This segment is wonderful for ESL classes. It can be expanded in
numerous ways, such as (1) role plays of classrooms from back home (2)
writing comparisons of their teachers and/or classrooms in the US and
back home
and (3) defining appropriate classroom behavior
If you have Muslims or Koreans in the class, ask them not to explain
about the pictures until they have returned to their seats and are sharing
with their classmates.
In an ESL class, this exercise is wonderful to encourage students begin
to talk about their own cultures. A follow-up activity would be to have
students bring photos from their own culture and write their own
questions for their classmates to answer.
The Toolkit for Culture and Communication
VIDEO
INTRODUCTION
BY DR. CAROL ARCHER
.
Vocabulary Words
Toolkit A box for tools.
Dad father
Tools Things that help a person to do a job.
Master Mechanic a person who is very good to work on cars or trucks
Ivy A type of vine or plant.
Craft a job
Module a chapter
On a daily basis each day
Stumbling block to problems
Expert guides professional leaders
To acquire to get
To invite to ask someone to do something or to go with you
Childhood the time of being a child
Knowledge what you know
Journey to go somewhere
Create to make, to build
Encounter to meet
Relationship to know another person very well
Skill to do something well
Alone by yourself
The Video: A Summary
In the video, Dr. Archer talks about the Toolkit for Culture and
Communication. She says the Toolkit is like the Toolkit of her father.
Her father was a Master mechanic. He worked on cars and went to
many places in his car. This Toolkit is your Toolkit. You use this
Toolkit to understand other cultures and to live better in the United
States or other countries. You learn to understand your “culture bumps”
(when your culture is different from American culture or other people’s
culture.). You learn what to do when you have a culture bump. You
learn to understand yourself and to help yourself feel better. You learn
how to make friends from all cultures. In the video, you have expert
guides to help you learn these things. The expert guides are Mazen
from Syria, Buki from Venezuela, Eric from Taiwan, Josh from the USA,
Katie from Korea and Jama from Somalia.
Now, read along as your teacher reads the introduction first. Listen for
the vocabulary words.
ALTERNATE: Write the vocabulary words on cards and
have students raise the card as they hear it used.
Comprehension Questions
How many modules (chapters) are in the Toolkit for Culture and Communication?
What was her father’s job?
What does the Toolkit for Culture and Communication teach you?
Name three differences between people.
What are three more words for father in English?
How is the Toolkit for Culture and Communication the same as the
toolkit in the video? How is it different?
List the countries that the Culture Bump Guides come from.
What are the countries that your classmates come from?
The Space Ship Perception: Workbook
Remember the word suppose simply means what do you think.
A Reading on Perceptions: Workbook
On page five of the workbook, the reading says that people from
different cultures or different families do not “see” things the same.
There are five things that people see differently. They are:
1.What we see. When we go to a new place, we do not see the same
things that people there see, and, at the same time, we pay attention
to things that we did not see back home.
2.Sometimes we pay attention to sounds, sights, or smells that we did
not have back home.
3.Words have different meanings in different languages. For example,
gordo in Spanish can be a nickname while its translation in English,
fat, is bad to say to people.
4.Our idea of what is good is sometimes different from other people.
5.Our culture teaches us how to be respectful, nice and friendly.