Welcome to English and Crosscultural Understanding! The purpose of this course is for students to improve both their English skills and their knowledge of American culture. To achieve these aims, students will address a number of topics based somewhat loosely on the movie Forrest Gump. Specifically, students will (a) think creatively and analytically about cultural issues, (b) deepen their knowledge and understanding of other cultures (primarily the potpourri of American culture), and (c) promote communication fluency by interacting with classmates in group discussions.
the Nature of Identity, Groups, and Culture
the Name Unit
"What's in a name?"
Week 3 - Today we'll look more at groups, which can be conceptualized as small communities. Here is an article by Adrian Holliday (1999) on "small culture."
Our class worksheet on stereotypes.
In Japan we have had an ongoing debate about whether married couples should have one or more surnames. As you'll read here, a lawsuit was filed seeking the right to have and use different surnames, but the courts rejected the plaintiffs' claim.
the Forrest Gump material
As you are now aware, we will be watching the 1994 movie called "Forrest Gump".
Forrest's childhood (Part 1)
Off to university (Part 2)
A time of unrest (Part 3)
Here you'll find a story of a former member of the Black Panthers who has made a difference in the lives of young people in an interesting way and place.
The story comes full circle (Part 4)
the Treatment of Others Unit
As we noted in class, the US has a very checkered historical track record when it comes to the treatment of certain groups. Here are the videos from class, which I'd suggest viewing in screen mode:
Some extra reading for the ambitious ones: on collective memory and the KKK (Lewis & Serbu, 2008).
the 2nd term
the Group Research Projects
As I noted in class, in our 2nd and 3rd terms you will be doing group research projects. Because we'll have quite a few this year, I've added a separate page for them - just click this button.
For your project, be aware of the deadlines:
- by October 5th (Friday) - explain your topic to Dr. E
- final class of this term (early November) - preliminary report
- week of February 11-15 - final paper
the Build-a-Country Unit
Here is the country worksheet from class.
Meta-state organizations ... the United Nations website.
the Symbols Unit
A warmup question for everyone: in your native country, what do tigers symbolize? What are some examples? Of course, one example from American culture is below:
An interesting website on ancient symbols.
A thought-provoking article by Ann Swidler (1986) titled "Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies." As you'll recall from class, you have some homework related to this article: questions on Swidler (1986).
A symbolic sidelight: Collecting something that all countries have in common. Here is Mr. Simpson's website.
the Rights and Responsibilities Sub-Unit
This is a very famous speech by FDR. Please listen to two particular places: from 4:27 and from 5:21.
Here is the rights and responsibilites worksheet from class. Yes, indeed, I'd be happy if you'd hand this in next week.
the Free Speech Sub-Unit
Here we have a video on the recent fun and games in New York. Just curious, folks: any idea which news company RT is?
Below you'll find a recent interview with Noam chomsky, a gentleman of considerable insight (in quite a few areas). He's a professor at MIT, incidentally.
Ah, 'tis the season for elections ... in the US the next presidential election is almost exactly a year away (Nov 5, 2012), so we're seeing various candidates jockeying for the chance to run against Mr. Obama. Of course, in the American political sphere there is some interesting rhetoric ...
Here is a good treatment of a fundamental issue in free speech: Exactly how nasty are we free to be?
From 1988, a very harsh ad - Michael Dukakis was the former governor of Massachusetts who was running for president, and the campaign of George H. W. Bush (the father) ran a very damaging ad since called the revolving door ad.
From our class discussion, here is the webpage with the background on the Benetton advertisements.
the Conscription Sub-Unit
Service to one's country: Is required service necessary? Good?
As you'll recall from class, your homework will be about one of the following papers:
Norman, F. (1943). History of conscription in Japan
Zohar, N. J. (1993). Collective war and individualistic ethics
Jehn, C., & Selden, Z. (1999). End of conscription in Europe?
Ichikawa, H. (2001). Conscription in Japan and Europe
Perri, A. (2008). End of conscription in Europe?
Conscientious objectors ...
the 3rd term
As I have noted in class, in our 2nd and 3rd terms you will be doing group research projects. Be aware of the upcoming deadlines:
- by Christmas - preliminary report
- Weeks 9-10 and final exam week - presentation of project
- March 1 - final paper
As in the second term, you will again be making a notebook with vocabulary words and reaction reports.
the Canon Unit
This unit deals with the stories we tell, and by stories I am referring to any communication (either fiction or non-fiction) in any medium (in print, in cyberspace, anywhere).
As you will recall from the end of our second term, I spoke some about how history is often authored by the victors (recall "To the victor go the spoils"?). Whether or not a particular account of history is true or balanced is, of course, a topic for consideration.
Let us forge onward, my good people. A gentleman by the name of Christopher Booker suggested that all of our fiction derives from seven (and only seven) basic plots ... so let us begin a worksheet on how many types of fiction we might find.
As you'll have seen soon, the Wizard of Oz falls into at least one of those categories.
the Uses and Abuses Unit
As you'll see in class, one of the early and (arguably) greatest of commentators was Thomas Nast. Please take a look at his Wikipedia page and the images there. You will also find a good biography and portfolio courtesty of OSU.
Nast enjoyed his greatest success on the pages of Harper's Weekly, which offers a fascinating look back at another time. Somewhat similar to Harper's Weekly is Harper's Magazine, a current periodical with a wide range of articles and a very thought-provoking list.
One of my favorite (semi-) political cartoons is Doonesbury, which has been lampooning various people and things since 1970. I suspect you'll find a rather left-leaning viewpoint ...
Garrison Keillor of Prairie Home Companion renown
Leonard Pitts, Jr. of the Miami Herald
the "Framing" Unit
I suspect, based on my lifetime of observation, that we humans tend to try to locate our place (or places) in the world. In my case, I belong to the so-called Baby Boomer generation, which includes the millions of people born in the 20 years after World War 2. You, however, have membership in the Internet Generation, those raised with the Internet.
Let's begin with a worksheet on digital devices, a mainstay of our modern world.
Having considered your person Internet lifestyle, perhaps you noted some positive points. One of the most eloquent advocates of the benefits of the cybersphere is Clay Shirky, who penned an essay in 2010 titled The Internet makes us smarter (Shirky, 2010).
On the other hand, a fair number of people maintain that the Internet is not beneficial, instead causing considerable harm to users. Among those folks is Nicholas Carr, whose 2010 essay asserts that the Internet makes us dumber (Carr, 2010).
A small challenge for you, good people: how about giving up your cell phone and all of your other electronic devices for 90 days? One young man that did is Jake Reilly, featured in this interview and in the video below.
A recent article that expands on thie "dumber" angle is titled Are e-books making us stupid? (McCormack, 2010), which looks closely at what might become of libraries as we move increasingly toward reading e-books instead of paper books.
the "Civilization" Unit
Finally, everyone, we return to the notion of groups. However, we are, as you see, looking at larger groups - namely, civilizations.
A worksheet on civilizations, a mainstay of our modern world.
The straw that stirred the drink: Huntington's 1993 article on 'The Clash of Civilizations'.
Mind you, not all people agreed with Huntington. One noted dissenter was Edward Said, who responded with a 2001 piece called The Clash of Ignorance'.
That was not, however, the final word (of course). In 2002, Engin I. Erdem revisited Huntington's work in his article called The Clash of Civiliations, Revisited Post-9/11.
In 1996, Arif Dirlik authored a very interesting essay on Orientalism that took as its starting point the "contact zone" concept by Louise Pratt. The article was titled Chinese history and question of Orientalism.
For your reading pleasure, here is the 1991 article by Louise Pratt about what happens in a "contact zone" when two different cultures meet.
"Notwithstanding its own authoritative status now, Edward Said's Orientalism has lived a seditious life and thrived on it" (p. 199). A very interesting 1995 article by Gyan Prakash - highly recommended.
A tribute to Samuel Huntington by Fareed Zakaria.