Daily Language Blooper
When Parker Pen marketed a ball-point pen in Mexico, its ads
were supposed to have read, "It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass
you." The company thought that the word "embarazar" (to
impregnate) meant to embarrass, so the ad read: "It won't leak in your
pocket and make you pregnant!"
Review - Group Thoughts
1. Do you think that the class activities have
contributed towards achieving the course objectives?
2. Which course objectives do you think we will
emphasize most in Part II of the course?
1. Listen and respond to the North American country team
report.
2. Optional Activity:
Watch excerpts from:
La Fiesta Quinceanara; and/or
Stand and Deliver; and/or
West Side Story
3. Optional Activity:
Analyze cultural vignettes from Spain, Mexico, and the Philippines:
Summary
During Part I, we have examined learned behaviors among a
variety of American and North American peoples. If we were to focus upon
you alone, you may have thought that what you believe is commonplace, and
therefore not worth thinking about.
Yet the facts of the matter are the reverse. Your own human
brain is the result of several billion years of genetic development.
Your brain and that of all the peoples we will study are remarkably
similar. Yet individual behaviors vary greatly.
What is truly different and to an astonishing degree, are the
patterns of learned behavior. No person, no matter how aberrant in
behavior, could invent even a small fraction of the variety of learned behaviors
- or culture - that pervade the world.
The Spanish culture is the most rapidly growing culture in the
United States. Perhaps 3 million Latinos have migrated here from Mexico and
Central America. In Martinsville, Virginia, the Roman Catholic parish of Saint
Joseph has doubled in size during 1999-2001, from approximately 250 to 500
families, half of whom are now Spanish speaking. Consequently, on Sunday one
religious service is entirely in the Spanish language while another religious
service is conducted in English. Some of these first-generation, bilingual
Spanish-speaking people can neither read nor write in English.
Has Your Travel Agent Told You?
A secretary called in looking for hotel in Los Angeles. She gave
me various names off a list, none of which I could find. I finally had her fax
me the list. To my surprise, it was a list of hotels in New Orleans, Louisiana.
She thought the LA stood for Los Angeles, and that New Orleans was a suburb of
L.A. Worst of all, when I called her back, she was not even embarrassed.
1. Read Chapter Fifteen "A Frown Is a Frown Is a Frown:
Facial Expressions Around the World" pages 80-83 in
Cross-Cultural
Perspectives in America. Answer the following questions in your notebook:
| 3. |
Both American and Japanese ways of life are successful in
achieving the ends deemed valuable by their respective societies. Yet
in American life, the youth and the adult in old age are given the least
freedom, and the entrepreneur in middle life is at his or her highest
freedom. Explain how differently Ruth Benedict characterizes freedom
and adherence to rules among youth, middle-aged persons, and senior adults
in Japan. (pages 253-254) |
| 4. |
While both Japanese and American women want children, the
pre-World War II birth rates are double that (or half-that) of each other,
depending upon your perspective. Explain the statistical difference in
terms of why each country wanted children. (pages 255-256) |
| 5. |
In which country is Mothers' Magazine published?
Cite two references from its advice, and then include your own view on those
subjects. (pages 258-262) |
| 6. |
Does teasing, begun in childhood, provide experience in
which fear of ridicule and ostracism later characterize adult behavior in
either American or Japanese society? (pages 262-264) |
| 7. |
Which is it? Does Ruth Benedict suggest that
attitudes toward religion in Japan are learned through its priests and
organized religion, or are such attitudes learned around the Buddist and
Shinto shrines at home? Defend your answer. (pages 271-272) |
| 8. |
Between 6 and 9, the Japanese girl learns her
responsibilities to the world. At 10, the Japanese boy learns his giri-to-the-world.
Describe these periods of development for young women and men. (page
274-278) |
| 9. |
Describe habit training undergone by Japanese women and
men leading to arranged marriages. (pages 281-285) |
| 10. |
"So, too, chrysanthemums are grown in pots and arranged
for the annual flower shows all over Japan with each perfect petal
separately disposed by the grower's hand and often held in place by a tiny
invisible wire rack inserted in the living flower." (page 295)
The Japanese person is him or herself a lot like the chrysanthemum petal.
It could be grown wild, or it could be highly structured and disciplined.
Explain why Ruth Benedict chose this metaphor to describe the development of
the Japanese person. |
Peru
|
|
Both men and women shake hands when greeting and when arriving and
departing. Men who are good friends will add or even substitute an abrazo
or hug accompanied by some hearty patting on the back. Women will hug
lightly and brush cheeks as if kissing. Children will often kiss elders as
a greeting, even if they have not met before. North Americans and
Europeans may unintentionally perform what has been called the
'conversational tango' with people in Peru. That is because Peruvians, and
many other Latins, tend to stand very close together when conversing. This
makes Americans and Europeans very uncomfortable, so they back off. The
Latin follows, and the visitor retreats again. As a visitor, try to avoid
this lest you silently signal to your 'partner' that you don't like him or
his conversation.
 | When walking alongside a woman, 'well-bred' men will walk with a
protective hand under her elbow, which she should obligingly bend.
|
| If you smoke cigarettes, offer them to those around you before
smoking. The same with candy.
|
| If and when photographing members of the Indian population, be
certain to obtain permission first. The village mountain people
believe photographing children will take their souls away.
|
| Shaking the hand up and down at the wrist with the fingers flapping,
if done slowly, means 'What a lot!' But if done rapidly and with the
elbow raised, it means 'Oh, boy, we're in for it.'
webofculture.com |
|
Has Your Travel Agent Told You?
I got a call from a man who asked, "is it possible to see
England from Canada?" I said, "No." He said "But they look
so close on the map."
crosscultural.com
"All
people smile in the same language" ---- Unknown
The Spanish explorers were the first to bring cattle to the
Western Hemisphere. Each industry or profession tends to generate an
entire vocabulary, or semantic domain, unto itself, and the cattle industry in
the western United States is no exception.
The Quinceanara is the 15th birthday for a Spanish girl, and
is marked by a grand family and community celebration.
