| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

American Culture and Customs

Page history last edited by Jessica Burnias 11 years, 7 months ago

Culture Shock

 Topic(s):

Explaining American Cultures and Customs to Foreign Vistors

 

Images/Video Resources

 

This is a video discussing American Culture

 

 

  

Scenario

As should be apparent to everyone living on a border state their are immigrants constantly coming to the United States. Not all immigrants cross legally but those that do sometimes have culture shock. Since these visitors are unaware of the common practices and customs of the United States. Everyday vistors come to the United States unaware of the customs and cultures and may not understand everything. At this time what could be helpful is a video that entering immigrants could see explaining the culture, customs and common practices that are observed here in South Texas. A few areas to look at are the language, beliefs, customs, religion, weather, the ethnic diversity, greetings, and business etiquette to name a few. Your company has been hired to create a short movie to explain common customs to the entering immigrants from the borders of South Texas.

 

Retrieved from: http://www.multilanguage.com/feature.htm

 

Task

Sample Investigations/Teacher Resources

You and your team members need to create video explaining the customs and give some background or context when possible in order to explain more clearly. The video should be no longer than 3 minutes.

 

You may want to include the following topics: use of cell phones, smoking bans in public places, tipping practices, table manners, the differences in what is appropriate in one region like California and the Southwest, and normal examples. These are just a few examples.

Retrieved from: www.americanfamilytraditions.com

Ideas, Tips and Samples of American Culture and Customs

 

http://www.lifeintheusa.com/

http://americaexplained.wordpress.com/

http://www.eslflow.com/interculturalcommunication.html

http://www.education.com/reference/article/culture-language/

http://www.lessonplanet.com/search?keywords=Cultures&media=worksheets&gclid=CLic68Wq6rECFQHDtgod710AOA

 

Checklist  Points 
Movie uploaded to YouTube = 3 minutes  30 
Graphics  20 
Text  20 
Narration  20 
Sound Bite  10 
Total  100 

 

Student Resources

 

This search engine will allow you to research American Cultures and Customs.

Loading

 

http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/usa.html

 http://www.usaeducationguides.com/guidance/articles/080707-common-american-customs.jsp

http://www.americanfamilytraditions.com/american_culture.htm

http://www.stgiles-international.com/forms/General_cultural_information_usa.pdf

http://teacherjoe.us/Culture.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_the_United_States 

 

To make the video, use video editing software. Add graphics and text to explain. Add narration. Record the narration using software such Audacity of Aviary Myna. Save the audio file and import it into the video editing software application.

 

 

 

Retrieved from: http://elizabethclaire.com/store/american-manners-and-customs-esl-immigrants-u-s-culture.html

Student Work

Standards

1. Read and analyze the scenario and situation.
Check your understanding of the scenario. Don't be tempted to start thinking about potential solutions or to start looking for information. 

 

1. List your personal understanding, ideas or hunches.

Now that you are familiar with American cultures and customs you will write everything you know about American cultures and customs. Describe your thoughts or ideas about how to solve the problem. There are not incorrect answers in this step, just feel free to brainstorm your ideas.

 

2. List what is known.

 With your team use all the information available in the scenario to list everything that you know about American cultures and customs. You do not have to conduct any research yet. Just use the information given and write the facts that you already know about American cultures and customs.

3. List what is unknown.

With your team, make a list about what you do not know and would like to learn. List all the questions you will need to answer to solve the problem.  

 

4. List what needs to be done.
"What should we do?" List actions to be taken, e.g., question an expert, conduct research, go to a board meeting about topic. List possible actions. 

 

5. Develop a problem statement.

You will be responsible for thinking and choosing one of the questions to solve the problem.  A problem statement should come from your analysis of what you know. In one or two sentences, you should be able to describe what it is that your group is trying to solve, produce, respond to, or find out. The problem statement may have to be revised as new information is discovered and brought to bear on the situation.

6. Gather information

Use all the resources available (Internet, library, etc) to research about the problem/topic and find a solution.


7. Present Findings

You will present your finding through your completed 3-minute video through YouTube.

 

****Determine how students will present findings****

 

ยง130.118. Global Business

 

(c)  Knowledge and skills.

(8)  The student researches the business elements of cultural challenges and diversity. The student is expected to:

(A)  explain the role of culture in global business;

(B)  identify various elements of culture; and

 

YouTube Video What Is American Culture? retreived from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m-6mrGr4bY  

Creative Commons License
American Culture and Customs by Jessica Burnias is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

 

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.