I spent an hour to watch my neighbors- the parents and the girl. The mother wears a simple dress and an apron. Her dress is so simple and clean that I cannot find any spot on it. However, her apron is very old and there are some spot on the apron. She walks in the house again and again to clean the house, the water the plant and prepare for our dinner. She is busy doing household duties. The father just goes back home from work. He is wearing black business suit and a tie. And he also catches a briefcase. The first thing he does is putting down the briefcase and loosing his ties and then sits on the sofa reading the newspaper. The mother gets him some tea. He is totally absorbed into the newspaper. And then he goes to surf in the Internet and do watch some movies. As for the girl, the girl is doing some reading on her room, wearing a beautiful dress. Her fingernails are painted with many colors. When doing reading, she keeps texting with her telephone. Reading the texts, sometimes she smiles and laughs happily.
I believe that the mother is a kind-hearted woman who takes family as the centre of her life. I think that she believes that she should make some contributions to the family by cleaning the house and bring the things which are needed to her husband and children. I feel the father is a man who believes in male chauvinism. Maybe he thinks that his duty is to make money for the daily expense of the family. After working, I feel that what he needs to do is relax. As for the girl, I think that she is an outgoing girl who cares about others’ opinions to her. Meanwhile, I believe she want to perfect herself as well.
As all of the parents and girl are the yellow race, I believe that they are traditional family. I assume that the mother is middle age housewife who is not well educated but virtuous because her dress is so clean but her apron is old. I think that the father is a middle-aged highly-educated man because he wears a black business suit and tie. I believe that the relationship between the parents is good. And the girl is well-educated because she likes reading. Meanwhile, as she wears beautiful colorful dress and plaint colorful fingernails and laugh a lot while texting, I believe she is a happy out-going girl.
According to my assumptions, I find myself think people of yellow race tend to be traditional. And I also think that the well-educated people should go out to work while the people who stay at home tend to be poor-educated.
Hi Yunji,
I know that you mentioned your observations took place outside of your house. Are you back home or staying in Eugene for the summer? I thought your observations were very descriptive and detailed. It’s challenging to make assumptions about people without actually knowing them. I was glad to read that you think the mother and father both value the time they have to spend with their daughter. It was also beneficial that you backed up your analysis with the idea that many Asian families think that family is very important. I don’t think that idea is as emphasized in the US than in many foreign countries. It’s really sad. In regards to your comment about less educated people tend to stay at home, I don’t know if that is entirely true. I think some families choose to have the mother or father stay at home to devote as much time to their children as possible!
🙂
Nicole
I enjoyed reading through your observations about this feel. This is a very interesting assignment and it’s interesting to hear your thoughts about people. I really liked your observation about the mother and how she was wearing a very clean dress but was cooking and cleaning. I feel like people usually wear not so nice clothes to clean. Your details gave me a good visual of the family and they seem like a classic, traditional family to me. I was curious as to why you thought the girl cares about other people’s opinions and why you think she wants to be perfect? Why made you think this about the girl while observing her? I would have to disagree with you on your assumption about the mother being less educated because i am a girl going to college and i would love to stay home and cook and clean just like her. I would like to think if i had the opportunity to stay home, i would, and i would like to consider my self an educated woman. 🙂
I really enjoyed your observations because they were extremely descriptive. If felt as though I was the one watching those three people in their daily life with a narrator. I found interesting when you talked about your assumptions at the end and how you believed the people who stayed home were most likely poorly educated. You also mentioned that you believed the father believed in male chauvinism. I wonder if this could have had an impact on what the wife’s role ended up being in the family. She may have simply not had the opportunity to get educated or she is and cannot utilize it. The family does sound to be a stereotypical “normal” family. The father does sound like a very independent hard working man. The mother on the other hand sounds like she is there to support her family and make sure everything is going right behind the scenes.