CULTURAL HORIZONS OF WISCONSIN
Program 1
Everywhere, Everyone
Closed Captioning Script
December 19, 2001

AUDIO
I am a dreamer.
I am one person no one else can be.
I am from another country.
I am of the Wolf clan.
I am German.
I am learning my past.
I am the future.
I am me.
I am kind to others.
I am part of my community.
I am a soccer player.
I am bilingual.
I am talented.
I am this and more.

Baron:  Is this kind of music and clothing a part of Hmong people’s culture.?  

Lou:  Yeah, but we don’t dress this way all the time but it’s fun to celebrate special occasions with these traditions.

Stephanie:  It’s cool to learn about traditions from different cultures.

Tony:  So is culture how you look and where you’re from?

Stephanie:  Yeah, but isn’t there more to it than that?

Baron:  Good questions!  Who can tell me what the word ‘culture’ means?

Stephanie: Culture has to do with people who were born in a foreign country.

Tony:  I think it has to do with the color of your skin.

Lou:  How about the way you celebrate your heritage?

Baron:  Now that this great old warehouse has been turned into our classroom, I’d like you to do some exploring.  See what you can discover about cultural diversity—and your own culture! 

Tony:  So Mr. Kelly, I don’t get it.  How do you learn about culture?

Baron:  Well, let’s start with ethnic culture.  Lou told us about some things that are important to her, and that helped us learn about Hmong culture.  The very best way to learn about other people is to spend time with them.   Imagine if you had a guest come from another country to live with you and your family for a while.  Suppose your guest came all the way from Brazil, in South America.  What would that be like?  What would you share?

Hi, my name is Nicole and in my family there’s my mom Paula, my dad JB, my dog Ginger, and now Miguel.
I’m Miguel, I’m seventeen years old, I’m from Brazil and I have joined a family here in America.  I came to America to learn a new language, a new culture, and a lot about myself.

I hope Miguel learns as much about my culture as I have of his.
In Brazil you can’t drive a car until you are 18.  People ask me if I speak Spanish in Brazil, but actually we speak Portuguese.  In Brazil we eat McDonalds all the time.

Even though we are from completely different parts of the world, I find it’s great how much we share in common.

What are the movies like in Brazil?  Are they pretty similar to here?

Yeah, exactly the same movies.

You listen to the same music.  I mean you’re always stealing my CD’s.

Yeah, exactly.

It’s like we’re both into soccer – everything.

It’s a lot of fun getting his perspective on things.

I’ve never, ever, in my life, seen snow and I can’t wait to go snowboarding.

My host family is very similar to my family.  They understand my problems, see what I might need, and my sister Nicole, she has a lot of friends and she introduces me to them, helps me know people.

I really would like to share the stuff we do with our family.  We’re pretty close knit and if we could share that openness with him that would be great.
You know, it would be really nice if you could go to Brazil someday.

I would really like that.  I want to go to Brazil.  That would be so much fun.

I’m anxious to go back to my family and just share the new culture I’ve learned from everything I’ve been to, every photo I’ve took.

It’s great having Miguel around because my mom’s Chilean and my dad’s half Guatemalan, half American so we’re all big Spanish background and he’s Brazilian. We get the different perspectives yet we can relate all one in the same.

Cezonne:  Nicole and Miguel looked like they were having a great time together!

Fei Yin:  Yeah!  But I didn’t learn very much about Brazil.

Cezonne:  You know, they were just starting to get to know each other.  

Baron: Maybe it helped to think first about what they have in common.

Fei Yin:  Yeah and remember, Miguel could only talk about his experience.

Baron:  You’re right!  Brazil is a fascinating country, with lots of different kinds of people,  places, and traditions. After Miguel and Nicole learned about the things they have in common, like being part of a close family, they were probably ready to start exploring more of their differences.   And Miguel will learn about more ways that life in Brazil is different than life in America.
Candice:  That’s why we’re working on a collage about America.  

Baron:  Hey!  You’ve found some great pictures to represent our national culture.

Baron:  It’s nice that Miguel had a chance to spend time with Nicole’s family, because family is the first place we begin to learn about our own culture.  Now, I asked you to bring in an object that tells something about your family.   Who would like to share? Ah, Joseph?

Joseph:  This is a poster I made about the life of my grandmother.  She lives with us and she likes to tell me stories about my ancestors who I’d otherwise know nothing about.

Dipti:  This elephant my grandmother gave me and in India elephants mean good luck.

Baron: All those stories have to do with family culture.

Joseph:  Family culture?

Baron:  Think about all the time your family spends doing things together in your own special way.  You’re creating your own family culture.  I’d like you to spend some time writing in your journals about  activities and traditions your family shares.

Baron:  What’s up?

Skylar:  Well, Mr. Kelly, my parents are divorced.  I don’t know how to start writing about my family culture.

Baron:  Families come in all different shapes and sizes.  Lots of kids have parents who are divorced.  You can write about the different activities you share with each of your parents.  Family culture can survive things like divorce, or a death in the family.  Even if a family has to leave their house temporarily, and move to a shelter.
 
I have a wonderful family.  I’m blessed with 3 kids.  I have Ryan he’s 9, and Nya who is 5, and Raven is 2, she just turned 2.

My favorite thing about being a mother is watching them learn and grow.  It is amazing what they can do.

We sit and talk about school, um their friends, what they did that day, what was the funnest, what made them cry if they were sad, who’s going to do what chore when.  I’ve been having a hard time getting them to do their chores lately, so they haven’t been getting their allowances.

They always get to know a lot of people here, and that’s what I like for my children, knowing all different kinds of people.
There are so many ways that anyone could end up in a shelter.  They could be evicted from their apartment or house.  Their house could be damaged by a fire or other way.  Homeless people are anyone. Woman, children, teenagers, babies, men of all different ages, genders, races, just anyone.

A typical day goes, like we get up at 7 o’clock.  We all get dressed.  We eat breakfast.  Take them to school, Ryan and Nya to school, and then I come back and I work in the daycare.

It doesn’t matter what you have or where you live.  All that’s important is that you have family.  Family values, and family traditions.

The best thing about my family is there is a lot of love.

Andres:  So that’s what family culture is all about?  Just doing everyday stuff together? 

Baron:  That’s right!  Every family has its own culture, and everyday routines are a big part of that.  One of the most important places we can learn about culture is in our own families.

Joseph S.:  Even if the family doesn’t have a place to live?

Baron:  Not every family becomes homeless is lucky enough to have a nice shelter to go to.  But family culture is about sharing experiences and doing things together.  Family culture can survive tough times.

Beng:  Hey, what are you working on?

Nick:  I’m trying to sort out what we’ve learned about culture.  Look, I have ethnic culture, like the Hmong dance Lou showed us.  And also national culture, like American Fourth of July parades.  Here, I just added family culture.  My family likes reading together.

Beng:  What other kinds of culture are there?

Alyssa:  OK, wait, what if we try to think about other groups of people? 

Katharine: Yeah, how about people who have something in common?

** PLEASE NOTE – This segment has been open captioned and should not be closed captioned.  (The open captioning DOES NOT appear on this script.)

Giavanna:  I never thought about deaf people having their own culture before.

Andres:  It makes sense, though.  Hearing people can’t know what that’s like.

Fei Yin:  Still, hearing people and deaf people have lots of things in common.  I like to dance too!

Baron:  Deaf people can have the same talents, hobbies, and feelings that hearing people do.   All deaf people aren’t alike, of course, but what they have in common can create a culture all its own.

Giavanna:  But it seems like those girls were part of several different kinds of cultures.

Andres:  Yeah!  They were deaf, and both dancers, and both African-American.

Baron:  Good observation!  You just identified three different cultural groups.

Fei Yin:  That’s cool!  I’m going to start counting up how many cultural groups I’m part of.  I’m part of a family culture that’s both Chinese and American.  I’m part of a girl scout troop.  My music and dance lessons are part of a group, and I love sports!

We’re members of the blacktop basketball league and this is our game!
Candice:  Hey, wait a minute!   What does basketball have to do with culture?

Tony L.:  I don’t get it.

Candice:  Well, let’s see about those girls.

One-two-three-tigers!

I play basketball because it keeps me in contact with my peers, and just the joy of the sport.

Being part of the team, we share a common goal.

You gotta be a team player.

Being part of the team is something that everyone learns to do and I enjoy it.  It’s something that keeps us going it’s a learning experience for everyone.

We learn from each other and we learn from our coach.

I love being part of the team.

Everybody’s part on the team is very important.

When you don’t work together it’s chaos. Somebody has to do somebody else’s job.

When you work together you win and lose as a team.  You support each other and you have more respect for each other as a team.

It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to be part of the team.  Hard work and dedication!

And when we combine these 2 things together we make a really big team and it’s great.

It’s so much fun to be part of the team because you feel like you belong to something special.

I love being part of the team

Sportsmanship is important for everyone on every team because you are a role model to others who are not out on the court. 

To win as a team it feels great. You worked as one and you won as one, and now you’ve accomplished a goal that you came on the court for.

It’s one of the best feelings in the world to know what you tried to do you accomplished.

I love being part of the team.

Baron:  Did you think about the things those girls shared?

Dipti:  They love basketball.

Katharine:  They work hard.

Skylar:  And, they all want to win.
Baron:  You’re each right!  The girls on that basketball team practice hard, share experiences, and work together for a common goal.

Katharine:  Wisconsin has a lot of sports cultures.

Dipti:  Yeah, have you ever been to a Packer game?  Packer fans share a lot of traditions!

Skylar: I’m definitely part of that culture!

Katharine: Hey I’m part of a swim team and we share a lot of traditions too.  For instance, before each meet, when we’re in our swimsuits, we dance around by the side of the pool.  Even the Seniors get in on the tradition.  They each sort of mentor a Freshman.  I can’t wait until I’m a Senior and I can be a mentor too.

Julia:  I used to think culture was something only other people had.

Cezonne:  Culture has to do with a lot more than the color of your skin or where you were born.

Baron:  I think we can define culture as a way of life. All of us are a mix of many cultures.  And although our personal blend of cultures may grow and change, culture has a lot to do with our everyday lives.

Julia:  It’s awesome to live in a state with so many different kinds of people!