What is culture? Culture is “the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations; the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group.”
Each background, religion, race, or group has a different culture. My dad is from Romania and my mom is American. They have two completely different backgrounds. Each one has a different view on life and a different view on work ethics. My dad moved from Romania to America when he was nine, however, his parents still brought him up with the same Romanian values. When him and my mom got married, it was so different for him because he was taking on completely American lifestyle.
There are so many different cultures and each of those cultures has different morals. When I think about my background and religion, I realize that we have different traditions than many other religions as well. In the Jewish religion, we have a custom to have Shabbat every Friday. Shabbat is the day of rest. It lasts from Friday sun down until Saturday sun down. During this time there should be no work, electricity, carrying, or chores that should be done. Theses 24 hours are the hours of rest. During this time the reason one isn’t supposed to use any electricity and not supposed to do any work because G-d made the world in 7 days. The seventh day was the day to rest. The end of the week. It is the one-day where you are supposed to relax and enjoy time with your family.
For one of the high holidays my family and I always to California to spend it with some family friends. Our family friends are Persian. The Persian culture is very different too. When they tell us to come over for dinner at 5, what it really means is 7:30. Its not that it is bad, it’s just what they mean.
Some cultures it is impolite to come late, some cultures it is impolite to look straight in the eye, to eat before the elders, to finish your whole meal, and many many more. In each country, in every person’s home, in every different restaurant, there is something that someone has never seen before. Its not good just say forget about it, one must embrace it and learn someone else’s beliefs or cultures.
I love to travel. My family takes a backpacking trip every summer. We go to a different country each time. I love exploring different places and learning all about each individual countries cultures. I feel it can broaden your view and can teach you so many things that you wouldn’t learn just by sitting in your own home.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Groups
There are so many types of groups. There are groups in middle school, high school, college, and all throughout ones life. What does the word cohesive mean? Having a cohesive group is a very united set in stone group of people that can work together. For an example a sorority or a fraternity might be thought of as a very cohesive group. Each person in that fraternity or sorority has an individual attraction. “People in group are connected to each other.” They like to hang out and they have mutual things in common.
A community also has a cohesive group. Everyone in a community stands by each other. Almost like a family. A family is there for each other no matter what. If someone goes through a difficult time then another family member is there to pick him or her back up. A sports team needs teamwork. Cohesion is teamwork. The members of the team need to be committed to the group because if one person does something then the rest of the team does the same thing and goes through the exact same circumstances.
The next part of a group is collective efficacy. Collective efficacy is the amount of effectiveness the group can do as a whole. As a group, everyone goes through almost the same things. If one fails, the rest of the team fails. If one wins, the whole team wins. Everything is a whole.
Tuckman has a model of group development. Forming is the first group. Forming is a group that comes together and gets to know each other. Forming is known as the honeymoon stage. The second stage is storming. Storming is when the honeymoon stage comes to an end. Conflicts start to come up. Next is Norming. Norming is the part where the honeymoon stage is over and the conflicts start to cool down, this is when the group gets to know each other a little more. They start to learn how each other works. Performing is where a group goes beyond routine and actually gets into a rhythm and synergy with each other. The last part of Tuckman’s model of group development is adjourning. Adjourning is when a group comes to an end and lets go of the group structure and process in an effort to move on with his or her life.
There are many assets to a group. Some assets are: knowledge, skill, resource, and network. One needs a few of these in order to contribute to a group. In high school, my graduating class only had 14 students. However, there were only 14, each one of had different assets that we brought to becoming a great cohesive group that works well together and listens to each others thoughts.
A community also has a cohesive group. Everyone in a community stands by each other. Almost like a family. A family is there for each other no matter what. If someone goes through a difficult time then another family member is there to pick him or her back up. A sports team needs teamwork. Cohesion is teamwork. The members of the team need to be committed to the group because if one person does something then the rest of the team does the same thing and goes through the exact same circumstances.
The next part of a group is collective efficacy. Collective efficacy is the amount of effectiveness the group can do as a whole. As a group, everyone goes through almost the same things. If one fails, the rest of the team fails. If one wins, the whole team wins. Everything is a whole.
Tuckman has a model of group development. Forming is the first group. Forming is a group that comes together and gets to know each other. Forming is known as the honeymoon stage. The second stage is storming. Storming is when the honeymoon stage comes to an end. Conflicts start to come up. Next is Norming. Norming is the part where the honeymoon stage is over and the conflicts start to cool down, this is when the group gets to know each other a little more. They start to learn how each other works. Performing is where a group goes beyond routine and actually gets into a rhythm and synergy with each other. The last part of Tuckman’s model of group development is adjourning. Adjourning is when a group comes to an end and lets go of the group structure and process in an effort to move on with his or her life.
There are many assets to a group. Some assets are: knowledge, skill, resource, and network. One needs a few of these in order to contribute to a group. In high school, my graduating class only had 14 students. However, there were only 14, each one of had different assets that we brought to becoming a great cohesive group that works well together and listens to each others thoughts.
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