Journal Entries!

 Instructions for Reflective Journals To reflect in writing is to record your thoughts, opinions, and ideas about a topic. Writing is one of the best ways to demonstrate your thought process. Reflective journals are

not

as formal as essays, but they must be taken seriously Before you upload your reflective journal, check your spelling. You will not be penalized for grammar errors! Your journal should be 200-300 words long. Each time you are asked to write a reflective journal, choose 

a part

 of one of the discussion topics from the current or past week that you would like to discuss in more length and depth than you did in class or on the discussion forum.

All the Varieties of English
You may not have time to cover all topics; do your best!
If you’re American, what part of the country are you from? Does your area have an accent that is distinctive? Are there any stereotypes associated with your dialect?
If you’re a second-language speaker of English, how did you learn English? When did you begin to study English? Do you think your country has a good method of teaching English?
If you speak more than one language, do you feel that you have a different personality in each language that you speak? Describe what you mean to your mono-lingual group mates, if there are any.
If you’re American, do you use a lot of slang? What are some of your favorite slang expressions? Why do you think so many Americans use slang?
If you’re from another country, does your native language have a lot of slang? Do you want to learn American slang while you’re here?
If you’re from another country, is learning vernacular (common, conversational) English and learning about our culture important to you, or are you more focused on learning the subjects in your major?
Do you think it’s bad to invent new words? Do you remember the section about Buffy the Vampire Slayer on the PBS website you were asked to read? Try to discuss this in your small group. This would also make a fun reflective journal response.
Why do you think white (or some Black!) Americans both deride (speak badly about) Black English and others love/imitate it? Do you think different groups or kinds of people have different opinions about it? If you are a Black student, you might wish to enlighten your group mates about the different ways Black people speak.
If you’re American, are you from an area where a lot of Spanish is spoken? Do you think that Spanish will someday be the U.S.’s unofficial second language?
If you’re American Indian, are there distinctive ways that you speak? Can you explain to your group mates about the different slangs or accents among Native tribes?

Globalization
Do you believe that globalization is a bad thing, or do you agree with the authors of the assigned reading? 
Do you come from a culture that borrows many ideas and customs from around the world?
3. Does your language import many words from other languages?
4. What is your opinion about McDonald’s, Wal Mart, Disneyland, and other large corporations or purveyors of American culture spreading over so much of the world?
5. Do you think countries should protect themselves against “cultural pollution” from other countries?
6. What are some things from other cultures that you are glad your country has imported (either products or customs or ways of thinking)?
7. Do you come from a country that strongly stresses “intellectual property rights?” (If you’re reviewing these questions ahead of time, look up this term if you don’t understand it.) Does the concept of people owning their own ideas make sense to you?
8. Do you come from a country where the government highly regulates business and trade?
9. Do you think an individual’s preferences (to smoke, to not wear seat belts, to ride a motorcycle without a helmet) are most important, or do you think society’s interests are more important?
10. Do you think the interests of all countries should be take precedence over the interests of one country? (think of the reference to the U.S. banning the import of shrimp caught with nets that endanger sea turtles, and the international outrage at this U.S.-enacted law that actually broke a world trade treaty.)

Sweatshop/Child Labor
1. Did reading the two assigned articles change your mind, or confirm your opinion of sweat shops? Do you think sweat shops located in another country to produce American goods are a bad thing?
2. Are you from a country whose corporations contract labor outside the country to produce goods? Or are you from a country that produces goods for the U.S. or another major world economy?
3. Do you think sweat shops rob Americans of jobs?
4. Would you pay more for products currently produced in offshore sweat shops if their production was moved to American factories with the labor done by Americans? (If you are from another major world economy, apply this same question to your country.)
5. Is child labor bad?
6. Did you have to work as a child?
7. Do you think we should follow the rule “buy local?”
8. Do you think the products of any country dominate the world market now?
9. What products can you name that come from your country, and what products are imported? (you can answer this no matter where you’re from)
10. How can we resolve disagreements about the necessity and fairness of sweatshops that may or may not employ children?

Some of the topics may be uncomfortable for group members to discuss—always be sure that your fellow students are comfortable with a topic before you begin discussing it!D

1.Tattoos: Do you have any? If you do, what is their significance? If you do not, why not?
2.Do you have body piercings? Why or why not?
3.What is your opinion of organ donation? Is this a practice that is encouraged by your culture?
4.What is your opinion of assisted reproductive technologies (i.e., in vitro fertilization, artificial insemination, surrogate birth mothers, egg donation)? In in vitro fertilization, often there are frozen embryos “left over” after a couple have already had the child(ren) they desire—what should happen to those embryos? Should they be destroyed? Used for research? Donated to a childless couple?
5.What is your opinion of human cloning?
6.Sometimes a child is born with indeterminate exterior sexual organs (a former term for them was “hermaphrodite,” meaning a combination of male and female). What is your opinion about surgery which would be done to assign a sex to the child—to remove parts from one sex in order to emphasize parts of the other sex?
7.What is your opinion of plastic surgery to repair bodily defects (i.e., after someone has been badly burned, or is born with a cleft palate, for instance)? Is that opinion different from your opinion about plastic surgery done to improve one’s appearance (i.e., “nose jobs,” for instance)?
8.Are you from a culture where people have bariatric surgery? Liposuction? Do you know anyone who has had one or both of these procedures?
9.Are you from a culture where people routinely dye their hair? Do older people in your culture dye their hair?

Cultural Relativism
1.Can you explain and discuss what cultural relativism is? (The reading discusses Boas, Benedict, and the later Kluckhohn and their ideas of cultural relativism.)
2.Is it important to have an attitude of cultural relativism when studying other cultures?
3.If you study and appreciate another culture, do you have to accept all its values? (reflect on Rosaldo’s anecdote about Ilongot head hunting).
4.Kluckhohn, in his earlier work, insisted there are universal ethical values. Do you agree with him? If you do, what do you think are universal values? (example, “do not kill.”)
5.Does your country have the death penalty for certain crimes? Do you agree with the death penalty?
6.Does your country have legal abortion? How does the death penalty differ from abortion (or does it)?
7.Is it legal in your country for private citizens to own guns? For what purpose? Do you think that guns make a country safer or not?
Do you think all humans have the capacity for violence, or is this learned cultural behavior?

What’s religion; what’s cultural practice?
1.If you’re from the U.S., you should be able to answer this: was the U.S. government founded on Christianity? What is your opinion of the separation of church and state?
2.If you’re from a country that is some kind of theocracy (the government is founded on a particular religion), explain how religious beliefs are part of your country’s laws.
3.If you’re a Muslim student, are you able to explain something about Shariah law to other students? Keep in mind that most other students know very little about this school of law, and any information you have at all will be helpful. You do not have to be a law expert!
4.Do you think U.S. culture reflects the result of the separation of church and state? Is that good, bad, or do you have no opinion? (an example of separation of church and state is that students do not pray in public school)
5.U.S. law allows for legal abortion (Roe vs. Wade). Do you think there would be no abortions performed if it were illegal in the U.S.? Do you think the law has caused more promiscuity? If you are from a country where abortion is illegal, do you think no abortions are performed? What cultural values cause some women to choose abortion over having a child?
6.Is the death penalty legal in your country?
7.In the U.S., you will often find people who believe abortion should remain legal and who also believe the death penalty should be banned. You will also find people who believe abortion should be made illegal and the death penalty should remain. How do you explain these differences?
8.Can you think of a situation where one should follow the “laws of God” rather than the “laws of man?”
9.Is how people in your culture dress influenced by religion, or by common practice of what’s popular among people?
10.Does facial hair on men have any special meaning in your culture?

Women’s issues around the world
How well are women paid compared to men in your country?
Are there any professions from which women are prohibited in your country?
Are there many single women/mothers in your country? How difficult is it for them to provide for their children? Does your country ask for the non-custodial parent (if s/he makes more money than the custodial parent) to pay child support to the parent who is actually raising the children?
Does your country have any “social safety nets” for women in poverty?
Does your country have laws against birth control, abortion, or that control family size?
Is your country particularly vulnerable to climate change? (example, rising seas engulfing existing shorelines, certain crops decreasing because of weather). How will this affect women and any poor families?
Does your country have a high or low drop-out rate of students from school? Do students drop out just to “hang out,” or are they dropping out to help make a living for their families?
Are there stereotypes of women in the media in your country? Can women be newscasters? Are there many women in journalism? Are women considered to be credible writers for the news?
What about divorce? Is it common? Is property split, or does the husband keep it all? Who gets custody of the children, usually?
Do most women work outside of the home? Does your country have a good day care system? Are stay-at-home mothers respected? Are working mothers respected? Do you expect your wife to work?

Solving Global Problems
1.What do you think is the largest global problem? Do you think it can be solved? How, or why not?
2.Work with your group mates to come up with a list of the top 5 global problems. Can these problems be solved locally, or do they demand the cooperation of most nations to solve them?
3.What do you think it would take to cause countries to cooperate in solving a large global problem (for instance, the U.S. and Iran, or Israel and Iraq)?
4.Are you a person who usually thinks about these issues, or do you avoid thinking about them because they depress you (or because you believe there is no solution)?
5.If you’re committed to solving one of the big problems you’ve discussed with your group mates, how do you think you can encourage people to seriously commit to working toward solutions?
6.Your generation is often stereotyped as apathetic, more interested in your iPhones or Friday night parties than in working toward global solutions to difficult problems. Is this stereotype at all true, or do people have the wrong idea about your generation?
7.What are some small ways that anyone can help to solve big problems—or do big problems require big solutions (and small efforts don’t help very much)?