Hi!

Hello everyone, I'm Becky, I'm 18 and I'm a freshman and I'm a psych major. I'm from Allentown but I'm living here at KU in the honors dorm, which basically means I don't know anyone on campus :-(. I just got a fish for my room and he seems really depressed... and he still needs a name so if anyone has any suggestions of a good name for a fish let me know!

So then, about culture..... I think that when Williams says culture is ordinary, he's not trying to say that culture is the same everywhere or that it never changes, he just means that culture is something that everyone experiences everyday in some way. It isn't necessarily something that's only for the elite of society, it's created by everyone. He writes about people and places he has known i think to illustrate the culture he has experienced personally.

Differences in Language

Well after reading the two assigned essays I would have to say that there is a similarity between the two. That similarity is how a society uses the dialect of language as a basis of ranking one's class inside that culture. According to Min-Zhan he says that depending on what language you speak whether it be English, Standard Chinese or Shanghai will tell a person what class you are from. Mike rose is also trying to say the same thing but in a little different way, what he thinks is that depending on how well you understand your language in this case English will define how much respect you get from other people.

Lu's essay was very interesting because it really makes you think about how much language influences the way you are seen or how you see people in day to day life. When looking at how the young girl had to use different types of language dialect depending on the place she was in, well this is how people look at others everyday. What i am trying to say here is that if someone speaks differently then you or has a heavy accent would you say that they are different. That's why i found his reading very interesting, because it really does relate to our daily lives.

With Rose's essay it went into talking about how misunderstanding your own language gauges the amount of respect an individual will receive from others. The prime example given here was when children were misunderstanding what was being asked of them on a test. When they got it wrong they were seen as not being a smart as the others who did. Which is totally wrong to me because as it said in the article that sometimes the children just don't know what is being asked of them, so by just looking at that should not determine which child is going to smart and deserves the more respect.

I really think that both of these articles were trying to show us that literacy is very big determining factor on every one's lives. No matter what language you speak country you live in, literacy is taken as a big factor in determining your life.

hello everyone

Hello everyone I'm Brandon from Troy, PA. I'm a freshman here at KU majoring in business. The past five years I have been all over the world serving in the military. I'm one of the biggest Philly sports teams fans even if they are sucking it up. It has been over 20 years since one of the teams won a championship.

Going on to the essay done in class, I noticed williams talked alot about his past and culture is ordinary. Looking from the angle on his childhood he seem to have good role models like his father and grandfather. His grandfather was your old fashioned bring your lunch box to work and go home afterwards. Williams father was more like a politican in which he was interested in politics.

hey

hey i am craig moose i am 19 and freshman... i play football here at KU... i started this year as a freshman... i am from Dillsburg... a town outside of harrisburg... i live in deatrick hall... i am a huge sports fan... i like the san deigo chargers and the ohio state buckeyes... i dont like the eagles at all... i really dont like any phila team....

Hi Everyone

Hi, my name is Gina. I'm a second semster freshman, who will be hopefully entering a studio art major next year. I enjoy art obviously, seeing as how I want to go into an art major here at Kutztown. I've always been interested in it even at a young age. I haven't made many friends up here at KU, but im trying to change that this semester. All my friends that are close to me are back home. I have two roommates one of which I went to high school with, the other I have become really close to. I have 6 piercings, and one tattoo on my right shoulder blade of my favorite comic book character. My boyfriends name is Brendan, we've been together for 5 months. I love to read horror books and watch horror flick's. I work at a small movie theater back home. I'm easily amused with the stupidest things, and you will usually find me laughing to myself.

Language!

To Min-Zhang Lu, different launguages, like English, Standard Chinese, and the dialect of Singapore represented different groups of people in her life. The words with which people conveyed their thoughts often said more than the words themself. English words meant that the speaker was a member of her family, a loved one. Standard Chinese words were words of the state. They were spoken in school settings with government officials and propoganda. Shanghai dialect was a spoken badge of servants and workers. Languages kept these things seperate for her. When they overlapped, she became confused.
Mike Rose labled people by their language very similarly to the way Lu did. In "Crossing Boundries," different dialects of American English were clues to the level of education recieved by the speaker. His students were not familiar with rules of Standard Written English because they hadn't had the opportunity to learn the rules. Muddled syntax, poor grammar, and incorrect spelling were the marks of a member of the "educational underclass."
Both Lu and Rose realized that launguage was a sign of upbringing and lifestyle, but not thought. It does not reflect intelligence, ability to reason, or thought process. I felt really sorry for all the people in Rose's story who lost a lot of opportunities because of a bad education, not because they weren't smart.

Bracee's response to Lu and Rose's essays

After reading the stories, I have found difference between the two. Lu discusses how she had to use different languages in different environments and surroundings. She spoke different languages for home, school, and the neighborhood. At first it was difficult to her but then she realized that it was the only way that she would not be shunned for knowing so many languages. In Rose's essay she wrote about different experiences she had while teaching others. She took people out of mindsets that was present during learning and made them realize that they were actually thinking a little too hard than they needed to. These authors ask us to take into consideration that we should not take the things that we have learned for granted because other people always have it worse than you. Just imagine having to use three or four different languages in your neighborhood. Lu situates her struggle with literacy by making it comfortable with herself and knowing when and where to use certain languages.

Culture is Ordinary

Well i would have to say that i really thought that Williams essay, contradicted the title he chose for it. Now i am saying this because when hear the word ordinary I atomatically think of something that is same everywhere. Well culture in this case doesn't and he kind of explains that inside the essay, he goes into saying how he could enter a library but a group clergyman went in uncontested. For some reason he was aloud to get in whether because and clothing he wore or just the way looked no one really knows because it was not stated. Well what i getting at here is that he is telling us the culture is different everywhere you go, and culture is learned through the teaching of that specific place. So i don't know about the rest of you but i think that what he was telling through the essay really contradicts with the title he chose.

Hey

Hey everyone whats going on, my name is Howard Splitt, I am Sophomore here at kutztown majoring in clinical psychology. I was born ad raised in Mt. Carmel Pa. it's roughly about one hour from here. I enjoy doing many things such as playing basketball, baseball, football and golf. I also like to play video, my favorite is Halo, and just hanging out with friends. So thats about all i can think of right now but i will keep posted about anything else I think of.

hey hey hey

Hi every one my cale i am a secondary education teacher in the field of history i live in a little town called Lehighton PA its about 25 min away from Allentown. i have a girlfriend who i love to death her nameis laura she is an art major that goes to KU. um i live on campus in Beck hall i have 10 friends that are like brothers and sisters to me andalmost all of them go to school here. which is awesome because we are so close. in the future i want to return and get my PHD and then go to law school it become a lawyer.

ok gotta go
Cale

hey.

Hey everyone. My name is Brianna. I come from a small town called Forest City. You've probably never heard of it. Its about 30 minutes away from scranton. I'm majoring in Early Childhood Education. I played softball since i was about 7 years old. I'm not currently playing at Kutztown, but in the future I'd like to try out for the team, or just get on a team for fun.


Culture is Ordinary didn't really grab my interest much. But one thing that caught my attention was how Williams talked about how culture is what the mind makes it. Not everyone's culture will be the same because of their individualism. The mind has its traditional thoughts and creative thoughts about their culture. Also I don't agree with the title all that much. In a way culture can be ordinary, but again it's what the mind makes of it. Culture is different for everyone. There are many different cultures. Thats why I dont think that culture is ordinary in many senses.

I <3 English

Hey I'm Nate. I grew up in East Greenville a little town about 25 minutes from KU. I enjoy things such as listening to easy listening music, backpacking, throwing frisbee and drinking kool-aid. I graduated high school from Upper Perk in 05' and decided to take a year off, after a full year of accomplishing absolutley nothing I decided to give the whole college thing a whirl...so here I am.

Williams paints a great but somewhat unnecessary mental picture in the first part of his life story, but it ties in with his main ideas of what his culture consist of. Culture can be what a person or a society makes it to be. Culture Is Ordinary is mentioned several times making me believe that he stronly believes that all cultures no matter what race or ethnic background are based off the same guidlines.

Hamburg Girl.

Hey, I'm Nikki Bauer. I'm a comuter from Hamburg Pa (20 min. from Kutztown.), Born and raised. I love country music, traveling, Dancing, meeting people, I'm a huge animal lover and most of all I love to talk.

After reading Culture is Ordinary, I have a clear view of Raymond William's idea of culture. He used many vivid words, he painted a picture with his words. He is wrinting about in opinion but the paper comes across in a very polite manner. However I'm not sure if he feels positive or negative about culture.

Hi, I'm Ellen. I'm from Hunterdon County, New Jersey, which is filled with farms, hard drugs, and disaffected teenagers. In class I said I liked art, hitchhiking, and camping. I also like to read and wear sunglasses. I'm sorry if my bare feet offended anyone on Tuesday. Some people said they didn't like feet, but I don't like shoes.

Williams's essay was very effective in convincing me of his idea of "culture." I thought the phrase, "I was born and grew up halfway along that bus journey," was a great way to tie the anecdotal introduction to his theme. It emphasized that we are submerged in culture. The repetition of the title throughout the piece also reinforced the patterns of culture being repetitive and ordinary. Words that describe big pieces of our lives are usually the hardest to define, such as culture, love, and God. I also thought of the phrase "We don't know who discovered water, but we know that it wasn't a fish." It's difficult to think about something that is so much a part of an ordinary day.

Hey all / Culture is Ordinary

Hey everyone, the name is Marc Perniciaro. I'm from Madison, New Jersey. That's up in north Jersey. I'm a junior, but have only been at KU since spring '06. Like I said in class on Tuesday, I'm a big time sports fan and I'm very excited about the upcoming Mets season.

Culture is Ordinary. The reading was very interesting. Even though it started off very basic with his background and sets up his facts. I especially liked the part where he pointed out that at one place that he stood he could see farms and cathedrals and then if he turned around he would see smoke from industrial buildings. This isn't exactly true from where I live but I can clearly imagine this situation. Another one of my favorite lines was "Every human society has its own shape, its own purposes, its own meanings." I like this, even though I might not quite completely understand, but the reason I like it is it kind of reminds me of my own family. My father, being an Italian, kept all of his traditions and my mother is Irish and also kept the traditions of her family. When I see the two clash you can clearly see that they both have their own purposes to doing something and each of these also have their own meanings. The essay is a very informative one and one I agree with.

Here I go...blogity, blog, blog

Did you see what I wrote...yup, I wrote it. What? Nothing. Tell me!

NO!

What am i gonna do????

Through the course of my years in schooling I have encountered many different teachers, methods of teaching, class material and curriculum. There has always been a similarity in all of this, every note and class and teacher was a stepping stone to the next level. The next level might be from 5th to 6th grade, middle to highschool, or a prerequisite to the next class in college. This is the education system I am accustomed to. What is the the next step for me now? It seems to be reading my self for the real world, for years outside of class rooms and text books where hard work pays in cash and not letter grades. So as for my research paper i want to look back on american education systems as a whole. I want to know the what knowledge was essential to the students of the past. I want to compare and contrast today's educated societies to those who came before. Incomes and educations will be corrilated and be determined to be causes of one another in my research.

Language is TOUGH

• 
  Language. What is language? Language if you ask me is something that everybody has, and everybody learns. Some people might learn 2 or 3 different languages but we all use it everyday. Language can be incorporated into work, social life, and everything else that we do during our everyday life.
• Some languages
• -French-Spanish-German-Italian-English

I am going to put stories of people dealing with language, I am going to share my story, and i am going to get statistics about language and how much one language is being used somewhere.I will also talk about some tools of language.

I forgot, so sue me...

For my final paper.. I'm thinking about writing about students. Like, the difficulties of being a kid, and the stress we have. What society and adults put on us. How we're affected. Something along those lines.
As far as actually getting information, I'm thinking about starting with talking to one of the Ed Psych professors, and getting information from the multicultural center.

Something totally random, but I wanted to share:
I got a Creative Zen Vision: M over the weekend. And it's freaking awesome. It has lots of cool features. I just wanted to share my excitement with you.

Ok so...

This College Composition class given to me by Kutztown University is by far my favorite class this semester. I enjoy the lack of actual work that we do and I like that this class is mostly interacting with eachother and talking. I liked the first paper topic, but not the second one. It was quite confusing and I know I just rambled on and on about random stuff. Oh well, we'll see what happens with this research!
So, I've been thinking more about what I am going to write for this "research blog" paper, and I have come to the conclusion that I am sort of stumped. I want to do immigration and the work ethics/values that go along with it, however, I'm not sure where to start.. HELP!