Puerto Rican Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Puerto Rican Culture - Essay Example In my naivety, I had thought that Americans were very sophisticated people who lived harmoniously with one another. I never, not for a single second, thought that I would experience some of the worst discriminations in my life. I never thought that I would have to work several times harder to prove myself than other American kids had to. The realization that life in the U.S was not as rosy as I had been made to believe came as a shocker to me. In Colombia I had been grown used to the closeness of the people. Everyone was each other’s keeper, so to speak. I had very many companions back in Colombia because the sociability of the people makes it easy to make new friends almost every day (Waters and Ueda 216). However in America, the situation was quite different. First of all, I did know much English when I fast landed in the US, so communication was a big problem. I did not have to wait for long before I realized what it meant to be a Colombian American living in New York. Discrimination followed me almost everywhere I went. My ethnicity made me a subject of resentment from both white and African Americans (Olson and Olson 116). I did not consider speaking Spanish to be wrong, but to Americans, it was objectionable. Many regarded American Colombians to be illegal immigrants which was sometimes true. However, my mother had ensured that she had all the right papers before coming here. This of course did not stop other people from lumping us together with illegal immigrants. As such it was very hard for us since my mother, who also knew very limited English, could not get a good job. Colombian immigrants could only get casual jobs, and these did not pay well enough (118). It is a well documented fact that America is a highly fragmented society (Flores 19). This identity fragmentation affected me greatly when I was new in the country. I started very slowly in school since I could not communicate very well. In my school everyone was grouped

Working in Teams Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Working in Teams - Research Paper Example This paper describes the work in team and compares it with individual work. Teamwork has lately become one of the most essential ways in which work is being organized as organizations are increasingly delegating work responsibilities to work groups rather than individuals. Structural changes at the workplace such as the implementation of teams are more likely to increase efficiency while encouraging workers to work harder and smarter. Working in teams does yield better results over the efforts of any one individual because when a group of people works together actively, all their skills are harnessed effectively, thereby leading to the achievement of a common purpose. Individuals in the group are more confident about their abilities and are more willing to contribute their ideas because they will be enriched through the team member’s input. Unlike teams, individuals working on their own are often under pressure to perform that they may end up making simple mistakes that could easily avoided when working in teams. The team players can tolerate twice as much pressure as individuals working independently in rowing games. This analogy can as well be extended in a general team context, to explain that the pain threshold of individuals working in teams is much higher than that of independent workers, and this enables them to overcome challenges that come with work. In that respect, working in teams increases individuals’ competence to handle tasks as the members often build each other’s capacity with the sole purpose of enhancing the overall group performance.