Journal - About the Class Presentations

To the Person or People Reading This,

I decide that this blog would be about the presentations that we had in
my Ethnic Studies class this week. Basically each group in the class had to
pick an Asian American culture, study up on it, and present their finds to
the class. The cultures that we could choose from we Cambodian (that's
what my group choose), Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Filipino.
Before the presentations I had a cursory knowledge of each of this ethnic groups,
but really nothing in depth. To say the least, the presentations were eye opening,
especially about my own ignorance. I don't consider myself a dumb person, but there
are moments when I realize that I am a little sheltered from other cultures. Also,
I had no idea that there was such a large correlation between the many different
cultures and their experiences. Again, my lack of knowledge astounds me, but in
a good way because now I know and can share this knowledge with someone
who also did not know.
Like I said above, my groups chosen culture was Cambodia, and I never
realized that a genocide had happened in Cambodia. I mean, something
that major and that horrific happened in a country not to long ago, and I
had absolutely no idea. At least I know now and maybe I can do something
with that knowledge. I guess only time will tell. One of the people in my
group stumbled across a youtube video about the genocide, so I thought
I would share it with you. Just a warning though, it is very sad and gruesome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-SI8RF6wDE