END-OF-QUARTER SELF-EVALUATION

How much time and effort did you put into this?

To be honest I dedicated like 2 hours per week or sometimes three hours, but this subject requires more time and dedication. I tried to do my best, but sometimes I did not have time to do all the jobs on time.

What do you think your strengths and weaknesses were in this course?

Strengths: desire to learn more, dedication, cooperative, perseverance

Weaknesses: poor participation, problem with grammar, and in the exposition I got nervous, so I forgot many things.

How did you feel you performed in this course?

Well I tried to do my best, but I know that I need to work hard in my grammar and speaking.

What are the most valuable things you learned from this course?

The cultural dimensions were something valuable I learned on this course.

What would you do differently if you had a chance to do this all over again?

I would dedicate more time to try to do all the readings and all the jobs on time.

How do you feel the cooperative learning approach worked in this course?

Well, it worked, but I could be worked better or maybe it can be implemented by in different activities.

Do you have any suggestions for improving this course?

Maybe another kind of activities can be implemented, also I will do less forum, but other homework in which students can applied their new knowledge.

What else would you like to add that I did not ask?

For me, I will use only blackboard for forums because using a blog is very difficult to read classmates opinions.

Response paper #9: Essay on Patchwork

Culture is a wide topic and an important part in each country because it can vary on traditions, customs, beliefs and other specific aspects which are related only to each country. According to Cambridge dictionary culture is "the way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs, of a particular group of people at a particular time: youth/working-class culture." As we jus read, culture is related to many different topics, and our porfessor of Contemporary US Culture and Society took the advantage of it and gave us the opportunity to share about Costa Rican Culture with foreign students who were coming to our university last Thursday, July 22nd. The cultural activity began at 5pm in the lobby 2, a group with folklore dancing opened the activity; they danced traditional Costa Rican songs with our typical dress. As soon as they finished, we started with our activity. It was to make a description about our quilt piece which had a specific topic related to Costa Rican culture. I thought our activity was more formal because we had to talk in front of all students about our quilt piece, but it was not we only had to describe our quilt piece to another student, and she had to guess my piece. I met Kerstin, she was from Austria. Then, I described my patch, and it was easier for her to guess mine because it was about family. After that, we started talking about different characteristics of Costa Rican families and Austrian families as relation of family members, teenager's way of life and traditions

We started talking about family members. I explained her Costa Rican family relates many people as mother, father, children, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, nieces, grandchildren, daughter in law, son in law, brother in law and sister in law. In some families the relation is closer because some members lives together for example a son's family or sister's family can live with their grandparents. Then, Kerstin explained me that in Austrian families the common members are mother, father, children and grandparents; they do not have a closer relation with all the family like us. It was very interesting because in many countries family is only mother, father and children, and they do not have a closer relation with other members of the family.

Then, we continued talking about the teenager's way of life. I explained her that in Costa Rica, children do not have an specific age for leaving parents house, when they take the decision is because they have financial resource to be responsible and paid their bills. On the other hand, other people married, but they bring their new family into their parents' house. When I said that to her, she got surprise because that is normal in her country too, and she told me as an example my parents and me live with my grandparents, and she added that there is also normal children stayed with their parents, they do not have an specific age either.

After that, I told her another characteristic of us that for some families are common to visit the relatives' houses on weekends or do familiar trips, in this case all family members rent a bus, and go to an specific place. This was the only characteristic which was different because she said they visit their relatives once in a while. Also they never do familiar trips or an similar activity. In that aspect they have different traditions or customs.

Finally, for me the activity was excellent because we could exchange knowledge about our cultures, at the same time we practiced English. I think university can do this kind of activities more frequently. It is something different, and we can learn more from people who are native of different countries. In my case, we started talking a lot about different topics related to people or family because both of us were interested to learn more and more about the other country.

Response Paper 8: Chapter Two, Peace Corps.

This response paper is about chapter two: American Culture and American Diversity at Peace Corps website link http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/educators/enrichment/culturematters/Ch2/Intro.html.

This chapter is about cross cultural understanding, and it is very useful for us as future teachers because nowadays is normal to find students from different countries in classrooms.

Exercises

Part I
1-3: No action only words.
4-6: Directness.
7-8: future orientation.
9-11: Optimism.
12: Initiative.
13: be realistic.
14-15: do not judge people for the
16: experimentation

Part II

Al buen entendedor pocas palabras similar to a word to the wise is enough
The value is directness

El que madruga como pechuga.
The value is punctuality

Cuando el río suena piedras trae.
The value is be cautious.

Mejor que sobre y no que falte.
The value is be cautious.

A Dios rogando y con el maso dando.
The value is action.

Part III

1. Attitude towards age. In C.R., companies care about the physical appearance and age, they prefer to hire younger people.

2. Concept of faith and destiny. It depends of each people, some of them believe in faith and destiny; some others work hard to get whatever they want.

Response paper 7: American Values

Talking about culture is a difficult topic, around the world we can find many different cultures because it depends in the way people live in their countries.

Dr. L. Robert Kohls in his guide "Why do Americans Act Like That?" tried to explain a little bit about American Culture, but we have to be clear that not all people who live in the same country have the same behaviors, beliefs, or values.
In my previous job, I dealt with some US citizen because the main office was in USA and the most important client was an US company located here in Costa Rica. It was a good experience to learn how deal with them because they have a different way to work or to live. So, when I was reading the guide, it reminds me many things in which I am agree and disagree.
For example I am agree with the following: responsibility, change seen as natural and positive, time in which I can mention that two of them are not all time on time, individualism, informality, directness, openness, honesty, practicality, and materialism.
On the other hand, I am disagree with equality because I have met US citizen who do not apply it. I remember many of them who talk only with certain people because they look the rest as low positions. Also, another guy who always gloss over himself, and he made other people feel bad or inferior, and finally, it was only appearance because nothing was truth.
For these reason, we cannot do a generalization of certain culture because not all people are the same, I mean that we can read and try to understand other cultures, but they only way we can learn more is dealing with people from different cultures or traveling. But this guide can be useful.

Response Paper 6 Movie "Shall we dance?"

This response paper is about the different cultures where the movie "Shall we dance?" was filmed.
One was filmed in Japan and the other was filmed in USA.

If we saw this two movies, we can say that is the same plot. Nonetheless, we can see many differences because both countries have different cultures.

Japannesse people are serous, very respectful, very polite; they keep the distance between each other when they are talking. On the movie, we can see all this things. For example they dance together, but not too closer; they do not express their feelings at all.

On the other hand, in the American movie "Shall we dance?" is the opposite. For example we can see Jennifer López was dancing closer to Richard Gere. Also, her dancing is more sensual. It marks a big difference between them, we can see their expressions and feelings. If we compare both movies, we can see easily this differences.

All countries have different cultures, it means we as teachers will teach students from different nationalities, so they are going to have different cultures in our classroom. We have to remember all time this because we maybe do something that can be insult other students.

Flowchart

I found that perspectives, communities and persons have a connection because all people have to follow the same procedure to get any of the previous services.

In my house you can find many rooms, and all of them are special places at any moment. In the front garden my parents have a lot of plant, my father takes care of it on weekends, and we help him sometimes. Then, we find the living room with TV, sofas, stereo and other things; we usually watch TV at night, and sometimes we sit down and talk about many topics. In the dining room we have always family lunch and dinner on weekend specially. My mother and me love to cook, so we share many time there cooking or baking. Now, if we go to the right side of the house, we are going to find the bathroom and room. In my parents' room is a bed, a closet, a dresser, a mirror and night table on weekends we usually rest and talk there. Then, next to parents' room is my room where you can find my bed, my closeth, my entertainment stand; I have a lot of things as my books, adornments, teddy bears, etc. Next to room, is my brother's room. It has a bed, a closet, a TV, an entertainment stand, and other things. Finally, the yard is very special for us because on weekends we share a lot time there. It has trees, flowers, plants, and my dog, Nala. She is a German Shepherd. We always play with her on weekends.

I love all time I share with my family because it has a lot of special moments.