Blogs

As a first time self-directed learner, this semester has been an eye opening experience as to how much I do not actually take control of my learning. I had all these ideas and plans that I would use to further my learning but unfortunately I did not use many of them. I wonder how far I would have gotten with the language had I not had Mirwais as my language partner. This experience has helped me to reconsider how I will go forward with acquiring knowledge within the academic realm but outside of the standard American academic setting to which I have become accustomed.

While I have definitely increased my knowledge of Persian over the semester by ten fold, I feel as though I could have put a lot more energy and effort into having better command of the language. As far as being a self-directed learner, I have found that when I am presented with an agenda from someone else more experienced, I fall back and let them do what they want for the most part. I'm not particularly fond of that but it is what it is and the first step to changing anything is to acknowledge it. I found that I did not speak up as much when I felt like things were moving too fast and as a result, I fell behind due to frustration. This led to me just coasting through the rest of the semester and putting more energy into other courses and my campus employment.

Reflecting upon it now I can see how similar my situation is to that of a student that I mentor at Henderson middle school. Since he has trouble reading and comprehension of what he's read, he gets frustrated with trying and gives up, distracting himself with other things. My experience in trying to learning Persian has helped me to empathize better with my student in regard to his work, this in turn has helped me to get less internally frustrated with him and thus has made me a better mentor because I can better understand where he's coming from. 

All of that being said, there is more work to be done and hopefully I will be able to better accomplish my goals of reading Iranian poetry and translating it in the future as I intend to pursue my self-directed learning after graduation. With less things going on, I think I will be able to have more discipline with my Persian language studies.

Bosnian%20Extravaganza.pptx

Perhaps not surprisingly, my learning did not follow the trajectory which I laid out for it at the beginning of the semester. I accomplished both more and less than I had hoped to in various areas. One of my goals was to learn 300-500 new vocabulary words. I think I fell just short of this. Part of the reason is that I spent far more time than expected on questions of experiencing and thinking about a new culture, as I discussed my cultural presentation. I’ll go into this more in the second part of this reflection, but in short, much of my time was spent reading texts about others’ experiences in Bosnia, what informed those experiences, and how and why they told their stories as so. Or, in some cases, I read about various histories of Bosnia written for different audiences (academic, public, or policymakers). Thinking about these questions was important to me not just for my future experience in Bosnia, but in any space in which the people hold a very different reality from which I live.

There are some major differences when an American enters the Bosnian realm, or generally when someone enters a foreign culture. There are some similar major differences when an American basketball player for instance, attempts to step into the world of a world class American chef. These people in some vastly different realities. Might as well be speaking a different language. In both cases, I think the approach of the learner is the same: get in there, try it, and pay very close attention to anything and everything you can from the master, not necessarily the objects of fascination, of that universe. In other words, it’s not necessarily all about the food or monuments, but the ways in which people experience the food and monuments, trying to get as close as you can to experiencing the thing in the same way. This I found is the most personally challenging and perhaps even risky, is adopting and abandoning, if only temporary, the cultural assumptions/truths of the foreign land. This I’ve realized can be frightening, and with good reason. As we learned in SDLAP 105, students who come from abroad fear “losing themselves” or culture if they really immerse themselves and do things as the natives due. Truth is, I think, when you really delve into a culture, you do. You experience the world differently, and therefore, will act/think differently. Some people are not willing to do this, and for fine reason. But for those who are, risk aside, I think the transformative rewards are enticing. The value of this experience/realization is immeasurable.

What does this mean for my experience in Bosnia or any country? Well, as I learned more about areas of Bosnia, famous monuments, the stories behind them, descriptions, etc… I felt a kind of outsider experience. I even felt this, thinking back, when Milica and I went to the Balkan restaurant and she was giving me a briefing about what was what and why. I’m not dismissing this as an important part of acculturation. Though I will say that being/doing as if you were one of the Bosnians is a very different cultural experience than being explained to, reading, etc… In any case, the various books I read on the topic I think have prepared me well for a close encounter with most any “foreign” culture.

Another goal was to improve conversational fluency on familiar topics and vocabulary. To some extent, I succeeded. When I ran into older Bosnian folks on campus (ie the custodial and book store staff) or off campus (field trip with Milica to the Bosnian markets), I was able to talk a bit about my family, where I was from, how I got to Richmond, etc… This was different from last semester, because I mostly spoke with individuals that I knew well, who I knew would be somewhat receptive or predictable in the matter in which they received the conversation. So in some senses, I tested my abilities further outside my comfort zone than last semester. At the same time, I came a bit short due to the frequency of conversation I had with familiar people. Apart from Milica and I, wasn’t able to converse as frequently with other Bosnians mainly for logistical issues (ie seeing each other as frequently and that really time consuming honors thesis). Also, mostly for the latter reason, I wasn’t able to delve into the Croatian workbook or other Serbo-Croatian media sources as much as I wanted to this semester, or as I intended to semester. In this sense, my conversational fluency fell short of expectations.

In any case, I am very pleased with my SDLAP experience, primarily for the self-directed skills I’ve been able to practice, as well as the sort of thinking and reflection I’ve been able to do thanks to the flexibility and freedom the program provides its students.

Cultural competence doesn't come with simply learning a language. There are many important aspects to it that make a person culturally competent. This has to do with understanding body language, sociolingual which include cultural norms and expectations, among many others. If someone does not understand these language in these contexts it can get them into trouble and make them look ignorant as well as insulting. 

This made think about how foreigners adjust to new countries- they have to adjust to a completely different lifestyle (usually) and then learn how the people of that country interact and what they mean by their actions, gestures, and understand their speech. This speech includes slang and other technical language parts such as grammar. It takes a long time to get used to them and when it clashes with pre-existing cultural understandings it may be hard to assimilate because one would want to resist changing their personal beliefs. 

I read the sentences beneath the alphabets from the Bangla alphabet book I had from my childhood. The sentences incorporated the alphabet that it was beneath into the sentence and had pictures with it. The interesting part about the captions in the book are all the religious references in it. It displays a cultural perspective on religion's influence in Bangladesh.

I read a poem by Rabindranath Tagore for one of my artifacts for 110. It was relatively an easy reading because it was written simplistically and didn't have many conjuncts, which I am not familiar with. The poem is "Chini go Chini" and I thought it was wonderful because he had written this song/poem for a woman he met in South America. I can't recall her name, however I remember when I was doing research on him, I came across a relationship he had with a woman after his wife had died. This was not a typical relationship, however, which is what makes it extraordinary. I think it was clear that they were both in love with each other, but Rabindranath, a conservative man who valued their actual friendship and connection, never crossed any boundary with her or advanced their romantic relationship. Although she had expressed a desire to be something more than just friends, they forever remained platonic and it never furthered. Learning about that I was amazed and found it extremely touching- made me admire him even more! And this poem is very sweet; it's now one of my favorites by him. 

The article about bilinguals was surprising to me because I had never quite thought about how new languages can form a person's perspective of thinking. In my Intro to Linguistics, I learned about the Whorf-Sapir Hypothesis in which Whorf said that one's mother tongue influenced the way a person perceived the world, but that it also restricted their ability to perceive in ways outside of their language. His argument was half correct because he asserted that because of that restriction a speaker would never be able to understand concepts outside their language. Increasingly, his ideas are resurfacing because his statement that language shapes the way one sees the world and interacts with it was correct, but the fact that it would forever restrict their ability to think outside their language was wrong. In fact, if a person learned a different language, their perspective would begin changing because of the new language construct. It is for that reason that bilinguals are "smarter", they have more than one way to think and different concepts to see the world in. 

I believe that the more languages a person knows, the easier they are able to pick up other languages and their concepts of time or color. Learning languages means more vocabulary, syntax understanding, and more. As a multi-lingual person, I feel better about my capabilities! 

Bangla is not that big on gestures, but they point a lot when speaking to someone. There are different emotions for the pointing as well, but the most popular is angry or accusatory pointing in which a person will wag their finger at the person they are talking to as an emphasis. When speaking to someone, it is better to avoid eye contact because it is too direct, especially when the two people communicating are of opposite genders. Touching is also to be avoided because it's considered to be indicative of closeness and can become awkward if the two people don't have a close relationship and while having a conversation one touches them. It doesn't really break the ice because it creates discomfort- this is a cultural aspect. Hindi Bengalis will fold their hands in order to say "namoshkar", however Muslim Bengalis will not. Doing this to a Muslim will typically offend them because of religious differences. Muslim Bengali men will usually greet each other with clasped hands and hug each other while giving their salam (asalamu-alai-kum to the initiator of the greeting and walaykum-asalam) one another, especially in religious settings such as the mosque. Women can do the same. 

Bengali communication styles

This idea of time is prevalent in the language because there are certain phrases that Bengalis will use to talk about their schedule. For example, if they are just leaving the house and someone is inquiring about where they are (for a social event) they will say "I'm almost there" (eyje eshe gisi) or "I'm there" (aysi). This type of language would be confusing to westerners, but for Bengalis such responses are expected and while most don't mind (as long as the person isn't TOO late) others will be irritated by such timing. This is because as times become more modern, Bengalis' schedules are more busy and they have other activities or work to attend to. The socio-economic status of a Bengali is the main indicator of how lax they are with their time. The middle class tends to be the most time conscious while the lower classes tend to be the least.

In high school I took two independent study courses so I knew what time management would look like for me and my strengths and weaknesses in it. However, this was my first time doing an independent language class. Before coming into the class, I thought that I would not have problems in it as I did in high school because I love languages and enjoy spending time on it. I wasn't sure about what SDLC 105 would be like, but I had a better understanding of SDLC 110. When I started the classes, I wasn't really disappointed because I enjoyed the concept of learning what I thought was important for me- I found that it was a major perk and made me look forward to learning the technical Bangla. In formal language classes the structure of the class is designed from the very beginning and students don't usually have a "right", so to speak, in the design. The basic grammar, vocabulary, culture aspects are all chosen by a designated professor. Usually (or at least in the University of Richmond) the professors teach language in an engaging way that motivates the students to learn and become successful at it, however it doesn't help students that have an understanding of that language and want to learn a different aspect of it. That was my case, along with the fact that Bangla is not offered as a class. I wanted to learn the technical aspects of the Bangla language; reading and writing. 

My perceptions of how I would learn Bangla were not the same when I actually began learning it and meeting with my language partner. It was slow at first because I did not know what would be good for me since I had never done anything of that sort of learning before. We took a long time on the vowels and alphabet, but I think in the long run it helped familiarize me with them. The sounds weren't a problem, but recognizing the letters proved to be a difficult because many looked the same and it was hard for me to differentiate that. I still need to work on that, but practicing both reading and writing will be the only solution for that conflict. Surprisingly, writing in Bangla is much easier to me than reading it is and I think the reason behind that is I can concentrate and take more time writing sentences correctly than reading it right. Yes, I know the sounds associated with the letters, but the identification is the main issue. Also, I underestimated the complexities of Bangla. When learning the alphabets, I was suddenly exposed to conjunct letters that could only be learned by memorization. While the alphabet is 51 letters, there are over 1,000 conjuncts as it seems. Looking at that freaked me out and I felt the enormity of the language, not the feasibility of it. Once getting over the fear, I was able to concentrate on the simple alphabet and I figured that I would learn the conjuncts as time went along through reading. Because the conjuncts are letters connected with a vowel sound or another letter, they are recognizable. Maybe I'll be able to pick out a pattern from it and be able to untangle it on my own at one point in my learning Bangla.

I'm happy with my progress and where I stand now because I have basic understanding of the language and it's enough knowledge for me to use it during my trip to Bangladesh this summer! I'm definitely continuing my learning with SDLC 111 next semester and I want to work on small children's literature for my readings and move on to larger literature by the end of next year. Taking SDLC 110 definitely helped me put into perspective what I wanted out of learning Bangla and SDLC 105 helped me understand cultural dimensions of language through the class discussions we had on language as well as the readings. 

All in all, I enjoyed taking the two classes and I'm very thankful to Nuray Hanim and Dr. Scinicariello for enabling such an opportunity as independent language learning for students. 

Language history is very helpful in understanding a language's culture as well as its transformation over time. The reason for this is that all languages had influences from other languages. Those influences helped shape the language into becoming the modern language it is today. If one understands the changed concepts and where the language borrowed grammar constructions, vocabulary, or whatnot from it can make it easier to learn it and comprehend why the language is the way it is.

Bengali, for example, is an Indo-European language that derived from Sanskrit. It is one of the languages that is most close to Sanskrit when it comes to pronunciations and vocabulary. Some of the words are exactly the same in Bangla as it is in Sanskrit. Examples of this are the following words: manush (man), prabhu (god/lord), shaukal (morning). Another important aspect to note of Bangla is its influences from religions. Because Sanskrit is the sacred language for Hinduism, Bangla was first comprised of Hindu speakers and thus their vocabulary was more "Hindu". However, most Bengalis in the modern day are Muslim because of Arab and Persian interaction in the 8th century. Due to the Islamic influence, new vocabulary became introduced to the language for religious and non religious terms. There are many synonyms in Bangla for the "God"; prabhu, rama (Hindu) and Allah, raba, maula (Islamic). 

Learning a language's background adds a cultural dimension to it and transforms the language into something more active . Not to mention how interesting it is!

Artifact ideas I had were largely writings and recordings.

In order to show my progress in reading Bangla, I thought of recording myself reading a Bangla text and then putting it together in a video to show what I was reading and include a translation of it. I actually ended up doing this for two of my artifacts, but they were of two different levels. For the first one I read a certain amount of alphabets and the simple sentences beneath them from my Bangla alphabet book. The second was more advanced because it was a poem/song by Rabindranath Tagore and had few conjuncts in it. I used audacity to record my voice and then windows movie maker to make the videos with the text in it.

As for writing, I planned on showing my progresses in writing from the beginning stages to the last stage I ended up in. So, I wrote out the alphabets with their sounds and shortened forms (for the vowels). For the last stage, I made a card for my parents writing in Bangla. Here are those:

            The culture shock video we watched was a documentary that talked about the disorientation international students felt upon relocating to a new country. It had interviews from various international faculty members and students of the University of Richmond. The culture shock documentary put into perspective a many things that I encountered, but did not know was a common occurrence with other people as well.  The documentary discussed topics such as the meaning of silence in America in opposition to foreign cultures, conflicts in miscommunication, cultural integration, and the difficulty in the contexts of friendship.

            Some things that the international students addressed as part of their difficulties in adjusting to life in America were cultural aspects that even I as an American found difficult to understand. Such an aspect is not knowing how to answer to someone who asks “how are you” in passing. The question follows a greeting and acknowledgment; however, the person does not stop and actually want to hear the answer to how the person they asked the question to is. I think that this cultural difference lies in the American concept of time—Americans tend to be less relaxed when it comes to everyday life so in order to display an acknowledgment to a person they are passing by, they ask them how they are, but don’t expect an actual response because they don’t have time to listen to it. Their expectation is a short “fine” or “good”, even if the person is not doing so well, the standard answer is the same because of the lack of time both people have. This was something I had to adjust to growing up here, but I think people fall into the habit of doing that because it becomes a cultural trait, not a personal characteristic. I can see why it is difficult for international students to grasp this because it shows miscommunication—an international student who is asked how they are might feel ignored and disliked if the one asking does not stop to listen or actually begin a conversation with them when they ask them how they are. In reality, the behavior is not related to the person’s like or dislike towards the person they asked.

            Similarly, the concept of silence is different in America and miscommunication is a comment occurrence when it comes to foreigners. Silence in America usually indicates disinterest or irritation, and so it is uncomfortable when spending time with a person—especially if it is someone that they do not know very well. In other cultures, silence is comfortable because it does not indicate anything of the sort. For this reason, Americans are stereotypically loud and talkative. Therefore, if an international student remains quiet when with an American student, the latter student may think that the student dislikes them or is not enjoying their time with him or her. This type of miscommunication occurs too often without anyone having the opportunity to realize the misgivings and it tends to make it difficult for an American student to accept the international student and the international student difficult to integrate into friend groups.

            The culture shock video brought to light many things that once concerned me in my interactions with international students earlier in the year. I was mystified by their manner of speaking (which would sometimes come out rude), but I saw it as a cultural thing and tried not to think too much about it. Regardless, I would feel an inkling of discomfort because I didn’t know how to behave around them and what not to take offense towards. It is more complicated than it seems to be friends with international students because you don’t usually know their culture and their differences. Many of their characteristics may come off as indifferent at first, but now I realize that it may just be that as an America, or even as an individual, I overanalyze everything and worry about what someone else is thinking of me. The culture shock video made it easier for me to understand different concepts and issues that foreigners experience when outside of their native country.

Culture Shock Response

This semester was the first time I learned a language with a self-directed program. In the past I have learned both Spanish and Japanese in a more formal classroom environment. There are very distinguishable differences between these two methods of learning. For starters, trying to make a weekly schedule. Each week I was expected to have my own lesson plans, with the help of language partner. This responsibility is more challenging when one has to do it themselves. In a formal classroom, our language schedules are made for us by our instructors. This gives an essence of expectations from both the instructors and ourselves. While in the self-directed program, although we do have help from our language partners, the basis of our expectations is from ourselves. Another difference I realized between the two learning methods is the speed of learning a language was significantly different. In a classroom, I was able to identify my mistakes quickly. But when studying on my own, because I was not tested as intensively, I did not realize my mistakes until I had the opportunity to speak to my language partner again, Mitsuo. During these sessions he would correct my mistakes, but unfortunately this only occurred twice a week in comparison to my Japanese class which I had four times a week.

When I first started learning to write in Korean, Mitsuo refused to write anything out for me. He would teach me and repeat himself, for me to understand what he was talking about. But in the end I had to take notes down in Korean on my own. This was particularly annoying because my efficiency writing in Korean was very slow. It would take me about 15 minutes to write one sentence he spoke out-loud. And due to the fact many of the letters sound similar to non-Korean speaker, that added more to my struggles. He continued with every class, and with every class I got better. There was finally a moment I realized he stopped fixing my mistakes, and I was writing the notes on my own. If there was ever a mistake, it was quiet small, such as the wrong “O” sound. Although I personally hated this in the beginning, it certainly has helped me with my reading and writing. I feel more confident in reading and writing in Korean when comparing it to my speaking. I believe this is a very efficient method which should be done initially when starting to learn any language. If one continues to write the words pronunciation in English, it will take a longer time to learn how to read and write.

Though I am proud of my writing and reading, I can not say the same for my speaking. Speaking is particularly difficult because I did not get enough practice. Although watching YouTube videos, and listening to music did help me recognize words, I could not remember all of them when trying to speak. Mitsuo and I did try to learn new phrases and words on a daily basis, but many of this was not always practice. For instance, the word “grandfather” is unluckily to come up in a conversation between the two of us, so I at times forgot that word. But the phrase “Do you have water?” or “Where are you?” were used more frequently, therefore I can say those confidently. For me, the hardest part of this program was learning how to speak Korean.

 In the future, I can see myself improving in the reading and writing portion in Korean if I were to study alone. This is particularly due to the fact I gained the skills from the program. And with this, I might possibly improve in my speaking. If I am able to have the time, I can improve my grammar and learn new vocabulary on my own. But, like before, the hardest part and my weakest point will probably continue to be speaking in Korean. If I were to change this part of the program, I would try to have the language partners trying to constantly contact the person/people they are teaching. This is probably one of those things that look better on paper, and will probably not happen realistically. But overall, I am still proud of accomplishments in Korean because I started without absolutely any knowledge.

Final%20Reaction%20Paper.docx

As a resident of Cantonese speaking area, the truth that I do not speak Cantonese at all has surprised many people. It was the biggest reason that I chose Cantonese as my self-directed learning language for this semester. And I had a lot of fun from this semester’s learning experience. 

I believed that the best way to learn a language is to learn it by ourselves. And this view came from my English learning experience. Language is special and learning a language is different from study other subjects such as math or accounting. Language study is a comprehensive process which includes the listening, speaking, reading and writing skills as well as communication skills. It also required the learners to have a well understanding of the background culture. So, usually everyone has a unique way of learning language and it can only work for him/her. 

At the beginning of this semester, I made a learning plan for myself which looked a little bit unrealistic now. I planned to watch an episode of a Cantonese television drama Forensic Heroes each day to practice listening, and I also planned to chat with my friend who speaks Cantonese at least once a week, but neither of them worked well. First, I cannot keep myself from watching the subtitle. Additional, since the plot was very intense and suspenseful, I was so addictive to it and spend a whole weekend on watching it and finished all the episodes. Later on, when I tried to talk to my friend, I found out that we could not communicate well since my pronunciations were so inaccurate, so my friend had no idea what I was trying to express. So she suggested me to start it from some fundamental lesson.    

I found that YouTube has a lot of good resources for Cantonese study. And this is a playlist which contains lots of Cantonese lessons. In that playlist, each video includes many vocabularies and grammars instructors. It taught me how to pronounce like a native speaker and how to naturally form sentences using the words we learned from each episode. I learned a lot of the most commonly used verbs and phrases. (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL743EE265854E9969)

            To recognize more traditional Chinese characters, I also surf Hong Kong websites and read news there. Every time when I met a new character, I looked up the dictionary. Although the grammar of verbal Cantonese is different from Chinese, the grammars of writing are the same. And I also learned character by writing calligraphy.

            Studying language is a very interesting experience. Except the vocabulary and grammar, I also learned some interesting local culture. For example, the way Cantonese speaker says 3:40 PM is different with most of us while we used to say “three forty”. However, what Cantonese speakers usually say are “three 8 numbers” which means the minute hand had past 8 numbers.

It was really so interesting and I will continue on my study plan in the future!

A new archaeological discovery was made a few months ago when some geophysics students from Tel Aviv university did a sonar screening of the Kinneret (a lake that is fed by the Jordan River).    What baffled the students was a large rock structure in the shape of a perfect circle.   The structure was further excavated to learn that it is close to 70 meters in diameter and 10 meters high and sits 9 meters below the surface of the water.  The stone structure is about 60,000 tons and is in the shape of a cone.  Many professors believe this structure may be the ancient city of Beit Yerah, the largest and most fortified city in the area.    After a scuba dive, it was revealed that the structure was most definitely made by humans, however, there were no signs of cutting or chiselling found on the rocks.  

 Underwater excavations are scheduled for the end of 2013 and 2014.  We shall soon be finding out more information about what this mysterious truly is and when it comes from. 

The archaeological site of Qumran is of significant importance to Israel because it is the site where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered.  Excavations first began in 1851 when a French archaeologist began searching through an old cemetery.  In 1856 Albert Isaacs hypothesized that the city of Qumran was actually a fortress of some kind.      

  In 1950 full scale excavations began on the caves of Qumran.  Many different pieces of pottery were found and analyzed to have come from the Iron Age.   At this time it was hypothesized that Qumran was referred to as the City of Salt. Secacah, in Joshua 15:62.  

   An interesting thing that the archaeolgists noted was that there seemed to a consistent evolution of improvement throughout the fortress with frequent additions, extensions and improvements.    For instance:  The water channel was raised in order to carry water to newer cisterns further away and a dam was placed in the upper section of Qumran, which also had a aquaduct brought to the site.    Rooms were added, floors were raised pottery ovens were relocated and locations throughout the site were repurposed.  

   Later on an archaeologist De Vaux interpreted the site as the home to the ritualistic Jews called the Essenes.  This small group of Jews was dedicated to rewriting the manuscripts.  He hypothesized that the scrolls were hidden for their safety because the Essenes were attacked.  

Megiddo is a very interesting archaeological site.    It has 26 levels of occupation that archaeologists have been working on for decades.     Megiddo is located a few miles to the southeast of Haifa in northern Israel.   This city used to control the crossroads of the MiddleEast.  There is evidenced by many roads leading out from Megiddo to the rest of the MiddleEast.  

Israel established a prison in Megiddo in 1982 and is home to many high-security Palestinian inmates.  Last year while serving their time, inmates began to find coins and crockery all around.  Then they found a bunch of tiles that belonged to what is now deemed as the oldest Christian church in the world.  They figured out that the tiles belonged to early christians, because of the symbols engraved throughout the room:  a fish, an empty tomb, and a shephard's staff.  All of which were symbolic for early christians.  I was interested to find out that the cross was not symbolic for Christians until Constatine.  

I can conjugate verbs in the past and in the future.   

I can talk a little bit about Malaria

I can talk about classes

I can read through the pages that I have already worked and translate them to English.  

If I were not graduating and had the opportunity to progress in this self directed course of study, the primary thing that I would change would be the degree to which I use the language during the week.  For me, I need personal relationships to fuel language learning.  Next semester, if I were not graduating, I would spend more time with native Urdu speakers and try to use what I was learning as much as possible.  I did this some, but not to the extent that would have been incredibly beneficial to my studies.

The presentation on South Korean plastic surgery was very eye opening (absolutely no pun intended).  I think it demonstrates the end result of when a culture idolizes one idea of beauty.  I hope that the story presented to us gets out in the States and people consider their personal perceptions of beauty and how they associate that with the worth of individuals.

Cultural Presentation