Three Individuals

It was a nice day today, so I can sit outside the Starbucks coffee shop. I found this is a great spot to people watch. I noticed some people were walking into the coffee shop, some were walking pass by the coffee shop quickly and some people would stop for a second and decided to go into the shop to buy drink.

The 1st person that I observed was an American girl sitting at the table next to mine. She had blonde hair with a little curl and a pair of oversize sunglasses on her face. She wore a grey sweatshirt on the top, black sport legging on the bottom and a pair of Nike running sneaker. She walked into the coffee shop, and came out with a drink. She set her backpack on the chair and sat on the other one starting read her book. Form what I can see; she did not have any big pieces of jewelry on her. I think she must be a college student who just got off the class. Since this week is the midterm week, I think she wanted to study for her midterms, but do not want to miss the beautiful sunshine so that she decided to come here. From her outfit, I assume she should be a nice girl who really enjoy her daily life, and likes to exercise, to communicate and to help people. Most of my friends like the kind of outfit she was wearing, so I would link her to my friends because I think this is how a college student should be wearing.

The 2nd person that I observed was still an American girl. I saw her walked fast into the coffee shop and when she came out, she has two drinks in her hands. She did not leave; instead, she was standing in front of the Starbucks store for a while. I guessed she might be waiting for her friends. She was wearing a heavy winter coat with a long shirt inside. She has scarves around her neck and UGG boots. It was warm in the afternoon, so I guessed she came out early to go to the class or she would stay really late at school. She did not have any heavy makeup on her face nor jewelries. I guessed she should be either an art student or an architecture student, because she did not have a backpack as others did. She carried a drawing board on her back. She stood here for about 3 minutes and her friend was here. Her friend apologized for her lateness, and then both of them left in a quick manner. I think they were probably late for their class.

The 3rd person that I observed was an Asian girl. She was sitting there and doing her work, then she was on the phone talking to her friend. From the language she was speaking, I noticed that we came from the same country. She was wearing a coat on the top and all buttoned up; on the bottom, she was wearing jeans and a pair of sneaker. She had her hair tied up in a ponytail, and wore a reading glass on her face. Also, just like any other typical college students, she had a backpack on her back. She did not wear any make on the face nor jewelries. She was using an electronic dictionary so this made me to think she might be a freshman. I had a second thought; she might be taking a foreign language class here. I think this girl might be have a good personality and study hard for her schoolwork.



5 Responses to “Three Individuals”

  1.   Jason Keller Says:

    I can understand how the way that someone’s general appearance and manner of dress might indicate that they are into exercise and lead a physically active lifestyle. I can also understand how clothing might seem to depict someone’s zest for life, for example bright colors tend to make me think that a person has a very vibrant and outgoing personality. What I’m really curious about though is how you came to the conclusion, based solely on appearance, that the first girl likely spends her time helping other people? In what manner do you believe she spends her time helping others? Charity? Volunteer work? Tutoring?

    •   RJ Says:

      I understand where your questions come from. I think different people think differently. From my point of view and my personal experiences, it might be wrong, I found out that people who dress in this type of outfit are more willing to help people. I know it is unfair to judge a person only from his or her appearance, but this is only my personal thought. Most of my friends dress in the same style, and their personalities are really nice, I think that is why I came up with this ‘unapproved’ conclusion. I should be more clear about how I came up with this kind of conclusion. I might not to make a conclusion about a person if it was my fist time seeing them. But if it was your first time to see someone, how you would make a conclusion about him or her? I know it takes a long time to really get to know a person inside rather than making conclusion from the appearance only.

      •   qinglong@uoregon.edu Says:

        Because last time my response is for last two person you observed, i did not pay too much attention to the first person. Actually i do not agree with Jason, i think sometimes the first impression is important. How the person dress could give us the first impression what kind of person he or she is. Like you said, that girls sits to a table and read the book, we can get the information she is a student even the Statbucks is near our campus. Also, she dresses almost like what a student should wear. We were there just aim to know how adornment can give us the information about a person, not to know what they are doing in details. In addition, we are guessing their behaviors rather than giving the conclusion to anyone. Inside is not including in observing a individual even though it is important.

  2.   qinglong@uoregon.edu Says:

    First, I want to say, I like to sit in front of Starbucks and enjoy the weather sometimes. The second person you observed is an American girl that she could be very fashion. Through your observation, I assume she could care about her appearance because scarves mostly are to titivate self not keep warm and her UGG boots looks could simple and beautiful. Additionally, you are circumspection, because you care about her drawing board and believe she is an art student or architecture student. Third person is an Asian girl and she was doing homework. I could say she is a study hard student. But I am curious about your assumption she might be freshman. How do you think she is a freshman? Actually, I agree with you she is a good student as simply analyze she from her dresses. Because I know some girls from Asia did not study very hard and they dress very vogue. Barely stylish Asian students study well, but few.

  3.   dylant@uoregon.edu Says:

    I was very interested in the way you identified people by country of origin. It is not surprising necessarily, but I wonder if there was anything in particular about these girls that made them obviously “American” other than accents. I am curious as to whether or not you would be able to tell the difference between someone from the British Isles and someone from America based solely on what they wore. I think it would be interesting to see whether or not the same fashion statements have different meanings in different cultures and if those things significantly change our perceptions of people.

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