Lab 6: Volunteerism

During the spring semester of 2015, I volunteered at the Pocatello Food Bank for a project in a class. I only helped out at the food bank for a few days, but while I was there, I witnessed a lot of good things. For the most of the time, I was bagging peanuts or packaging boxes to be given out to the less fortunate people. When I watched people come and pick up these boxes, I saw joy and a big weight lift off of their shoulders. They could not stop thanking us. It made me feel like no matter who you are, you can make a difference in someone else's life. Volunteering helps both sides. The people who do the volunteering are happy because they are helping others. The people who receive the help are so thankful for what they have been helped with. In my future career, all I will be doing is volunteer work. I cannot wait to help people every day. Communities are like a chain. It is only as strong as the weakest link. People help others to build relationships. Which ultimately build the community relationship.

Lab 5: Understanding Different Cultures

I interviewed a friend that I have grown up with in my hometown. He was an adopted African-American. He was adopted into a small town white family. He said adapting to a family who had a different skin color than you was very tough to accept. As he grew up, he learned more about his adoption and how he had adapted to accept anyone no matter what their skin color, race, or life was like. He told me that he was blessed to be part of a family that loved him for who he was.

Growing up in a small town, I was taught to enjoy the little things and be grateful for what you have. I learned that people take their culture and adapt to the new culture that they are presented with. No matter what your culture is, you can keep that culture strong while also adapting to another one. Being in the medical field, you never know what culture you are presented with. I could very well face many different kinds of cultures.

Lab 2: Considering Language

The first time I watched this newscast, I had no idea about what was being said or what was going on. I did realize that there was a story about an ex-president, and there was a story about homosexuality. In the story about the homosexuality, the picture of the man they showed while introducing the story was the man that was part of an interview. The fourth story was about the United States president, Obama. I had no idea what is was about. There was a story about the winter weather in New York. I do not feel that I could tell someone about what was going on in this newscast. Biases could be created by the people who are affected by the stories and the language that is spoken.

The second story is about a ex-national football player in Germany, named Hitzlsperger, who made his homosexuality public during an interview. He encourages players to be open about their homosexuality because they are still a good football player no matter what their sexuality is. Hitzlsperger made sure that people knew that it is important to talk about their homosexuality openly. There was a story about Chancellor Merkel traveled to Washington D.C. to visit with President Obama to discuss the relationship of Germany and the US and the spy actions of the NSA. They covered a story about the cold polar air that affected the mid-west in the US. They talked about the cold temperatures in New York. The ships and boats had to break through ice. The news anchor said that having a daily routine is not possible until the weather subsides. The only way I knew who these people were was the close captioning that translated each word. Now I know enough that I could tell people what was going on in the newscast. In the Obama story, I noticed that the anchor made sure that people knew that the NSA spied on the Chancellors cell phone. It made me think that they were making sure that people knew the NSA is bad. the differences that I realized was that I could actually know what was going on in the newscast. I actually enjoyed some of the stories. Language is a very fascinating thing. I never had the patience to learn a new language, but some people could use closed captioning to help learn certain words.

In my future occupation, I could use the ability of knowing a second language to help as many people as I can. Being a MRI technician, I can be presented with many different races and languages. I want to become a better person by helping people become healthier. This lab made it difficult to capture the details of a newscast that was in a different language that I was not familiar with. The close captioning made it easier to know that was being said in the newscast. It helped me know what the anchor was even talking about. Some of the sentence structure in the closed captioning was not good, but that is how other languages work sometimes.