Jogging Alone

When I first arrived in the Dominican Republic, I began to have a problem with my morning jogging routine. I used to jog every day when I was at home in the United States, so when I arrived in the Dominican Republic I set myself a goal to continue jogging two miles every morning. I really liked the peaceful feeling of jogging alone as the sun came up. But this did not last for long. My neighbors simply couldn’t understand why someone would want to run alone. Soon people began to appear at their doorways offering me a cup of coffee; others would invite me to stop in for a visit. Sometimes this would happen four or five times as I tried to continue jogging. They even began sending their children to run behind me so I wouldn’t be lonely. I was faced with a dilemma. I really enjoyed my early morning runs. However, I soon realized that it’s impolite in Dominican culture not to accept a cup of coffee or stop and chat, when you pass people who are sitting on their front steps. I didn’t want to give up jogging. But, at the same time, I wanted to be polite and to show respect for the customs of my Dominican neighbors – and not to be viewed as odd or strange.

9. Roz’s Dilemma: give answers to the questions below.

1) What American cultural norm (something that is viewed as perfectly normal) did Roz assume would be the same (viewed as perfectly normal) in the Dominican Republic?

2) What cultural norm (unwritten or unspoken rule, something viewed as perfectly normal) do the Dominicans have that made Roz’s behavior seem strange?

3) Describe a way you think Roz could respect the Dominican need to show hospitality to a stranger and, at the same time, not give up jogging.

4) How can Roz’s neighbors begin to understand and respect her need to be alone and to continue her jogging routine and, at the same time, satisfy their own need to show hospitality to strangers?

5) Role-Play

Prepare an oral presentation in which you share your solution with your classmates and teacher. Each member of your team should play some role – reading a line, commenting, acting out the part of Roz or any of her many neighbors (women offering cups of coffee, children following Roz as she jogs …).

Unit 4 nationality stereotypes Text 4 Stereotypes

A "stereotype" is a generalization about a person or group of persons. We develop stereotypes when we are unable or unwilling to obtain all of the information we would need to make fair judgments about people or situations. In the absence of the "total picture," stereotypes in many cases allow us to "fill in the blanks." Our society often innocently creates and perpetuates stereotypes, but these stereotypes often lead to unfair discrimination and persecution when the stereotype is unfavorable.

For example, if we are walking through a park late at night and encounter three senior citizens wearing fur coats and walking with canes, we may not feel as threatened as if we were met by three high school-aged boys wearing leather jackets. Why is this so? We have made a generalization in each case. These generalizations have their roots in experiences we have had ourselves, read about in books and magazines, seen in movies or television, or have had related to us by friends and family. In many cases, these stereotypical generalizations are reasonably accurate. Yet, in virtually every case, we are resorting to prejudice by ascribing characteristics about a person based on a stereotype, without knowledge of the total facts. By stereotyping, we assume that a person or group has certain characteristics. Quite often, we have stereotypes about persons who are members of groups with which we have not had firsthand contact. Television, books, comic strips, and movies are all abundant sources of stereotyped characters. For much of its history, the movie industry portrayed African-Americans as being unintelligent, lazy, or violence-prone. As a result of viewing these stereotyped pictures of African-Americans, for example, prejudice against African-Americans has been encouraged. In the same way, physically attractive women have been and continue to be portrayed as unintelligent or unintellectual and sexually promiscuous.

Stereotypes also evolve out of fear of persons from minority groups. For example, many people have the view of a person with mental illness as someone who is violence-prone. This conflicts with statistical data, which indicate that persons with mental illness tend to be no more prone to violence than the general population. Perhaps the few, but well-publicized, isolated cases of mentally ill persons going on rampages have planted the seed of this myth about these persons. This may be how some stereotypes developed in the first place; a series of isolated behaviors by a member of a group which was unfairly generalized to be viewed as a character of all members of that group.