ANH PHAM

I have always loved writing. In fact, before majoring in Information Technology at FDU, I have majored in Literature for seven years throughout my secondary and high school years.  I love how delicate and profound it is to be able to think, reflect, rewind and finally express powerful ideas on paper ourselves. George Orwell – one of my role models – had said it well: “If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.” Therefore, I am very grateful to the course “Cross Cultural Perspectives” this semester for giving me the opportunity to pour out my personal thoughts and opinions on various topics as well as to learn many interesting stuffs from the lecturer, from course materials and my classmates. It feels great to be able to take a break from my programming sessions and immerse myself in the world of cultures and their assets.

 

I have learned a lot of things from this courses, from practicing articulating my ideas to the class to writing reflections and thoughts about the readings and videos every week. First of all, I really like the activities and assignments that the professor has assigned to us because it not only hones our communication and teamwork skills but also enhance our knowledge a great deal. Every week we would have certain readings and books or videos (usually short films or full length movie) whose meanings fall under the theme of that week. For example, for the week whose theme is power, space and place, the class got to watch the movie “This Changes Everything” which tells the struggles and efforts to fight against land violation of the minority within the scope of something much bigger – the Earth’s global warming and environment. It was such a fantastic movie that I remember going home that day and going on Youtube to buy the movie myself and watch it for the second time. I kept playing the quote of the narrator in my head: “Stopping climate change isn’t about the polar bears, it’s about us. The us who are told to be selfish, but it is also the us that are able to take care of the Earth“ (Klein). The message is just so powerful, and it is no exaggeration to say that this movie has really changed everything, by at least changing what I have always known about the relationship between human beings and the Earth forever. And after every week with these readings and videos, we always have assignments to write our thoughts about them. There are in-class and take home assignments: as for in class work, we usually discussed in groups and present the discussed ideas to the professor and other teams, on the other hand, take home assignments are done by us on our own to really grasp what we really think and feel about the topic. Consequently, we improve our communication as well as critical thinking skills by working through a class discussion/debate prompt in a group and write reflections on the materials by ourselves later on. Plus, the reading materials and videos that we have been familiar with are amazing works coming from established authors and filmmakers who deserve so much credit for telling stories effectively and let the audience discuss and engage with them in various ways. Also, I remember another memorable assignment in the class: it was like an experiment with two sides competing each other – disagree or agree. The topic is Gender and Work and honestly everyone relates so much to it, hence the atmosphere at that time was so energetic and engaging. It is interesting to hear different opinions on certain statements, and I just love how civil and relaxed everyone is during the debate. We participated in the experiment enthusiastically and have learnt so much from it, to the point I have finished the reflection essay right away after I went home from the class. It was such an eye-opening, engaging and positive learning experience for all of us.

 

In addition, most big take-aways from the course I have received all come from the readings and videos I have been given. I am the most impressed with the very first reading that we got assigned, chapter 9 of the book “Thinking Carefully” by John Chaffee – “Thinking critically about moral issues”. It is such a good and thorough chapter that is all about how to think critically in most cases. As an aspiring critical thinker, I learn from the reading that living creatively and thinking critically should go side by side. “Living creatively” means that I should first create for myself an illuminating life philosophy to live upon. “As the artist of your own life, your brush strokes express your philosophy of life, a vision that incorporates your most deeply held values, aspirations, and convictions.” (Chaffee 430). And the challenges I face along the way will contribute to making sense of who I am or am meant to be, and what I want to do in my life. This life philosophy should be a vision that not only guides my actions but also enables me to understand the value of my own experiences, the significance of my relationships, and the meaning of my life. That is, to me, the base of many moral codes that I choose to live on. For example, I believe that every life is precious, everyone deserves a chance to live and improve the world for the better. However, in complicated situations such as when life has become hell for physically and mentally hurt people, I do not have much knowledge and experience in order to really understand those cases; so I can just say I hope every decision we make will be justified and worth all our efforts.

 

The second reading that I really love learning from, is “Stephen Luke’s Three Dimensions of Power” by James Gifford. It is not actually the literary work by Luke himself, but rather the commentary of this particular work of his. I think Gifford did such a good job explaining the definitions of three concepts of power, by giving concrete examples of each part of these dimensions. In this essay, he made examples of FDU students themselves, making it very easy for us to understand. From it, I learn about the simplest definitions of Power that includes these three dimensions – direct force or hegemonic power, coercion and contextual power. Everything I do every day is Power based, I feel. I make choices, meaning that I have the contextual power to make those decisions for myself. I interact with people, meaning that I have potential coercion power as well. I believe for every little thing we do in life, we can always tie it back to any of these dimensions of Power, which makes all this very interesting to think about. Plus, I got to learn from the way Gifford structures his argument in this analysis essay and how he narrates the specific examples for argument in such an effective way, and I had applied what I have learnt into writing a successful assignment later on. The best way to learn to write well, is learn from others’ writing, indeed.

 

And I also am very intrigued by the article “The Five Sexes, Revisited” by Anne Fausto-Sterling – “the emerging recognition that people come in bewildering sexual varieties is testing medical values and social norms” (Fausto-Sterling 2). I have heard of the term “intersexual” before, but have never really understood the actual meaning of the word. This article is really helpful in helping us filling that knowledge gap, as the author is a professor of biology and women’s studies and also the first person who herself suggested considering the new gender system as opposed to the traditional one (male, female). I learnt that out of one thousand people in the world, seven people have some kinds of intersexual related phenomenon going within their body. Very interesting to know. The intersexual community has been fighting for their inclusivity for a long time, and only until recently did all their efforts come to fruition. We are now more open to minority and willing to include them in our system. It is normal now to have variation in our gender system. The world is not just black and white, it also has mixed colors all over and in between, as quoted “strong color co-exist with pastels” (Fausto-Sterling 4). I believe the message is that it is important to embrace differences and be at peace with who we are. There will still be challenges along the way, because people do not like anomalies, but we all used to be anomalies for once in our lives. So just stay peaceful and keep fighting for the best.

 

In conclusion, taking the course “Cross Cultural Perspectives” has been such a fun and meaningful ride for me. We got to practice and improve our communication and presentation skills. We got to learn, explain, understand, analyze and evaluate many perspectives for lots of aspects of various cultures in the Earth. We got to take those lessons – reading materials, videos, lectures, discussion – and brought them along in our life journey. It is very rewarding to be able to apply these ideologies from classroom into actual situations in life, or just simply use them to reflect on ourselves as a human being. Finishing the course this semester will not stop me from wanting to explore and learn more about cross cultural perspectives in the world. It takes a great teacher to inspire a student to learn and explore more, so of our beloved Professor, I am indeed very thankful.

 

 

 

Reference:

Chaffee, John. Thinking Critically. Vol. 1, Houghton Mifflin, 1997. https://webcampus.fdu.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-2319745-dt-content-rid-6443091_2/courses/193949/chaffee_chs9to12_pp2.pdf

 

 

Gifford, James. Stephen Luke’s Three Dimensions of Power. FDU Press, 2010. https://webcampus.fdu.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-2340023-dt-content-rid-6681732_2/courses/193949/Power.pdf

 

 

Fausto-Sterling, Anne. "The Five Sexes, Revisted". Sexing The Body. Vol. 1, The Sciences, 2000. https://webcampus.fdu.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-2332545-dt-content-rid-6561693_2/courses/193949/ContentServer%20%281%29.pdf