have the oportunity to visit other countries, but not all of us. This is why a culture class is so important for us, and what better way if the person in charge of the class, is able to tell us from her own experience what a specific culture behaves. In this case North American Culture.