Oakland high school students share impressions of Japan
Posted Jul 14 2007
One thing that I took away from this assignment was a reminder of how influenced people can be by so little. This was one interview, with one person, yet many of the students based their whole impression of Japan off of it. It’s a good reminder of the power of adults and teachers and why we have to be so aware of what information we use and how we use it.
One point that interested me is that in Japan people are nicer and respectful to the outsiders (immigrants). Instead of insulting them they help them out. Here in the United States it is harder coming as an immigrant because they need to learn the language and are expected to speak it even though they don't know it. In school they even demand in some cases that student will talk only English. For example since I was in elementary school my 4 th grade teacher would punish me for speaking Spanish and would embarrass me in front of my classmates, making me speak in English when I didn't know how to speak it. Here, people are not even polite. We have persons of different ethnicities and cultures and we still don't get along because we as a society are racist against each other.
Another point that grabbed my attention that is the most popular way of communicating is text messages. We as a new generation are really using the text messages as our new way of communicating with people. I myself use text messages all day every day. I found it fun and it's a way for me to talk to more than one person at once. When I was reading the interview I saw that they made good points. They talk about how can you stop talking to a person face to face and cut the conversation but few minutes later they will be texting the same person you said bye to few minutes ago. I find this interesting because these are a big issue with youth these days.
For example, when I text I have my own ways of using the word and am not using proper English nor Spanish. I use my own ghetto language. Instead of saying "good morning" I be saying "gewd moning." This is a big issue because am forgetting how to use my proper languages. Some times when I'm writing things for school homework I use some of my ghetto language because I am getting used to it. The worst thing is that not only me. A lot of people all over the place are doing this.-Deisy C.
all of this articals sound verry intresting, I like the fukt that all of our students had so muche to say and at their aige they all sound very weal inform and inteligent