Anne - CP #6

CP #6

Date and Time:   Thursday, January 28, 2016

Location: CIES Student Lounge

1) What did you learn and share with your conversation partner(s)?

Today, as a large group, we talked about stereotypes and generalizations, and the kinds of beliefs people of one culture have on another.  We then did an activity in which we were to write questions about what we’d like to know of someone’s culture and what we’d like them to know of ours as a way of breaking up our stereotypical beliefs.

2) How did the CP session inform your awareness of other cultures?

In one conversation, the student asked me why Americans have babies when they are so young as women wait until in their mid to late 20s to have children in her culture.  I told her that there is a wide range of childbearing age and that most people did the same – wait until their education was finished, until they were in a job and somewhat settled down.  But I talked about teen mothers and how pregnancy rate in that group is highly correlated with income, educational support, etc.

In a second conversation, we talked about how and when kids leave home.  My partner wondered why parents “kicked their kids out” at 18.  I explained that most parents don’t force their kids to leave after high school, but they do expect their children to become independent.  College and military service are one way of building independence.  I also talked about how the job situation and the economy influence the separation process.  He talked about how children often never leave home, especially women unless they marry.  Even some men bring their wives to live with his parents.  The whole family together can be enormous.  But he says this is changing, that more young people are leaving home when they find work and can afford it.

3) How did the CP session inform your awareness of your culture?

There is a push for independence in our culture, both from the outside (social expectations) and from the inside (establishment of the self in the world).