I asked 3 different people to tell me their definition of culture and diversity. The first person that I spoke with is a former co-worker, Kimberly. Kimberly told me that she thinks of culture as the background one grows up in, where the person lives, their way of life, values, and traditions. She thinks of diversity as people from other cultures that have different beliefs, values, and customs. I believe what she says touches on some of the things that we have learned the past three weeks in this course. However, I think more of her definitions touch on the surface culture instead of deep culture.
Another person that I spoke with is a family friend. Her name is Rosa and her family moved here from Mexico when she was a baby. Her definition of culture and diversity goes along with what we have learned. She believes that culture is everywhere and in everything we do. Her belief is that the way that we do things, such as our customs, stems from our culture. Her family still has the values they brought with them from Mexico, although they have added American culture as well.
Another person that I spoke with is the parent of a child in my classroom. His definition of culture and diversity is the things we do, where we come from, and how we do things. He believes culture is a group of people that come from the same place and share the same beliefs.
I was pleased to see that a lot of their answers are some of the same things that we have learned in this class so far. I was able to have a conversation with each of them and explain what I had learned about diversity and culture. It was a very good experience to be able to share these things with others.
Misty:
ReplyDeleteI enoyed reading your post. As you, I also enjoyed interviewing people with the two questions about culture and diversity. I was asking my niece, she is 9 years old, what she understand for culture and her answer was that "culture is traditional things in your family, for example in Argentina they wear a dress that looks like a maid's dress". It was her way to say that we have differences, wear differnt things, behave in different ways, etc. We all have a sense of what culture and diversity is, but I also see a need on how we need to talk about it more often, and learn more about these topics. Thank you for sharing.