Fotu Family Culture

1. As sisters we love high adventures. Whether it be rockclimbing,
 backpacking, or snowboarding.

2. This is my Mom reading to my nephew. Growing up she made it part our culture
to read to us since we were little.
Growing up she read us LOTR series, Chronicles of Narnia,
 all the Newberry Award winners. 

3. Being a member of the LDS faith is a huge part of my family.
It is what defines our values and
 keeps us together even during hard times. 

4.We are proud Americans! 

5. My family is huge on hiking since I was little. It has always been our family activity. 

6. We celebrate each others sucesses as a family. With great food
and always heaps of flowers.

8. Education has always been my father's strongest emphasis. 

7. My grandfather is who instilled the love of hiking and we always considered
Angels Landing his hike.
It is therefore a tradition to hike this and think of him. 

9. I love history. This love is shared by my
family and we love to travel to
historical places to learn and experience more. 

10. My mother is an artist. Therefore we've travelled the country looking at art work. Even the abstract. 

12. I am in a family of missionaries. Each of us have served. 

11. Halloween is our favorite holiday. As an extended family we dress up hard core. 

13. Music has always been a huge part of my life.
I personally have played the Piano, Violin, Clarinet,
Saxophone, and was in Children Choir for 8 years. 

14. My Father played Rugby and growing up
we would be found on the rugby field and
knew the sport better than any 

15. We are BYU! Since we were little it was always a dream
to come here. It is where my parents went and all of us girls. 

17. In comparison to my very conservative environment
me and my family are considered liberals. 

16. We've always had a strong relationship
with our grandparents. They are a huge part
of my family culture. 

18. Tongan culture is very apart of our family culture 

20. Eating out and eating everything! 

19. We all watch heaps of NETFLIX! 

Reflecting on these artifacts I understand the biases my culture might have on my teaching abilities. There are a lot of positive biases I might have and a lot of negative. It is interesting because these are mostly 

1. Being adventurous can help the classroom because I could connect with those that are into similar activities.
2. My mom reading to us every night helped me gain a love for reading and for stories which can only be an asset to my teaching.
3. I wouldn't want my religion to make others feel isolated because of their unbelief or various beliefs. This could serve as a hindrance but I believe it would be more as a help because my belief in a higher being would keep me in perspective of the worth of every student.
4. My great love for America could be a hindrance if I allow it to become imperialism instead of just nationalism. My love for America could allow me work harder for the white collar!
5. My great family ties and the love for nature allows me to explore with creativity!
6. Again with family being a huge part of my life it could only be a help to have support. I come from a family of teachers so I know they've gone through similar experiences and could help me in the classroom.
7. It being a tradition to hike I think it would also only help.
8. With such a love for education I know I can continue to work hard for my students.
9. My love for history and my visiting the different places I study with make my experiences more authentic and therefore better to teach by.
10. Though art is not my subject I'll be teaching I think the appreciation of it will allow me to see different perspectives of passions.
11. I don't know if Halloween loving will have anything to do with hinderance or help to my classroom. But maybe if I were to decorate my classroom I would try to be sensitive to different beliefs that didn't celebrate the same things or in the same way.
12. Serving a mission can only help me as a teacher because that's what I did for 18 months.
13. Again having a past in music allows me to have another perspective.
14. My dad playing rugby and sports in general will allow for different perspectives to be had.
15. Loving BYU is a help because I can get students excited for higher education.
16. Love for grandparents will allow me the respect I need to learn from the past and appreciate the future and especially in history teaching.
17. Being a democrat could be a hinderance if my students ever knew my political opinion. I wouldn't want them to think that because of my opinion they had to be silent.
18. My Tongan culture will be a help. Another perspective to aid my teaching.
19. Netflix would be a hinderance. I would spend all day watching it and then never grade papers and fail as an educator.
20. Eating out will be a hinderance because I would be too fat to do all I need to and I'd be poor from spending all my money on food.

             

The Other

Feeling like the “other” is a consistent struggle for me. Being half-cast polynesian-caucasian it meant I was either the “ white” at Tongan functions or the “brown” person everywhere else in Utah. It was a constant struggle that I have had to come in terms with. It still is a struggle with others as I feel that they try to categorize me into a box that makes sense to them. Upon hearing about this assignment I thought, “When am I not “the other”.” I decided to stretch myself because maybe being a constant other I’ve come immune to the feelings of “other-ship” and therefore yet another experience with it will allow me to be empathetic and analyze it objectively using the perspective obtained from readings and class discussions.

As part of my “other” assignment I decided to go to my cousin’s fiance’s bridal shower. There were two different showers this weekend one run by my girl cousin and one run by the bride's friends. I knew none of my family would be going to the latter so I decided to accomplish my assignment there. Like anticipated, I was the only polynesian there and it was my first bridal shower attended that was run by caucasians.

They invited me in and had me introduce myself. I felt a little uncomfortable by the fact that I had broken a social norm of going to a party I wasn’t personally invited to but other than that I felt fine. I adapted quickly and got to know everyone. Being social and making friends comes easier to me and I thought that maybe this wouldn’t serve its purpose for being an “other “ experience. This changed when they started playing bridal shower games. They got a poster of a naked man and we played pin the junk on the hunk. Similar to pin the tail on the donkey. We played a number of crude games that at one point I felt too uncomfortable to participate in, in which I left to go to the restroom. I don’t know if I can attribute my uncomfortableness to my cultural upbringing or my religious one but they both felt violated at this point. I continued as an observer of games instead of a participant until we moved on to the next event of gift giving.

Though I have grown up in a deluded Tongan/american culture there are still fundamentals that I have grown up with since infancy that are considered taboo and will result in a hiding if overstepped. One of these is the respect of brother and sister relationships. I consider my first cousins siblings. Therefore my cousin getting married is my brother. It is disrespectful to talk about my brother in front of me or my sisters, regarding sex. I should have probably foreseen this but I didn’t realize how different this “other” experience was going to be. With each gift came a detailed explanation, especially from the married gift givers. All the different gifts alluded to sex. My brother was the pit of every raunchy joke and I felt infuriated. I stayed silent and shared my gift. I brought mixing bowls. That was an “other-ing” experience because any bridal shower I had been to before was always family and mostly they were gifts of cookbooks and different house supplies. There was hardly ever talk of the wedding night which was focused on completely at this party.

Analyzing this experience I wonder how I can apply it to the classroom. There may be students that aren’t accustomed to different cultural customs or traditions. There may be conflicting customs. There may be students that are forced to be silent because the majority. There may be students that bring mixing bowls to a bridal shower and feel stupid. There is a lot that can be learned from other cultures and there are a lot of ways that these cultures can clash. But if there is understanding of these differences as a projector and a facilitator then we can address these differences and like my sub-cultural upbringing, come to a happy medium of the best of two worlds. There are still going to be biases and misunderstandings but it is our responsibility as educators to foresee these potential clashes and make an atmosphere where the “other” is eliminated.