- Logtar's Blog -

My first post about culture had to do with education. One of the most important topics I think needs to be discussed in a society is education. Teachers in our society do not hold the place that they should, they should be one of the most respected better paid jobs in our society but they are not.

I had the chance to grow up in a different country and actually be in their educational system. I pointed some of the differences in a past article if you care to read. In Colombia teachers have a lot more respect than they do here in the United States, but they are still underpaid and not as taken care of as they should be.

To me teachers are the fundamental pillars of our society; they shape what becomes of the future by educating our children. The teachers that we have encountered in our lives have already shaped who we are. Our society sometimes really ignores that little fact about teachers. Our kids spend most of their forming years with teachers and not the parents, especially if both parents work and are not able to dedicate time to their children education. They shape their minds and we need to be thankful for that. Also we need to be involved and make sure that our kids are getting everything they need to become productive members of society.

One of the sayings that really irritates me is; “Those that cannot do, teach.” Or the other variation of it, “Coach.” It really bothers me that in a society like ours there is not a more respectful way to look at teachers. I am not saying this is the norm, but that a saying like this one even exists shows the lack of respect for the profession.

The last thing that I will mention on my list of things that I think are unfair towards teachers is their salary. For the most part in the public school systems teachers are paid so little that someone with the aptitude to be a teacher might not become one just because they desire a higher standard of living. This could also be a positive because I guess a lot of the people that do teach do it because it is their vocation and not a goldmine.

Still I think that teachers need to be more appreciated, respected and remunerated in our society. I know many of my teachers made a positive impact in my life making me the person that I am now. My love for reading, my almost legible handwriting, and my appreciation of classical music are just some examples that can all be attributed to great teachers that left a mark in my hearth beyond just the subject they were teaching. I would like to thank them for all their efforts.

I have wanted to write about this for quite some time. As most of you know, I am an animal lover. When I was young I wanted to become a Marine Biologist. Somewhere along the way I changed the gears to computers and the rest is history. As a kid I had ant farms and just loved to interact with the animal kingdom. I am telling you all of this just to give you a background of where this post is coming from. Read more…

Superstition is something I grew up with. My culture is a very superstitious one and there are tons of them. First you have all the mainstream ones, ladders, black cats, the works. But then there are some that maybe people in the US never heard of. I also read an article this week about one of the softball players in the US Olympic team, and how she has a ritual that she follows every game, ah and the whole haircut thing with some football player. (bonus for the sport fans who is it, he got injured after he cut his hair last season).

Webster definition of superstition
1 a : a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation b : an irrational abject attitude of mind toward the supernatural, nature, or God resulting from superstition
2 : a notion maintained despite evidence to the contrary

Now here is where you all are going to start scratching your heads. I used to fall into that superstition trap all to often. But then I move to the US right, and FRIDAY THE 13 comes along… and I am like, wait a minute, its TUESDAY THE 13… in Colombia and other Latin countries, the bad luck day is TUESDAY. Now how silly is that. Just because of geography or language, bad luck changes. So, are any of you superstitious?

Ok, right about now you are probably asking yourself what the heck does eyelid surgery or any kind of cosmetic surgery have to do with culture… but my friends it has to do lots. Continuing with my whole culture write up thing that I have started, I thought it would be appropriate to jump to a topic that has little to do with my culture but that I have some insight on because of the people that I have met.

I first learned about the procedure two years ago. For one reason or another, I have become close friends with two people from Korea. First my martial arts instructor who I became I very close with, close enough to stand up at his wedding. That still makes me feel extremely proud. He opened the door to Korean culture and introduced me to Ja Jang Myun and Kimchi. He also taught me about the culture in general and some of the aspects of his life in Korea. I also did a little research on my own, learning about the country, the war, the Japanese occupation, etc. This knowledge helped me tons when I started working at my last job. I had a coworker that happened to be Korean but a very shy and an extremely reserved person. We had an opportunity to talk one time, and I was able to show my little knowledge of his culture… but to my surprise only that limited knowledge opened the door for very in depth conversations. One of those conversations was about the cosmetic eyelid surgery.

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I have been thinking about writing about culture for quite some time. Like some of you know I was born in Colombia and moved to the US during my teens, so I got to learn a lot about my “mother land’s” culture as well as experienced being a teenager in the US. I have had the luck to be able to explore both cultures at an almost perfect age to be able to assimilate both of them, which is awesome. Living in Chicago also allowed me to learn tons about other cultures, from my best friend being Polish to my fascination with Asian cultures, and just so many other cultures available in such a cosmopolitan area. There are tons of things that are worth while discussing in culture differences, and I guess I would most likely compare anything I discuss here to my two basic ones Colombian and American. I will like to start by pointing some of the differences in the education systems, which have surprised a lot of people when I have pointed out the differences.

I attended a private Catholic school in Colombia and a public school in the US. I completed 11 grades in Colombia s well as being able to attend a US public high school due to my age.

At first glance both systems seem very similar, even having similar roots, but as soon as you start digging you see that there are major differences. One of the most mind-boggling to me is that Colombia has 1 less year of Pre-college education, yet all students are required to complete a lot of courses that in the US would be considered college level.

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