1) This class has enabled me to open up my mind and thoroughly understand different cultures. Culture is an accumulated pattern of values, beliefs, behaviors that are shared by identifiable group of people with a common history and verbal/nonverbal symbol system. By understanding different cultures I feel that I am able to communicate better with people, especially ones that I am not familiar with. This also helps me to break the uncertainty avoidance when talking or interacting with people. This class has helped me understand the differences between the 5 cultural dimensions: Individualism/ Collectivism, Low Context/ High Context, Value Orientations, Power Distance and Uncertainty avoidance. Discussing different cultures in class such as Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, African Americans and Native Americans, these discussions have really opened up my eyes to other cultures and people's beliefs are apart of them. I have gained much more knowledge about the world because I have taken this class. Just having the tea in the mornings allows me to think about other cultures and communication that goes along with it.
             2) I think I am more conscious about racism in society. The movie FEAR that we watched in class really made me think about other races and how each person in that race must feel. I was so ignorant and naive about the way other people felt due to past experiences in their lives. For example, several people in the movie talked about their ancestors and what they had to go through to be an "American." They discussed the feelings, looks and obscure actions they get towards them from people not of their own race. I did not understand what people had gone through and are going through today in this world. I saw myself as the character, David, oblivious to racism going on in the outside world. I did not understand why people felt that whites were the "oppressors." Once the other people of other...