Exploring Diverse Ideas and People in a Global Society

ASL Rocks was an event where several ASL professors and students do performances using ASL, including music and stories. It was September 28th from 6:30 to 7:30 pm in the Health Professionals building.

I chose this event because I want to gain some awareness of ASL which is something I know very little about. This is a part of a culture that I’m not at all involved in, so it’s a good opportunity to learn more about it. It’s really important to be at least somewhat aware of how other cultures and people communicate. Furthermore, I was personally interested because I’ve heard from other autistic people that sign language is an easier way for them to communicate compared to speaking. So, I was curious about it because of that connection, and I wanted to understand those people’s experience better.

At first I was very nervous because I didn’t really understand what was going on. The first presentation was some of the students signing out the Brown Bear story, which I couldn’t understand because I don’t know ASL. However, after that the presentations were mostly students signing the lyrics to songs while the music was playing. I was able to kind of understand what was going on and enjoy it somewhat. It was cool to see how the sign demonstrations matched with the emotion of the music even if I didn’t actually know any of the signs. So, it was interesting to see how that compared to spoken or written language which is what I’m used to.

They didn’t really teach any ASL directly, but I was able to understand a few things, like how at the end of the performances everyone would shake their hands so obviously that was applause. I wasn’t able to understand a lot of it, though, and it felt weird because it seemed like most of the other attendees were ASL majors and minors. I was able to appreciate some of it, though, because it was nice to have an event that wasn’t as noisy as some of the others I’ve attended. Although I was pretty confused, I still tried to give it a chance anyway.

All in all, I didn’t really enjoy this event that much but I was still able to take some things away from it. I was able to learn a little bit about a different culture and about how sign language can communicate emotions like spoken language does. I was also able to see how enthusiastic some of the students were and it’s really nice to see a lot of people passionate about something, even if I didn’t understand it. I was also able to go out of my comfort zone a little bit because I felt pretty out of place there. Altogether, I was still glad to have attended.

International Game Night was an event run by several world languages professors that involved learning and playing games from various places around the world. There were multiple groups with different games and the world language professors would teach you how to play. It occurred November 2nd from 5 to 7 pm in Pearce hall.

I chose this activity because I really enjoy playing board and card games, so I was excited to be able to do that in a group. Additionally, I thought it would be a good way to learn about other cultures since it’s through a familiar medium. Games are an important part of every culture so it’s a good way to get some insight into other people’s lives. Moreover, since games are especially important to me, it’s an opportunity to learn about how other cultures play them.

At the event, I ended up sitting at a table with three students who I didn’t know. Two of them were Honors students, and one was a German major. One of the French professors taught us how to play Mille Bournes, which is a French card game. At first when I heard the rules, I thought the game would be very tedious and boring. However, after playing for a while I was able to start enjoying it. It’s a little bit like UNO in that you can sabotage the other players, so it’s a pretty fun game albeit frustrating at times. It’s also a relatively short game, so we were able to play four or five times. The cards had the words in both French and English, so it wasn’t necessary to actually understand French. However, this was really interesting to me because I took French in school for five years, so it was cool to recognize some of the words in a more natural context.

After we played for about an hour, everyone who I was with left. I tried to join some of the other games, but everyone else was pretty engrossed in what they were doing. As a result of this, I ended up leaving as well. Overall, though, I was able to have a lot of fun while it lasted.

This event was a good experience for me because I was able to have fun doing something I love while learning a little bit. It was interesting to play a game from another culture and enjoy it. Also, I was able to find some similarities to games I’m familiar with, so it was cool to make those connections. Also, as a former French student, it was interesting to learn more about a culture I really only experienced in an academic setting.