When I taught English to immigrants, I was always on the lookout for interesting newspaper stories to read and discuss in class. I felt that if I could get my students "hooked" on reading the paper in English, they would learn so much on their own.
One article I used over and over again in class was a story about a shepherd in the Alps whose cellphone saved his life. Alone in the mountains with his sheep, he used his cellphone to keep in touch with family and friends.
One day, going after a wandering ewe that was approaching the edge of a cliff, the shepherd slipped on the wet grass and slid to the edge himself. Flat on his face, almost falling over the cliff, he grabbed his cell phone and dialed 911... but was disconnected. At this point he started to slide over the cliff, so he dropped his phone to grab some tufts of grass. Fortunately - though his hands weren't free - his cell phone landed in front of his face... and he was able to press the redial button with his nose!
To add to the drama of the story, the 911 operator at first didn't believe him when he said he was hanging over a cliff and needed to be rescued... But he was able to persuade her (with his screams) and was rescued by a helicopter not long afterward.
This story has a lot of drama - and a happy ending - so one of the things I used to do in class was have students in pairs act out some part of the story (the conversation between the shepherd and the telephone operator, for example) or to pretend they were being interviewed by a television studio after the event... How might the shepherd express gratitude to the telephone operator - for believing his improbable story? Or the helicopter pilot for rescuing him from certain death?
Although the students always found the story interesting, I often found the the discussions that ensued in class fascinating as well.
I discovered, for example, that the word HERO has different connotations for students from different cultures. Whereas we (in Canada) use hero lightly, meaning someone who helped another person, sometimes - but not always - in a life threatening situation, many languages view a hero as more than that.
Who was the hero in this story? I would ask. The shepherd? The helicopter pilot? (The cell phone?!)...
None, an Asian student once told me.
Why? I asked, surprised...
Because nobody died. In my language, a person has to die to be a hero... the student explained.
Others nodded. It was the same in their language and culture...
Another time I asked the question: What would you say to thank this person who had saved your life?
I expected to hear expressions of profuse gratitude, and from some students I did. But one exception stands out in my mind:
I wouldn't thank anyone, one Moslem woman replied. I would thank God. In my religion you don't thank a person for saving you. You thank God for sending the person!
So much for the idea that we all think the same... Teaching often ended up being a learning experience for me - as I was reminded again and again that inter-cultural communication involves more than speaking the same language!
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