Further Discussion

One concept I could expand on in the class was about cyberspace. I think it is so interesting how
much cyberspace affects all our lives, and how it has come a long way. I could probably talk about for days how it affects my life, and how my life would be without this technology progression. People have the option to stay connected with whomever they choose all over the world.
I love how cyberspace allows you to communicate with people all over the world. My cousins came from India a couple of months ago, but we had the chance to build a relationship just over email, and instant messaging. Not only is it good for talking to loved ones, but news can be spread like a disease. When my boyfriend went to Afghanistan I would check the news all the time to make sure the area he was staying was not facing major problems.

Favorites

I have learned many things in this course like one of my favorites was all the different types of research. I never would have thought of a research method as being deceptive like ethnographers. I thought it was interesting how much a moral issue is raised when it comes to that form of research. A fun fact I learned was how eye expressions can be an indicator if a person is lying.
My favorite thing about this class was all the stuff I learned, and I liked how it was somewhat was at my own pace. I liked how we had a chance to write about one thing in the chapter not discussed, and give our opinion, and why we thought it was interesting. My least favorite thing about this class would probably have to be the time constraints on the blog posting. It’s not that bad of a requirement, but at times would have made life easier for a procrastinator.

Most Interesting

The most interesting concept I found in this class was the language difference between men and women. I just found this enlightening when I was at work and starting noticing how males and female have different ways to communicate, and what is considered appropriate around what group. I learned that I like to receive advice about guys from a male, because who knows them better, but things like clothes and family issues I like to rely on a female perspective
Another interesting concept I found was anthropologist Ruth Benedict that we are “creatures of our culture.” I could not agree with this more, because I feel like one’s culture is a large part in the shaping of habits and beliefs. I did not realize how much my culture affects my decisions and opinions until I started thinking about Ruth Benedict’s notion. It is pretty interesting to see how my identity would have been shaped if I did not consider my cultural values.

Pragmatic Perspective

I think it makes perfect sense to think of communication as patterned interaction. When two people engage in a conversation they are bouncing off each other based on what the other person is saying whether it be non-verbally or verbally. Communication as patterned interaction is also like a game. A game starts off with one side starting just how in communication one person or group makes a statement, or gives an opinion. A game has rules and in communication we have certain rules. For example if you are about to speak to your boss there is a certain way to communicate, like to most bosses you would not use slang words, or speak with your arms crossed. In a game little moves can affect the outcome, like how when people are communicating a missed hand movement, or word can change the conclusion. Now it is hard to see communication not as a game.

Chapter 2

I found speech community to be useful and interesting, which is when people share common things ways to communicate like the way we talk. I have noticed that different parts of San Jose communicate with contrasting words. A lot of my friends from East San Jose use more slang words, while in South San Jose they use more of “Valley Girl” language which is a like how you see cheerleaders portrayed in movies and TV shows. I think speech community also has to do with culture, because South San Jose is populated with more Caucasians, and East San Jose is more diverse, so we pick up on a more wide variety of words.
Recently I have been reminded by my family in So-cal how even Northern California and Southern California have a different speech community. It is more common to use the word “hella” in the bay area than it is in areas like the Orange County. My cousins in Canada use the word “washroom” for what we call a “restroom.”

Build Worlds

Culture has a large part in the way we build our world. When I entered high school I never wore shorts above the knee, or any tube tops, and people would always ask me why I am so conservative even in the summer. It was not because I felt self conscious or did not want to, it was because my mom did not allow me to. In our culture females are suppose to be covered up, while in other cultures it is probably a little weird to being jeans on day that is blazing hot.
While I was being exposed to the American culture I started seeing the morals and values instilled in me were not suited for the way I wanted to live my life. I felt like it contributed to my lack of happiness, because I was deprived of a lot of experiences I felt I wanted enjoy. I started to build a world leaning away from my culture.
On the positive note my culture helped me see the value in an education. Being from a country where education is a privilege I appreciate the value of school.

Chapter 13

I found the purpose of a pretest and posttest beneficial and interesting. A pretest is as the name states, which is a test given before the experiment or the research. I have seen in many of my classes that professors give a pretest in the beginning of the semester, and the same test at the end to see what we have learned.
The posttest, which is given at the end is a way for the professor to see if his teaching methods worked for majority of the classes, and if he or she stayed on topic. I always found a pretest and posttest a good way to evaluate if a person is grasping the concept.
Another example for the usefulness of a pretest and posttest is giving a group the same test in the beginning, and using different experimental methods on the groups to see how it affects the posttest results.