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Culture Shock

This is a discussion lesson that focuses on cultural differences. The discussion questions was designed with Kazakhstan in mind so you might want to change it to reflect the culture of your students or for a multi-cultural class you might want to make it more open. But if you target the questions too narrowly to the culture of your students you might leave them responding only, "Yes" or "No." It is important to keep the cultural rules vague and untargeted to elicit discussion from the students. For example, asking students to respond to "It is normal to shake hands hello" might elicit responses like, "Only for men." or "In formal situations." So keep them a bit open.

Materials

• Discussion Questions

To open the lesson write the proverb "When in Rome, do as Romans do" on the board. Ask students what they think it means. The slightly irregular grammar might throw students so you might have to translate it for them or field questions about the dangling "do". Note: it means that when you live in another country or another culture, you should follow their rules and norms. Once the students have guessed the meaning, ask them if they agree or if it is better to keep your own cultural rules.

Now warm up to the discussion questions, ask students how they give a gift. Try to elicit concrete behaviour. Then ask how they greet someone at their house, again looking for concrete behaviour. If you are from a different culture, you can tell them about greeting in your country and anything you find particularly odd or surprising about customs in the students' culture. Next turn it around by asking about ask them in what situations they might kiss on the cheek, when they might shake hands, or touch a stranger.
Note: you might adapt the situations and behavior to the students' culture or country. or you might ask about something you don't understand. It can also be motivating to the students if they think you are curious about their culture or tradition, so you might feign ignorance about anything you do know.

Now hand out the discussion questions and have students work on them in small groups. Then when each group has decided on its answers, review the questions as a class. Focus on any areas where students disagree and try to encourage students to think about why there are disagreements. Are their regional differences? Family or personal differences? You might also talk about stereotyping and whether it is fair to say that everyone always does the same thing (Check out about.com's lesson on National Stereotypes as a follow-up to this lesson). If students are multi-cultural this discussion can be quite interesting and you may want to talk about what it is like in your home culture--being careful not to judge the students of course.

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