Cultural Legacy: Updated

A few posts ago, I mentioned my cultural legacy.  I talked about my family and where they came from.  I talked about my faith.  One thing I didn't think about, however, is communication.  As soon as my teacher, Ms. Mystrena, asked us how communication was related to our own cultural legacy, I knew the answer.  Everything is based around communication.  I don't have very open communication with my parents.  There are just some things that I just cannot bring up.  I am not allowed to talk back to anyone older than me.  Even if I am pointing out a mistake in logic, or even  I am trying to voice my own, different opinion, I'm shut down.  I get told off.  My dad was speaking to my sister the other day.  I didn't agree with what he was saying, so I told him otherwise.  My dad was angry with me, and later, my mom told me not to do it again.  This is the communication in my cultural legacy.

Outliers: Chapter 7: The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes

In Chapter 7 of Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell proposes another theory involving cultural legacy.  In Chapter 6, he pointed out that your cultural legacy affected your response to different situations and changed your attitude.  In Chapter 7, however, Gladwell speaks a lot about plane crashes.  As it turns out, most plane crashes occured due to one technical error followed by six human errors.  In certain cultures, such as Korean or Columbian, you are taught not to speak back.  Men lower in ranks did not understand how to give a command.  They sugar-coated everything!  Even as their plane was crashing, the the co-pilot managed to use mitigated speech with no hint of command (hahah... get it?) at all.  This is all because their culture told them not to point out mistakes to people higher in rank.

The biggest lesson I've learned from this chapter is simple.  Communication.  Communication, or lack of it, led to many plane crashes.  A person must learn to give commands when neccessary.  They must learn not to sugar-coat things.  If things are urgent, they must make it seem urgent!  Communication is key to the success of anything.

Amarpreet: Outliers Chater 6

Outliers: Chapter 6: Harlan, Kentucky: Cultural Legacy

In Chapter 6 of Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell starts off by talking about a family fued between the Turners and Howards.  If you look at the story for face value, it seems to be a simple family fued.  However, Gladwell continues to point out that, "When one family fights with another, it's a feud.  When lots of families fight with one another in identical little towns up and down the same mountain range, it's a pattern."  He goes on to explain that these families were all affected by 'culture of honour.'  "It's a world where a man's reputation is at the center of his livelihood and self-worth."  The reason why all these families along the Appalachian mountains were, or still are, affected by it is simple.  You can't farm on the mountain.  Farmers depend on the community.  They aren't at the risk of being robbed because you can't steal a whole crop.  The herdsmen, on the other hand, are at a huge risk.  They must be aggressive so that people will not steal from them.  Many of these herdsmen could be found along the Appalchian mountains.

Also in this chapter, Gladwell talks about some tests performed.  Northerners and Southerners around the ages of eighteen and twenty were going to be insulted.  Their handshake and facial apperance were rated and there saliva was tested for change in testosterone and cortisol levels.  Southerners whose ancestors were Scottish-Irish and immigrated along the mountains, were more violent after being insulted.  This leads us to cultural legacy.  Do our ancestors and where we come from affect us and our attitudes?

I am almost 100% Punjabi except for the little British blood runs through my veins because of the British infiltration in India.  Punjabi's are known to be proud people.  I am a part of the highest class, and my family has been for as long back as I can remember.  In a new movie coming out, they say, "In Punjab, you shoot first and ask questions later."  That's not to say we just shoot everyone.  It just means we act against insults before we think.  I also practice Sikhism.  In Sikhism, we believe that we fight to protect only.  No wonder Sikh men are always posted at the Pakistan-India border...  My cultural legacy, clearly, is full of pride and the urge to protect our families.  I guess it's no wonder why I'm always ready for a fight- always ready to win.  I think I can say I am very close to the Southerners when it comes to their attitude towards being insulted.

First Blog

Hey! My name is Amarpreet Kaur.  I'm a freshman, and I'm writing this blog for my Gifted and Talented class.  So far in this class, we have talked about ourselves through our learning styles and adolescence as a whole.  We are supposed to be starting a new topic on bioethics.  Though we haven't started yet, we just read Chapter 6, Harlan, Kenucky, in Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.  This chapter was talking about "culture of honour" which I found very interesting.  I hope to learn a lot from this class and expose my views through this blog.

-Amarpreet Kaur-