Wednesday, May 20, 2009

What Anthropology Class Offered Me This Semester

Before this class, I thought that Anthropology class was about humanity's history and the changes that occurred in different cultures. To be honest, I did not even take a look into the dictionary to be sure that I knew the meaning of it. I just assumed I knew it.
After the first class, I got the fact that I was definitely wrong. I felt like this class was going to be challenging in many ways. It was kind of re-learning what I "knew".
The class opened my thirst of curiosity, and gave me a true definition of "cultural relativism" through my ethnography. Many topics discovered in class were before far far away to exist for me because I never paid attention to it. For example, I never thought that my words shape my vision of the world (The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis). Moreover, I could always directly or indirectly related discussions made in class with my own life. Professor Gaunt's enthusiasm to teach us definitely helped me in regard of my self-confidence. With all the experiences that she shared with us, I created inside me a want to do the same. At none time, I felt being left aside during class. Although, participation was hard for me at the beginning, I finally understood that if everybody did the same as me e.g. not sharing my experiences and knowledge, therefore how could I evolve? How could I improve? What was the point to come into class if I did not share my ideas with people around me? The discovery of TED definitely gave me ideas and an urgent need to stop living as individual but to look around me and to take benefit from all the existing differences.
While I am writing this essay, many other things come into my mind about how the class enabled me to take a step further into my life. But now it is time to act.
One thing that I will never forget that Professor Gaunt said: “We are as extraordinary as Bill Gates is"... It is truly a breath of fresh air straight to the brain.
I never had a class or a teacher as professor Gaunt, so inspiring.
I have now the ability to wear different glasses to see the world in a different way than before ( I wish I had the same luminous glasses though ;) )

1 comment:

  1. You have much more luminous glasses than you ever had before because not its like bi- or multi-focal. You see from yours, mine and many others like never before. What a gift!

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