People Watching

Kind of Job Gender of Work Age of Worker (approximately)
1.sales woman (American Eagle) Female 22
2.sales woman (New York & Company) Female 27
3.hairdresser (Nicole’s) Male 30
4.cashier (H&M) Male 27
5.shop woman (coffee shop on campus) Female 55
6.sales woman – at the register (Wal-Mart) Female 20
7.sales woman (Target) Female 30
8.hairdresser – cashier at Nicole’s female 25
9.person in charge at the enterprise car rent station Male 30
10.popcorn seller at the cinema Female 18


My observations
If you look at my observation table, you can notice that the age of most working persons are in the range between 20 and 30. Only one of these 10 observed people was much older. I was wondering what the reason for that could be and my only answer I could think of is the traditional American family structure. As we were talking about that topic in class, in the past the woman was seen as the “house maker” and therefore it could be that many older women are more involved in the house life instead of in the current American working world. However, all of the observed people acted in an extraordinary nice and friendly way with each customer and some of them also asked how the customers sensed their shopping experience.

Questions about American family life

1. Do you have to have a cogent reason to get divorced in the US?
2. Is a marriage that took place in Las Vegas valid in all other states of the US? And what about other countries?
3. Is it the norm to wear your wedding ring on the left hand in the US?
4. Do you have to pay for high school in the US?
5. Why are American families moving frequently and complicate their children's life?
6. Are homosexual couples allowed to marry in all states of the US?

RECENT OBSERVATIONS

Observations of children and adults

(http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/February05/Findings/images/finding_WICfoodcosts.jpg)

The last times when I went over to Shopko and Wal-Mart I really paid attention to how children and parents act together while shopping. I’ve to say that I especially saw women with children which would amplify and reinforce the position of the father in the American family life. The father is still breadwinner or not really existing in the American family life. Pertaining to what we’ve discussed in class, divorce rates and children growing up without biological father are extremely increasing. Moreover, I got some more feeling for why American children are becoming more and more overweight. Most children in the grocery stores got candy to behave properly while the mother was collecting the items she needed. I had the feeling that the mothers wanted to pamper their children by giving them sweets and calm them down by keeping them occupied. Generally, You can see mothers with more than one child which is might be still the impact of the concept of the American dream saying a perfect family has at least two children.


Ask older Americans

(http://images.doityourself.com/stry/o/older-american-act.jpg)

My average interviewee hopes to stay active and to be able to enjoy his or her hobbies and life when he or she retires. Some commented that they want to be able to garden and do yard works, crochet, and sew. Some answered that they probably will have time to do some volunteer work. Most panelists wish to stay in their home as long as possible which represents the homey component of the average American individualist. Generally, they wouldn’t move in with their children when they are older. Americans tend to think that their life will be fine when they are 65 or older even though they demur about staying healthy and active. About the half of the people I questioned told me that they are afraid of growing old and about the other half of the respondents are looking forward to have time for themselves and travel around in the future.

The American family

This blog entry covers the topic American families and wants also to provide a little insight into the change of the family structure over the last century as well as the opinions of Americans.
Introducing, I just want to present the survey I used to find out more about American families by questioning 10 Americans. Additionally, I read the chapter The American Family in the book American Ways, 3rd edition, published by Longman in 2005 and I informed myself about this topic reading different online articles.

My survey questions are following:
1. Who are the members of your family? Name them and indicate their relationship to you (mother, sister, …).
2. Who lives in your household?
3. How often to you see your parents? Your grandparents? Your sisters and brothers? Do you write, e-mail, or telephone any of them regularly?
4. What occasions bring your relatives together (birthdays, holidays, …)? Have you ever been to a family reunion?
5. Do you feel you have a close family? Why? Why not?
6. Who would take care of you if you became ill?
7. On a scale of 1 – 10, with 10 as most important, how important are the opinions of the members of your immediate family concerning the following decisions? Who you marry; where you live; what job you take.
8. Unhappy couple should stay married for the sake of the children – Yes/No.

The first two questions give a good overview about what’s the typical American family like.
All of my panelists, except one girl who has no siblings, mentioned their parents, their siblings and some of them also mentioned their pets.

It’s typical that married American adults name their husband or wife and their children, if they have any, as their immediate family. If they mention their father, mother, sisters or brothers, they will define them as separate units, usually living in separate households. Aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents are considered extended family. Traditionally, the American family has been a nuclear family consisting of a husband, wife, and their children, living in a house or apartment.

The third and the forth question help to provide a better understanding of how close American people are with their family. Mentioning family, I always talk about the nuclear family from now on. All my interviewees have a regular contact with their family and with the exception of one person all of them have a nearly weekly contact with their grandparents, what surprised me.
It seems like that all of these people have an intact family.

Actual data about America shows that only one in four households consists of a traditional family, approximately. Many children live in so called stepfamilies or blended families or with a single parent. Today, there are many single people, divorced people, families where both parents work and couples without children. This could also be seen as a ramification of the higher standard of education as well as the changing lifestyle in the American society.

All the interviewed people have already been to at least on family reunion and the most mentioned holidays where family members come together are Easter, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and birthdays.

The sixth question was really interesting for me, because all respondents’ answered that their parents, especially their mom would take care if they became ill. This still represents the mother as the “homekeeper”, even though America is seen as the country of equal opportunities and I know that there are still a lot of women in Austria who stay at home and take care of the children and everything, but even this is becoming more and more rare.

In the 1950s, typically the father was the “breadwinner” and the mother was the “homemaker”. The typical American family consists of two parents and two children. This traditional picture that probably comes into mind thinking of family has been changing drastically over the last decades.
Beginning in the late 1960s, husband and wife are seen as equal partners in most American families nowadays.
The belief in equality has had a strong effect on the family. The father was always accepted to be the ruler and master even though this has been changing in the last decades. Democracy is really important in most American homes compared to aristocratic societies where there is more formal respect towards parents.

The seventh question gives information about how much people concern about their family’s opinion towards special topics, like marriage, work and location of living. Marriage was highest ranked, followed by the location of living and the influence on which job they should choose was ranked lowest. This shows that those Americans I interviewed concern a lot about what their family thinks, but usually this isn’t the rule in American society anymore.

Freedom is really important for Americans and they don’t want to be told what to do. Each individual decides what’s best for him or her. What would be best for the family is not usually considered to be as important as what would be best for the individual. This also means that parents usually have little control, and generally not much influence, over whom their children marry. Traditionally, American children have been experienced to leave the nest at about age eighteen, after they graduate from high school. At that time they are expected to go on to college or to get a job and support themselves
Some parents seem to have little control over the behavior of their teenage children, particularly after they turned sixteen and get their driver’s licenses. On the other hand, many Americans give their young people a lot of freedom because they want to teach their children to be independent and self-reliant.
Working parents constantly struggle to find enough time to spend with their children.

The last question was most interesting to me since all of them had a personal conflict answering this question. I just wanted to have a simple yes or no answer, but most of them were talking about “ifs”. In general, it seems that Americans see divorce as the last chance if nothing else helps anymore. In reality, divorce rates show other facts.

Concluding, I want to state that the family life and how it has changed in the last years is nearly the same in the US and my home country, Austria. I have the feeling that people in more rural areas, like Wisconsin care more about family life than people in more urban areas which would explain some of the answers of my panelists. Having that said, I just want to mention that the topic American family includes much more than I mentioned previously in this post, but talking about all aspects would go beyond the scope of this assignment.

What are my coulda, woulda, shouldas?

At some point in life, most people wish they had done something they instead passed up.
There aren’t really times in my life that I would go back and redo.
However the question I ask myself is what would I’ve done differently during this past year?
The first half of the year was more or less perfect since I started a new, very interesting job besides my study and finished my Bachelor’s degree with excellent success.
Well, let’s have a look at the current second half. I would have chosen another university in America to study abroad, because I can’t identify myself with this remote rural area in Wisconsin. Even though I really like to be in the nature and love out-of-doors activities I prefer to live in a bigger town. I like the campus and the people here in Eau Claire, but I should have chosen a university situated somewhere in or around a bigger city. Moreover I should have looked more carefully into the courses I selected at UWEC. I would have chosen more Business classes if I knew what I know now. In spite of that, I think that I’ve had time to think about my future life here at UWEC and therefore I can say that I definitely know what I want to do and reach in my future life. I am not the person who wants to have a big house with garden, marry and then have children. If I wouldn’t have had the possibility to study here at UWEC I might haven’t detected this. To sum it up, the last year was a great year since I really know now what I want to do with my future life.

Would you rather live in a country that is described as a „melting pot“, a „salad bowl“, or a „mosaic“? Why?

Introductory, I want to mention that in my opinion it’s not wise to discuss this issue, because we’re living in a globalized world where we can’t choose which kind of ethnic diversity we’d like to have in a country.
Nevertheless, let’s have a look at the diverse definitions and detect some of their qualities.
The theory of a country as “melting pot” surmises that the various racial and ethnic groups have been combined into one culture, which means that you can’t identify the different cultures anymore. A new culture emerges from different ones.
Based on the “salad bowl” theory, the various racial and ethnic groups have been remained somewhat distinct and different from one another, creating a richly diverse culture. People live together peacefully and respect the culture of one another with still maintaining original traditions, customs and their mother tongue. Each multicultural individual only assimilates himself to a certain extent.
The “mosaic” theory defines a country as a picture made up of many tiny pieces of different colors. If one looks closely at the nation, the individuals of different colors and ethnic groups are still distinct and identifiable, but together they create a picture that is unique for a country. This theory seems to me relatively equal to the “salad bowl” theory, whereupon to my mind the “mosaic” theory assumes different groups to act more segregate and irrespectively.
Pertaining to the different theories mentioned above and provided that you could choose the country’s conditions, I would prefer to live in a country characterized as a “salad bowl”. The reason for that is that a “salad bowl” still represents the different cultures living together without creating a completely new culture. People don’t have to confirm their strain to live together with other cultures. Population in such a country includes a large variety of ethnic groups without bias and discrimination coming from many races, nationalities, and religions.
I figure that it is important for every human being to accept one another and not to dream about what could have been if. Overall, I am happy to live in a globalized world, because each of us can learn so much from different perspectives linked to the cultural background.
Finally, let's think about the following two proverbs, which from my point of view represent a good thought-provoking impulse to this topic and may help to act in a more open-minded way with different cultures.

"Who does well, will receive good!"

"What one individual does is a drop in the sea, but if it didn't do it this drop would miss forever."

Would you have a gun in your home? Why or why not?

I’ve never asked myself that question before and I am not sure how I should deal with this issue. Usually, in Austria nobody would raise this issue since it is seen as a really sensitive topic. However, I think I would never have a gun in my home, because I don’t feel comfortable in the near of weapons. The last time when I went to Scheels and Gander Mountain with my Host Family, I was really shocked about the fact that you can buy guns in a sports store without spending a lot of time and effort. In Austria you could never imagine buying guns in a sports store and we have quite strict laws concerning gun possession. Moreover, I can’t appreciate the fact that young children are allowed to hunt here in Wisconsin, because I don’t think that children at the age of twelve really understand what they’re doing. Additionally, cruel movies desensitize children as well as adults and deform their perception of reality. Therefore, I persist in my viewpoint of not having a gun at my home and I would definitely never let my children watch violent movies on TV.