I'm currently taking a course about Communication Law and I'm writing a paper about a case where employees are monitored by there bosses through cell phones and e-mails. The company presidents say there only monitoring the company cell phones and computers to make sure their employees aren't slacking off when they should be working. Law suits are taking place because employees feel that there first amendment privacy rights are being violated. Employees say that there bosses are overhearing private conversations they have with friends and family. They explain that their bosses don't need to know about private matters when their friends and family members call about emergency situations, which can sometimes be embarrassing.
This situation can at least be partially resolved if employees tell family members not to call their business phone when theirs an emergency, but to call their privately owned cell phone instead. I don't think family members would send emergency e-mails, however when I was on an aircraft carrier in the Navy, e-mails were the only way I could communicate with my family when we were out in the oceans and seas. My family always contacted the red cross when they needed to get a hold of me for emergency situations though, such as when my grandfather died and I had to go on emergency leave to attend his funeral.
Language barriers can cause communication problems. My older sister, Betsy has lived in China where she's taught English to Chinese college students in Beijing for the last ten years. During her first few years she struggled while trying to communicate with her Chinese students and friends because Mandarin is a very difficult language to learn. Sometimes Betsy would say something to her students using the wrong intonations, which caused her students to think she was being rude to them. This happened because if you say a word or statement using the wrong tone it becomes a totally different word/statement, that can sometimes turn out to be bad or derogatory.
Because of Betsy's language barrier difficulties she had to try to explain what she meant in English to her students a lot when this happened in her first few years. fortunately most of her students speak English very well by the time they get to college and they are willing to explain the meaning Betsy was trying to convey to students with less understanding.
Language isn't the only thing you have to worry about when you enter a new culture. When I visited my sister in China I wondered why all the Chinese people I met seemed shy and polite around me, when they acted normal around Betsy. One of Betsy's close Chinese friends explained to me that it was part of their culture to act shy and polite around strangers especially men. Betsy's friend, Sunny also told me about how they are raised to feel ashamed if they get a bad grade or do something wrong according to the ideals of their family. One of my sister's friends even told me about how her father told her she was no longer a part of his family because she earned a bad grade and he disapproved of her fiance'.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Civic Interactions
I'm in the process of joining a veterans group that is similar to the American Legion. The veteran organization is called the 40&8. It started out in France and was named for the train box cars that could either hold forty passengers or eight horses. The veterans group still uses some French terminology, such as calling the club president the Chef de' Gar. I will be the youngest veteran member at 31 years of age, the closest in age to me are two gentlemen in their lower 60's. The man that recruited me has been a good friend of the family for quite a few years. I will find out some of their traditions and initiation rituals on the first Tuesday in October.
I've never had to go to any court room, because I'm a law abiding citizen and I haven't been in any car accidents with other people. I hit a deer once with a Geo Metro, but she couldn't take me to court. My aunt has been working for judges in the Bismark, ND Capitol building for 30 years though. I vote for her judges to stay in office whenever I get the chance. While I was in the U.S. Navy I learned a lot about the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Right before I got out of the Navy my supervisors told me to put on my dress blue uniform and stand in front of the command Captains office to prepare for Captains Mast for an unauthorized absence offence. After I stood in front of his office for a few minutes fearing possible jail time, they called me back down to our work shop and said they were just joking with me and that the Captain wasn't even on base. I was not impressed with this goodbye joke, but I didn't let my supervisors know that. I was extremely glad I wasn't really in any trouble so I could avoid prison, maintain my perfect behavior record and receive my honorable discharge.
Currently the New Tea Party has gained swift support in the forms of members money and power. They have already acquired senatorial and representative seats in several states and are on the verge of getting more elected. Even though I'm a republican I am impressed by what the have done and what the media predicts they will do in the immediate future as far as getting the people who represent their party elected. Whenever I think of this Tea party, the Boston Tea Party pops into my head and I picture people on little wooden canoes throwing tea into the Boston harbor.
I don't always understand the actions of certain individuals. Shortly after the World Trade Center Towers were destroyed by the terrorist attacks an African American Gulf war veteran brain washed a young man into helping him with his crazy plan to stop terrorism. This man became known as the Washington sniper. He trained the young African American teenager to shoot people from the inside if his car trunk. Washington was able to keep the fact that the murders were being committed by the same people secret from the public. After nine or ten people died the other citizens figured out what was going on and the entire city of Washington D.C. was living in fear. Everyone wondered if they would be killed while walking to their car or pumping gas. When the murderers were caught they said they were trying to make America strong in case of another terrorist attack. They later found out that they themselves became known as domestic terrorists.
I've never had to go to any court room, because I'm a law abiding citizen and I haven't been in any car accidents with other people. I hit a deer once with a Geo Metro, but she couldn't take me to court. My aunt has been working for judges in the Bismark, ND Capitol building for 30 years though. I vote for her judges to stay in office whenever I get the chance. While I was in the U.S. Navy I learned a lot about the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Right before I got out of the Navy my supervisors told me to put on my dress blue uniform and stand in front of the command Captains office to prepare for Captains Mast for an unauthorized absence offence. After I stood in front of his office for a few minutes fearing possible jail time, they called me back down to our work shop and said they were just joking with me and that the Captain wasn't even on base. I was not impressed with this goodbye joke, but I didn't let my supervisors know that. I was extremely glad I wasn't really in any trouble so I could avoid prison, maintain my perfect behavior record and receive my honorable discharge.
Currently the New Tea Party has gained swift support in the forms of members money and power. They have already acquired senatorial and representative seats in several states and are on the verge of getting more elected. Even though I'm a republican I am impressed by what the have done and what the media predicts they will do in the immediate future as far as getting the people who represent their party elected. Whenever I think of this Tea party, the Boston Tea Party pops into my head and I picture people on little wooden canoes throwing tea into the Boston harbor.
I don't always understand the actions of certain individuals. Shortly after the World Trade Center Towers were destroyed by the terrorist attacks an African American Gulf war veteran brain washed a young man into helping him with his crazy plan to stop terrorism. This man became known as the Washington sniper. He trained the young African American teenager to shoot people from the inside if his car trunk. Washington was able to keep the fact that the murders were being committed by the same people secret from the public. After nine or ten people died the other citizens figured out what was going on and the entire city of Washington D.C. was living in fear. Everyone wondered if they would be killed while walking to their car or pumping gas. When the murderers were caught they said they were trying to make America strong in case of another terrorist attack. They later found out that they themselves became known as domestic terrorists.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Goal #2 Diverse Identities
When I took an Anthropology class at Minnesota State University Moorhead I learned a lot about different ethnic groups and races. In that Anthropology class we watched films about some of the current tribal societies in Africa that still live in a way that we would consider savage. The African tribes we saw on film and read about don't use any modern technologies nor do they have the modern day plumbing we take for granted. These African tribes pass messages along to other tribes by personal messenger. A tribal chief tells a messenger what he wants to trade with another tribe and that messenger must remember the message so he or she can tell the other tribe's chief.
When I went to visit my older sister in Beijing China (Spring 2005) I learned some about Chinese culture. My sister Betsy has lived and worked in China for ten years. When I talked with some of my sister's Chinese friends they told me some of their cultural secrets. A Chinese college student told me her parents have always used the shame method to punish her. She said that whenever she earned a bad grade in school her parents would tell her that they were very disappointed in her and that she had brought shame upon herself and the entire family. Some of the college students I met told me that their parents told them that they no longer consider them their children because they earned bad grades or chose a boyfriend or girlfriend that they disapproved of.
I also learned that most Chinese people act fairly shy and bashful. The Chinese people I met were also very polite and always insisted on helping out with chores such as, cooking, cleaning and setting up for gatherings. Chinese people are starting to catch up with the rest of the world as far as protecting the environment too. During my sister's first couple of years in China, she was constantly blowing her nose and discovering black stuff in her tissues. China quickly stopped using coal as their main energy source and now my sister's nose stays clean. However, there is still a lot of pollution in Beijing, but its a city of 14 million people.
China has been trying to slow down their population growth as well. The Chinese government has passed laws allowing families to reproduce only one child preferably boys. If Chinese families want more children they are supposed to pay the government a substantial amount of money for the rights. So far this population control might be working since China's population was close to 2 billion people ten years ago and is now around 1.3 billion. India's population is very close to 1 billion people though and its growing fast.
When I was in the U.S. Navy I worked with a few people from different races. The first non-Caucasian American I met was a Native American who's last name was Longie. I mostly only remember the last names of Naval personnel because that's what was written on our uniforms. Longie was a brilliant guy who was planning on studying as a Naval nuclear physicist after boot camp. I didn't notice if Longie acted any different than any other patriotic American, but I only knew him in boot camp and we were always under the supervision of our disciplinary officers. After I got out of the Navy I found out that Longie's father was the chief of a Nakota (Sioux) tribe.
Two Hispanic guys became close friends of mine while I was stationed in Naval Air Station Oceana Virginia. While we worked we sang songs that we all remembered from our high school choirs while washing F-14 jets. We also spoke Spanish to each other, but they were much more fluent than I was with my Junior high and High school Spanish class background. My Spanish buddies names were Hernandez and Sandovalmanzo. We sometimes hung out with a Hispanic guy named Andriamampianina too. We called him AK-47 because his last name was too long. My Hispanic friends didn't act any different than any other Navy sailors accept that they were bi-lingual and liked speaking Spanish once in a while.
The African Americans I worked with became great friends as well and they told me I was the funniest Caucasian they had ever met. My African American friends taught me how to play the card game called spades. We played spades whenever our work load was complete during our 12-14 hour shifts. While I was a support equipment operator for two years I was usually too busy to play cards, but my African American buddies still loved to volunteer to walk near the wings of the aircraft I had to tow. One of my African American pals even took me to what he called the secret cool black man's clothing store, which was a Burlington Coat Factory. He showed me all the discount prices on clothing African Americans like to wear, such as baggy jeans and sports jerseys.
When I went to visit my older sister in Beijing China (Spring 2005) I learned some about Chinese culture. My sister Betsy has lived and worked in China for ten years. When I talked with some of my sister's Chinese friends they told me some of their cultural secrets. A Chinese college student told me her parents have always used the shame method to punish her. She said that whenever she earned a bad grade in school her parents would tell her that they were very disappointed in her and that she had brought shame upon herself and the entire family. Some of the college students I met told me that their parents told them that they no longer consider them their children because they earned bad grades or chose a boyfriend or girlfriend that they disapproved of.
I also learned that most Chinese people act fairly shy and bashful. The Chinese people I met were also very polite and always insisted on helping out with chores such as, cooking, cleaning and setting up for gatherings. Chinese people are starting to catch up with the rest of the world as far as protecting the environment too. During my sister's first couple of years in China, she was constantly blowing her nose and discovering black stuff in her tissues. China quickly stopped using coal as their main energy source and now my sister's nose stays clean. However, there is still a lot of pollution in Beijing, but its a city of 14 million people.
China has been trying to slow down their population growth as well. The Chinese government has passed laws allowing families to reproduce only one child preferably boys. If Chinese families want more children they are supposed to pay the government a substantial amount of money for the rights. So far this population control might be working since China's population was close to 2 billion people ten years ago and is now around 1.3 billion. India's population is very close to 1 billion people though and its growing fast.
When I was in the U.S. Navy I worked with a few people from different races. The first non-Caucasian American I met was a Native American who's last name was Longie. I mostly only remember the last names of Naval personnel because that's what was written on our uniforms. Longie was a brilliant guy who was planning on studying as a Naval nuclear physicist after boot camp. I didn't notice if Longie acted any different than any other patriotic American, but I only knew him in boot camp and we were always under the supervision of our disciplinary officers. After I got out of the Navy I found out that Longie's father was the chief of a Nakota (Sioux) tribe.
Two Hispanic guys became close friends of mine while I was stationed in Naval Air Station Oceana Virginia. While we worked we sang songs that we all remembered from our high school choirs while washing F-14 jets. We also spoke Spanish to each other, but they were much more fluent than I was with my Junior high and High school Spanish class background. My Spanish buddies names were Hernandez and Sandovalmanzo. We sometimes hung out with a Hispanic guy named Andriamampianina too. We called him AK-47 because his last name was too long. My Hispanic friends didn't act any different than any other Navy sailors accept that they were bi-lingual and liked speaking Spanish once in a while.
The African Americans I worked with became great friends as well and they told me I was the funniest Caucasian they had ever met. My African American friends taught me how to play the card game called spades. We played spades whenever our work load was complete during our 12-14 hour shifts. While I was a support equipment operator for two years I was usually too busy to play cards, but my African American buddies still loved to volunteer to walk near the wings of the aircraft I had to tow. One of my African American pals even took me to what he called the secret cool black man's clothing store, which was a Burlington Coat Factory. He showed me all the discount prices on clothing African Americans like to wear, such as baggy jeans and sports jerseys.
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