Culture and Diversity

I've always been fairly interested in other cultures, languages, diversities, and so forth. Coming to Weber State has surprisingly opened up all of my doors to many diversities. A lot more than I thought it would. I have made quite a few new friends from around the world that have come here to get an education. I've also been able to stay in contact with some of those friends even after they have left the country to their home land.

Back when I was in elementary school there were two years when we had Koren students come and live with us for the summer. That was when my interest was first piqued. There was a Korean girl that stayed with us one year that we've even managed to stay in contact with, she chose to go by the name Tina. Now that I'm older I'm able to have more 'adult' conversations with her and talk to her about her culture a lot more. It is truly fascinating to me the differences and similarities we can find in each others culture by speaking to each other. She's opened up my view to a very wide scope, and I've been able to apply much of what she has told me about her culture to my tutoring.

I feel like whenever I tutor someone from a foreign language I can piece together their writing a bit better because that is what I sometimes have to do with Tina's writing. That is encouraging to me. I hope it is also encouraging to the student that I have an interest in their culture as well, not that I'm just a random person trying to decipher what they have said and get a session over with.

I've enjoyed learning about other people's cultures and even religions as I have read various papers. I feel I still have a lot more to learn and a long ways to go before I feel accomplished in a general knowledge of other cultures and otherwise. But for now, I'm generally enjoying learning different things and finding ways I can connect to the students that come in from other diversities.