Job Discussion Forums

[adventuramust]

What are some of the ways teachers share western culture per so many job ads. I do what I can, but I wondered what others do. I was never given specifics so I include items that pertain to so-called textbooks I use.

thanks

[Roger]

How about etiquette? That's a big enough topic to fill classes well into eternity! Think of the Olympic Games and you know what the Chinese badly need - it's even officially acknowledged!

[andyscott84]

My students and I brainstorm about the many aspects of culture and then discuss them individually. Here are some topics that you can talk about.

Holidays/Festivals
Food
Language/Slang
Manners
History (Modern is probably more useful for them.)
Art/Film/Music/Literature
Dance
Animals
Lifestyle

And the main one that they all want to hear about is how different the school life is to theirs.

Try and think of important aspects in their life and you can compare it to your own culture with them.

[adventuramust]

Thanks, it appears that I am on the right track. I know in my mind I would like tell them we don't spit, blow our noses without tissue and butt cigarettes on the floor of restaurants, but I think they know that. Besides, that is downright offensive to say.

What does drive me crazy is the continual response of 'why'. For example, I don't eat beef and am asked why. I want to tell them they don't eat cheese and ask why but it crosses my mind.

They are quite interested in the cultural things I mention from dance to art to lifestyle, but they still follow it up with a 'why'.

Thank you for sharing, I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something. I didn't know if I was suppose to be bringing up cowboys and Indians.

[vikdk]

a roger quote

[adventuramust]

I have seen other posts by this fellow. He is not worthy of responses. He does what he does because he does not have the intelligence to give true assistance.

Perhaps we should just pity the poor guy.

[Roger]

[Roger]

[vikdk]

duhhhhhhhhhhhh brilliant roger - I'm not even Danish

[dajiang]

You can use idioms and proverbs.
Most of them can inspire interesting conversations about what they're based on.

Also Murphy's laws (this was in the cookbook actually) are a great topic.

How about something on family relationships?
And related could be the idea of 'a man's home is his castle'. How we live in our houses, and what we think is important in our lives. Practically that is.

Look at my humble weblog for some other stuff:
http://eslmaniac.web-log.nl/

Seeya
Dajiang

[Roger]

Let's not forget that most employers hire us in our capacity of communications facilitators, seldom as lecturers.
The term "western culture" is so fluffy as to be devoid of meaning; it puts the onus for running an oral English class sxquarely on your shoulders while your employer has an even more limited responsibility to support you. Do you get any materials? In the end, your learners will display the same deficits in attent spans and retention of what's been said in class. IT's a token subject. Culture ideally is not an academic subject, but that is what the compartmentalisation of school life makes of it.

Since "culture" routinely is used synonymously with "arts", I don't think you could be wrong by devling into some forms of artistic expressions and require your students to take notes during your lessons. Obviously, you cannot embark on an academic dissertation on literaature (since English literature in China has traditionally been treated as a stepchild and students really show too little enthusiasm for such subjects) but you can still dwell on a few encyclopedic facts (that bear students doing some research in secondary literature) such as the world's first novel was written in Babylon, and the BIble also is a major cultural feat of literary value along HOmer's Odyssee, long before Gutenberg's printing press enabled businesses to mass-produce writing.

Then there are the graphic arts. Does anyone know that you can buy a hand-painted copy of any of Picasso's works from a string of specialised arts shops based in a small village outside of Shenzhen?

If that's not enough - or if that's too daunting - why not introduce architecture and urban planning to your class?
What's a Chinese city compared to a Western one? Do your students have any idea? Do they remember how insignificant their big cities were when they were toddlers? What's typical of a Chinese city? Compared to Western ones, I think that's pretty obvious. You could dwell on places of fabulous reputation - Jericho, Byblos, Istanbul, Marseille, Athens, Rome, Troy, and their millenia of history, and what has been adopted by China's city planners.

[erinyes]

Not that this thread is about manners or anything, but Roger is right. There is a little bit of racism developing in Australia around the Chinese university students who travel to study in Oz. The local students want nothing to do with them, and view them as disgusting miscreants because of their inability to behave in what Aussies would consider a civil manner.

So, it is important for people to adopt the manners of a foreign culture, when they are dealing with foreign people or in foreign locations. If I came to China to close a deal then I would make sure I wasn�t insulting anyone! I mean, people have been filling up my tea cup, sometimes overflowing it, and I have just kept chatting etc� little did I know a full cup of tea means its lime for you to leave.

Who cares how the Chinese treat each other, but I can see billions of dollars of foreign money being lost due to the perceived "gross behaviour" of Chinese business men.

[vikdk]

Erinyes - I'm sure you didn't mean it, but read your post again - it sounds as if you are saying that if an ethnic group doesn't follow the social norms practised by a society they can expect a racist response. Wow maybe the jews were at fault in nazi germany because of their Jewish manners - and what about the native australian population - why sure there just a bunch of abos stuck out in the bush.
Erinyes, I where your coming from - but if you want to make an intelligent argument on this subject, think in terms of encouraging good practise and not good manners - and think before you write.

as for tourists - I'm sure greece and spain would love to swop a few british lager swilling louts for a tour group of chinese (as long as they had the money). And when thinking about how this culture does throw up many minor irritation factors - just remember what it's like walking about in most big western cities at night (and in the day in certain areas), not too cozy at times - I'll take the so- called bad manners here any day - and hope the western culture missionaries don't change it too much

[Roger]

I have thought of two other options, one tried, one lofty and untested:

- I noticed Chinese English majors loved (last time when I used that material) FAMILY ALBUM U.S.A.
I had a swell time with my normal college students - admittedly the vast majority of them were females!
This is a textbook that comes with a VCD that has several episodes of a little saga set in the U.S.A. and centering on an idealised and intact family.
There is romance, a good bit cultural Americana (traditions, Christianity, American schools, hobbies of Americans, and even hospitality extended to a foreign visitor).
This VCD puts many preconceived notions of our Chinese students upside down; it may appeal to the naive and gullible, but hey, what's wrong in showing a piece of the U.S.A. that cannot be studied in the Renmin Ribao or the bl**dy CHINA DAILY?

- Untested: I have always been fascinated by the origin of words; it might be worthwhile checking into the geneaology of some English vocables groupled around a specific topic such as civic life (engagement, marriage, divorce). You will see that currently fashionable terms are borrowed from French - hence the English world has adopted quite a bit of French lifestyles.
Or the names of foods and agricultural produce: colonial history as a mirror of changing culture in Britain and elsewhere.


Every other post by that jumbo-dumbo starts with a rejoinder - "please, read YOUR (your own!) post again ...blablabla..." as though we all could see those contradictions that this disseminator of negative vibes is seeing!

But to each according to their own talents and needs! Carpe Diem!

[erinyes]

vikdk, I agree with you, and I think people can behave any way they like, it doesn�t bother me.

What I am saying is that SOME people wouldn�t accept their manners.

It is better in the land of making money (which I am sure you�ll agree is what motivates most people in this country to learn English and is sure what motivates the central government to push it so much) to adopt the manners of the people who you are trying to extract the money from.

I met a guy from Canada on the summer holidays who was an ex high flyer. He told us all how bigoted and unforgiving some of those American business men could be, and how anyone in China who wanted to get serious about being a translator in the business world better learn to speak American English with an American accent.

The point? Chinese people want to know about how the western world works so they can tap into the flow of funds, not so they can change the way they interact themselves. So, why not show them?