Above I have attached an ethnography paper that I wrote with a partner in a college composition class. I believe this shows my ability to learn about other cultures by observing the sub-culture of Karate and writing about it. This paper required my partner and me to observe a specific culture (Karate Classes) over the course of 5 weeks. After observing the culture and things such as their rituals, we broke down our observations into different categories such as artifacts, environments, and interactions. Doing this allowed us to break down and understand their culture better. I believe that this fulfills Knowledge and Understanding levels 1 and 2. Knowledge and Understanding level 1: “Asks simple or surface questions about related cultures and their practices, products and perspectives” and level 2: “Asks questions that show an increased understanding of complex cultural practices, products and perspectives.” For this paper, my partner and I observed a dojo karate class that met once a week for a couple of months. In doing this, we gained a lot of knowledge about a culture other than our own, the culture of Karate. It was interesting to observe their culture and ask questions about the history of Karate and what some of their practices are that may differ from the "norm" (Knowledge and Understanding, level 1). In order to effectively understand this culture so we could write about it, not only did we observe the class, but we also did background research on the culture, asked the instructor questions and even participated in one of the classes. After we got background information on Karate, we watched weeks’ worth of classes before deciding to participate with them. The class was extremely intense, but apart from that, I was able to participate in a culture I had never been able to be a part of before. The culture not only practices different karate moves, but principles and values that may differ from the "norm". Since this sport began in Japan, there are many aspects of the culture that reflect practices and norms in the Japanese culture. This experience helped me learn a lot about how important certain values and beliefs are in some cultures. For example, in this culture, respect for those who are "above you" (like elders or more advanced) is extremely important and while it is valued in my culture, it is not as strict nor is it followed as strictly (Knowledge and Understanding, level 2). Being able to be a part of that culture, even if only for one class, taught me a lot about the amount of differences between cultures even if it seems like there would be little to no difference. One of the most memorable parts that was a ritual of their culture was at the end of every class they would end by bowing and saying “chai-yut” and “kyungnet”, which means “attention” and “bow”. I hope to continue to expose myself to other cultures around my community, on campus, and throughout my life.