Multi-Cultural Americano

Hello. Ciao. Privet. Hola. Czecs. I hear the word "Hello" being said in all these languages atleast once throughout the day. When I think of American Culture, I think of a melting pot. In my opinion, I feel as if America doesn't have one distinct culture, yet it is made up of different values that make American's who we are.

Because my family is from Europe, we hold down those roots to the best of our ability. I guess you can call us Americanized Europeans.We speak Russian at home, we eat Russian food, we dress in European clothing.. but we speak English, eat "American Food", and play sports that only Americans know of. Our values are the same as most Americans. We cherish every single minute we have, and our main goal is to be able to reach that "American Dream" that everyone craves soo much. After all, that's why people immigrated to the United States; for a better life.

Waddup Culture Shock?

European parents, European sister, European grandparents, European friends, moving from Kiev, Ukraine to The United States of America.. Can I say Culture Shock to the max? Up until the age of 10, growing up in Illinois was rather confusing to me. Because we followed the "European lifestyle" at home, I was never able to fully adapt to the American lifestyle, even today! Coming to America, I thought I was in a different world. The way people dressed, talked, lived was completely different then in Europe. I remember, when I was 7 years old my family and I went to some steak house, and my dad asked if they had pickled tomatoes.(In Russia, it was a Delicacy) The waiter looked at him in confusion, and said the only thing they had pickled was pickles themselves. My dad was shocked at the fact that they served pickles but not pickled tomatoes considering that every restaurant besides Mickey D's in Russia had pickled tomatoes on the menu. All Europeans seem to be confused when coming to America, as they attempt to adapt to the American lifestyle as quickly as possible.. However, I wonder.. When American's go to Europe do they try to adapt to the European lifestyle, or stick with their roots and break all the rules that apply?

Italiano's vs. African Americano's

Last week in class, we had watched a really eye opening movie called, The Bronx Tale. I cannot even begin to describe how amazing it was, considering it had a mob theme to it and all the social awareness you would witness throughout the whole thing. Right at the beginning of the movie, it distinctly showed the differences between the Italian neighborhood and the African American neighborhood, by closing in on the area, the people, and especially the kind of music played to set the tone. Back in the day, racism was a big part of the overall society, which lead to many miss happenings and caused many riots to break out. In the movie, C's, the main character's, friends decided to bring harm upon an African American guy that was just simply riding through the Italian neighborhood by pounding him until he couldn't get up anymore, which lead to some of the black guys egging the teenagers club, which then finally lead to the Italian boys to put one of the shops on fire by throwing Molotov cocktails in it. This was like a domino effect, one event happening after another; and not for the better. By having a father, and a father like figure, Sonny which was also a mobster, he learned the values of life and how to live by them. He was taught that he should stick to his kind by his father, but taught to look beyond the horizon by Sonny. He was really one of the only person's who accepted African American's just the way they are, especially when he started liking a black girl. He realized that the smaller things in life didn't matter anymore, and that no matter what color, race, or gender you are.. you should follow your heart and do whats right for you and nobody else.

Gangstuh' Lifestyle

Harlem, south side of Chicago, Atlanta, ect.. all these places have one main thing in common. They're all categorized as being "ghetto areas" with a ton of gang violence. But they're all different in their own special ways. All catering to different groups of people and their individual types of lifestyles. In the book Gang Leader for a Day, Sudhir Venkatesh did what most would not dare to do. He took on the challenge of exploring "Gangs" hands on rather then just surveying numerous amounts of poor African Americans. By finding a young guy by the name of J.T, who was a gang leader himself, he witnessed everything in a whole different perspective. He truly found out how the whole "gangstuh/ghetto" life style operated, the kind of life they lived, and how they survived.

Most people don't take the time to really get to know one another, yet, they just judge "a book by its cover" or in this case by answering a few measly questions that didn't really answer all the facts that the projects had to offer. If more people were like Sudhir, in a way that they would just look beyond the horizon and go full on with whatever they were trying to figure out, then, in my opinion, society would be more accepting and the world would become a much better place.

I'm on a boat...

During class, the other day, we did a very unique boat activity. This activity had guided us as a class to make decisions together, and really interact and socialize amongst one another. It defiantly showed how sociological mindfulness is really in our lives on a daily basis, no matter what situation we are put in. We were forced to "push" our fellow classmates off the boat, and keep the ones that could truly benefit the rest. I could personally relate to this lesson, because I was put into a situation similar to this. My friends and I were going to the city, and decided to drive there. Well we only had my car and I could only fit 5 people in it including me. The problem was there was the seven of us, so we had to kick someone out.