Fifth assignment takeaway

This assignment was more personal for me. I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was in middle school and have been learning to cope with it ever since. I learned about the differences between ADHD in France and in the United States. I decided to review a journal entry called Diagnostic Accuracy of the French of the Adult Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Self-Report Screening Scale for DSM-5 (ASRS-5) by Baggio et al. I did not know a lot of the French mental health information and the only information I know now is from the journal. The way France and the US define ADHD is different.

I learned a little about ADHD during my developmental class when my teacher brought in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder for us to look over. I looked over what it said about ADHD to see how close I matched that. I know sometime the information found is normally related more to boys than girls. I was curious if I match it very well.

Third assignment takeaway

Our most recent assignment has been on Studying Abroad blogs and finding a common theme among them. I choose Rome, Italy as my location that I wanted to find more information about it. I wish at some point I would be able to go to Italy and see the sights. I currently work at a year-round special education school in the Pre-Kindergarten room so taking three months off while at Old Dominion University does not seem like something that would be feasible for me.

I choose two different blogs to look over and review. I noticed that both of the blogs had a common theme of finding one’s self in it. Alissa Roach is a sophomore who spent her spring semester in Rome right before COVID hit. She realized a lot about who she is and what it is like stuck between two worlds. Carmela Guaglianone is a junior who spent her fall semester in Rome Italy. She learned a lot about her heritage as an Italian descent who lives in a different country. She had visited Italy multiple times before and with her looks and Italian name she could pass as a local, while another woman who was born and raised in Italy is seen as a foreigner by her looks. It was an enormous eye-opener experience for both women.          

Looking over their blog and what they experienced helped me to realize that racism Is not something that is just an American idea, there are a lot of different experiences around that world that divide. Not all history is discussed so looking back at what is there that is under the surface is the only way to understand what is truly happened. An example of this is when I recently watched Deaf U on Netflix and it showed one woman decided to leave Gallaudet University because she felt bullied and left out, not deaf enough. The Deaf Culture is such a tight nit community that embraces their deafness, it is really hard for a deaf person raised in the hearing world to be accepted and that has caused some people to leave their community and return to the hearing world. When I was taking my deaf culture course it was discussed how much tighter their community is, how gossip goes all around, and is heard by everyone. I had never considered the negatives to this environment.

Second assignment takeaway.

This assignment was reading an article written by Robert Kohls where he summed up 13 values that Americans hold for their culture. One of the values that resonated with me the most was the one about time and its control. Growing up my grandfather had always taught me that I needed to make sure I was at least ten minutes early to anywhere I was going or any event I was apart from. If you’re not early, you’re late. I had the opportunity to look at how other cultures might think this is a bit strange and a little extreme in some cases. I had never considered that this might not be normal for everyone. I thought it was just something you do; you respect the other person’s time and energy going into whatever event or scheduled affair you’re going to.

Considering how other cultures view the values we hold dear was interesting. When I was taking a deaf history and culture course; we discussed what it was like in the hearing community when talking about another person nearby they tend to be blunter about their appearance. I have not considered if the deaf community follows with the American culture and also holds time as high but that would be an interesting topic to discuss.

For the first assignment, we reviewed Towards Ethnorelativism: a Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity by Bennett, M.J. After reading this article I decided that I was at the stage of adaptation to difference, or stage 5. The assignment was to take a look at yourself and see where you are in terms of each scale. Also looking back to see how you interact with different cultures. I choose to look at how I interacted with the deaf culture. I learned a lot about the different stages of cultural understanding, I had never considered what it was like to be at different stages.

While I was at Germanna Community college I took a course called Deaf Culture. I have included one of the slides from the slide show on the topic of Culture. I believe one of the main reasons I was able to achieve stage 5, was this class. That course allowed me to take a greater look into Deaf Culture and how it is a culture, some insight into how it works, and how everyone interacts with each other in this culture. This allowed me to use that knowledge at Deaf events while going to ASL classes allowed me to understand the language better.

For the four assignments that you choose to complete throughout the semester, you will reflect on your takeaway from each. Do not copy and paste your assignments. Think of this space as a brief way to communicate how the assignment engaged you, how it was personally relevant, and reflect on how you learned more about yourself after completion. Each assignment recap will need to contain an illustrative picture. Examples will be provided.