People watching and questions from kim

Day 7
 
the bargain handshaking is kind of cool. "man watching"  
 
wow, high status feet placed on low status heads.  the 'OK' symbol isn't OK in 

all places.  anti-clockwise for crazy, clockwise for intelligent. 
 
horns sign in Italy, the finger is an ancient roman symbol.  two fingers, "v" 

for victory but backwards, is obscene.
 
head tossing (yes) is no, head shake is yes.  It is a two mile stretch, when 

the switch is made.  because that's where Romans stopped.  
 
in India the head is wobbled from side to side for yes.  like our maybe
 
thumbs up for good, thumbs down for bad.  thumbs up was spare the man, thumbs 

down was kill. that was wrong.
 
they actually hid their thumbs for spare them, and stabbed down with their thumbs

for kill him.  
 
in Australia there is a people that refrain from speaking for months to mourn the

death of a tribesman. instead of wearing black.  
 
gesticulation, unconscious  hand movements.
 
beating the air in time is a universal gesticulation. "da da, dada, da da"  raised 

forefinger, beating their heads with a club.  palm down gesture, pat the audience 

to calm them down.  hand chop to cut through the argument with a sharp blade. 

these hand signals even happen when talking on the phone.  
 
chimps chewing their nails. i chuckle.
 
a tight lip and lowered eyebrows are for aggressive action. tight lips for 

aggressive, lowered eyebrows for protection from retaliation.  
 
the staring eye, threatening. (the evil eye) if you could out stare it you were 

safe.  
 
as they become afraid, their mouths are pulled back, showing the teeth.  it looks 

a lot like a smile.  smiling is a human expression that comes from the fear face. 

the fear face is sometimes used as an anti aggression expression, i am not 

aggressive to i am friendly.  it is difficult to fake a smile.  
 
reminds me of my visit to watford city.  the psychology class.  
 
we often suppress our nonverbal communications because we want to hide our

intentions or feelings.  
 
face touching is a sign of lying, and hand shrug is done when lying as well, 

eyes blink and close more often than normal.  
 
blog is due next week.  not another due till the 29th of march, after we meet

again.

===end notes====

The people watching was pretty cool, I learned some things about actions.

The best part of class was listening to the dialogue between Kara and Kim. 

It is interesting the differing opinions on culture and what it means to 

different people.

What I know of my culture is that somebody who had enough money and was

educated came to North Dakota.

Other than that one fact, my entire family have been American citizens. 

One problem that I see with America is the lack of solidarity between the people.

America is full of 

Spanish Americans, Mexican Americans, African Americans, European Americans, and 

other elasticities.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I AM SORRY TO INFORM YOU BUT WE ARE ALL AMERICANS FIRST. A 

country cannot stand strong if it's people are too worried about where they are 

from and how they came to be where they are now.

No matter what happened in the past we need to keep both eyes on what's 

now. 

Sure, it is important to know that a train went by 15 minutes ago, but it is even

more important to remember that another train is coming, and you are standing on

the tracks.

Remember where you came from, but pay close attention to what is happening now.

Question 1: (insert hypothetical situation about visiting a foreign country and 

learning its language here) Most of my friends are too 

self conscious to practice on an everyday basis. I certainly try, I speak mandarin

to Whitney almost every day. She doesn't though.

Question 2: Tattoos mean different things to different people. They are like 

necklaces. Some people have them because they have a special meaning.

Some people wear them because they are cool. Others wear them under their shirt

because they have no need to let everybody know, and others wear theirs 

outside the shirt because they want others to see it and appreciate it.  The only

thing tattoos say about people that have them is that they are not afraid

to commit to a permanent change.

Question 3:  Language classes should be mandatory for schools. This wouldn't 

compromise other cultures because learning another language would help keep that 

culture alive. It isn't so important to be bilingual as it is exercise for the

mind. Students that learn a different language do better in all other classes.

Question 4:  Languages disappear because people learn newer easier or more common 

languages. If there is a room full of Spaniards, then you need to learn Spanish.

Kind of like the "When in Rome..." saying. When a group of people move in 

(read: Invade or colonize) when the people in power say "this is the language"

then said language becomes what people speak.  We can preserve languages by

putting them into a database and hoping that people want to keep using them.

From a societal standpoint, it doesn't make much sense to have more than one 

language in the world. Just think about how much more efficiently information

would be

passed between people, and how many misunderstandings would be avoided.

Question 4: YES we should have an official language that is used for legal

purposes (laws, licenses, taxes, and signs) The way laws are written in the US

are not friendly to 

translation. And it is a waste of time and ink putting two languages on every 

damned form, and every damned phone call to a government agency. They can certainly speak it, and 

use it in their lives, but when it comes to government involvement, ENGLISH ONLY.