Reading+Responses+3

__** My Freshman Year: **__ I thought this chapter was interesting because I liked reading about how the foreign exchange students see us. The main thing that grabbed my attention was when the foreign exchange students compared the term “friends” from their culture and from our culture. Most of the foreign exchange students said that their friendships with Americans are more superficial and their friendships back where they live. The students said that their friendships back home were much stronger than the friendships they made at college. This was because they build relationships with not only the friend but with the friend’s family. The friendships that the foreign students made with the American friends were not as strong because they didn’t know anything about the student outside of the classroom. I don’t think American friendships are as superficial as what these students are making them out to be. For me, I don’t have many friends, but the friends I have are my friends for life. I know their family and they know mine and we do a bunch of stuff together inside and outside of school. I think a lot of people have these kind of relationships. __** Mind at Work Chapter 1: **__ I enjoyed reading this chapter because it was written like a story. I felt that I could actually see Rose and be a part of everything that she went through. To me, she enforced that you don’t have to know everything to be educated. Instead you should know that skills that you need for a specific job to be educated. To be a waitress, you need to be skilled in a bunch of different skills. For example, Rose had to be able to socialize with customers and cooks, have good spatial relationships with everything around her, be able to control her emotions when things got tough, etc. I thought overall she was educated because she was successful and knowledgeable in her field of work. Another thing that I found interesting is that people mostly go into the lower paying jobs, like waitressing, because they need to. Rose went into work right away mostly to support her family. I thought it was fascinating that she kept working even though she was sick and didn’t have to work. She worked not because she needed the money but because working gave her a sense of purpose. I thought this was inspiring because she was working because it made her happy. It helped me understand that work has both intrinsic and extrinsic values that motivates people to do it.