Culture Lesson: English-speaking countries

[jryanaustin]

I threw together this lesson about English-speaking countries of the world for a culture lesson for my after-school class (grades 4-6). It's my own powerpoint and quiz, so if you feel like changing anything for teaching it yourself, feel free!

The ppt highlights the flag, location and a couple interesting facts about each of the countries covered.

The quiz relates to the powerpoint and has an additional blank BINGO sheet for a game afterwards. Because there are only 7 countries, I will have the students repeat countries on their Bingo sheet and then make a 'T' shape to win as they circle the countries that correspond to the additional questions I will ask.

[Paul]

I'm sorry, but theres no way for me to say this without risking being rude.

You're actually going to teach this?

Where's the Philippines? Where's Singapore? Where's India?

Honestly, there's enough imperialist tripe going around Korea about the magical "7 English speaking nations" as it is, please don't perpetuate this! Not to mention a few outlandish statements. Heck, the page on Australia is downright offensive. If you're going to stick to only dot points for kids, consider making them all positives. A method I've used in the past is: food, cultural landmark, natural landmark. Simple and dumbed down, but avoids some of these pitfalls.

[jryanaustin]

Paul,

Thanks for the input. Like I said, everyone is welcome to add their own spin to things. I basically did the 7 countries EPIK accepted for teachers- the ones with the accents the students might hear from their teachers. Feel free to add more countries, and know that I'll preface the whole lesson with the fact that this is not comprehensive.

And the Australia page: it wasn't at all my intention to offend. It usually comes up in conversation when I meet Australians and it's merely something we all find interesting.

I like your idea about food, cultural landmores and landscape, though. I'll consider those next time.

[Paul]

It usually comes up in conversation when I meet Australians and it's merely something we all find interesting.

Indeed it often does, but remember your conversations are with adults who understand the scope of those words. Children, especially EFL learners, simply do not. Might I recommend substituting something in about the mix of European, Asian and Aboriginal culture instead then?

[Alex M]

Paul

As a teacher you should know there are many ways to give criticism without being rude.  Did you miss that in teachers college or too absorbed in political correctness? 

[biancapotgieter]

Hi

Just a side note - surely there must be something more interesting about Australia?
Also your map of South Africa is somewhat confusing since it includes the USA, Canada and the UK. Plus I would have thought that the most interesting thing about South Africa is that Nelson Mandela came from SA. I would scrap the percentage of black people in the note, it's really not the most important thing about the country, and as said above why encourage prejudice like that?

My 2 cents

[panda]

I'd also argue that there's something more interesting about the UK than it's made of 4 countries. The thing about Australia and the word criminals in Korean seems kinda ridiculous as well.

[Tamillow]

No way... "Oh let's remove the factoid that Australia's first people were criminals"

How about we replace it with the kidnapping of aboriginals 1870 and 1970 by Australians. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_Generations.

To be honest the laws some of the criminals faced in England were probably somewhere between ridiculous and absurd. So I think it's fairer to say "they BECAME criminals". It's important to teach all the current unethical practices we see. Hell, I'm from America. I love my country but the governing institutions aren't any better.

Then again, who am I kidding? Education is meant to be propaganda. Especially in Korea. So Paul is right. If you work for a political institution your loyalties remain with them. Their lies are your lies, and kids need to hear a consistent message to not get too confused. So in that case; we're all happy together. Everyone in the world is happy and holding hands in peaceful accord. Except North Korea. North Korea is Evil... I can only imagine that hurts a Korean to look at their other half like that.

Look. It would be easy to be nonpolitical if you were teaching say... math, in your home country. Obviously you can't explain much to a 10 year old but they know a few things about politics. And informing them about some brutal truth is well worth it. You're a foreigner and you can't pretend you're not. [mod edit: removed vulgarity] just try to be correct.

[clairegaunt]

I'm descended from a guy who set fire to a haystack so he could get a free trip to Australia. He did a year of jail time then was set free. People would commit small crimes because they wanted to leave England. I guess technically they were criminals, but they weren't the scumbags of the imagination. Also, the first people in Australia were Aboriginals, then it was explorers. The convicts didn't get to Australia until much later on.

I don't like the idea of students learning that Australia is populated by murderers and thieves because that's really far from the truth and it makes us look bad. The worst criminals back then would get the death sentence back in England, not be sent to Australia at a cost to the government.

So please don't teach your students from that powerpoint!!!

[LemonWater]

For elementary school, you'll be lucky if the kids know the names and locations of the countries, let alone trying to explain their political history in a foreign language.

At that age they are impressionable too and don't have the same reasoning capacity as adults.

Like someone suggested, stick to the positives about a country - foods, animals, landmarks, and geography work well. 

I'm sure if you show some pictures of funny Austrailian animals, it will go over a lot better than saying they are all criminals.

[pickle]

No way... "Oh let's remove the factoid that Australia's first people were criminals"

How about we replace it with the kidnapping of aboriginals 1870 and 1970 by Australians. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_Generations.

To be honest the laws some of the criminals faced in England were probably somewhere between ridiculous and absurd. So I think it's fairer to say "they BECAME criminals". It's important to teach all the current unethical practices we see. Hell, I'm from America. I love my country but the governing institutions aren't any better.

Then again, who am I kidding? Education is meant to be propaganda. Especially in Korea. So Paul is right. If you work for a political institution your loyalties remain with them. Their lies are your lies, and kids need to hear a consistent message to not get too confused. So in that case; we're all happy together. Everyone in the world is happy and holding hands in peaceful accord. Except North Korea. North Korea is Evil... God I can only imagine that hurts a Korean to look at their other half like that.

Look. It would be easy to be nonpolitical if you were teaching say... math, in your home country. Obviously you can't explain much to a 10 year old but they know a few things about politics. And informing them about some brutal truth is well worth it. You're a foreigner and you can't pretend you're not. **** political correctness and just try to be correct.

I understand what you're saying. I felt betrayed when I was in the 5th grade and first heard that Christopher Columbus wasn't the hero we'd been told he was, but that he did terrible things because of greed, etc. I resented being lied to for so many years. However, I think that when you're introducing countries these kids may never have heard of before, it's a good idea to keep it light. There's already too much negativity against foreigners, for one, so they don't need to be told things they will likely put too much emphasis on. If you do a comprehensive study of a country's history, I would back up teaching some of the less pleasant aspects. If you only have three facts about a country, maybe they should be a little lighter, especially when there's already a language barrier and it's hard to explain the nuances of the issues.

About North Korea being regarded as evil, I don't think that accurately describes how the average South Korean sees things. In my experience, there's a clear demarcation between North Koreans and their government. I think most people see North Koreans as their brothers, and feel sad about how things are. It's clearly the politics of a few 'evil' people who are keeping things in a bad state and hurting both Koreas in the process.

[bemfarle]

I just wanted to say thank you for sharing your powerpoint lesson with us. It takes courage to post something on this forum. Judging by some of the negative feedback you've received, it's no wonder that there are many posts similar to this where a lesson is published, downloaded 100+ times, yet no other lessons are made available by those who download.

Moral of the story: Thank you for posting. I hope that you will continue to post in the future.

[eigenfuzzy]

While I don't feel that the information is as egregious as some posters, the bulletpoint about Australians is simply WRONG.  The first people to live in Australia were not European criminals but indigenous Australian aborigines.