Paradigm Shift: Columbus did whaaaat?

I remember in the earlier grade levels, I always had the idea that Christopher Columbus was a pretty cool guy that discovered America.  In the later grade levels, new information was taught that he was in fact a cruel and selfish man.  He did not even discover America.  He landed on different islands in the pacific and enslaved, raped, and pillaged the previous land owners.  We even celebrated Columbus Day for this guy.  This was a big paradigm shift that I had to make because I really didn't want to think this new information was true.

TOK Entry 1

Over the summer, I went to Long Island to see my relatives at a family wedding.  The family on my mother's side is Italian, however on my father's side, the family is Iranian.  This became a big problem at the wedding because I couldn't understand what they were saying since it was in a language other than English.  This situation definitely had the Language WOK involved, because the language was a barrier between the the two family's communication.  My dad speaks both english and farsi (languange in Iran), so he was sort of the translator for both sides.  This means that certain things may not be translated into the same thing that each of us meant to say. Although, I trusted my dad to convey my messages over to them, so i am sure he tried to make it as close to the real message as possible.  The knowledge issue in this situation is that I believe I am communicating with the family from Iran, it is justified to think that because of my father who is fluent in both languages, however i don't know if it is true that i am actually getting my message across since i don't know the language and can't check the translation my dad is doing.