Proverbs
Monica Hoogstad
Monica is a freelance Business English and Legal English teacher, with eighteen years experience in ELT. She is particularly keen on teaching Advanced Learners. Her current interests are material design, intercultural communication, creative thinking, and teaching while having fun (and the other way around).
E-mail: monicahoogstad@yahoo.co.uk
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Introduction
Background
Activities
Answers
References
Introduction
"Nothing sucks like an Electrolux." Does this advertising slogan from the early 70s ring any bell? As you may have guessed, despite its high quality vacuum cleaners, the Swedish electronics manufacturer ran into a brick wall when trying to strike a chord with the American consumers. And this isn't by a long shot the only marketing blunder that hit the business world ever since. "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave" in Chinese. When General Motors introduced the Chevy Nova in South America, it was apparently unaware that "no va" means "it won't go." And Colgate topped everything up by introducing a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a notorious porn magazine. All these could have been easily avoided, had business executives been put in the picture about the language and culture booby traps surrounding our global village. Or, in Hofstede's words, had they known what to say, and how, when, where and why to say it.
Background
Benjamin Franklin's 'time is money' mantra has been passed down and embraced by many generations of no-nonsense businesspeople, who'd agree that money makes the world go round, but who wouldn't admit that when in Rome, do as the Romans do. The realisation that a deal can be lost not only due to controversies over quality and price, but also while inadvertently offending one's potential business partners in a light-hearted comment prompted these die-hards to revise their sales and marketing strategies. Nowadays, an increasing number of companies that attempt to be major global players in the international business arena are prepared to invest in re-devising their organisational processes, their thinking patterns and their staff competences. Verbal communication devoid of cultural knowledge is not sufficient to keep companies at the cutting edge of today's exigencies. Global diversity, inclusion and multiculturalism have become sine-qua-non curricular items in business language training programmes, where company personnel is enabled to function in an international environment and to accomplish their organisation's goals in cross-border situations. By understanding other cultures and mentalities, and their impact on behaviour and language, one becomes more self-conscious of one's own unique cultural baggage. In the long term, this leads to smoothening individual differences, increasing team performance and enhancing organisational dynamics.
Coming in a compact, philosophy-to-go format, proverbs provide excellent teaching material for multinational groups or for internationally-oriented teams. They facilitate the expression of playfulness required for setting up a learning climate meant to promote creativity and out-of-box thinking. Despite being deemed as fridge magnet wisdom by some and truisms for all occasions by others, proverbs never cease to attract learners of English. Whether they are striving to give more authenticity to their language production or they are merely fascinated by the similarities between various cultures underlined by proverbs, most students receive them with open arms. Understanding sayings helps them gain insight into other cultures and offers them a unifying basis in their cross-world dealings with clients and colleagues.
Activity 1a introduces a number of quite frequently used proverbs in a fun way, thus discarding the aura of triteness that often surrounds these verbal clichιs, while Activity 2 uses the power of narrative and laughter to establish and cement group identity. Activities 2a and 2b take the students to a further stage, where out-of-box thinking is the name of the game. They are supposed to come up with witticisms they can later use in speeches, presentations, negotiations, press releases, articles, etc. It's always useful to have a capsule of wisdom up your sleeve, to administer whenever necessary, since people tend to be less offended if you wrap up an unpalatable idea in a proverb.
Activities
Activity 1a
This activity is a preparatory stage for more elaborate tasks, where proverbs are to be used creatively.
- Get the group to split into two teams that are going to compete against each other.
- Give each team a sheet of scrambled proverbs that they are supposed to unscramble within a limited amount of time.
- Make sure the students have access to a dictionary of proverbs, and be prepared to assist with explanations and suggestions wherever necessary.
- The fastest team to correctly unscramble the proverbs are the winners.
Team A's sheet:
A dog doesn't bite the goose that lays golden eggs.
Birds of a feather killed the cat.
Only fools catches the worm.
Blood is thicker than beer and skittles.
A bird in hand is worth before they are hatched.
Team B's sheet:
Take care of the pennies and want not.
You can't teach your cake and eat it.
Better safe than in one basket.
Half loaf spoil the broth.
The proof of the pudding is over spilt milk.
Activity 1b
This activity brings together the power of drama and of narrative in an attempt to develop speaking and listening skills, and creative thinking.
- Announce you're going to play a story telling game based on the proverbs encountered in Activity 1a.
- Ask each team to select a few proverbs, try to imagine the stories they tell, and to nominate a member to start the story telling chain.
- The object of the game for each team is to cap the previous speaker's story in an even more dramatic narrative. It's even more fun if the stories are told in the first person.
- The most creative team are the winners.
Activity 2a
In their Dictionary of Proverbs, Linda & Roger Flavell underline the similarity between proverbs and graffiti, as they both represent the wisdom of the people. Graffiti artists often use a well-known proverb as their starting point.
Consider the following proverbs:
He who laughs last laughs best.
A friend in need is a friend in deed.
Where there's a will there's a way.
Every man reaps what he sows.
Money is the root of all evil.
Two's company, three's a crowd.
Laugh and the world laughs with you.
All that glitters isn't gold.
Now try to match the two columns in order to get some 'graffiti wisdom'.
| 1. He who laughs last |
a. there's an inheritance tax. |
| 2. A friend in need |
b. and a man needs roots. |
| 3. Where there's a will |
c. snore and you sleep alone. |
| 4. Every man reaps what he sows |
d. and all that doesn't glitter isn't either. |
| 5. Money is the root of all evil. |
e. doesn't get the joke. |
| 6. Two's company |
f. except the amateur gardener. |
| 7. Laugh and the world laughs with you |
g. three's an orgy. |
| 8. All that glitters isn't gold. |
h. is a bloody pest. |
Activity 2b
This activity encourages students to engage in creative language play.
- Announce you're going to play a game involving creative thinking.
- Get the group to split into two teams that are going to compete against each other.
- Give each team a sheet containing the beginning of a few well-known proverbs. The object for each team is to complete them following the 'graffiti wisdom' model.
- The funniest and the most creative team are the winners.
Team A's sheet:
A bird in the hand is
A fool and his money
A penny saved
The squeaky wheel
Beauty is only skin deep
Team B's sheet:
Where there's a will
The early bird
A friend in need
An Englishman's home is
All's fair in
Answers
Activity 1a
Team A's answers:
A dog doesn't bite the hand that feeds him.
One shouldn't kill the goose that lays golden eggs.
Birds of a feather flock together.
Curiosity killed the cat.
Only fools and horses work.
The early bird catches the worm.
Blood is thicker than water.
Life isn't all beer and skittles.
A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.
Don't count your chickens before they are hatched.
Team B's answers:
Take care of the pennies, and the pounds will take care of themselves.
Waste not, want not.
You can't teach an old dog new tricks.
You can't have your cake and eat it.
Better safe than sorry.
Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
Half loaf is better than none.
Too many cooks spoil the broth.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
It's no use crying over spilt milk.
Activity 2a
1.e, 2.h, 3.a, 4.f, 5.b, 6.g, 7.c, 8.d
Activity 2b
Team A's possible answers:
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bushes, and a man in the house is worth two in the street.
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bushes, and a fee in the hand is worth two in the book.
A fool and his money are soon elected.
A fool and his money stabilise the economy.
A penny saved has not been spent.
A penny saved is an economic breakthrough.
The squeaky wheel doesn't always get the grease; sometimes it gets replaced.
Beauty is only skin deep; ugly goes to the bone.
Team B's possible answers:
Where there's a will I want to be in it.
Where there's a will, there's a greedy solicitor waiting.
The early bird catches the worm. And the worm is punished for rising too early.
The early bird who catches the worm usually works for someone who comes in late and owns the worm farm.
A friend in need is to be avoided by all means.
An Englishman's home is his castle while his wife is out shopping.
All's fair in love and war. And politics. And business. And in general.
References
Budden, J., Proverbs and Idioms, www.britishcouncil.org/it/languageassistant-tips-proverbs-idioms.htm
Elliott, J. (Ed.), 2001, The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations and Proverbs, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Flavell, L., Flavell, R., 2000, Dictionary of Proverbs and Their Origins, London: Kyle Cathie Ltd.
Hofstede, G., 2003, Cultures and Organisations, London: Sage Publications.
Schmidt, P., Understanding American and German Business Cultures, www.sietar-europa.org
Townsend-Hall, B., Proverbs in ELT, www.eslschool.com/archives/2006/05/proverbs-in-elt.php
www.funny.co.uk
www.ahajokes.com
Please check the Secondary Teaching course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the English for Teachers course at Pilgrims website.
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