Mani Kallupurackal. Midterm Sociology Essay. When I Was

Mani Kallupurackal Midterm Sociology Essay When I was seven years old, I emigrated from India to the United States. Coming to the states, I experienced a culture shock due to the different types of people, customs, and education system. The first time I stepped in the states, I saw people from all different nationalities, races, and ethnicities; a whole different type of world that was inconceivable when I lived in India. An eventful part of my life was transitioning from the school system in India to the school system in America. The expectation of a student and child in the United States was vastly different to the expectations placed by society in India. Sociological imagination and sociological mindfulness enabled me to understand how†¦show more content†¦This led to overcrowding in schools and large class size, which led to a more impersonal relationship between teacher and student. CW Mills shares the relationship between private and public issues in the context of sociological imagination. (Mills 1959). People have the tendency to believe that their problems are usually unique and private. They do not believe others experience the same problems. However, public issues are most likely the cause of these so called â€Å"private problems.† Sociological imagination allows us to see the relationship of the world to our personal lives (Mills 1959).. In India, the only thing expected of a child was to study hard in their free time, and receive good marks in school. However, in America, children were expected to hang out with friends, play sports, participate in extracurricular activities in addition to getting good test scores. When I came to the states, I obviously had an internal problem of the fear of not fitting in and not making any friends. I always felt I was different because my parents expected me to study all the time but the other kids played outsi de and hung out with one another due to my parents expecting me to study all the time, when other kids could play and hang outside. This was due to the competitive atmosphere my whole family had lived through in India, while this was not existent for children in the US. Sociological mindfulness is being more aware in society (Schwalbe 2005). It is the