ICC Lessons Reflections Part Two of Three: ‘Intercultural Comparisons of Family & Friends’ Lesson One

ICC Lessons Reflections Part Two of Three: ‘Intercultural Comparisons of Family & Friends’ Lesson One

As explained in the set-up, this is a private-lesson with two University students, advanced-low to advanced-mid speaking and listening proficiency. Both have studied abroad in the USA for about a year. The lesson was conducted in a coffee-shop, so please excuse the background noise. Their voices and my voice come in clearly nonetheless. Additionally, one of them requested not to be filmed, so the camera is mostly placed either downward or focused on the materials. In reviewing the film, I realized the shifting focus is a little vertigo inducing, but still watchable.

This lesson is initiated with a PPT describing the differences between the traditional Korean Chuseok feast and the American Thanksgiving culture (with some stereotypes peppered in). It then segues into a clip of the TV show ‘Friends’ in which a fight breaks out between two siblings, Ross and Monica, and they make accusations against each other in front of their parents. The language contains many topics that would be taboo in Korean culture and their demeanor towards their parents could be perceived as disrespectful. Transcripts that they can follow along with accompany this clip. At the end of the clip, they are instructed to highlight any parts of the transcript that struck them as inappropriate from the vantage-point of their native culture. On the second page of the transcript is a series of discussion questions, which run the gamut from identifying the taboo-breaking topics, to considering what the consequences of these actions would be in their native Korean culture and how would the tensions depicted here be resolved differently in Korea.

I start off by trying to elicit information from them about Chuseok, their Chuseok experiences and then asking them what they know about Thanksgiving in America, the “American version of Chuseok.” From there, a contrast is slowly built beginning with innocuous subjects such as difference in the food that’s eaten. As the students feel more at ease and their interest becomes aroused, the conversation progresses towards more abstract differences, specifically how different social interactions and attitudes are in the target-culture, culminating in a discussion about family fights breaking out at the dinner table. 

From there we watched the ‘Friends’ clip mentioned previously, and I asked the students to spend a few minutes looking over the transcript and highlighting anything that seemed offensive or at least exceptional from their ethno-cultural perspective. In the interest of time and not boring anyone to death, I elected not to film myself playing the 3-minute ‘Friends’ clip or the students highlighting their transcripts in silence for 4 minutes after that. However, if you wish to see it, it can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3hn40NlrVk

The students discussed the many topics mentioned that would be taboo in Korean culture, such as divorce, marijuana use, co-habitation before marriage and the general tone of disrespect the characters use to address each other and their parents. Their conclusion about the target-culture was that personal topics are discussed more directly, while Korean people avoid open confrontation over serious issues. What was striking is both students indicated they prefer the more open and casual environment of the target-culture to their own.

Later on, they discussed how Korean society expects one to be deferential towards their elders. An interesting aside was one student saying she thinks if she got in trouble or acted out, her father would be angrier with her mother than with her. In talking with them, while they agreed a general respect should be paid towards the elderly, they seemed to rebel against the notion that they’re entitled to unconditional reverence, regardless of their actions and behavior. Here I sense a generational shift; with the influence of globalized youth culture, people here are slowly drifting away from their traditional Confucian moorings.

I ended the lesson by asking them if they encountered anything that shocked them from their cultural perspective when studying in the US and they both mentioned manifestations of more open and casual social interaction, such as strangers greeting people, making eye-contact and even smiling.

I thought the lesson was successful, with a nice set-up complete with schema activation and visual scaffolding. From there, they had a good peer-to-peer dialogic discussion examining different cultures and personalizing it by relating it to their own experiences. These students are already fairly worldly, but I think they developed their “little c” intercultural understanding a bit with the frank and mature discussion that they held. Due to the taboo topics and mature insight required, I wouldn’t recommend teaching this for children or teens. In being proud of the fact that I conducted an accomplished class, I still had issues and that is again too much teacher-talk and too much feeding of answers. I’ve improved in this regard, but problems remain. All in all, it was an enjoyable lesson to teach and even I, as a teacher, received some valuable target-culture (Korea being my T-C) insight.