Job Discussion Forums

[c-way]

Hey guys,
could use a little help with a pair of students who are going to just outside London for high school in August.

I have been assigned to teach for 60 hours on things that will be useful for them to know before they go. My focus is on English as well, but the topics for my teaching are not to revolve around grammar, as we have two other teachers doing that part, but more on the social and school topics.

I need a running list of topics to cover in these classes (30 2 hour classes in five weeks). Any ideas are appreciated. I have never been to London but am sharing the course load with a teacher from London. So what would be good topics to cover for these students (age 17 and 1 before they leave.
Thanks

[kev7161]

Are you British?

Many things to cover when it comes to cultural differences: food, slang, favorite pasttimes (esp. sports), proper etiquette, customs, holidays, government, laws of the land, history of the area (London itself or the entire country), famous landmarks they might want to visit (and why they are famous), weather/seasons, boy/girl relationships, the value of money and the cost of things there, Chinese customs that would be improper in England (spitting, staring, laughing at others), clothing/hair styles . . .

. . . those are just off the top of my head - - there's gotta be more!

[smalldog]

There's a very good book called Understand Western Culture, written by Pam Wadeson and published by Foreign Languages Press. (In Chinese, 学会与西方人打交道；外文出版社). ISBN 7-119-02849-9. There's even a section on how to behave in a supermarket.