Taylor Christensen

English 1050
Introduction to Reading Diverse Culture

Course Reflection

What are the most important concepts that you learned in the course? Why are those
concepts important to you?

The most important concepts that I learned in this course are othering, culture, and workplace
diversity. The reason that othering is more important to me because I have seen firsthand how
people are treated. When I see people being treated differently from how I would treat them, I
get upset and question why someone would treat someone the way that they do.

The reason that Culture is one of the topics that I learned culture has a lot more than just race.
It has language, food, race, activities, etc. For culture, I like to look at what different things I do,
talk about, as well as food I eat and cook. Being as I have been to two different places and all I
can do is tell my stories, eat their types of food, give experiences, and talk how they do. I
would have never thought that I identify with those cultures until I read more about them in
this class.

The last topic of workplace diversity is important to me because I work for a big corporation
where workplace diversity is prevalent. With how diverse the workplace is, we all seem to get
along. There is not much favoritism, no racism, and more friendly coworkers. It is a much
better work environment and worker moral is great.

Which learning experiences in this course helped you develop or strengthen your ability to
think critically and analytically about representations of diversity?

I would say that the last writing project #2 is what really helped me understand and strengthen
my learning ability. Making myself look at what my cultural identity is is something that I never
really thought to look at. I had to do some critical thinking to figure out what I really identified
as. While looking into what I really identify as I also thought more about what my wife would
identify as, as well as what my parents and sibling would identify as.

In addition to the above, I was able to develop more knowledge from Module 11 Diversity in
the Workplace. With this Module, I was able to recognize the different cultures that I
experience at work every day. I was able to realize that I work with a ton of people from a ton
of different cultures.

How might you apply your learning from this course to future learning experiences both in
college and outside of school?
I would apply this to everyday experience outside of school an in college by standing up and
representing what I identify as. I will also be able to continue to learn and grow in the topics
that were discussed in class. I will also be able to look at and guess with more knowledge
different peoples culture, as well as understand what people are talking about when they talk
about their culture. In addition to all of this I know that when I face future teachings, as well as
future cultural experiences I will be able to learn more and apply what I learn to expand my
cultural identity. As others learn about my cultural identity, I will be able to help other
understand more about culture as well as have the opportunity to learn more about others
culture.