Day 12
Wed. Apr. 28
Share observations and questions on Wadjda
Look at Amadasi and Holliday (2017) for audience and purpose
Revision: Thinking about audience and purpose
Speakers: Share recommended sources
Homework
➤ Come up with interview questions, reflect on Wadjda
Imagine I were to bring someone who grew up in Saudi Arabia to class to be interviewed about Saudi culture, similar to what we did with Maranda and American culture. What are some questions you might ask him/her, in order to try to shed light on some of the deeper questions we raised in class? Write a list of hypothetical interview questions (try to think of at least 6) and upload them to Box, to the folder “17-Interview questions about Saudi culture.”
Also, come read to share your thoughts on these questions:
If you were Hofstede, what would you think about the culture portrayed in this movie?
If you were Gelfand, what would you think about the culture portrayed in this movie?
If you were Osland and Bird, what would you think about the culture portrayed in this movie?
What is one similarity you think Saudi culture (as you’ve seen it portrayed in this film) shares with Chinese culture? What is one similarity you think Saudi culture shares with American culture?
➤ Identify important key concepts in Amadasi and Holliday (2017)
What are some of the words and phrases that these authors repeat a lot that seem to represent important concepts for them. Write a list of these concepts. For each, note:
What does this concept seem to mean to them? (See if you can find their definition of the concept in the article! Some might be explicitly defined; for others, you might need to infer the definition.)
What does the author’s attitude toward this concept seem to be? Do they think it’s good, or bad?
➤ Start working on your final project
Your final writing project is due at midnight on Wednesday May 12. After reading my feedback on your plan (on Box), you might want to get started working on it!
➤ Read “Letter to Fran” and write possible explanations
Read the “Letter to Fran” I handed out to you in class. (This passage comes from a textbook on intercultural communication.) Come up with a list of possible explanations for the older man’s behavior in the story, and come to next class ready to share them with us.
➤ Speakers: Steven, Marcus, Freddie
Read (or listen to, or watch) a potential English-language source you think would be helpful for enriching your own final paper, and which you think might your classmates might find useful in their writing as well. (This source could be anything. It could be an academic article, but it doesn’t have to be. It could be something from a popular website, film, online forum, podcast, interview, Youtube channel etc.)
In 2-3 minutes, explain to us:
what this source is (what type of source it is);
who the author is;
who you think the intended audience is;
what you think the author’s intended purpose is in writing / creating the source;
what you’ve learned from this source so far (summarize some of the main points you’ve taken it)
why you think this source could be helpful to your classmates.
Finally, link to your source (or upload it) in the Box folder “16-Recommended sources.”
(Note: If you want to read other chapters from the Hofstede and Gelfand books, please let me know. I have full copies of each and am happy to share them with you. Also happy to make recommendations for other sources if you have something specific in mind.)