Blakereadingresponse1

My Freshman Year In __My Freshman Year__ by Rebekah Nathan, I found that her decision to enroll in the college she teaches at was very interesting. I never realized how much college professors don't know about student life since they only see them in the classroom. From my personal experiences, I can agree that students act and speak differently in a classroom environment then they do outside of class with their friend. It was intriguing to read about the professors discovery of the true student life including the way they talk, the clubs they are in, the way they decorate their room, their priorities, etc. Sometimes I think people forget just how different people from other generations can be which is displayed a lot in this reading. When the professor tries to learn the slang other students are using or when she bought a message board to put on her door because she saw other students with them, it showed how different some things are in the younger generation. However, there were many points in the reading that showed how similar different generations can be as well. When the professor got caught drinking in the lounge because she didn't read the handbook or when she got overwhelmed with all the work she had to do, it showed that she was just like the typical freshmen who don't bother to read all the rules and don't have their time management skills developed yet. I like how once she got everything under control, the professor sat down and interviewed many different students about their college experiences. I like that the professor actually tried to understand the life of a college student from a different perspective then she is used to.

Ethnography In __On Ethnography__ by Heath and Street, the main point is explaining the background and concepts of ethnography. I personally did not find this reading interesting since it just gave examples and details about the subject rather than being a reading with a story line and plot. However, I did learn a lot about the topic like how they research many different languages, they take culture into account, and the address not only written language, but spoken words as well. I found it fascinating how children in Africa are often taught five different languages before they even reach school ages, then only use about two of the languages in school. I also found it interesting how they use the word culture as a verb meaning the actions a person performs and the decisions they make are often times based on their cultural background. While a couple parts of this reading were interesting, I found a couple other parts to be dry and hard to pay attention too and I often lost focus while trying to read them.