Whitney Mumm's Blog 2

In class this week we talked about religious symbols and how some people are offended by other people’s symbols of their religion. I just see it as they do not want to see or hear anything about that religion. Everybody has their own faith, beliefs, and religion and I think that they should be able to express this. Just because someone is expressing their beliefs, that does not mean that people have to listen. This is linked to in groups and out groups. If it is your religion that they are expressing it does not matter, but when it is a different religion it does matter. One of my experiences that stick out is when my high school class wanted to have someone come in and pray at our graduation ceremony. Nobody really cared what type of Christian, but just somebody to send us off into the world with God watching over us. The school board said that we could not bring somebody in to pray because of the laws of religion in school. This was interesting because the whole class was fine with this and had no problems, but they did not want to offend anybody.  My class decided to have one of us say a prayer on graduation day.

I thought that this cartoon was funny...

Blog 2

Unfortunately this week we were not able to link up with Russia. The main focus of this week’s readings was in group and out group relations. In one of the chapters we read was about a man named Tadasu Imahori. He described his troubles finding a particular cultural in group due to the fact that he moved in between Japan and the United States a lot throughout his life. Imahori felt that he was a foreigner when he was in America because he was born and spent a portion of his childhood in Japan. Conversely, Imahori stated that he could not identify himself as Japanese because he taught in America for 17 years of his life. Imahori overcame his in/out group struggle by embracing both cultures. In groups and out groups are found in every aspect of life. For example, when you get a promotion and become the manager of your co-workers, it is hard to do your job and still remain in the in-group before.

 

Kyle Reikowky



Wesboro Baptist Church--Christian In-Group Anxiety

The Westboro Baptist church has been everywhere in the news. From their anti-gay slogans like "God hates fags" to their anti-soldier slogans, the church has earned itself quite a name. Unfortunately, so have other churches too. Westboro's radical claims have resulted in some in-group anxiety among other Christians. Westboro's self proclaimed "Christians" do not preach the same sermon of love that Jesus did--the person they say they follow. I am a christian, and I believe that what Westboro is doing is not according to scripture at all. I do hold the belief that God is displeased with the gay/lesbian lifestyle, but He does not hate them. In fact, what Westboro is doing is just as sinful in my opinion as practicing gays and lesbians. My perspective goes along the lines of "hate the sin, love the sinner". Many Christians fear now that the out-group of non-Christians will believe this is the way all Christians are, and that it would be best to avoid us at all costs. We are not like them. Their type of Christianity is about hate and earning salvation, ours is about grace and forgiveness--and it's for everyone. Because of the media, Westboro's hate tactics have been broadcasted to so many people that it becomes difficult to really remove the prejudice. One by one, Christians can remove any prejudice by being loving--and everything else the Westboro Baptist Church is not.

Attatched is a very interesting discussion between a christian and a Westboro Baptist member!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehjWWgdrY_Q

Thanks for watching and reading!

-Sarah Jones

Changing my prejudice, blog 2

How am I trying to change my prejudice – one personal experience!

Before I came to USA I visited concentration camp from the World War II in Poland, where brother of my grandmother died. It was shocking experience, but I think that everyone should see what happened not so long time ago. After this experience I came back home, opened MyRed and saw for the first time, who is going to be my roommate at UNL. It was German girl. I had mixed feelings, I couldn’t stop thinking about her nationality and about my experience from Poland, and on the other hand I felt so bad that I perceived her only according the past times and nationality. In the end she was the best roomie in my life and she made my fall semester awesome. Also other Germans are super nice and friendly. But what would happen if I met someone mean and unfriendly? These stereotypes really scared me a lot and I hope that till this experience I will always meet new people with close eyes (so I cannot see race, gender or age) and open mind (so I can recognize their personality)!

Video about German stereotypes ;) What do you think about it, Ulli?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bREM0BRQsWQ
- Adela Chlumecka

First video encounter - Elizabeth Brugman

I have never used video chat in any of my classes before so I am excited for this new experience especially since it is with people outside of the United States. Not knowing what to expect from the video chat I was impressed by how it went and how eager they seemed to learn about our culture and not just us wanting to learn about theirs. It was difficult for me to understand them at first and probably just as difficult for them to understand us. It will be something we will just have to work on to get used to and find better ways to communicate and express what we mean. This first encounter was a little awkward but I hope after our presentation we will be able to understand each other better and start asking questions openly. I want to find out the basics such as most commonly played sport, most popular type of music, ect. But I am really looking forward to getting in more depth with the conversations such as the topic of religion and beliefs, customs and traditions. I am also intrigued to see what they think of our lifestyle and our cultures, what would be considered deviant or norms to them. I think a facebook group would be a great idea since you can really see what life is like in the other country since facebook is such a social part of people’s lifestyles today.

 

Siberia

My knowledge about Siberia is pretty limited. The things that come to my mind are mainly things that I still remember from Geography classes in high school. We learned about the low population density and the harsh weather conditions which make it a harder environment to live in. If I remember right this is also a reason why most people live in cities rather than in the country.

The other thing that interests me in Siberia is the Trans-Siberian Railway. It is one of the things on my list I want to see and it is a great way to see the different landscapes and cities in Siberia all the way to China. Maybe some of the students have been on this train and can tell us what it is like.

What I am really interested in is what they think about living on the Asian continent, while most of their country's population lives in Europe and in how far it affects them. 

Ulrike Heinicke

Siberia-Lauren Andrews

To start off my first blog post, I really have no knowledge of anything about Siberia, so I did some research. Siberia has a total population of 38.7 million people that speak many different languages, meaning that there are 3 people per square kilometer. Also, Siberia appears to have a lot of water. Siberia is home to the world’s largest freshwater lake called Lake Baikal. It is also home of the largest river in Russia called Yenisei. The river is a major supplier of electricity to other parts of Russia.

Aside from my research of Siberia, I am really excited for this cultural exchange to happen. I do not know much about any country, and I do not even own a passport to explore the world, yet. I am eager to hear them speak, and learn about their culture as we introduce them to ours. Let’s get this show on the road!

Lauren Andrews

LeRoy's Post Video Link 1

Unfortunately, I missed our first connection that we had with our partner class in Russia. From what I have heard and read from others, it definitely seems as if it was a great experience though. So instead of writing about the initial contact with our partner class I did a little bit of research over Siberia, since that is where the partner class is located. From all of the information that I saw about Russia and it’s culture I am now really excited to be able to speak with the other class. I think it will be a better experience to actually hear firsthand from them about their culture and customs instead of just reading about them online. I really look forward to our later connections. But briefly from what I found out from my research is that Siberia is a really cold nation. With the recent winter storms here in Lincoln I’m just interested in seeing just how cold it actually gets there. There is so much more that I have learned from my research bit there, only so much I can fit into a 200 word blog J. So with that I am extremely excited and anxious to meet with them on Monday!

LeRoy Ford

Video Chat

Last Monday on February 18th, I, as well as many of my peers, had the privilege of introducing ourselves to a few individuals on the other side of the globe. I got to tell this small class of five and their instructor, my name, major, and my interest in how their culture is different from ours. I was most interested in the common types of diets that one would regularly find over in Russia. Unfortunately, I never got the opportunity to go more in-depth on the subject as this group of students was far more interested in the recent meteor strike that had happened there. It was quite difficult to understand exactly what each individual saying at first, but I know that in the upcoming weeks, I will be able to overcome this barrier and learn much more about this different culture.

Fatimah Barnawi-First Video Link with Russia

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Fatimah Barnawi

Intercultural Communication

Video Link

Feb 23/2013

                                                          First Video Link with Russia

In Teacher college room 202, we had our first video link with Russia. It was interesting since it was my first time doing that through my educational life. It amazing that we could talk to people over seas like we are next to each other. The time there was 8pm when it was 8am here. It went very good and we were able to hear them clearly and the same from there said. They start by introducing themselves then we done the same thing. They are form Siberia to be exact. There are many things I want to learn about Russia such as, their culture, their food, the domain group in Rocha, what are the norm their, foods,fashion, student life their, and many other things.

Alex Libby - Video Chat with Russia

Our first video chat was interesting and the fact that we are able to talk to people on the other side of the world instantly is incredible.  I think it went pretty well even though a lot of students in the other class were unable to make it.  There was a wide variety of things people wanted to learn about the other's culture and it doesn't seem like there will be much awkwardness in the way of communicating.  I think that everyone will be able to learn a lot from each other and look forward to the opportunity.  I am interested to see what kind of questions they will ask and if they will be more pop culture or just way of life oriented, because American culture is fairly wide spread. I for one want to know more about daily life and what it would be like to live there rather than who the biggest celebrities are and hopefully will be able to do that.

Ann Magnuson- Video chat with Russia

I'm really interested to see where our video conversations lead with the Russian class. Monday, I had a hard time understanding everything they were saying, but hopefully that gets progressively better for all of us the more we communicate. I hope we are able to have interesting conversations that are revealing of things we accept as typical norms and beliefs which aren't actually standards of life but cultural, family, or social influenced ways of life. I hope we can see their norms and understand the significance of their different values and further question are their beliefs worth having? Do we have any beliefs not worth having? Which norms, values, beliefs do we have that they find peculiar? I really hope we get beyond the surface level kind of "What type of food do you eat, and what sports do you have?" and talk about deeper things like religion. This is honestly probably easier said than done though, because I feel like it might take us a while to break the awkward ice. With this, comes a sense of hesitancy of what to say and how to present ourselves. If I'm being totally honest, my sense of hesitancy and nervousness probably stems from having no background knowledge about Syria, and I'm afraid they'll realize how little I know about their geography, history, or anything else I should probably already know.

Ann Magnuson

Aaron J. Svoboda: Video Chat with Russia

I would have to say that the first video chat went very smoothly. At first I was not expecting much and figured it would just be another day in class, but once we got connected and were looking at another class all the way across the world it felt a little weird at first. I was also hoping they would have a larger class like ours so that we could get more feedback and insight, but since it is late in the day there I could see how it would be very difficult to go to class at the time. It was also very difficult for me to understand them, even though we had a great connection, I am just very bad with accents, but on the other hand atleast they can speak two languages, which is something many people can't do. It was fun to learn about the meteor that hit and see a video of it. News like that is always interesting, but I never take time out of my day to look it up. Hopefully on our next chat we can learn more about their daily lives and how they differ from areas. - Aaron J. Svoboda

Evan Hummel: Meet & Greet with Russian Students

I would have to say overall the experience was an enlightening one.  First of all I didn't think the live feedback would be so good. You could clearly see all the students and understand them, without much lag.  I was very interested in their stories about the meteor and what they thought it was at first.  The instructor seemed humorous and friendly.  He was very clear and coherent in my opinion, I was expecting more of a language barrier.  I look forward to continuing dialogue with this class, and learning more about their perspectives politically and in every day life.  I would like to know what their classroom work consists of, and what their daily routines and activities are, and how they are similar and different than ours.  Hopefully this experience will help develop my intercultural competence and give me a new perspective.

- Evan Hummel

Whitney Mumm's first video chat with Russia post

The first video chat with Russia was a success considering that we had no idea of what to expect. It is still amazing to me how easy it is for us to communicate with people that are across the ocean and it is still as clear as if they were in the United States. I enjoyed listening to them introduce themselves and talk about the meteor that hit. I could tell that it was a really huge event and really impacted their lives.  I really enjoyed how they seemed glad to be there and really wanted to learn about what our lives were like. The Facebook group would be really cool because we would still be able to connect with them after the class is over if we want to and learn things that we do not get a chance to talk about in class. I’m really excited to get to know them this semester and learn a lot of new things.

2/21/13

I was really excited after our meeting on Monday with our Russian classmates. It was very cool to see they had volunteered basically to take this class just to learn about us and our culture. The meteor was fun to see as well. I liked how they shared with us the video of the meteor so we could see what it was like and they shared with us what they were doing during the meteor. I wasn't expecting them not to be able to speak english well, but I almost wish I had this experience when I was learning spanish. I think it would have been a great way to learn the language and see how they speak. It will be important for us to speak slowly and use simple english. I'm looking forward to all the things we are going to learn from them and I think it is always interesting to learn about different cultures. I've wanted to travel to Russia forever so I am especially excited to learn about their culture.

Kelsey Robinson

Adam Piper: Meet and Greet with Russia

Our first experience with communication with Russia went really well I believe.  I feel like I have learned a lot in just the little time that we had with them and i am looking forward to communicating with them via video chat every monday.  The more time we spend with them, the more questions we will have for them to answer.  I am excited to learn more about there culture.  What I would like to learn is what there schooling is like and maybe even the type of music they listen to.  Learning more about different cultures is very crucial in todays world so it is easier to communicate with people that might be in a different culture than we are.  It is great that we can communicate via facebook.

On Monday, February 18, we had our first encounter with the classroom from Russia. We met in the global classroom, and I was impressed by the technology and how smoothly everything ran. I could hear all of the students on the screen well, and it seemed that they could hear us all as well. It was very interesting that so many of the students in Russia had such a strong grasp on English. I found this striking because I honestly think it would be very difficult to try and get a class of American students to all learn any new language, and I'm always impressed by students in other countries who have worked hard to learn and master our language. It seemed that many of the students in Russia were just as curious about our culture as we are about theirs. I feel that communicating with these students over the course of the semester will be very enlightening and we will learn a lot from them. I look forward to continuing to interact with the Russian global classroom in the upcoming weeks.
-Carissa Vinovskis