Journal #25

I was nervous to do the Social Situations Scavenger Hunt at first. Mostly I was nervous to have to start a random conversation with a person I didn't know. However, after I thought about it for a while I realized that I will have to do something similar to this in India, so I better get used to it. I think for some reason it is more difficult to go outside your own cultural norms instead of some one else's cultural norms. But regardless of the difficulty of the situation I will have to try to find a way to meet new people in order to do my research. I also found it a bit hard to know what to take notes on, so I just wrote everything down I could think of (and what we wrote down in class before hand). Here is a brief outline of what I wrote down: 1) Greeting started from roughly 10 feet apart; both walking at a quick pace male was going in one direction and the female in the opposite direction The male said "What's up" and the female said "hi" The female made a slight hand motion that was semi-circular Continued in opposite directions 2) Conversation took place 5 feet apart Both were standing under the bookstore sign Both were leaning against the wall The male had his hands in his pockets The female used frequent hand motion when talking Both had made eye contact and then looked away periodically 3) Both females were sitting down across from each other One female was holding a bottle of water while talking and had her legs crossed She was wearing black pants and a black top The other female was wearing a pink shirt and her hands were crossed on the table Both used the phrase "So my news....." and proceded to tell circumstances of their lives Both used a lower tone of voice than the conversations around them Neither one was smiling or laughing during the conversation 4) The males were 4 feet apart standing outside near a building Both had hands in their pockets, there was no hand movement during the conversation Both males were swaying side to side The conversation lasted about 30-45 seconds The conversation ended when one of the males showed the other his small, black, plastic device (looked like a phone) and then began to talk into it while he walked away from the other male. The other male said "See ya" and turned to walk away in the opposite direction 5) I began speaking with a younger male (early 20s) at a booth He stayed seated the whole time Asked where I worked and then asked my responsibilies His hands were crossed and he was leaning back in his chair during the conversation He spoke about his job and his desire to study 6) I asked permission to sit down The woman stopped reading her book and consented to my sitting down When I asked about her book she closed the book and proceeded to speak about what she was reading. She then asked me a question. We took turns asking each other questions about favorite classes, majors, goals, When she was ready to stop talking and continue her book she said "Good luck with everything" and then opened her book and began reading. No other words were exchanged until I got up and left the table. 7) While I was speaking to one male another one came up and greeted the male I was in a conversation with The entering male had a bag of blue candy and discussed his thoughts about the candy He offered the candy to his friend and after a short period he offered the candy to me. He was standing during the whole conversation; however, the male he greeted was seated. He had a backpack and jacket on I found that I had a hard time not assuming situations or observations. However, it was fun to be able to not only view people's conversations and interactions but then view my own interactions within my own culture.