Children!

    I went to shopping mall and my host parent's house during the thanksgiving break. In these two different environments, I had observed my host parent's grandson and the children in the mall and I was really surprised on the way how parents and children behave in the United States. They teach and protect their children in a different way compared to parents in Malaysia.
    As what I saw, children in the United States are given more freedom and are trained to be independent. Parents are likely to allow their children to walk by their own and they will observe their children to make sure their safety. However, Malaysian parents are totally different in the way of protecting their children. Most of the Malaysian parents will hold their children's hand or hug them tightly to make sure they are safe from any harm. These children do not have freedom to walk to anywhere as they desire, they will just follow their parents blindly.
    Next, American parents will never slap or scold their children loudly unless they really did something really horrible and irritated their parent. I observed that American parents used to teach their children in a polite manner for example whenever a children did something wrong, the parent will just talk to them and tell them not to make the same mistake again. Surprisingly, their children were obedient and listened to their parents. In Malaysia, children usually will not listen to their parent if their parent treated them the same way as the Americans teach their children. In spite of having a nice conversation and teach them how to behave, they would likely prefer punish and reward method whereby children will only listen to their parent after they were being canned in doing something wrong.
    In my opinion, I personally think that American culture in teaching children is better compared to Malaysian even though children with different behavior should be treated differently.

Malaysia's and United State's Families

Based on my perception I personally think that American families are really different from families in Malaysia. During childhood, most of the children will be sent to childcare center every weekday due to the importance of career for parents in the United States. However what we can see in Malaysia is a mother would likely leave their job and stay at home to take care their children. In another word, we can say that the motherly instinct of Malaysia’s women is stronger compared to women in the United States. Moreover, the children in the United States do not bear the responsibility to take care and stay with their parents after they had grown up. In Malaysia, the retired or senior citizens do not get any allowance, the government will not subsidise them. Thus, the only choice for parents is to follow their children after they do not have the ability to stay on their own.

In spite of just pointing out the differences between American family and Malaysia family, there are still some similarities among them. For instance, children in both countries are provided good education and tuition by their parents unlike other countries where children had to join labor force once they reach a certain age and drop out from school to earn more money to support the family.

I think that the families in the United States are likely as stable as the family in Malaysia even though the divorce rate are higher than Malaysia statistically. The stability of family mostly based on individuals to individuals and the culture and beliefs they hold on. For example Malaysia has a lesser divorce rate due to the culture where divorce is not encouraged.

Election in the United States

    I was proud to have an opportunity to be an observer of election in the United States. This is the first time I have been into a voting center and watch how people vote as it is forbidden in Malaysia where voters only were allow to enter the hall to cast their vote. Thus, I had never watched any voting in real life but I just know about the process theoretically and I found out that the voting processes in United States are quite similar to Malaysia’s. I think that it might because Malaysia and the United States are democratic countries so they have common voting process where people have the power to choose which party to govern their society and provide them better standard of living.

    On 2^nd of November, Davies Center in University of Wisconsin was used to be a voting center for the election on the day.  Before I enter the hall, I saw many people holding a form and queuing at the main entrance. Next, I saw that there are few senior citizens sat on a row and work as a reception to help those first timers who going to vote in registration and answer any questions if needed. I even saw few election observers too, but they were the party members who were sent by each party to observe the whole procedure and make sure there was no fraud and on the spot influence from any party to the voters. After the registrations, voters were brought to different ward whereby there is one ward for lower campus student and two wards for upper campus student. They were given a big piece of yellow card where they party’s name and candidates name was written one the card. Voters then hold the card and move to a row of table and start to vote. These tables were designed with obstacles on the two sides of the table to prevent voters to influence each other as some might just vote by following the person besides them. Next, the completed ballots were put into a machine that used to count the votes. It is a digital machine which shows an accurate figure on how many vote had been made.

    The whole process was so systematic and efficient. However, there is a difference in the rules between the United States and Malaysia is if a person is caught for voting more than once in United States, he will be sent into jail, but I had never heard about this in Malaysia.

Human Trafficking

    Slavery which is a term used to describe the use of non-paid worker who is forced to do certain jobs under pressure and unwillingness. In these modern days, people might think that this issue does not exist anymore since the amendment of human right laws consists of the elimination of slavery. However, things are not as perfect as what we can imagine, slavery did not disappear but they undergo “mutation” and became human trafficking. Human trafficking is known as modern slavery and stated the worsen situation of slavery.  Price of $40,000 dollars per slaves depreciates to $100 dollar per slaves from 1800’s to 2010 is the best evidence to convince you that “slavery” this issue is still exist and even worsen.  Based on the talk by Nicole, she stated that total human trafficking case that happen in present day are approximately 27 million cases and most of the victims are woman and minorities.

    Statistics proven that the United States had the second large population of human trafficking compared to Germany. This issue mostly involved the minorities which had a hard life in surviving and forced find jobs illegally in foreign countries which they believe that it will provide them a better future or being cheated by false contract due to false information and culture differences. Moreover, some minority involved in human trafficking is due to violence whereby the illegal organization threatened the victims or victim’s family to work without paid. These are the ways how illegal organizations expand their business.

   In Uzbekistan, it is the government who amend the law to encourage slavery where children had to work in cotton farm as a slave without paid when they reached certain age. This helped the country to be the 3^rd largest cotton exporter in the world but it causes a drastic drop of education in the country. Thus, as a consumer, the best we can do is to stop consuming goods made by slaves to strike the growth of slavery and human trafficking in the world. Every human has the right to choose their destinations so do the slaves.

My Experiences on Rope Course

What was the experience like for you?

It was a great experience for me to have outdoor activities in a language class. Instead of sitting inside the classroom and listen to lectures, I personally found that outdoor activities work more effectively for learning and reinforce the relationship between classmates.

 Were there any benefits to you as an individual? 

I learnt “teamwork” and “leadership” from this rope courses. As the mentor said, there are two types of leadership among the group of us and I found out which category I belongs to.

 What were the benefits to us as a class? 

We learnt how to work together as a group to solve problems. We also learnt that gathering ideas from each different individual is the best way to cope difficult tasks. It even embedded us with the value of trust through the “commander and tank” game whereby we need to trust our partner’s instruction while we were blindfolded.

Compare and contrast how this activity relates to the themes in Ch 4? 

This activity portrayed the “can-do” spirit which is one of the themes in Chapter 4. We tried many ways in crossing to the boxes using a wooden plank which seems impossible for us and we finally succeed after many times of trail and errors.  The theme of “equality of opportunities” also can be found in this rope course as we have equal chances to play the game in “commander and tank”. However self reliance is not found through the rope course because we work as a team throughout the activities. 

Is this activity uniquely “American” or is this something your culture has or could have as well?    

I don’t think that this is a uniquely American activity because I had done 2 out of the 3 activities in this rope course back in my country.



Homecoming Football Game

    October 2nd 2010, homecoming football game organized by UW-Eau Claire was held in Carson park which is few miles away from UWEC. I was assigned to watch this football match as this it is one of the activity for my ESL class. However, this "football" game is different from what we define in Malaysia. We said "football" which is the meaning of "soccer" in the United States and soccer is more popular compared to football in Malaysia. So, this is the first time I attended and expoesd to a football game.
     I saw many of our University student wearing UWEC t-shirt and painted their face to support our UWEC team. Some of them even wearing blue and yellow colour suits and girls with gold legging! The park was crowded an hour before the game starts and many alumni came to watch this game too. As I can see, most of the Americans were fanatic in football games. Everyone shouted loudly to cheer their team and I found some cheerleaders standing in front of the seat to perform and cheer their teams.  Basically this game's duration is 60 minutes which was divided in to 4 quaters, 15 minutes each. There is a 15 minute half time break after a 30 match. I found that the game was exciting and I stood there throughout the game.
    American football consist of 11 players each team on the field and they have a lot of substitutes. I was surprised to see that there were more than 30 players include the substitutes!The field was marked with a line in every five yards from the middle field which is marked " 50 yards" and the number reduced to 0 as the line approach to the side of the field. One of the team is offence and another is defense.
    The rules are simple, The team that takes possession of the ball which is offense have 4 attempt which is to advence the ball at least 10 yards towards the defense zone.When the offense succeeds in gaining at least 10 yards, it gets a first down. If the offense team succeed to gain starts a new set of four downs to gain yet another 10 yards or to score. However if they failes to gain 10 yardsin four downs, the oppse team will possess the ball and become offense instead of defense side. Thre are many ways to score, such as 6 points for touchdown, 3 points for field goal and 2 points for safety.The most interesting part in the game was during the overtime when both team's score is the draw and UW-Eau Claire team had to try their best to score. At last, UWEC beated UW steven point with 20-13.
     As a foreigner and stranger to football, I personally feels that American football is an interesting game and I started to love football! This is why Americans love football a lot too!

Manhia's Story

An adventurous immigration story was told by a girl named Manhia. She is a Hmong who had been staying in the United States since she was born. Manhia's immigrant story starts from her parents. She stated that their family immigrated to the United States as refugees due to the Vietnam War. It was her parents who move to United States in the 1980's. Her parents used to stay in Laos before the Vietnam War began. However, their life faces challenges during the war.

 Vietnam War involved the United States, Thailand, Laos, Russia and North Vietnam. The preludes to the Secret War were differing opinions by political parties on the governmental structure that would reign in Vietnam. The United States needed to find a way to help the fight against communism. Thus, they started to recruit Hmong people and provide military weapons to them, trained them and paid them. In spite of entering the army force and facing the plight of war, Manhia’s father decided to leave Laos and escaped to another country to seek their fortunes. They crossed over the Mekong River and lived in Thailand for a while. During this time, Manhia's second oldest sister was born.

In December of 1975, Hmong refugees were granted asylum at this time under the Refugee Assistance Act of 1975 that brought the Hmong refugees to the United States. Manhia was born in the United States and stayed in this country for two decades and their family still maintains their own culture although they were here in the United States for a long period of time. This is the greatest immigration story that I has ever heard.

Eau Claire

The buliding I that i standing in front is Sacred Heart Church which is located at North Dewey Street
Eau Claire, Wisconsin 54705. It is near downtown which is north side of Eau Claire. Sacred Heart Church is built since 1880 by the parish and 60 families under Fr. Jos. Boehm. It reflect faith and the parish is given the churh over 12 priest and 30 sisters. After 124 years, Sacred Heart is united with Saint Patrick. The interior view of the chuch is very beautiful whereby it is decorated with stained glass which shows joyful mysteries, sorrow mysteries and Glorious Mysteries.

This are the stained glass which represent sorrowful, joyful and glorious mysteries.

Former Sacred Heart Hospital which is located at 550 North Dewey Street, Eau Claire, Wisconsin is built since 1890 by sisters of St. Francis. It is a three storey building which is designed in Colonial Revival style.A later expansion of the building in 1926 to the north end of the hospital and east side of the chapel displays Neo-Gothic Revival style features  It functions as a hospital till 1967, then it was occupied and became The Eau Claire Academy which is a child and adolescent treatment center.

This is where I have been during a wonderful weekend, the Former Sacred Heart Hospital and Sacred heart Church of Eau Claire.



Does culture defines institutions or institutions define culture?

          Based on the internet source “wikipedia” explained that institutions are structures of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of a set of human collectively. Institutions also known as a significant practice, relationship, or organization in a society or culture. The field for institutions is very broad, it covers marriage, family, religion, education, science institutions, hospitals, legal system penalty system, mass media, art, culture, language and so on.  whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace. This institution had represents from different country which possess different cultures and work together to resolve country’s conflicts using appropriate method through decision made according to the country’s cultures and beliefs.

         On the other hand, culture can be define as the excellence taste in fine arts and humanities and the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group.This definition strongly prove that it is culture itself defines institutions. Institutions would not exist before culture since it is made up of a group of people that behave the same way to work as an institution which consist of common individual goals and values.

         Culture is main ingredient to establish an institution that allow each institutions to show their own identity. It acts as the ridgepole or foundation that leads to the formation of an institution, a united society must be made up of common individual’s belief, practices and goals which define as a culture. For instance, a social institution require a distinct culture practice reinforce the identity of its organization. A famous example which is United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in inrenational law, international security,econimic development, social progress, human rights and achievement of world peace. This institution has representation from different country which possess different cultures and work together to resolve country’s conflicts using appropriate method through decision made according to the country’s cultures and beliefs.

        In my opinion, culture is an important role to forming an institution, thus, culture defines institutions.

New Journey

The images of my family sending me off from the airport and the whole journey to United States from Malaysia are still fresh in my mind. Time past really fast, I am staying in United States for almost one month and I found that there are many differences in this country compare to the place where I belong.


In the social aspect, I found that the way of people interact in US is different from my home country. People in this country are friendly and it is out of my expectation. The first day I moved into my dorm, my roommate bought me a Wild berry Pepsi after I told him that I never see this kind of Pepsi in my home country. “Hi, how are you doing?" can be heard every day around the campus. Everyone would like to greet others even they do not know each other well. In Malaysia, people would not greet someone they do not recognize. People will just walk away without bothering the person that pass by.
Something different about American students and Malaysia students are the style of study. As what I can see in other classes, Americans students would like to lift their hands up to ask question and have discussions on some topics. Back to Malaysia, students rather to keep silence in the class and find out the answers by themselves even they had difficulties in studies. When lecturer asked any questions, they are shy to raise their hands, worry that their answers are wrong or others will laugh at them if they ask too much question.

Even though in different country, there are few things that let me feel like I am in Malaysia. Firstly, the main thing that gave me a deep impression in United States is the society. People came from different country and belongs to different races still can stay together forming a harmony and peaceful society. Students from United States, China, Vietnam, Japan, Korea and so on can be friends to each other and hang out together same as what happen in my country where we have three big races, Malays, Indians and Chinese sharing one country. We blend our culture together and formed Malaysia which is a country with diverse culture.

Another similarity is participation of outdoor activities and societies in school. We have a lot of functions and events that bring student together in our country same as what happen in UWEC. Students in UWEC like to join much kind of activities too rather than facing books all the time, become a bookworm.