Learning about English-speaking cultures through multimedia presentations: way to go!

During these past three months, I think I have got in contact with very interesting cultural artifacts, thanks to class presentations and the blog posts written by me and my colleagues. Some of them were well explained and its relevance was obvious; others not so much.

In the beginning of the semester, I referred in my first blog post that "The most important thing is to avoid boredom. I find 'action' as the keyword English classes need. We have been studying English for our whole lives and I feel almost none of my language classes surprises me anymore.". Hopefully, I actually enjoyed the way instructor Nicholas Csargo organized our classes and motivated us to participate in class discussions and assignments. However, sometimes it seemed to me that some of my colleagues did not have a proficient level of English, even for a non-native speaker, and, consequently, I found some of their presentations incomplete or insufficient, a situation which often bored me. Anyhow, the fact that few students enrolled in this C2 class was one of the most positive aspects when it came to sharing ideas and giving everyone the opportunity to speak their minds and developing their speaking abilities in English.

Presenting cultural artifacts, such as books, blogs, movies, news articles, songs and poems was, indeed, a constructive way of getting more deeply in touch with the different English-speaking cultures we were influenced to study through our colleagues' initiative. The multimedia resources are becoming more and more indispensable as time goes by and this curricular unit has certainly been advantageous for everyone who is thinking about working in translation, journalism, social media or, in my case, teaching. The multimedia and Internet tools that I was presented were fun and helped me concentrate in the themes we studied at the same time. Later, I even used two of them - Kahoot and Today's Meet - in the classes I was teaching and my students loved them and asked me to repeat these activities more than once.

Regarding the cultural artifacts I chose to write and present about, I think the one which gave me more pleasure to explore was maybe Walden, or life in the woods, because it was a book that I already wanted to finish reading a long time ago. Having to talk about it in class only gave me more strength to carry on studying Thoreau's most famous work, chapter after chapter. Until I started to read Internet articles and summaries on Walden, I had not perceived at what degree Thoreau’s experiment of living in the wilderness two centuries ago is important to us now, as individuals addicted to technology and consuming unnecessary goods. The other cultural artifact I liked to study the most as well was the Modern Family series, since everyone knows it and there are a lot of themes to explore in it, such as gay and interracial marriage and women's and men's role in society.

My favorite cultural artifact, from the ones presented during the semester, was the one about the novel Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, done by Catarina Ferreira. I felt quite excited about this book, because the author, Paul Torday, tries to counteract the political tension between the Middle East and Europe with a story about peace, a topic I would have liked to reflect on on classes, particularly when it comes to war issues between the Middle East and the United States of America. Also, Catarina mentioned that the structure of the book was different than usual, created as a set of documents from various origins, instead of a linear narrative, an innovative format I feel compelled to try as a Summer reading. Obviously, this was even more interesting, because she brought the actual book to show us. The comparison between the book and its cinematic adaptation has established a fine method to motivate the audience to explore the artifact too.

Apart from Catarina's cultural artifact, I also enjoyed Francisco Caixinha's introduction to conspiracy theories, because even though it was not properly an artifact, it remembered the class that we should be careful when examining our own and not being blind towards public opinion or myths. After all, conspiracy theories may either hide the truth or tall tales. It is up to us to be critical when analysing cultural, historical, political or journalistic pieces. Conspiracy theories are also very popular phenomena in the USA, so its relevance to a class like English C2 is undeniable.

In summary, the diversity of themes and artifacts we got in touch with have enriched our English C2 class and brought up some current international issues everyone should reflect on. I do not think the class discussions we led have radically changed my point of view about anything, but in the end I am happy that we thought over the proposed issues.

Furthermore, I also reached a conclusion: it is not possible to use each and every learning tool in class, because some media are not even practical (for instance, Prezi). Keeping it simple may be the key to success: we just need Power Point, YouTube, Google and eventually a more specific tool to create quizzes, questionnaires or pedagogical games. Everything else may become an advantage, but only if well-planned.

Basically, I do not feel like I have learnt a lot of things about the USA or other English-speaking country, although it was fun to share ideas with my colleagues and discovering the cultural artifacts they worked on. I also enjoyed the trivialities our instructor shared with us regarding the American way of life, mainly about academic and economical issues, the ones I considered most different from what happens in Portugal. Besides that, I finally cognized that the identity issues, when it comes to race, gender, social group or religion are more pressing and present in the USA, due to the diversity of its population and the vastness of its territory,

As a quick remark, I would like to highlight that the final short stories are other important part of the program, on account of the importance of literature as a cultural expression, the author’s implicit opinion and as reflections about the society they lived in.

What a Wonderful World, isn’t it?

A few days ago, I made a list of songs whose themes interested me: True Colors, Don't Stop Believing, Imagine, Summer of 69 and What a Wonderful World. Some of them revolve around world peace, while others are related to the United States, its American Dream or simply its way of life. I ended up choosing What a Wonderful World, sang by Louis Armstrong.

What have always struck me the most about this song, even before I knew what the lyrics were about, is its melody. I listened to What a Wonderful World for the first time when I was around three or four years old and I remember that moment clearly - I was in the back seat of my parents' jeep, in the middle of the traffic in the street where we used to live. It seems to me that you do not need to be a specialist in the field of music (or another type of art) to understand the beauty it conveys and to feel touched by it, in this case thanks to the musical arrangement. Actually, I have found many versions of What a Wonderful World, recorded by other artists and by Armstrong himself, with different rhythms and instruments, but my favorite is still this one.

Apart from its melody and original arrangement, the lyrics are also meaningful to me. I learned and analyzed them for the first time when I was in middle school, as an exercise in English class. At the time, even though I was not aware that it addressed specific issues, I already felt that both the song and its lyrics were about peace and building a better world for our children, not leaving them our current problems, such as wars, unnecessary political misunderstandings or environmental concerns. As a matter of fact, when read literally, “I see friends shaking hands, saying How do you do, they’re really saying I love you” looks like an anti-war message. It could be, but it is also much more than that.

Louis Armstrong was given this song to sing when he was already 65 years old. Up until then, Negro rights activists accused him of being too neutral in the Civil Rights Movement. However, What a Wonderful World had the objective of discouraging political and racial friction, suggesting that people take a look at their surroundings and seizing the opportunity for peace they would be able to establish. Although the lyrics do not have difficult vocabulary words and its immediate meaning is simple, there are other hidden connotations. For instance, mentioning colors (“I see skies of blue, and clouds of white, / The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night”; “The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky, / Are also on the faces of people going by”) is not only about describing and picturing the diverse world landscapes; it is also about referring that people from all backgrounds, origins and cultural histories should share the same rights and status in society and that all people should get along with each other fraternally.

Despite its weak popularity in the United States, What a Wonderful World was a number one hit in the United Kingdom after it was released in 1968. This probably happened because, due to the development and influence of the British Cultural Studies since the 1950s, people in the UK were more socially prepared to comprehend racial and cultural issues, already discussed during the previous years. It eventually became a hit in the US as well, but only when it was included in Good Morning, Vietnam movie soundtrack, in 1987. Meanwhile, a lot of remixes and versions of the song by other musicians were released, such as the one by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (recorded in the early 1990s and apparently rediscovered a couple of years ago), which is a medley of What a Wonderful World and Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

In short, What a Wonderful World has been given numerous purposes and meanings over the years. Originally, it was meant to give expression to racial issues. Later, it was included in a cinematic Vietnam War context. These days, maybe it could be used as a musical theme for a humanitarian campaign set in Europe, for example, concerning Syrian refugees. Only time will tell new ways of reinventing this song.

Dublin: setting the example for its European neighbors

On “The Irish city that won Facebook”, published on May 1^st 2016 [access QR code]

1.      Expats

2.      Housing shortage

3.      Impromptu

Even though the article that I chose to write about is not particularly a news article, I still think that it is relevant to mention as a kind of current event. Dublin is now considered the European Silicon Valley. In fact, Dublin is the protagonist of the article, because eight years after the 2008 economic crisis it has become an important European business center, almost as a reborn phoenix.

Apparently, this article may be categorized, in journalistic terms, as a fait-divers, i.e. a piece about trivial facts, made to entertain or mostly without much importance to the readers. However, it is much more than that: this article includes relevant information about Irish geography, economy and lifestyle. I find it useful and enriching, a source of organized, legit data and a complete, though brief, insight on the capital city of Ireland, now renowned because of the new companies establishing there - consequently bringing new people and revitalizing the national economy. In few words, Dublin is portrayed as an attractive city for expats, even those who cannot speak English (yet), but simultaneously a cozy, calm place where some traditions are still preserved.

Being an article published on BBC website, there are some specialized words that the common reader is not used to, namely expats, housing shortage and impromptu.

Expats/expatriates [EN] or expatriados [PT] are words with different connotations. On the one hand, in Portuguese, expatriados are normally people who have to abandon their country due to political reasons, therefore having to live in exile. On the other, the expats, in English, are emigrants, people who live abroad, but who still have the possibility to go back to their home country.

Next, housing shortage, an economical concept, consists on the lack of houses, considering the increase of population living in Dublin, which contributes to higher rents than usual.

Lastly, impromptu is a word adapted from the Latin, which nowadays is used as a synonym for in site, without much previous planning – in this case, impromptu concerts are concerts happening spontaneously in the street.

When it comes to comparing Dublin to Silicon Valley, for those who are not aware of it, Silicon Valley is a growing area in San Francisco Bay, Northern California, in the United States, where many successful companies and corporations, such as Facebook, Google, eBay and Apple, have been located, particularly high-tech and start-up businesses. As one is bound to imagine, this “valley” is named after the electrical semiconductors’ material, silicon.

Concentrating a lot of financial investments, Silicon Valley is a magnet for the great minds and entrepreneurs of the century. Comparing Dublin to Silicon Valley is, therefore, the best compliment ever in terms of economical regeneration for Europe. Indeed, it is stated in the article that “[…] more than 600 American companies alone – including Facebook and Pfizer – have moved part of their business to the Emerald Isle [Ireland] in the last few years […]”.

In conclusion, Dublin is still an affordable city to live in, but its cost of living is becoming higher every year. There is a cycle going on: Dublin is a great place, then more people and enterprises are moving there; if more people and enterprises move there, prices rise; if prices rise… Well, should we expect the cycle to be interrupted or will the inflation turn into deflation sometime in the future and affect Ireland and Europe negatively? What is the cost of becoming a cosmopolitan city?

Well… at this moment, let’s celebrate Dublin as the European city setting the example against the tendency to dramatize and not overcoming economic crisis.