Cultural Reporter Summary - Spencer Schaulis

As we all know, in our book Martin and Nakayama define the term culture as "learned patterns of behavior and attitudes shared by a group of people."  This means there is a possibility for many different types of cultures throughout our world.  You could argue that every country has their own culture or group of cultures.  It varies with everyone you come into contact with.  Small towns to large cities, hot climate to cold climate, culture would vary.  With this being said, I chose to analyze what it would be like living in a large city compared to a small rural town or city because I myself grew up in a rural area.

In blog two, due to me growing up in a rural area, I chose to analyze the differences in growing up in a small area compared to a large urban area.  While engaging in my research, I learned how growing up in a large to small area differ in the aspects of childhood, high school, and experiencing first hand the college aspect.

Located to the left is a picture of the main street in my hometown, Wisner, NE. Growing up here, everyone knew everyone.  I went to a high school that had about 100 people, total; this total includes junior high.  With these low numbers, you can imagine how easy it is to see or notice everyone that attended my high school.  Aside from my senior year of high school, I could probably see a picture in a year book and name every single person that was in my high school that year.

   

Comparing this to a large urban area such as Omaha (right), they have at least ten different high schools all of which have an enrollment of over 1500 students, thats over fifteen times more than my high school, making it very difficult to know every single student in the high school.  To me, I feel it be extremely hard to know all the teachers available in a school with this size of enrollment.

Growing up in a rural area such as Wisner, you dont put yourself in harms way by simply walking down the street.  As much as it kills me to say this, there is that risk in walking down the street in a large concrete jungle such as Omaha.  In my home town, its a big deal if a criminal simply drives through my rural homeland of 1200 people.

Upon arrive here at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, I didn't know what to expect with moving to a large urban area.  After being here for almost eight months, I found that the only really aspect I found myself adjusting to is the traffic of a large scale town.  Other than that, there really weren't that many of difficult adjustments.  Living here for eight months has given me a different perspective on different available living conditions, and honestly, I could see myself living in a urban area such as Lincoln or Omaha.

https://www.google.com/search8&tbmWisner+NE&oq=Wisner+NE..- Wisner photo
https://www.google.com/searchhl=en&q=Omaha+NE&bav=on.2,or..- Omaha photo
http://high-schools.com/report/ne/public-school-enrollment-rank-in-nebraska.html
Martin, J.N. & Nakayme, T.K. (2012). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (6th ed.) Boston, MA: McGraw Hill