Peculiar Family Member and Tradition

I grew up in the typical family of four. My father however, was far from typical, he was boisterous, outgoing, and at times obnoxious. He named me after his grade school, Logan Elementary. He has been self-employed for almost thirty years. As I grew up I learned the term "Disney Dad", and I realized that fits my father perfectly. Although he spoiled my brother and I with lots of toys and later on cars, he didn't overdo it. If my brother and I did something wrong we knew we were in for it. I can remember being a little kid covering my butt with my hands to lessen the pain that my father would inflict on me as my punishment for being bad. So can my brother. Even with his discipline my brother and I still loved him because, you see, we couldn't wait for him to get home from work to play with him. Even on the nights when something went wrong at work or he was exhausted he still found the time to play with us.  

When I was younger, every Thanksgiving the whole family would get together at the grandparents for dinner and to watch the football games afterwards. During the games, eventually every male adult would fall asleep in a recliner, especially my grandfather. Now I am nineteen years old, and I can already see that I will be participating in this tradition as well. 

Weekly Blog #10

The structure I plan on using is telling stories from my sources and then expressing my opinions of Campus Crusade. I plan on beginning my writing, by starting off with a story from one of my sources to catch the reader's interest. The story is about two students from Cru who pick up students from the bars, and drive them home, especially the ones who are drunk. This will help show the reader that one of the things Cru is about is helping out within the community and in the process express my opinion, thus stating my thesis. As I tell stories and give more information about Campus Crusade, I will open up more with my ideas about Cru. Most likely I will jump around a lot in the mini-ethnography. I plan to conclude the piece by, yes, stating a short brief summary about my beliefs of Cru. I know it is typical, but to be honest, I don't know any other way to conclude anything. I think the particular structure I have chosen, which is telling some stories of Cru, and then expressing my beliefs on that particular story will best because it will entertain the reader and keep him or her interested. Hopefully with all of the stories, I will be able to express all of my opinions about Cru. That is my goal.

American Tongues

1. As a researcher I don't think I would do anything different. In the film I would have put subtitles for all the people talking in their own accents just to show how different some accents are from each other. 

2. One flaw for sure is that all the accents are most likely not covered within the United States. The main ones are though, for example, they showed examples of accents from Texas, Ohio, Kentucky, Manhattan, Boston. I feel that they left out Chicago, and Miami; two big cities that have their own accents. To make the study more appealing I would have figured out who my audience was, and compared their accent to the others in the U.S. I felt that the southern and western accents were over represented, but then I can barely understand those dialects, thus it might have seemed much longer in that portion of the study than NYC accent or the Boston one as well. 

3. The way we speak is the way we present our thoughts and ideas to the world. Most people will speak their own dialect around their friends and such because they know each other, and understand what they are saying to each other. When people are around others they don't know they will most likely speak more formally to avoid confusion. If you get two different people with their own different dialects in the same conversation, those two people talking might make unfair judgements about the person. I know that most people definitely think of hillbillies as the stupidest people around, but exactly how do we know that when we don't know what they say? They could be some of the smartest people in the world, and we wouldn't have a clue. We reveal our personality through our dialects. A person who speaks very quietly can be seen as shy. A person who speaks loudly can be seen as outgoing, and confident. 

Weekly Blog #9

I would say the most difficult aspect of my research thus far, has been setting up interviews. The only real problem about it is scheduling them. So far I have one person scheduled for an interview, and some other people have agreed to meeting with me, but we have been unable to schedule a certain time that works for both of us. The easiest thing I would say is coming up with an argument to use in my mini-ethnography through my research. Once I found out some information I didn't know beforehand I realized this is what I should write about, which is that not all evangelical Christians will force their beliefs down your throat. Cru suffers in its outreach because of that stereotype. 

I'm not sure if I would do anything different, but working on this project during the day would be so much better than the early morning hours of dawn, so I would definitely realize that work comes before play, and actually do my homework during the day instead of waiting until midnight to start. 

This blog has really helped me get my thoughts together on the direction I am taking this paper in. It helped me form my argument, see what aspects of my writing I need to work on, and also helped me in my research in the field sites. I believe this blog will help me form even more ideas, and also how to make the mini-ethnography somewhat entertaining with my writing skills, which is important because who wants to read something that is boring? I think it will also prepare me in getting my ideas sorted out and stating them in a logical format in the mini-ethnography. 

Weekly Blog #8

The main theme in my mini-ethnography that I see myself addressing will be the stereotypes that Cru receives because it is a Christian organization. For example, some people think that in order to hangout with people from Cru, they have to be a Christian, and if you are not a Christian you are looked down upon, which is totally wrong. As a Christian, I have plenty of friends who would say that they are atheist. I also don't have a very diverse group of friends. They are either Christian, Atheist, or Agnostic. No Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, or Jewish friends to speak of. That is just one of several stereotypes that Cru gets. Another stereotype is that Christians will try to force their beliefs on you, which actually isn't far from the truth. There are definitely Christians who do that. Cru, on the other hand, does not do that, at least on this campus. If given the chance, they will tell you about Jesus Christ and the Gospel, and if someone isn't buying it, then that is fine. That theme is definitely a part of the field sites of Cru. 

The mission of Cru is to spread the news of the Gospel. They are about Jesus Christ. When members of Cru try to tell people about Jesus Christ, a majority of the time they get shut down due to the stereotypes Christians have received over the years. These stereotypes are in the way of their mission. I hope to address these stereotypes as well as possible and try to get people to understand to put their stereotypes aside, and listen to what a Cru member may have to say to them, and seriously consider the Gospel.  

I would say I am definitely a part of the sub-culture now. I have made quite a few friends, and I am a part of one of the many bible studies on campus, and I also attend their weekly worship session at Pruis. This is somewhat similar to my position in Cru eight weeks ago, but not exactly the same either. I had a couple of friends from Cru in the beginning, and now I have a bunch of them. I was a part of a bible study, and I attended the meetings. The only difference is that now I feel a part of the group. That is all that changed.