Ben Humphreys '10 - Over the past few days in Chicago, Dr. Iazzetto and Mrs. Phillips have pushed all of us towards understanding the culture of which we’re immersed in. Dr. Iazzetto, who is from Chicago, has guided us to locations that have facilitated this process of understanding. More recently, Dr. Iazzetto asked us to take a closer look at the specific aspects of these cultures: values, diet, commonalities, and social interaction. As a result of this complicated question, all of us developed our own cultural understanding of Chicago.

To start, I will attempt to define my working definition of culture. To me, culture is an aspect(s) of a group that share communal values, traditions, and overall outlook on life. Although this definition isn't as specific as I would hoped it to be, it does establish a base for me to begin understanding foreign cultures. Over the past three days I've been immersed in many foreign cultures: Chinese, Polish, Hispanic, and Italian. These cultures are all unique in their own individual sense, but I would like to delve into the culture of Chicago holistically. Having passively journeyed to most of Chicago, there are a few things I would like to say about it.

When placing oneself in new culture, there are several things that catch people by surprise, or cause double takes. For your sake and mine, I will not dabble on my issue that caused a double take — trust me. Surprises, or as I would like to call them, "huhs", have effectively taught me about the culture of Chicago. Now, I'm an overtly social person, which makes me a person who enjoys talking to and meeting new people: if that be on a subway, bus, or the "L". Where I come from people make eye contact, interact with each other, and are generally talkative. However, this is not a characteristic of the culture of Chicago.

People on trains, buses, and on the street don't interact; speaking with an Italian woman last night she schooled me how to spot foreigners — me — on the transit system, "it's easy, like you for instance, you asked me how my day was. No one who is from here will do that. People generally don't care, or are just afraid to converse. If you want to be seen as a local, don't talk to anyone you don't know" (Cecily). This was astonishing to hear. In order to be viewed as a local you have to keep to yourself, don't venture off.

It's interesting to be in a culture like Chicago right now. Before leaving Wabash, I spent two weeks writing a paper that dealt with the impact of social complicity on urban environments. If you're not familiar with social complicity, it is the concept of cultures agreeing to disagree on societal issues. Consequentially, social complicity causes a division of cultures. Although Chicago has a number of ethnicities, they seem rarely interject with each other.

Even though the culture of Chicago is new for me, I do feel like I’ve begun to understand it. My teaching experience at Benito Juarez has been nothing but enjoyable. I’ve been lucky enough to have been placed with a well-versed teacher in Mr. Kneip. Possessing more than enough time to ask him questions about urban schools has been extremely beneficial. Having spent the last three days observing Mr. Kneip’s class, I’ve learned more than I could’ve fathomed. He has been extremely helpful so far to my personal development as a teacher.

Coming from a predominant Hispanic culture, I feel comfortable at Benito Juarez. The majority of the students there speak Spanish. Having knowledge of Spanish has given me the opportunity to connect with the students on a different level. This experience has truly given me the chance to immerse myself in the urban culture, which, as an aspiring teacher, there is only so much you can learn about yourself in the classroom.

Furthering my experience here in Chicago, was my first trip to Wrigley Field — home of the Cubs. Visiting Wrigley has been a dream of mine for a while. I’m a baseball enthusiast and to get an opportunity like this was amazing. Being from Arizona it is hard to find time to catch a Cubs game on a Tuesday.

In photo: Jon Hogge and Ben Humphreys at Wednesday night dinner.