The World's a Garden..Let it Grow!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3154/2561252664_88b19dc2b7.jpg


This week for my blog I chose to write about this interesting picture I found when browsing the internet. This weeks reading was about people challenging the status quo. This picture immediately caught my eye because it's of a dark brown sheep amidst a hoard of white sheep. This picture was obviously taken because the photographer wanted to get his opinion about "fitting in" heard. The sheep in the middle stands out the most.

In today's society it is frowned upon to stick out and they are even sometimes discriminated against. For example, lets take a look at people that express their individuality through tattoos. When someone has a lot of tattoos most people can't help, but stare. No matter what their tattoos might mean and how artistic and beautiful there tattoos are, they are going against the status quo and are therefore standing out and getting judged. Parents seem to always frown upon their children getting tattoos when they come of age, but I think that it should be their choice. Sure it is permanent and sometimes it is a mistake, but they need to be allowed to express themselves. Take a look at how interviews for jobs are conducted. You are supposed to dress nicely and be clean shaven with very little piercings, in other words, you must look like the other prototypes that are trying to get the job just like you. A lot of interviewers decline many applicants who have piercings or tattoos or if they just don't look like they'd fit the job. The reason is because they are automatically judged and not given the chance to "fit it". The person in charge does not want that person to flaw how their company looks as a whole. Does this mean the company itself is scared of accepting different people?

I definitely have my own opinions about challenging the status quo. Especially when it comes to living up to one's "expectations". I remember in high school everyone figured since I was part Japanese I had to be amazing at math and a horrible driver. The normal overplayed asian stereotypes. Although I have to admit that I am a horrible driver and that everyone should watch out when I'm on the road (=p) I absolutely hate math. I can't do it and haven't been able to completely understand it since middle school.


I chose this picture because it shows someone trying to make an impression to their picture's viewers. This sheep is standing out amongst all the rest, but they continue to be sheep and the world does not fall down around them and cease to exist because one decided to be a different color than the rest. What it all comes down to is that the world is scared. Everyone is scared of change, but I think we need to embrace it. Without change how can the world progress?

The Clash of Cultures

A defining moment in my life when I felt the power of language would have to be when I was nine years young. It was my first time moving to the mainland. I was so worried about starting my new school because I had attended the same school since preschool and I would have to start making new friends and trying to fit in all over again. What I failed to realize was that they would speak so differently. In Hawaii, I could never really be considered a "local island girl" because I didn't speak the way the locals do, but I did say a lot of the same things just without the accent. It's called pigeon english. My sister and I had the same problem when we came to the mainland. The first time she realized it was on a family vacation to Disneyland. She was eating at one of the many money-killer restaurants and was enjoying her meal, but like a normal little kid, she was very easily distracted. One of the waiters figured that maybe she had finished and walked over to pick up her plate. My sister was angry because she hadn't finished her Mickey Mouse cookie so she turned to the waiter and said, "I'm not pau!". The waiter kind of regarded what she said and nodded his head, but continued to take her plate. She grabbed it again and said, " No, I'm not pau yet." She was getting so frustrated because this man was not understanding her. My grandma finally saw the problem and stepped in, letting the man know that she was not done yet. This is when my sister finally understood.

I started understanding on my first day of school. I went around and made some friends, but I noticed that they all looked at me funny when I would use the word Pau for done or when I'd tell them to "try come" or when I'd try to tell them that they had a Pooka (hole) in their shirt. I had a few friends come up to me and ask what race I was and where I came from, so I told them that I was hapa haole and that I came from Oahu. They looked at me like I was crazy! That first day was rough and I couldn't understand why everyone thought the way I talked was funny. I went home upset and told my mom everything. She sat me down and explained that those words I had been so adapted to all of my life weren't even English! I was so surprised. I had been speaking different languages without even realizing it. Hawaii is filled with so many different races that the language they speak there has adapted to each one. Pigeon English is a mixture of broken English, Japanese, Philipino, Hawaiian, and some other languages. Even though I have to admit, I'm pretty darn "white-washed", as most would say, since I've lived here for a while I have a hard time breaking the habit of saying certain things that I've grown up around.

Critical Thinking: A Dish Best Served With Simplicity

When it comes to critical thinking, I have to admit I find myself doing it more than the average person. At this moment I'm being critical of myself for even saying that because I realize that I just made up a statistic about the average human being. It would be smarter to say I find myself critically thinking and analyzing things...a lot. I tend to critical think about things that don't need critical thinking. For instance I could be walking down the street and notice an old man sitting at a table by himself sipping a hot coffee. I would try to analyze him, trying to figure out his story. Why was he sitting alone? Was he ever married? Has he been going to that coffee shop for a while?

My idea of critical thinking is thinking about something and really cutting it down to the core. I take an idea, or concept, or even a sentence in a book and I cut it to pieces, layer by layer like an onion. If I were to compare critical thinking to something I would compare it to the job of a chef. When they find a delectable dish that they would love to recreate, they think about the different flavors that are combined in the dish and what could possibly be in it. Then they think about ways that they spend time thinking about how the dish could be cooked to perfection; you could bake it, broil it, grill it, etc. When critically analyzing something in a book, you cut it down separating what type of rhetorical devices can be found in a paragraph. When you find a metaphor, or what you think might be a metaphor, you look for the hidden meaning, or, for the sake of the cooking analogy, you look for the hidden way of cooking the piece of work. To clarify, the way you look at the chosen paragraph or stanza in a poem is how a chef would look at that special unknown dish. The way you take it apart, noticing how wonderfully the author has combined their rhetorical devices and what types that includes would be how the chef finds the different ingredients used to make that dish. They way you would focus on what might have prompted the author to write the piece is how a chef would focus on how the cook decided to create it.

This is me critically thinking, just some food for thought. If it seems like rambling, than your right, that's what it is. When I critically think, all these thoughts just fill my head like the why, what, when, how, who, where, questions. It's like my mind just wants to continue adding to my critical thoughts once I get started. That brings me to the end of this blog. If I can get anything out of this class, I would love to be able to take control of all of these thoughts and organize them so that instead of rambling on and on about something, I am able to understand them and talk about them more easily without confusing anyone.