September 28, 2005

  • UW-Stevens Point is on the facebook and picking up speed! Brace yourself, Kristen, this competition is about to hit warp speed. (Thanks, Beeks!) Real Friends: 82. Society of Slightly Less Than Real Profiles: 50.

    Facebook me!


    David    , thanks for the gesture, but I really don't know if "Nick Crawford Is a Cyborg" is really a group I want to join! Is this because I turned the Excel spreadsheet into a PDF file?

    The group description:

    Basically, I realized a long time ago that Nick is a cyborg, a robot, a
    contraption of automation, a walking pile of circuitry. A delightful
    pile of circuitry he is though.

    Culture

    "Culture consists of systems
    of values, attitudes, beliefs, and behavioral meanings that are shared
    by members of a social group (society) and that are learned from
    previous generations."     - "Essentials of International Management: A Cross-Cultural Perspective" by David C. Thomas

    For those of you who don't know, I'm studying business at UW-Milwaukee
    in their MBA program. Looking to graduate in May, I opted for the
    Leadership Track since the courses were available, including the
    elective, Managing and Negotiating Across Cultures. By far, this is my
    favorite class.The instructor was born in Texas, raised in Mexico, and
    educated in Belgium. (Tall, dark, and very handsome, dark curly Latino
    hair, with a decent Spanish accent - help with the mental picture?)
    When he teaches, unlike many of my other classes, he shoots high and
    expects you to keep up. Of course, I love this. I love history and
    culture, traveling and learning, and above all, being challenged.

    Like many of my classes, almost half the class is of foreign birth -
    four from Germany, three from Taiwan, one from India, and one from
    South Korea. Naturally, this makes for a broad set of perspectives
    already plus the strong interest that the other US-born students have
    in other countries and cultures. Whoa. Catch myself there. Did you
    notice that? I'm tying countries together with culture. I did when I
    described the make-up of my classmates. In fact, I do this all the
    time. We as Americans do this all the time but also with race.

    It seems perfectly normal to us, and I don't believe that there is
    anything wrong at all with making that correlation, but I think our own
    interactions would be improved if we considered what other aspects make
    up culture. Going back to the institutional definition I started with,
    culture is much more than a place of birth or color of skin. Actually,
    those have very little to do with it. Think of language. Interesting
    topic because in the past, it was assumed culture molded the language.
    Today, the growing belief is that language frames the culture as the
    vehicle of communication. To me, it's a hybrid as the language is
    strongly influenced by the emerging culture (years ago!) and eventually
    the language begins to be a defining frame of reference for the culture.

    Germans are known for technical expertise - engineering, heavy
    industry, etc. - and for a huge vocabulary because words get merged to
    be more specific. Did they excel in machining because they had a
    language that enabled them to do so? Of course not! Did the language
    grow to become a more technical language versus the flowery French
    language? Yes... And German is commonly used in the world for technical
    documents in industry. Certainly not French! It seems logical that both
    sides influence each other as language embeds itself into a culture. As
    a result, we see francophone Canadians
    fiercely protective of the use of French in Quebec, or the "rude"
    French who insist you at least try speaking French before they offer to
    use English with you. These people instinctively see that their
    language is their culture.

    Doggone right.

    I keep staying awake all night... and not eating much. The not eating
    part is fine because I'm more comfortable feeling a little hungry than
    full. Hey! Maybe that's why I'm so skinny. Actually. My ribs are showing up again. Still building muscle mass with my very physical job.

    So I work all day from about 8 to 5. School until 8. Talk to friends
    until 10 or 12. At this point I realize how much homework and office
    work I have and begin plodding along until...whoops, my co-worker is
    here at 6am ready to go out all over again! Pray for me and the company
    - we have 3 days left to our year end and lots of revenue to post!

Comments (23)

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  • Thanks but no thanks. Good luck hanging onto your account buddy.

  • I logged onto the facebook today (to decide whether I wanted to join the "Nick Crawford is a Cyborg" group - I still haven't decided ) and noticed that you had a few new wall comments...clicked on one of the commenters...noticed that he's from Steven's Point...and gasped aloud.  I knew, right then and there, that I had lost the facebook friend competition forever.

    The question of language and culture is an interesting one (as is the ongoing problem many Americans seem to have with ethnocentrism) ~ here's a whole different set of questions that I've been wrestling with lately: is a culture less advanced than mine if they don't have a WRITTEN language?? As an English major (and Xangan), I spend much of my day writing and reading and, I would like to think, communicating.  It's taken me many many many years to learn letters, words, sentences, grammar, how to put together a group of sentences, etc.  But does that mean my language is more advanced than a tribal language that will never be written down?  By extension, does that make me SMARTER?  The answer is of course no, but it brings up some interesting questions. 

    @gmail is the new MD for Xangans???

    And we just discussed your not-sleeping issue.  Every fiber of my "mom" being wants to rip into you for not sleeping and not eating ~ you're on the Kristen diet and you don't need it!  All I can do is pray, which I am/will. 

  • By extension, does that make me SMARTER? The answer is of course no, but it brings up some interesting questions.

    Of course no? Are you sure? I'll see if I can bring that up this week. Of course, I have no control over the conversations amongst comments as proven this week!

  • Before I jump in the truck and load up trees on nutrients, I'll say this:

    Saying smarter doesn't mean better. I think one can even say a higher or more advanced civilization without saying better. Objective vs. subjective. Evaluative vs. judgemental value statements.

  • Best be like me and never learn. Keep walking into walls and making fun of Canadians. A-boot...ah...that still makes me laugh.

  • Wow, your class is really diverse.  Who knew all those people were living in Wisconsin?!  Sorry you're not getting much sleep.  Sleep deprivation is never fun.

  • U2!?!  I'm so glad that someone I know (well, I guess not really know, but am aquainted with...) has seen them in concert.  I would love more than anything to see them.  I'm not sure about Crossfade just yet, depends on if my friend can go.  I'm sure I'll post pics if I make it, but they won't be anything like U2.U2!?!  Luckyyyyyy!

  • Thanks man. Yeah, I'll facebook you.

  • I needed more groups to be part of on facebook so sorry...  

  • Ya know...for a cyborg, he takes an awfully long time to update, don't he?
    How's my friend Latka doing Nick? :)

  • I think one of the interesting things about American culture is that it clearly exists.. but that there isn't "one American culture"... although there is one, fairly unified media portrayal of it. Since the States is such an enormous & diverse country geographically, we have so many different cultures & subcultures depending on your race, religion, socioeconomic status, location, etc. All those things tie together to create a culture... and it is often more powerful than the overarching "American" culture that gets represented worldwide. I have a pretty big inkling that's true in basically every country. We have a notion of what it means to be German.. or Russian.. or whatever, but it's usually very unsophisticated and only fits a margin of society. (ok I've run out of time.. so I will stop.. )

  • That's ^ what I was thinking, but Esther took the time to put it into words.

  • dang faint..your pretty and smart!

  • ryc thanks for liking my post.  although i am still not immune to getting my feelings hurt from random people it helps knowing what my core philosophy is.

  • I really enjoyed following your thoughts through the portion on culture. Gave me a couple new things to ponder :o ) Thanks.

    ryc: Weeeeell, do you celebrate half-birthdays?? 'Cause mine was the 6th of this month ;o) Teasing.. but thanks so much for your interest in seeing what I'm doing. I'm excited to be able to post it! I may just end up borrowing someone's cam - good idea :o )

  • Sleep!  It is a good thing.  I am doing very little of it these days.  I reached the point this week where the lack of sleep was creating that minor buzz in my brain and then walked home almost forgetting to look both ways before crossing a main Baltimore road.  I hope that you are finding rest!

  • We should all call Nick and wish him well. I called him today and he had a sore throat. I think a wire snapped in his neck, but he should be all patched up in a day or two.

    Anyways, we were talking about culture in my racist...ethnic culture diversity class, or whatever it's called.
    Interesting to note how many of us called "white" have not been strictly white over the years. The Irish for example, were not considered white, while the French, Germans, and English were considered the only real "whites" back in the day. Like...1733...or last Friday or something...ionno, my HS pulled a major upset today, and I'm beat as a result.

  • Hey, mandalei, if you come here, I'll let you borrow my camera ANY TIME

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  • Lucky me.

  • And so my theory of "less posting = more comments for bullmeister" is again proving to be true.  Although I'm disappointed that I've proved myself right, because this probably means less posts from you, and I was enjoying the brief return to daily posting!

    I think I'm going to wait until you comment first on various Xanga sites.  You keep commenting on MY comments, which makes things entirely too easy for you.  I'm gonna need some more originality from you...

  • I'm not sure how I feel about my local "culture," but your language theory might just explain why I will never say soda.  It's "pop," darn it.    That's MY way of clinging to my roots. 

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