Farmingville

The migration of thousands of Latino day workers to the Farmingville community has created great culture shock and debate. Education about each culture is one step towards helping the Latino workers assimilate, decrease segregation and help both sides with culture shock. Many members of the community have differing opinions and beliefs. Gaining a better understanding of these beliefs is the first step to finding a solution.
Louise says in the film that she wants to know who is around her and who lives in her neighborhood. The migrant workers have made her lose this feeling of comfort in her community. Margaret Bianculli-Dyber simply wants the migrant workers to disappear. She feels that U.S. laws have been disrespected and does not trust or appreciate that changes in Farmingville. In her quest, she does not understand nor ask, in a way that prompts answers, why these workers are in her community and how tensions can be decreased so that the community is not constantly at war. Margret does not consider herself to be racist, but is trying to make the clock turn back to a time where she did not have to worry about who is standing on her street corner. Paul Tonna, the county legislator understands that something needs to be done in Farmingville to decrease tension and supports the use of tax payer dollars to build a hiring site. If the community could find a way to educate each other about the cultures that are now in this town maybe tensions over cultural differences would decrease.
Both the day workers and the Farmingville residents are experiencing culture shock in this situation. They do not know how to interact in the other group’s culture and therefore they do not understand and are sometimes intolerant of the differences in their cultures. With education, both cultural groups would learn about where the other was from and how to communicate in a way that promotes a community feeling instead of dividing the community.
All three of the interviewees in Farmingville agree that there is a problem that started with the migrant workers moving into the town. The differences in the three are how they view the rift in the community and how they approach healing that rift. Margaret believes that the immediate deportation of all the migrant workers will instantly solve the community’s problems. Louise wants the community to be a community again, no matter who is in it. Paul Tonna wants to find a way that the migrant workers can work side by side with the legal residents of Farmingville. He does not propose allowing the situation to stay as it is but instead proposes that steps are taken to try and reach a common ground between the two cultures.
We feel that the key to better understanding this situation and finding a solution is in education and responsibility. First, all sides need to come together with an open mind and have rational conversations without loosing their tempers. If the legal Farmingville residents got to know the day laborers, why they choose to come to their community, what their intentions are, and general knowledge about their culture, that would be a start to better understanding. I think this aspect of the solution would help to put Louise at ease. A meeting like this would also help the day laborers to gain more information about the previous Farmingville culture and help them integrate it with their Latino culture.
Another aspect of the solution is to assign responsibility and hold people accountable. We feel that the Farmingville citizens, day laborers, and employers all have some responsibility in allowing this situation to escalate the way it has. The citizens have to understand that there is a need for the day laborers. They would not have come to a place where there was not a demand for manual labor. These citizens have no interest in mowing lawns or doing dishes, so to condemn the men who are willing to work hard is a serious mistake. The day migrant workers also have to realize that their presence has seriously changed the dynamic of the community. They must be held responsible for the same laws that all other community members are. Harassment, destruction of property, and other crimes are not to be tolerated from anyone. The employers need to find a balance with the work they are doing. They cannot skate around tax laws just to make a buck. These employers are changing the value and payment of manual labor. Middle ground is needed from what was done in the past to what is going on now.

Intercultural Film Review

The Visitor, written and directed by Tom McCarthy, was a surprisingly good film. It is a deeply moving movie about Walter, played by Richard Jenkins, who was a widowed college professor living a depressed and aimless life, until he unexpectedly found a couple living in his New York apartment when on a business trip. The couple, Tarek and Zainab, were illegal immigrants victimized in a reality scam where they payed rent to someone who didn’t own the apartment. Walter allowed the couple to stay in his apartment with him because they seemed to have no where else to go. This situation forces Walter to deal with issues related to immigration, identity, and cross-cultural communication. While they were living with him he ended up bonding with them and found some compassion and positive changes in his life.
Walter’s deceased wife was an excellent piano player, and Walter attempted with much frustration to learn the piano. During his time in New York Walter finally decides to give up playing the piano and he takes up a new instrument which he is much more talented and compassionate about, the drums. Tarek gives Walter drumming lessons and Walter loves his new instrument. Walter and Tarek seem to from a connection and friendship through the music. The drumming acts as a medium of communication across the two cultures. During the short time that Walter lived with Tarek and Zainab he changes substantially. He seemed to finally start getting over the death of his deceased wife and he starts to be more kind and enjoy life more.
Zainab used a great amount of body language to express how she felt. At first her body language was negative and slightly hesitant towards Walter. After she got to know him better her body language seemed to become more positive towards him.
Tarek is a very kind and generous musician from Syria, making a living by playing his African drums. Zainab, who is from Senegal, sells handmade jewelry at a little booth in the street to make a living. A person buying some of her jewelry at their stand was asking her where she was from. When Zainab told her that she was from Senegal, the lady said “ohh, that’s so neat! I have been to Cape Town before, what a beautiful area!” Cape Town and Senegal are thousands of mile away from each other and are very different. This seem shows the true ignorance of a typical United States citizen.
The film made me more aware of some of the hardships that foreigners face here in the United States. It also made me more aware of how many of United States citizens are very ignorant about how immigration and deportation goes about here and about what it would be like to be a foreigner.
One evening rushing through the subway, Tarek gets stuck in the entrance and climbs over the bar. Even though he can show his paid ticket stub he is arrested.
The police found out that he was an illegal immigrant and he was put into detention. Walter, who before meeting Tarek and Zainab was not know for his senticitivitfy towards others, but in the case of Tarek getting arrested he does everything he can to try to help him. Unlike the sadness Walter faced from because his wife, the grief that he experiences from this situation opens him up to others, to the difficulties of people he has never noticed, and opens his moral horizons. He continues to visit Tarek in jail and even hires an immigration lawyer to help Tarek. Zaneb has moved to her cousins house. When arrested, Tarek seems to be more concerned with Zainab and his mothers welfare, and even Walter's drumming lessons, than he is with his own dire situation. Tarek’s mother and Zaneb can't visit him because they are both here illegally.  
Tarek’s beautiful mother shows up a few days after the arrest because Tarek has not been returning her phone calls. Walter invites her to stay in his apartment and she accepts and stays in Tarek’s old room. Walter and her start dating and comfort each other during their unsuccessful attempts to prevent Tarek from being deported.
It is devastating when Tarek is deported to Walter, Zainab, and Tarek’s mother. Tarek’s mother decides to go back to Syria to make sure that he is okay, knowing that she will never be able to return. People are deported by the judges from the United States relentlessly, with what seems to be very little compassion or concern for the people being deported.
This movie, The Visitor, helps break the stereotypes that are associated with Arabs. It challenges the judgment that Arabs are terrorists, by letting us get to know some Arabs that are very kind and loving people.
Both The Visitor and the movie Farmingville that we have been watching in class have brought up the issue of illegal immigrants and deportation. There are very good reasons on both sides of the arguments around deportation. In The Visitor, the lawyer made it seem like it would be almost impossible for Tarek to get to stay in the United States, and that there wasn’t much time, energy, or compassion put into his case from the governments side in considering if he should be allowed to stay or not. There are several reasons why the people in the movie Farmingville wanted the illegal mexican immigrants in their town to be deported: One of the Farmingville residents shared that she thought it was necessary that all the people in the town should be in a government record so that if they do something bad they can be prosecuted, which is a valid point. Many of the Farmingville residents feel that the illegal immigrants are dangerous and should be deported, which may be a valid point, or may be stereotypes and racism. They also had a valid point that many of them lived thirty to a house, which seemed to create some problems in the neighborhood. But there are arguments from the other side as well that seem just as valid, if not more so. It typically cost just as much, if not more, to deport illegal immigrants as it cost for them to stay. It is also very difficult to keep them from just coming back. Also, there is usually a good reason for them to be in the states anyways, and that should be put into consideration.
The film The Visitor only takes an inside view on the topic of deportation and illegal immigrants. From the perspectives of all the main characters in the film, Tarek was deported unjustly. The Visitor does not share the views of any outsiders, like Farmingville does. The film makes the viewer love Tarek before the deportation process, which gives the viewer a perspective on what it would be like to have someone that their are close to go through. I think that if the people in the film Farmingville could empathize with the people that they are trying to get deported then they would feel that they deserve to stay and would try to help the live better lives instead of harassing and avoiding them.
All in all, The Visitor was a great movie. It was mind opening in many different aspects, including; immigration policies, illegal immigrants, the ignorance of United States civilians, communication styles in different people, and in breaking the stereotypes of Arabs as well as illegal immigrants. I found this to be a entertaining and somewhat educational film. I recommend it to everyone to watch.

Last week I went to the Race Monologues. This was a very interesting, entertaining program that opened my eyes about how race is still very much an issue in modern day society. There were about ten college students of all different races on the main stage. They all took turns telling us stories of different people who had to deal with injustice because of their race. I am very glad that I attended this event during Racial Identity Week.
To my surprise one of my friends was upon the ten collage students on the stage. I was never aware of how big of a deal not being white affected her life. She is a music major, and is hoping to sing for a living after she graduates. Physical appearance is very important in the profession that she plans on entering. She has mentioned that she always has to be really careful about her weight because of the profession that she is going into, but never mentioned the fact that it isn’t as likely for her to have a successful career because the fact that she is from Filipino decent. It makes me sad to think that that is the case. She is a wonderful person with a wonderful voice who deserves to be among the famous but it very unlikely that she will make it that far simply because she is not white. She briefly explained this injustice to the audience.
There is still way too much racial injustice in this world, and that really needs to change. It was so interesting listening to the stories that were told during the Race Monologues. I have always avoided such events because I have expected them to be very boring and a waste of time. I also avoided them because I thought that I knew everything I need to know about race, and that the events couldn’t teach me anything important. The race Monologues made me much more aware of all the racial injustice that happens, and also opened my mind to the fact that I actually have been creating some of the racial injustice myself. I have many colored friends and even a couple family members that are African American, and am by no means a raciest, but I still have been unconsciously stereotyping people of different races.
It is important to occasionally attend events on racial injustice and listen to the stories, because when we don’t we tend to forget that it really is still a great problem and that it might actually be partly our fault, as part of society, that is making it that way. I enjoyed attending Race Monologues very much and I plan on attending other events that are similar in the future.

Intercultural Language Log

There are many aspects of human language, many of which vary from culture to culture. While observing how people communicate the past few days, I have realized that my university town has a very large array of cultural expression. People express themselves and communicate with others in a variety of ways both verbally and physically. When a group of people spends a lot of time together, they tend start similar words, ways of talking, dress similarly, and use similar hand and facial gestures. People pick up these ways of communicating mostly from their family and friends. Therefore, people of different cultures and social groups express themselves differently. I have also found that people use different language when their environment changes.
Last weekend I went to a house party that ended up having a very diverse group of people present. I noticed many different cultural groups interacting, all in their own ways, although everyone used language that seems typical for young college students. I noticed that females often use more nonverbal codes to express themselves than males. Most of the male athletes, particularly the wrestlers, had a confident tone in their voice, and seemed to use a lot of facial expression and an average amount of body expression for males. There were a few “hippies” present, who seemed to be very mellow and friendly. The female hippies used an average amount of facial and body expression, but loved to talk! The male hippie also talked a lot and used quite a bit of arm movements to express himself. They dressed in clothing that gave them a laid back and environmentally friendly look. There was a lot of chatting, laughing, and dancing going on in the house, which made it easy to observe the communication trends between my peers.
I have had the chance to observe some of the same people who were at the party several times in a very different environment; church. When these college students are in the environment of church, they often have many of the same communication characteristics, but they also alter some of them. Even though my church has a casual dressing code, all of them were dressed very differently than they were at the party and their attire communicated a different message. Most of the females wore clothing that is less promiscuous and more sophisticated, and wore more subtle makeup. Most of the males wore nicer shirts that didn’t have writing on them. When in the church I noticed that there was much less slang and very little to no swearing used. For the most part, everyone in the church used the same body and facial expressions as they do in other environments. On the other hand, the people that are strict Christians (people who follow the bible strictly and attend church on a regular basis) have different communication habits than the others. The females don’t wear promiscuous clothing when in any public place. I have noticed that the strict Christians of the church I have been attending usually don’t use bad words, but still use plenty of slang.
I observed my aunt, uncle, and their friends and found that many of them feel more socially confident than people on my generation. They seem to use more facial expression when talking and give better eye contact. The physical appearance of the successful middle-age people I observed often seemed to communicate confidence, although I am unsure if that was just the particular group of people I was observing. Middle age people tend to care about comfort very much in their clothing, but also want to look nice. I have rarely seen middle-aged women dressed promiscuously. They often wear prominent jewelry, which may communicate a sense of economical status or an outgoing personality. They also use different words than people of my generation do. Middle-aged people typically don’t use as much slang, and often use a more extensive vocabulary. They seem to know what they want more than the younger generations and use filler words, such as “um…” and “so…”, much less. The group seemed to use lower-context language (Martin & Nakayama p.220) than younger groups, as they didn’t say as many abbreviated words or sayings and tended to make what they felt very clear.
The children I observed have the most unique communication characteristics of any of the groups that I have observed. I mostly observed the children that I babysit, and also a few that attend my church. The boys and girls seem to communicate very similarly to each other. When trying to explain something or tell a story, they tended to talk very quickly and use many arm gestures. They often included unimportant details that most adults would not mention, and used excessive arm gestures and physical expressions. On the other hand, I observed many children being very shy and hesitant to speak when they are in an unfamiliar environment or around new people. They tend to have much more high-context communication (Martin & Nakayama p.220) than older people. Once the children get to their teenage years they typically slow down how fast they talk and use a number of arm gestures and facial expression closer to the amount that collage students use.
The different ways people communicate is very interesting to study. It is amazing how people change their communication styles so drastically from childhood to late teens and early twenties, and then change them more by the time they hit middle age. It is also interesting how different social groups, such as the wrestlers and hippies, have different very different communication styles. The people that I observed used a vast array of communication styles to let others know what they think and feel about a large number of topics. The way that people communicate is very complex here in Ashland Oregon, and I can imagine that if I had an opportunity to observe communication in places with even more diverse cultures I would find much more complexity.
Bibliography
Intercultural Communication in Context. 2007. Martin & Nakayama. McGraw-Hill Higher Education

Digital Culture

My culture is not something that can easily be defined, because, like most people, I belong to many cultural groups. Some people call me a self-indulgent and materialistic American, where as some call me a caring and environmentally friendly hippie. Some people view me as a lazy, indecisive college student, where as some view me as a fun, laid-back, open minded person. I have difficulty identifying myself with a certain culture, because I have so many different views of myself, the world, and the definition of the word culture. One of the many cultures I belong to, is digital culture, which I would like to share about.
Growing up in the era of computers, cell phones, and other digital gadgets has shaped me into a technologically inclined person. Most people within about 20 years of my age who have grown up with availability to these digital gadgets, are also part of this culture. My definition of digital culture is: the people who use digital gadgets on a daily basis, and whose lives would be radically different if they did not have access to these gadgets. This year, about twenty five percent of the world population uses the internet, this is approximately a 362 percent increase from the year 2000 (2009. Miniwatts Marketing Group). The digital culture has expanded extremely fast, and is now one of the largest cultures in the world. These days it’s not just the people we know as ‘computer nerds’ that are of this culture. Now most normal middle class and upper class people from many different countries and backgrounds are apart of this culture.
Every single one of my friends has a computer and a phone at home and the large majority of people here in Oregon access to computers and phones. Having digital gadgets so accessible has made a huge impact on peoples lifestyles. People of the digital culture have near instant access to information that previously would be difficult to obtain. People of Digital culture also can entertain them selfs with digital games and music, and can easily communicate with people that are very far away.
In the United States, Universities, high schools, and even middle schools, expect their students to be capable of typing and using computers proficiently. The digital culture contains people in a wide variety races, professions, and life styles, all who are dependent upon their digital gadgets. Many people not only rely their gadgets for school or work, but also for recreation. Television and computer games are very commonly used, many researchers believe that they are used too much. There are even some cults associated with certain digital games and television series, such as the game World of War Craft, and the television series Lost. People who do not go along with digital culture trends, such as joining the online social networking group Facebook, often feel ostracized from their social groups.
The average American adult spends 8.5 hours in front of a screen and spend over an hour watching television advertisements and promotions every day (2009. Settler). It is astounding how much technology we have accessible to us! I personally can’t imagine life without it, because I have not gone a day without using some form of technology sense I can remember. It is almost impossible to escape technology in any town or city, or even in the wilderness of an industrialized nation. People can do so many great things with modern day technology, but technology has it’s down sides as well. Millions of people in my culture have experienced health problems because of excessive use of digital gadgets.
It has been proven by a large number of scientific studies that staring at a screen for too long can cause health problems. Watching a screens for long amounts of time has been proven to cause increased blood pressure in children and in adults, worsened eye sight, depression, and many other issues. Too much technology is without a doubt is bad for human health. (2009. Science Daily., 2009. Kioskea)
There are many good things and bad things about being apart of the digital culture, but most people seem to think that the good outweigh the bad, because more and more people are becoming apart of it. Through out the years, it has become expected a huge number of people to become apart of digital culture. Digital culture is changing environments all over the globe and in not too long will make an impact on almost every life on our planet.
Miniwatts Marketing Group. http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

2009. Setlter, B. The Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/business/media/27adco.html

2009. Kioskea. http://en.kioskea.net/actualites/tv-and-video-games-increase-teen-depression-risk-study-11942-actualite.php3

2009. Science Daily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090803173127.htm