Hello Class,
Welcome to our class blog. We are going to spend time discussing the book, talking about our lives, and voicing our ideas here in written form.
For your first blog post, I want you to think about what culture you belong to, and describe your connection to it, focusing on how you participate in this culture. In The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, Jennifer 8. Lee talks about her connection to Chinese American culture. Is culture something that you are born into, or choose? What is your personal definition of culture.
We may be part of many different cultures. Do you feel connected with the student culture at Columbia? A certain art culture? Hip-hop culture? Skateboarding culture? Yoga culture? How so? How ingrained, important, or influential is this one culture to you?
Take some time to share what culture you find yourself playing a role in. Describe it fully. Remember that many of your classmates may not know what this culture is like. Explain about it from your prospective.
This entry should be three or more paragraphs.
Happy blogging!
To post, you should select "post a comment" and then copy and paste your text from a Word document.
ReplyDelete(Hip-Hop Culture) Hip-Hop Culture is a very diverse culture when it comes to race as of today. hip-hop culture originated in Africa from different tribes. When it comes to hip-hop culture from the past I really don't have full knowledge but I know some information. I am more informative on current Hip-Hop culture today, it is a culture that tends to accept anybody no matter what religion or race you are and where you come from. I believe that the hip-hop culture chose me and I am happy it did.
ReplyDeleteI'm apart of the dance culture in general but pacifically the hip-hop culture. I remember seeing my dad who was also part of the hip-hop culture popping and locking when I was just a little girl. My father back in his day was one of those individuals who you saw dancing on the cardboard box on the corner of the street with his big stereo next to him. When I tell most people about my dad they always figure he was African American but he is not, he is Puerto Rican. He was one of the few people who was of a different race dancing in New Jersey at his high school.
I believe that my dad has been a big part in my inspiration for dancing hip-hop because he has been there and loved it just as much as I do now. This culture is made for anybody and that is what I love most about it and you get to dress casual and comfortably unlike most dance genres. A reason why I love this culture so much is that you don't have to be a certain weight or size if you wanted to dance professionally, you can just be you and don't have to worry about "fitting in". This is part of my culture as a whole and I am proud to say that I am apart of the hip-hop culture.
Got Culture?
ReplyDeleteEverywhere you go there is always culture in the air. A couple of employees walking down the street on break to that crazy cab driver that zoomed right passed you on your way to class. Everyone belongs to a certain culture, and I'm here to tell you what culture I belong to.
I am apart of the hispanic culture. I am 25% Puerto Rican and 25% Panamanian. My hispanic culture means the world to me. I was born and raised around it. My parents have two completely different ethnicity's. My mother is the hispanic side and my father is European side (50% Italian, 50% Polish). He follows more of the hispanic side rather than his own culture, because it is common in our house. My family is the definition of a hispanic family. When people hear the words hispanic families they all assume that we live with a bunch of family members in one household, own a landscaping company, and infer we don't know how to speak english. And I'm here to tell you that its all false. At my home we don't have a bunch of family members staying with us, no we don't own a landscaping company, and yes we know english. I don't even speak spanish. My mother always speaks spanish to us. But I'm not as fluent as well as her. She always says practice makes perfect, so I always give it a try but it doesn't turn out as I expected. My family means the world to me. Ive been noticing with hispanic families, they are all very close with one another. And I love that! Rule # 1 of hispanic culture love your family always no matter what. They will always have your back through thick or thin.
Many cultures have different traditions and lifestyles. The hispanic cultures has endless traditions. The one that I love the most is every party you have, your whole family will be there. Its nice seeing your loved one you don't see on a regular bases. Don't get me started on holiday parties. The one stereotype that I have to agree with is our culture knows how to party. Partying is not the only tradition my culture has. Religion is a key element in my culture. Every Sunday my family and I attend church no matter what. Always sitting in the front row, wearing our nicest clothes. After mass we would have sunday dinner with our immediate family members. I call it Sunday Fundays because I love spending time with my family. As you can see family plays a huge role in my culture. Like I said before, everyone belongs to a certain culture, and I belong in the hispanic culture.
Culture Blog
ReplyDeleteI was going to start this blog with how difficult choosing one culture to write about was, how much I appreciate all cultures; about how many different cultures there are to choose from. I was going to say I believe in ‘World Culture’ therefore pulling what I thought to be a slyly played trickster card. As I started contemplating the actual subject, my first thought was the music culture. “Well, okay, I do live and breathe music.” But that was just too easy. “What else” I thought... “what is meaningful yet interesting...”
Love. The strenuous culture of love. Well, I don’t understand it, I don’t believe anybody else does really. I love my family, I love my dog. Am I in love? Hell if I know, but it’s there and everywhere. The general love culture seems to be different to everybody, whether they get weak in the knees, butterflies in their stomach, or just start proclaiming, “you complete me” in repetition.
How do I, then, connect with the love culture? Honestly I never thought I would, nor did I care. As an adolescent I thought love was for saps, for people too weak to get through life alone. However, I believe now that we are born with instant love gleaming at us through the cosmos. Everyday, if we are lucky, this love grows and grows and eventually we are able to pass it onto someone else. I know that most people probably don’t define “that thing that makes us all special” as love. Though, no matter what you call it, you can’t deny we are all a part of this culture.
Growing up I lived in a culture that was very religious and still is. I went to church with my family every sunday, I went to sunday school, I was in the choir, everything that had to do with church my family was apart of. Being so young and having your actions be ruled by someone else, you didn't really have a choice to choose. I am in no way saying I hated being apart of my religious culture, I enjoyed it very much. Going to church, meeting new friends at bible study and having multiple adults to call aunt and uncle never felt more excepted into a community.
ReplyDeleteBut when I grew older new ideas were exposed to me and I began to question who I was. This time my actions were not being controlled, I had my own self control so I began reading. Asking questions. Writing. Studying. Doing anything that would give my inner peace and practice it. Now I'm 18 still reading, studying, asking and living my life the way I want, going to college for music, possibly studying abroad and exploring the endless possibilities of happiness.
I don't blame the culture I was born in nor do I disgrace it, I am very thankful because is shaped me into the humble person I am today. It taught me how to be spiritually connected to yourself and what you believe in, taught me to except people for who they are and never judge someone because of their image.
West African Dance Culture
ReplyDeleteI feel like I am apart of the West African culture. Not only because I am African American, but also because I find the West African culture to be very interesting. A small part of my community back home in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, love to come together and West African dance. We usually have a huge conference every year where dancers from Africa come to teach West African dances like kuku, sabar, soli, and dundunba. Each dance represents a form of celebration weather it’s a celebration for a wedding, the harvest season, or the birth of a child. There are so many interesting things to learn about the West African culture. This culture has had a huge impact in my life. I started taking African dance classes when I was 16 years old and a few months later I was asked to dance in a West African Dance company called Tam Tam Magic.
I have been dancing with Tam Tam Magic for 3 years and I enjoyed working hard, doing shows and teaching classes with them. I remember the first thing they taught me was how to control different parts of my body like my wrists, head, cheast and back. In African dance every part of your body is moving at the same time. It was an extremely difficult task to do, but the more I practiced the easier it became. After learning the basic steps it was finally time to move on to a dance called kuku. Kuku is performed to celebrate happiness during the harvest season. This dance is energetic and involves a lot of movement with your arms and legs. This dance is very simple compared to other African dances. It is a great dance for beginners.
The African drums serve as a foundation of the African culture. Without the drums noting would exist. The drums help send messages to people including the dancers. It is a different form of communication. During slavery slaves would create different rhythms to help communicate and send messages to other slaves or family members. There are many types of drums like the Dejembe, which is known as the master drum. It creates the loudest sound and is mainly used to send messages. The Dununs are a family of drums that serves as the bass of West African music. These are just two types of drums used for West African music, but there are so many more. This culture is amazing. Take the time to learn more about it.