BlakeReadingResponse3

__My Freshman Year__ The professor brought up a very interesting point in this section of the story. I can see how people from different cultures get confused by American talk, because I get confused by it as well. At the end of the school year, everyone always says they want to hang out over the summer and they make plans that rarely actually happen. Even if people have one another's phone numbers, they don't often casually start a text conversation or call someone unless they need something, or they are really bored. I know from experience and observations that most of the time when people say things such as "How are you?" or "What's up?" they don't actually care or want to know, they just need something to say to get a conversation started. The point the professor made about American friendships was intriguing as well. I find the idea of friendships to be very weird in a way. If you think about it, you randomly choose people you barely know to spend a lot of your time with. There's also a very undefined line between friendships and strangers. There are many people that I know by name and may talk to sometimes, but I wouldn't really refer to them as my friends, we're just acquaintances. I don't really understand why I think of them that way or what makes them different from my friends, I just know they are. I think Americans love to surround themselves with people most of the time because they want to feel loved and like they fit in. However, the people they surround themselves with aren't the ones they confide all their secrets in or tell all their gossip to. Trust is a big part of friendships and not many people are open and comfortable with telling everyone everything about them. I think it shows how educated a person is to know who they can trust and who to just hang out with without telling them their ideas and secrets. Education comes from experience and it takes experience to know what kind of person someone is and if you can rely on them or not.

__The Mind At Work (Chapter 4)__ This chapter put a different perspective on the profession of plumbing. Most people would think of plumbers and generalize them as being uneducated, but they don't realize how educated they actually are. People will think they are smarter than plumbers, yet they call them to fix a problem they don't know how to fix on their own. Plumbers are educated in a specific area that involves problem solving and physical work. This chapter reminded me of the activity we did in class where we found people with similar interests as us and tried to come up with terms that only pertained to our interest. When the author uses terms like "p-trap", "flange", and "drainpipe" I don't know what he's referring to, but another plumber would. I think they boys in the chapter show their intelligence in many ways such as asking questions and working together. Part of being educated is the ability to keep learning, so asking questions when you need help is a sign of intelligence. Also, the way they fixed the drain and toilet together shows their teamwork skills and problem solving skills which are also a big part of the term education.