Blog 3

So for this weeks blog I wanted to talk about the Ethnography study we did. In attempting to learn about a new culture, we were given the task of going out and observing the things that certain groups did. For instance, we could have gone and observed the different cliques at school. Our group, however, decided to go and observe the foreign language teachers. Unfortunately, only the German teacher was available, but we did get a nice lesson from her. Interestingly, the German teacher is Filipino. The lesson was on shopping. Now you might think, how can one learn about a culture through a lesson. Well, in Germany people, for instance, bring their own bags when they shop. This is because they do not want to use plastic bags that are not recyclable. Therefore, to American's, it might seem really weird if someone was putting food into a backpack that they brought. In America, we would classify that as stealing. But in Germany, it is simply being concerned for the environment. That is one of the many differences that make each culture unique. Because, essentially, that's what sociology is all about. Being unique and accepting of other, different things.