People, their habits, genders, ethnic and cultures are different. You will not find two absolutely similar humans. There are too many differences so we could underline them all. Many of us face cultural diversity, troubles with some difference in ethnic groups, religion and political orientation. The understanding of these cultural, ethnic and gender differences between people has a significant and important role in our life. It is too important for humans to know and accept people for their actions and for who they are, so it cannot be missed. The understanding of “lefties” minority should be the goal to reach for every conscious person who lives in tehe society with people, different from each other. The culture of nowadays society should be changed: all of us should live and work in a society, which accepts and tolerates people, regardless of their culture, religion, political preferences, race or the place they came from.
Numerous institutions and professionals became more sensitive to the ethnic, cultural or/and gender issues than it was before. Many hospitals, police stations or some other government institutions have their educational material provided in different languages so everyone can understand the written information, no matter of the mother language of actual reader. There are raised many translation services and support for people whose native language is not English or something like that. The hospitals with rehabilitation and other short/long term care have nurses, who can try to make assignments according to the patients needs, and as an example – there can be signed a nurse with similar culture and ethnic group as the patient is, unless patients refuse to have this kind of service. This is made to improve communication and to make a better treatment to the patient.
The experiment with the ball and sock easily shows to people how these minorities can feel themselves different from the “normal” ones. For example, the way “lefties” try to get through their daily activities can become a challenge – not many things in our life are oriented for lefties. The ball and sock experiment showed to me that it is hard even to brush my teeth and eat, making me realize that some certain disability problems with the accent or religious beliefs can make you a target for discrimination.
The day I spent doing the test was almost the most frustrating day of my life. Yes, I absolutely agree that our society is built for the majority of people who are the right-handed ones, and that is all against the minority of people who are “lefties” and who cannot fix it. This assignment is designed to help students in understanding and accepting of the existing discrimination in our society.
Few words about my test: I spent a day as a left-handed person, and as it was mentione earlier, it was something like a challenge for me, and the day was full of frustration and unaccomplished tasks. I was actually forced to think in another manner, to do everything also in another manner and in different ways that I used to do. I also acknowledged how the other people feel themselves, and the way they perceive my capabilities and me. Losing my main hand was bad for me, so I could not do my regular tasks well: I was not capable of writing well – I could not write down anything.
When I tried to eat my lunch it became hard to cut my food with the knife in my left hand – that was really awkward. This experiment showed me how the living of “lefties” is complicated, compared to the people who do not struggle with such problems. It showed me that we should not discriminate other people, who are different from us. I am very glad to have such assignment so I get experience in some interesting and unusual way.
REFERENCES
Harris, Philip R, Robert T Moran, and Sarah V Moran. 2004. Managing Cultural Differences. Amsterdam: Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann.
Harvey, Carol P, M. June Allard, and Carol P Harvey. 2002. Understanding And Managing Diversity. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Tierney, Stephen. 2007. Accommodating Cultural Diversity. Aldershot, England: Ashgate.
