Self-identification
Touchy-feely America-style learning about our inner selves today! We had an all-day conference with the other international students and the peer mentors (a support network for students of colour and 1st generation college attendees). The conference involved various exercises designed to explore ideas of self-identification and, dude, it was weird. They shipped us all off campus to an entertainment complex and conference centre in a converted 50s middle school (class photos and murals on all the walls), and there were we spent our time in extensive rearranging of chairs into sociable group shapes, and talking to other students about how we felt about things.
The first exercise involved us ticking little boxes on a sheet about whether race, culture, age, gender etc. mattered most to us in our personal self-identification, and which we think would be most advantageous to us in society, most influential on our personal style- you get the idea. (Followed by talking about our answers in groups.) The afternoon's major exercise was called 'crossing the line', in which they read out a series of statements to the group, and if you identified with them, you stood over the other side of a line down the middle of the room, also noting who was standing next to you. There were questions on your music tastes, whether you were worried about Uni, whether you were a single parent family, whether you got on with your family, if your family owned more than one car, if you were religious, your sexual orientation...it went on for about 45 minutes. It was a bit weird having all these personal questions asked and everyone silently watching where you stood on them.
On the whole the day was quite boring and fundamentally not British. I would have skived if we were on campus. The thing is that there were really interesting people there, and I had conversations about things like racial divides in the States, the importance of the family in Zimbabwe, creole in Jamaica and all kinds of other fascinating things, but then we were interrupted to get back to our bloody checksheets. Hence the tedium of it, but it was also a bit more emotionally open than we're used to as English, I'd say.
P.S. They keep throwing free food buffets at us about every three hours. It's all Vegan to play it safe...
The first exercise involved us ticking little boxes on a sheet about whether race, culture, age, gender etc. mattered most to us in our personal self-identification, and which we think would be most advantageous to us in society, most influential on our personal style- you get the idea. (Followed by talking about our answers in groups.) The afternoon's major exercise was called 'crossing the line', in which they read out a series of statements to the group, and if you identified with them, you stood over the other side of a line down the middle of the room, also noting who was standing next to you. There were questions on your music tastes, whether you were worried about Uni, whether you were a single parent family, whether you got on with your family, if your family owned more than one car, if you were religious, your sexual orientation...it went on for about 45 minutes. It was a bit weird having all these personal questions asked and everyone silently watching where you stood on them.
On the whole the day was quite boring and fundamentally not British. I would have skived if we were on campus. The thing is that there were really interesting people there, and I had conversations about things like racial divides in the States, the importance of the family in Zimbabwe, creole in Jamaica and all kinds of other fascinating things, but then we were interrupted to get back to our bloody checksheets. Hence the tedium of it, but it was also a bit more emotionally open than we're used to as English, I'd say.
P.S. They keep throwing free food buffets at us about every three hours. It's all Vegan to play it safe...
posted by susie r at 11:03 PM
5 Comments:
Ahoy there S.S.Susiemon! I'm glad America is going well. The self-discovery exercise sounds fairly daunting though. I'd have made up a load of crazy baggage for myself to see what they said; probably a lot of shifty looks, awkward coughing and dodgy mumblings.
On a totally different note, we had a competition at work today to see who could come up with the best chat-up line, which I so won with the following:
"I'll be your Thunderbird 2 if you'll be my Tracy Island."
I [u]so[/u] rock.
Susiemon!! Sounds like you're having a fab time, Americans are a bit odd sometimes but i'm glad its providing interesting conversation.
Can we have more photos soon please :D
I'm in hitchin which is great but James is at work and i'm v.hungover and STARVING (oh for some vegan buffet... hang on... don't you only like meat? hope you're not starving too) but some builder men are ripping boilers out so i cant get in the kitchen for grub or the bathroom for a shower, oh no!
Anyway, have lotsa fun, love you!! xx
ps. Nick that is a brilliant chat up line :) though also probably a good way to get a black eye
I had a drunken conversation with some freshmen last night, the conclusion of which was the invention of the following chat-up line:
"Hey, do you want to get together and swap STDs? That stands for Sexy Time Disease!"
My goodness, that beats my "Are you a musician? 'Cos you can Doe Ray Me!" for sheer awfulness.
Yes it was terrible. And since then I've had to attend about five more things to do with sharing one's feelings and sitting in circles.
Sorry you had to sign up, I'll see if I can change that. I refuse to get a livejournal, it's far too emo and you have to spend ages fiddling about with icons and stuff. Where's your livejournal anyway? Is it a seeeecrit?
Post a Comment
<< Home