Culture Differences

This week in class, we are talking about culture differences.  During the card games, we discussed how the different rules in the game were the different culture and difference in culture we find when we go to another country.  Since I lived in Brazil for the first 12 years of my life, I have had a big experience with culture change in my life.  I can remember the first day I got here.  I was hungry and confused.  Not so much for what people were wearing because in Brazil they wear the same thing or the food, but more for the language.  I didn’t know much English and my parents took me to go open a bank account and rent an apartment.  It was very difficult to me in the first months because I had no idea what people were saying.  Language was my biggest challenge.  In class we also talked about gestures and the differences.  Since Brazil is pretty similar to America, that wasn’t such a problem.  However, some gestures are different.  For example, the gesture we make for an O.K sign means something completely different in Brazil.  Brazilians also have different symbols to say things we usually don’t want to say out loud.  I was lucky because I didn’t have that much change in culture.  Other people, however, aren’t so lucky.  It is important to respect a country’s culture and their beliefs.  As well as their cultures rules.  

A Bronx Tale

The movie “A Bronx Tale” is a perfect example how the world can influence others.  Of course that not the whole world influences one person, but people you know and people you most love.  That’s the world I’m talking about. The biggest example is pretty much the whole movie: the relationship between C and Sonny.  Sonny influenced C in a great way.  He was at the end a bigger father to C than his own dad at times.  It looked like Sonny cared the most and wanted the best.  As a result with growing up with Sonny and everyone that surrounded Sonny, C grew exactly like him.  He wanted to be just like Sonny and do the things Sonny did.  And it wasn’t just Sonny’s influences.  C was influenced by his whole neighborhood and friends for the simple fact they all lived in the same place and spoke Italian.  Culture brought them together and made them be who they were.  C was influenced by his race when he went to attack the African Americans, but then he stopped.  Showing that his new girlfriend who was also African American influenced him.  C was influenced a lot throughout the movie and throughout his life.  We may not notice but we are influenced too.  For example, I’m from Brazil and I’m different than Americans because I was influenced by a different culture.  I have the friends I do because I was influenced by then and I like whom they are.  It’s all over my history and everyone’s history.  Everyone gets influenced in his or her lives.  It all depends on where do you live and who you live with.  Don’t think your parents are the one’s who influence you the most, because it isn’t always like this. 

Who goes first?

Isn’t it funny how we make decisions because of our society?  We don’t make them according to what’s good and what’s bad.  We go with the flow.  We do what others had done in the past.  Tradition.  Simple.  We do things according to our culture and how people have done before.  For example, during the abandon ship exercise, I was one of the sociologists.  It was my task to pay attention on how people work and the decisions they made.  How they made the decisions they made and who, if anyone, took the lead.  Then, after it was over we discussed as a class why results repeated over time.  Our conclusion came from the simple fact that all people who did this before were teens from the same high school, most of them white.  However, the most deciding factor we found was that we were most Americans.  As you can see, culture plays a big role in deciding social issues.  In America we value young intelligent people more than older people, therefore they were saved.  If it were another country, however, they might value family more and save older people first.  It’s all about the culture.  It’s not just in tough situations we follow our culture.  It happens all the time.  The drug bust is a perfect example of people doing things because of their friends.  Why do their friends do it?  Because society taught it was okay; it’d take them away from their problems.  As you can see, it isn’t always based on good or bad decisions; instead it is based on history.  Tradition.  Culture.