Job Discussion Forums

[mirabelle]

Well, classes have started again, and since I've had the typical two days notice of my schedule, I haven't been able to really put together a syllabus. I have one American/English-speaking countries/Western Culture Class that meets TWICE a week, two hours per class. I teach university students. Last semester I ran out of ideas and this semester I have none (I'm not going to surrender anymore dignity singing pop songs to demonstrate the one-hit wonder phenomena).
The students have a decent level of English when they raise their hands, but lecturing is hard because their listening comprehension is only so-so. I just have no idea where or how to start with them. Any ideas for games or projects that I can incorporate into lesson plans? How have you organized those classes in the past? Any websites or schedules you can suggest to me ?
Thanks.
M

[dajiang]

Hmm, many ideas...
You could make a project that ss work on for some time during the lesson on a cultural topic?
Or maybe find an English magazine (or Beijing today or something) and do stuff with the short news section.

Look at Yahoo news Oddly enough section.
There is heaps of weird news out there, paste/copy and you've got some cool newspaper reports. (have groups of 3 choose a report, they will make a presentation on the report, 1 will explain the article in his/her own words, another will tell the opinion of the group on this article, and the 3rd person will answer any questions that come from the rest of the class)

I've found some ideas in the cookbook, one was reading The Gospel of Luke, about the prodigal son, which turned into a great discussion.
Another one was discussing Murphy's laws,
groups had to pick one, and describe a situation or a story where the use of this law would be appropriate.

Also works with Proverbs.
Get a proverb from somewhere (google some) and assign a proverb to ss and they create a story that illustrates they understand the meaning of it.

This also works with idioms.
Give them a few idioms and groups choose 3 or 4 of them and have to make a story using all of the idioms correctly.

For some links to websites look at my weblog and see if you like any.
http://elsmaniac.web-log.nl/
There have been links posted here before that were really good as well btw. You could do a search on them.

Jokes are great cultural stories too.
Find suitable ones and practise retelling them, first write down key-words, then in random order, and in the end tell it by heart.

Also, (hey, there's a lot here) you could do stuff with Urban Myths.
I'm sure you know some and they will know as well.
Look at the website of Myth Busters on discovery.com for some ideas otherwise. These Myths are just cool stories, and ss will know some of their own stories.

And finally, make a list of questions about culture, like:
- What do you think is interesting about your culture?
- Do you know much about your own culture? (Should you?)
- What do people from other countries usually think about your culture?
- Is it polite in your culture to be straightforward and direct when you talk to someone? To whom is it OK and to whom is it not OK?
- What has surprised you when you've met people from other countries?
- What do you like about your culture? (And what don't you like?)
- How do young people in your culture behave differently from older people?
- If you could change one thing about your culture, what would it be?
- What does it mean to be polite in your culture?
- What is considered rude in your culture?
- If a group of people just came to your country from overseas, what advice would you give them?
- What do you think is important when visiting another culture?

Students choose one or two of these questions and present them to the class giving answers, opinions and answering questions.


Hope this'll give you some ideas?
Good luck,

Da Jiang

[Roger]

A very vague subject, so try to lead the herd of cows rather than being led by them!

Here is something I have done with reasonable success:
I conducdted some interviews on specific topics related to the Dos and Donts in Chinese society, i.e. reporting late to meetings/ work etc.; being a noisy nuisance in a cinema or a meeting (with a cellphone, for example); smoking in public; passing out information and making sure it reaches its target(s), etc.; academic honesty/dishonesty (cheating in exams!); how to introduce oneself/others and the whole issue of NAME9s) (including first name, surname, when to use which);

it will interest you to note that there is a curious parallel between western mores and Chinese mores: everybody is agreed in China that using the cellphone in the cinmea is IMPOLITE. Or cheating in exams is UNFAIR. And they would introduce themselves by their surnames (I think this is of particular interest for Americans since they tend to over-use their first names and, wrongly, expect everybody to go along with it...).

So, in fact the students are learning that "western customs and habits" are pretty similar to Chinese ones, or the other way around. This certainly extends to the quesation of discussing politics and religions. Thus, yourclass could elarn to respect Westerners in much the same way they are expecting you to respect them.

I would allocate 2 to 4 periods per each topic. I would also require them to take notes and to check these notes for mistakes.

[Yu]

I am teaching an intercultural communication class.
I have done a few things previously with my classes that have been interesting.
First, Play Barnga with them. Barnga is a game that essentially demonstrates some culture shock without leaving the classroom. You need about 6 decks of cards to play.
There was a post a while back about "you might be in China if" I took some of the most interesting/less offensive replies and made a handout and gave it to my students. It is a little insight into how foreigners see China.