Goals

After reading my goals for the class that I set at the beginning of the year I believed I fulfilled them all. I said I wanted to learn about new cultures and I think I did do that because I now know of many new cultures. I also think I have a better understanding on how to communicate with people from other cultures. Another thing I think I did a really good job on was attending class, I said at the beginning that I didn’t want to miss many classes before the season started and I don’t think I missed many.

Freedom Writers

I thought this movie was a really good and interesting movie. I think the beginning of the movie was the best part because that was when all of the gang fighting and harassing was going on. I did not like this part because of that but because it really gave the viewer a good prospective of what life was like in that area. They show when gang members kill other gang members over race, gender, and other things too. I thought this was crazy how a person can shoot someone just because they belong to a different group or because they are not of the same race as them. Coming from a big city I knew this stuff happened but I never really saw it or heard of it around the city. In the movie the teachers’ dad seems to be really racist towards her students, but mostly the black ones. He says that they are not smart and she is wasting her time trying to teach them things. Since her dad is so racist I think he is not very open minded towards other people. One part of the movie I remember and thought was interesting was when the teacher asked about the holocaust. The only person who knew what the holocaust was was the white kid in the classroom. Right when she asked the question I knew that the only person who was going to know about the holocaust was going to be the white kid. Then she asked who has ever been shot at in the class and most of the black kids and Hispanic kids in the room raised their hands, but not the white kid. A person could clearly see the difference between the people in the classroom. I think this movie if a very educational movie that everyone should watch and it really tells a good story!

Iron Jawed Angels

I recently watched the movie “Iron Jawed Angels” and saw and learned some very interesting things. At first I didn’t think I was going to enjoy the movie but as it progressed I got more into it. The beginning of the movie didn’t really make much sense to me because it was really slow and kind of boring. Towards the end of the movie was when I really started to pay attention. I think these women were doing everything right and had a really good point for what they were fighting for. I didn’t think it was right when these women were protesting in front of the white house and got arrested for “obstructing traffic”. In my eyes I don’t think these women were doing anything wrong fighting for what they believed in. While these women were in prison, I thought it was crazy how the one lady decided to starve herself. This led to most of the women following in her shoes. The one man in the movie said a quote, “give me liberty or give me death”, and I thought that’s exactly what these women were trying to prove. This movie was a type of movie that I don’t usually watch but I am glad I watched it.

Fargo

I watched the movie “Fargo” and I laughed throughout most of the movie. This wasn’t the first time I have seen the movie but it was the first time I actually paid close attention to all the different things they try to make fun of in the movie. This movie isn’t even based out of Fargo, ND so I am not really sure why they called the movie “Fargo”. I thought this movie was way off on the heavy accents they use in the movie. People from Fargo and also Minnesota don’t really have that heavy of an accent. Some of my favorite parts of the movie is when they say, “Yaaaa” and also when they use the phrase, “your darn tootin”, they also used the phrase, “yeah ya betcha” numerous times. I still think we should have watched the movie in class but I know that we didn’t have time for it. I think everyone should watch the movie “Fargo” with someone who is from around that area so they can explain what parts of the movie are true and what parts are misinterpreted.

Week of Class

This week of class was an interesting one I thought. The first movie we watched I thought was a little weird because the kid was kind of young and thought he was supposed to be a girl. They also talked about the lady boy’s that are in Bangkok. I was a little surprised by this and the amount of them there are in Bangkok. When this part came on it reminded me of the part in Hangover 2 when they are in the strip club. This movie made me realize how many people are transgender people there are in the world. I also did not realize how well these transformations turn out.

            On Thursday you had Ed talk to the class about him. At first I was not even sure if the guy on the screen was a transgender person. I was surprised how good the transformation was and you could hardly tell by looking at his face that he used to be a woman. I kind of felt awkward talking about this but I think Ed did a good job at making everyone feel comfortable talking about it. What really surprised me the most was that he tried to commit suicide when he was eleven twelve and fourteen. I thought this was crazy because you do not usually hear about kids that young trying to commit suicide a number of times like that. I thought it was neat how his brothers stuck with him throughout the transformation. He also said he had lots and lots of friends and family that supported him while transitioning. I thought it was pretty neat that he was able to grow facial hair, I think he might have been able to grow better facial hair than me. Ed was a cool experience to have and I enjoyed having him talk to the class.

Week of Class

On Tuesday in class most of the time we took to get in our groups for our C.R.I.B.S event we have this week. I think our group has everything pretty well planned out for the event and I think the event we put on will be exciting and a lot of people are going to show up. Doing some research for this project was kind of neat because I had the chance to learn some things about Canada that I did not know. It also helped that Ian is in our group and since he is from Canada, he can give us a lot of information as well and teach us some things too.

            Thursday’s class was one that I thought was very interesting. I thought Mary was a nice lady and she gave us a lot of information on the lesbian, gay, bi, and transsexual community. I thought what she was talking about was kind of weird at first but once she started explaining everything it started to make sense what she was talking about. I learned that when a person has transphobia, this means they are not sure what gender they are or should be attracted to. I was very surprised when Mary told the class that she is a lesbian and has been for almost thirty years. I thought it was kind of awkward how her and her partner were friends before deciding to be together. I think it is awkward because most women who are best friends do not usually tend to start having feelings for one another. I think this next week of class will be really interesting with the speaker we have coming in. I think it will be a good learning experience for the class. I am looking forward to hearing more from this group of people.

Week of Class

This week of class I thought was pretty interesting. On Tuesday we were talking about some things and the topic of certain words and how they are pronounced came up and the word was “aunt”, and some people pronounce it “ant” and others pronounce it “aunt”, which how I think it should be pronounced. You also said how language is living and I kind of thought about that a little bit and I would agree with that. Another thing we talked about was denotation and connotation. I remember learning about these in earlier schooling but didn’t really remember but now that we talk about it again I remember what those words mean. We also talked a little bit about proxemics and how people need their personal space. With some people they really get bothered when people stand really close to them or talk to them really close. I do not really get bothered when people I know talk or stand close to me but when people I do not know talk to me up close I kind of get annoyed and step back hoping to not offend them, but sometimes it does. On Thursday Matt talked to the class about disabilities and I thought that was very interesting. Every person with a disability is different, but people with disabilities should be treated the same as people without disabilities. He told us some courtesy things for when you come across a person with a disability such as treating them the same, not to stare at them, and not to ignore them as well. When you start to talk to a person with a disability you want to start the conversation the same way you would with any other person. Tanya also talked about how she became disabled and I really thought that was a touching story. I also learned how CP is not genetic and it can happen to anyone.