en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/3593861 Comments by jdub14 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/10/voices-from-the-classroom-73/#IDComment220655550 Honestly I think that the more we try to make a name for ourselves, the more we do it negatively but not on purpose because we want to show that we are united and that we won’t let something this negative bring us down as a student body. Most of the views from around the world make a specific judgment only to what the media has been putting out. Most of the time the media points out the least important details and involves people that do not have that much to do with the situation. They also try to involve icons because it is easy for the press to create drama whether it is true or not because someone is very well known. Personally I don’t think this should affect us as students because in a sense it has nothing to do with the student body. Just because there were a few people who made horrible decisions does not mean that this defines us as a university. I think that we, the student body, define what Penn State means the most and have the most power over what actually happens here regardless of what the media says. The world can have a different view and have different opinions of Penn State students but to truly understand what we are going through you must be a student who is here day in and day out. Emotions have been flying around the university and personally it has taken a toll on everyone in one way or another because no matter how much we try not to think about it or put it on the back burner, we cant get away from it and part of this I blame on the media because they are everywhere up here. I feel that the more we try to put this behind us and move forward by starting fresh, then the more people will remember how great of an institution this school is and the amount of intelligent people that come out of here and continue onto successful careers. Honestly I do not really know how the world views Penn State. I would hope that would try to take the time to understand the situation before they decide to make any decision on how they feel about the situation and about Penn State as a whole. No one really knows the true story in and out including faculty and students at this institution so personally I feel as if it is difficult for us to make a decision on how we really feel because although we attend school here, we are just like everyone else who does not know much about it as well. We need to take the steps to put this in the past and grow as a university and live up to our reputation of being one of the top rated schools in America. Sat, 12 Nov 2011 01:04:21 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/10/voices-from-the-classroom-73/#IDComment220655550 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/03/voices-from-the-classroom-66/#IDComment217041504 One of the main reasons I think that Americans will not do hard labor is because they are just downright lazy. We have felt that everything is easy for us and that without saying it we feel like everything should be handed to us and if it isn’t it should be something easy to do. One of the reasons that Mexicans are willing to do this labor is merely just for the fact that they want a job so that they can support their family, it just so happens that the hard labor jobs are the ones that are available because we as Americans do not want to do that hard work. I personally feel like if there were jobs that didn’t entail hard work, which the Mexicans would take them as well because they are necessarily looking to do hard labor they just want to work no matter what the job is. Something else that is a factor is that they care about the job that they have and work very hard to keep it whereas many Americans don’t really show that they care about their job and think that even if they lose it there is a strong possibility that they can get another job. These Mexicans know that this may be the only job that they can ever get here so they don’t take it for granted because they are so appreciative that they can support their family. Needless to say there are many Americans who do appreciate what they have and work hard. I feel as if a lot of people who are in the trade industry such as construction and electricians and those types of job work hard labor and long hours due to the pay that they receive. There are trades that do receive good amounts of money and these are mostly business owners who have successfully started a business and it has grown into something far more productive then what they thought. Although the situation is different for the Mexicans, I still feel like a lot of the issue is motivation to make better for you. They have the urge to make sure that they provide for themselves and their families which Americans also have but I feel as if we want it to come easy to us. We need to not let anything get in our way and set goals and not back down when something gets in our way. If everyone in America had that mindset I feel like it wouldn’t matter whether we have a hard labor job or not. Personally for me I like hard labor jobs because I feel like I have accomplished much more than if I was not working hard. Fri, 4 Nov 2011 23:36:38 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/03/voices-from-the-classroom-66/#IDComment217041504 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/06/voices-from-the-classroom-40/#IDComment204618003 I feel that the reason that women go around dressing the way they do is partly because they want to impress other people but I think that most of it is because they want to make themselves feel better, who wouldn’t want to feel better about themselves. There are men out there that do feel the same way as women and take a lot of time to get ready and look good when they go out to places. The saying that says look good, feel good, play good makes sense because if you look good or at least think you do then you feel a lot better about yourself and have much more confidence in yourself. Women can be more hard on themselves and how they look because they also compare themselves to other girls and therefore set higher expectations for themselves, while men on the other hand do not care as much and don’t compare themselves to other guys as much as women do. They have the mentality that like it or not this is who I am and I don’t need to try to impress people which can be good and bad at the same time. Personally for myself I don’t really try to impress people by looks rather with my personality. Sure when I go out places I do like to look good but I don’t spend a ton of time trying to make myself look better for everyone else. Men do care what they look like but not to the point where they must look their best at all times no matter what they are doing. I wonder what a woman’s point of view is on this and whether or not they agree and if they do to what point they do. Another thing that makes it easier for men is the clothing styles that they wear. They can be much more comfortable and easier to change in and out of while if you are a woman and you wear a dress and heels they aren’t always the most comfortable things to wear. Sometimes you have to pay a price if you want to look good and that could be literally money or it could be something like being uncomfortable for the night. I do think men have it easier in society because like the girls in the video said they can wear whatever they want whenever they want for the most part without people judging them unless they look different then most of the other men in our society. This may or may not change but from my point of view and the way things have been going in our society I do not see this changing anytime soon. Sat, 8 Oct 2011 02:46:36 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/06/voices-from-the-classroom-40/#IDComment204618003 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/27/voices-from-the-classroom-23/#IDComment201530841 Drug use is common in the United States, but as far as particular races using them more than others brings in questions. Personally I do think that some races do use them more than others but I don’t think that it is because of their race. Using illegal drugs is a choice whether addicted to them or not the user first made the decision to take them. The actions to begin using them came from the user and no one else. Sure there is peer pressure and things like that but like everything else in the world it comes down to the decision of the person who is taking them. If I was a different race I do not think that my views on this would change. There must be a desire for a person to want to take them. There may be a small percentage of people that have been forced to use them but I feel as if the vast majority of people who use illegal drugs have made the decision on their own whether they would like to admit it or not. Drug use is a problem and just like drinking, if you are exposed to it more than the desire or risk level of you trying them is much higher than if you are not really exposed. As far as certain races being exposed more than others I believe they are. This brings in the problem of being brought up around these illegal drugs and feeling as if this is normal to them and that it is not wrong and by the time they have found out its wrong and illegal they either are addicted to them or are at the point where they no longer care that it is wrong. Some races feel as this defines them as a culture, for example the Native Americans years ago were known to use drugs in their everyday life and not just to become “high”. If people feel as if it defines them than it could cause more problems because future generations will feel the same way and not even want to change their ways because they don’t know any better because they were brought up that way. The people in our country need to take a stance against this and change our ways towards drug use so that our children and future generations will know that it is wrong and that it shouldn’t be done. Once again I feel as if it does not matter your race rather what matters is the mindset you have and how strong you are and do not give into the pressure that the world has placed on us. If we can all do that we can change the drug use and its problem one step at a time. Sat, 1 Oct 2011 00:17:18 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/27/voices-from-the-classroom-23/#IDComment201530841 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/20/everyone-respond-to-this/#IDComment197703808 After having read some of the stuff about the Haiti project I feel as if this project will help me learn much more about the lives of the people who live there. The first video I watched was about the woman who made handbags out of old articles of clothing. I found this very interesting because she utilized every piece of material to make the bag including pockets on both the inside and the outside. One of the traits that the people who live there have is being more appreciative of every single thing that they have in their life. A lot of Americans are not, for example if our jeans get a hole in them or get stains we throw them out. But in Haiti they will find a way to utilize the material for almost anything, in this particular case a handbag. One a of the good things about this project is that it will help us open our mind to things that we have never even thought about in our life and hopefully continue to make us think about further actions that we decided to make. Although the goal is not to make us want to work with other countries such as Haiti, it will help us have a better understanding of the way life is in other countries that don’t have governmental and financial support such as the United States of America. The next video I watched was one on a young man making sandals. In America, a lot of our clothing products and even food products are all made in factories which mostly consist of machines which do most of the work and have actual humans overlooking the process. The young man who is making the sandals is making them piece by piece and all by hand. The difficult part about doing it piece by piece is that he does not have the tools that we have in America making it much more difficult and time consuming. This means he is not able to produce as many shoes because he has to do everything by hand. When he cuts the pieces of material for the shoes, he is not even using a knife in the sense that we would think. It almost looks as if he is using a piece of metal with one or two sharp edges and is carefully cutting each piece to form the sandal. The last video I watched was about a woman who made lunch boxes and school bags. The positive side to her story is that she has a sewing machine to help her speed up the process and that will allow her to produce more bags in a shorter amounts of time. Overall I think this project will be very beneficial to everyone in this class in one way or another. Fri, 23 Sep 2011 23:31:56 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/20/everyone-respond-to-this/#IDComment197703808 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/08/voices-from-the-classroom-3/#IDComment192264846 As Sam said in class before, I truly believe that there is only one race and that is the human race. Just because people do no t look the same as we do, we are still all humans. I feel as if that the word race has almost become a term that describes people in a stereotypical way. Someone who is from a different country or has a different skin color then we has become known as a different race. Why is this? Personally I think it’s because we haven’t accepted the fact that we are all equal and that just because some has different skin color or doesn’t look like us does not mean we are not alike. Sam brought up good points in class showing how and why people have different skin colors and physical characteristics. For example he said that people who lived closer to the equator have darker skin because that is what they need to survive in those particular regions. It’s the same thing as animals like we have learned in our sciences classes. Giraffes with long necks survived in regions where it was needed to have that characteristic, but whether short or long necks they are all still giraffes just like no matter what skin color or difference we have we are still all humans. I feel as America is a good example of all of this because we have such a diverse country, although people with the same similarities seem to generally have their own areas. We have developed the mindset that if someone looks different or is from a different region that they are so different from us. I think that saying someone is a different race is just another way we put labels on people. Sometimes the labels are correct for example if you commit numerous crimes then you are labeled a criminal but I don’t think that saying someone is a different race then you is a normal label because we are all equal. Many problems have come up because of us labeling people different from us and this dates so far back in history. If we accepted that we are all equal to one another many problems could have and still can be avoided but the human race as a whole has to accept this. People’s characteristics have come about due to the region in which they live to help them survive to the conditions that they have to deal with, not because they are different from us. The same thing goes for animals as well and we even label animals different but it is exactly like the human race. Once again to me race doesn’t matter, we are all a part of the human race and that is the only race that I believe there is. Sun, 11 Sep 2011 15:43:58 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/08/voices-from-the-classroom-3/#IDComment192264846 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/08/30/why-are-asians-automatically-categorized-as-asian/#IDComment190844802 As far as people associating Asians and Orientals, I think it has to do with a lot of the fact that many of those countries have people who look similar. In class we watched that video that said Orientals are all the same and it showed many different people from various countries but have a similar look to each other. I think that we as a whole associate them together because in America we are used to such a diverse culture. There are some areas where there is a large population of people from the same country or background because they have much more in common with each other because they are used to the same culture. This I think could be changed because even though other people are not from the same culture as them, they can still have some of the same interests and hobbies as someone from another culture different from their own. As far as where I think it started, I can’t really say but I think it’s just like the terms Sam told us about in class that people use for groups of people that are not of the same race or ethnic background as they are. But one interesting fact is how she said Russia is part of Asia, and I have a question for everyone else. Would you considered someone who is from Russian an oriental or Asian? Personally I don’t think I would and I think that it is just another stereotype that we associate with them because they are not from our country. One thing I would like to do is to live in another country for awhile to understand their culture and see how they speak of people from other parts of the world and see if it closely relates to how we view people in other parts of the world. One thing to add to that though is not only do we associate these stereotypes to people who are not from America but we also associate them to people who have been born and raised in the United States. Not that I am knocking our country because I am very patriotic but what does that say about us as a whole if we are having stereotypes within our whole country which is supposed to be united hence the United States of America. This is something to think about and makes you wonder why we do this; do I think this is a problem? Yes I do but I don’t think it will destroy our country unless it gets progressively worse and turns in to continued violence all the time although the violence has gone up due to this particular issue. Wed, 7 Sep 2011 22:42:29 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/08/30/why-are-asians-automatically-categorized-as-asian/#IDComment190844802