Reflection

1. Briefly list and explain three new and/or interesting concepts you learned in this module. Reflect on why they sparked your curiosity and/or if you sought out more information. 

2. Reflect on your commitment to the learning process. Here you should reflect on your participation, time spent on module content, the difficulty of the material, etc.

3. Self-assess, or in other words, give yourself a grade for the effort you gave during this module. (For example: A-, B+, C, etc.) Why do you believe this rating matches what you accomplished in this module?

Three new concepts I learned in this module that I found interesting where the looking glass self, code-switching, and cultural homogenization. The looking glass self is a "practice through expectations, perceptions, and judgment of others people develop self and identity," (Reading 1.1). This concept sparked my curiosity because it is relatable. Us humans all do it. Everyone pieces together who they are based off of their interactions, memories, and actions. Throughout your entire life you define yourself based off of who you speak with, your job, your hobbies, and so on. For example, if a person swims for sport or exercise they call themselves a swimmer. However, depending on their knowledge of the activity they would further define their level as beginner, intermediate, or expert. This normally comes from someone else's feedback before they identify with how good they are. Not only does it take someone to say something like, "Wow you are a great swimmer." The person will also take in the other person's facial expression, and determine for themselves what their response means to them. Suddenly, a geniune belief of how good they are at swimming will develop from this social interaction. 

Another concept I found interesting was code-switching. Code-switching is defined by the text as, "anticipating accepted norms and roles based on the social setting and power dynamics of those they will be interacting and change the way they speak, appear, behave, and express themselves," (Reading 1.1). I feel that code-swtiching is very common. Although, the text gave an example of different races changing their behavior based on being around another race. This is not always the case. People speak and act different around family, friends, colleagues, coworkers, bosses, strangers, and so on. I find this very perplexing because it makes you question what is a person's geniune expression? Would it be their dominant energy they express or is it when they around the people they are most comfortable with? People's surroundings and social settings are bound to change, and normally a person can decipher how to act based on the dynamics of all that is around them. 

Lastly, I found cultural homogenization very interesting. Cultural homogenization based on the reading is similar to globalization. It is, "the world becoming culturally similar," (Reading 1.3). Cultural homogenization is the opposite of cultural heterogenization. Cultural heterogenization is where aspects of our lives differentiate from each other. I believe this to be true. Yes because of globalization, cultural homogenization is possible because different cultures share common foods, fashion, and music. However, people now have aspects to various of venues on how they wish to live their lives. One example of cultural heterogenization I can draw from is how tipping in Japan is vastly different than tipping in America. Here in America, it is expected to tip your server. The higher the gratuity the better. Yet in Japan it is considered rude! They will chase you down the street to give your money back because they refused to be tipped! Even if someone in Japan was dressed like someone in America, the culture difference amongst tipping explains cultural homogenization and heterogenization. 

My commitment to this assignment has only lasted me an hour. I find this to be a sufficient amount of time. Although, a lot of factors on my day affected my response. It is late and I spent a lot of my energy at work and school, so if I had more time I would have liked to spend a couple hours. This is because I worked with what was expected and skimmed through the reading to find what truly stood out to me rather than read the readings in depth. The readings are pretty straightforward and easy to understand, so I did not find it too difficult to comprehend the material. I would like more examples in the readings to give a more clear definition of what these terms mean. I am slightly doubtful my own examples are exactly what the founders who coined these terms are what they meant. Needless to say, I am confident I got it right. I suppose this is just my looking glass self speaking and I need my professor to either agree or disagree to solidify my answer. 

If I were to grade this assignment, I would probably give myself a B+. I as a student gave a galient effort in answering the reflection questions accurately. I gave three concepts from the text like asked. I defined them, and I gave examples to show my own comprehension. I gave a thurough reflection and showed full participation. I do not believe it is A worthy because as a teacher I probably would have liked names on who referred to what such as Charles Horton Cooley suggested the looking glass self. This would show the reader that the writer spent time fully researching the terms.