The Cultural Experience

Robert Feather

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A day in the life of a cup

Objective:

To understand the details and underlying beliefs relating to specific rituals or everyday routine actions.

Procedure:

1. Learners think of as many drinking vessels as possible and draw them.

2. Learners name them and explain how they are used.

3. Learners choose one of these cups and imagine that the cup can tell the story of it's day. What did it hear? What did it see?

Adapting to a New Culture

Procedure:

1. List 10 items which typify your culture under the following headings:

Beliefs

Opinions

Customs

Ways of doing something

Ways of communicating

Time

Relations

2. List these again in answer to the following questions.

Which of them would you like to change?
Which of them could you change if you wanted?
Which of them could you change if you needed to?
Which of them would you like to change but don't think you could?
Which of them would you die to preserve?

3. How would you go about changing them?

Cultural Hybridity
Curry & Chips; Tai Chi in the church hall; Coypu in Suffolk; hiking boots in the bidet

Objective:

To show how 'leaky' the sense of "culture" as a sealed and total package is, and to discover how much cultures owe to each other.

Procedure:

1. Each learner has a map of the world. He or she thinks of items that have come into their own culture from the outside. He/she draws arrows from the country of origin to their country.

Items could include: Words eg tsunami, tare, etc (etc)
Food eg curry
Clothes eg midriff-exposing short blouses
Beliefs eg Christianity
Concepts eg
Behaviours eg kissing on both cheeks
Objects eg
People eg Gandhi
Styles eg pine furniture

2 Each learner shows his/her map to partner and speaks about the import. How far has it been modified by the host culture? Eg curry with chips

3. How far is it still seen as a foreign item and how far has it been naturalised? Why is there a difference in naturalisation time between different things? Do some things retain their value from continuing to be seen as foreign and some things only gain value if they are seen as coming from within the culture?

Eg. Curry has to be Indian - Do we eat curry to experience the exoticism of India as well as to experience the taste?
Eg Why is tea called "English tea"? Why is Christmas seen as an English custom?

Generalisations & Exceptions

Objective:

To explore the function of generalisations. Specifically, to give expression to the sense of oppression generalisations can give. And to discuss how far they are useful tools of thought.

Procedure:

1. Learners write generalisations about their culture:
E.g.:
English people use polite words to avoid conflict.

2. In pairs of the same culture. Learner A says his/her generalisation to Learner B. Learner B then tells A how it feels to be tarred with the same brush as all his/her compatriots.

3. Plenary: Discussion of how it feels to be identified as indistinguishable from a group.

4. Learners then go back to the generalisations and think of how far they fit 3 people they know.

Example.:
English people use polite words to avoid conflict.
- But my friend X uses rudeness to undercut and baffle other English people.
- And my friend Z never minces his words.
- The words may be polite but the body language or context may make sarcasm the real force of such words

How far do others understand your culture?

Procedure:

1. Think of a specific event typical of your culture. E.g. Jumble sales

2. In 3 sentences, describe what happens during this event. Don't explain or give reasons. Don't explain the history. (Two learners from two different cultures do this so that everybody can take part in the next activity)

3. In groups which are made up of people from different cultures from at least one of the speakers. The group focuses on the speaker whose culture is not represented in the group. Answer the following questions:

- What do you think the origin of this event is? - How seriously do you think people generally take this event? - What do people feel on this occasion? - What is the generally held expectation of how people will feel on this occasion? - What reasons would people give you if you asked, "Why are you doing this?"

Draw up a list of answers beginning: "We imagine…." We suppose…"

4. Present this back to those of the speaker's cultural background.

5. Those from that background enlarge or correct the assumptions made.

6. Repeat this process with the second speaker.

7. Plenary discussion:

- How far did we understand the event described?
- What were the barriers to our understanding?
- Is it possible for a person from one culture to fully understand such an event?

Images of the English/ Cultural Relativity

Objective:

To explore how people's attitude towards another culture involves their own culture's presuppositions; through relativity to identify commonly held images of England.

Procedure:

1. Before starting it may be good to declare that we are all people, whatever differences or similarities we identify!

2. Teacher introduces concept of culture. Culture could be defined as "a set of beliefs and behaviours associated with a group".
- Learners decide what their cultural group is.
- Learners jot down 10 words/ items which typify, describe or in some way represent that culture. Eg. For England: Fish and chips, fairness, talking about the weather etc.
- Teacher does the same about UK.

3. Learners group themselves with people from the same culture and see if they've chosen some of the same items. Why have they chosen the same? Why have they chosen different items?

4. Now learners individually imagine someone from England coming to stay in their culture:
- Learners write down words/ items that the Englisher would say describe their culture.
- Teacher does the same for a non-Englisher coming to the England.
- Now compare them again with someone from the same cultural group.

5. Teacher now shows the English Lists and asks:
- What is missing? Why is it missing?
- Look at the words on the list: What is the source of these items? Eg Fish and chips - because Britain is an island with a close connection with the sea. Battered & oily because of cold weather(?)
- What is the consequence of the item on the list for daily life and behaviour? Eg. Fish and chips - tendency for heart disease (?)

What is negotiable?

Objective:

To set the underlying parameters for any discussion of culture. To challenge the cultural presupposition that anything is open for discussion.

Procedure:

1. Teacher explains that in different cultures there are different aspects of life about which the individual has decision-making power.

2. Learners indicate how much input they can give in the following:

Discussion:
How do you know that there are limits? Who tells you? Are these real limitations or only perceived? So is there such a thing as an individual or is our thought to some extent governed by internal voices? Or is it only strong individuals who can push the boundaries of perceived limitations?

Please check the Secondary Teaching course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the British Life, Language and Culture course at Pilgrims website.