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.

Walden, or taking some time off to think about life in general

Running away once more from the original proposal, I chose to write about a book instead of a blog or website. I decided to analyze Walden - Or Life in the Woods, by Henry David Thoreau, because it is a book I have been reading for a couple of months (I have recently checked the date and I started reading it for good on January 9^th 2016, though I thought I had begun to read it months before).

Original title page of Walden, with an illustration by his sister Sophia

Some other readers, such as the ones who often populate Goodreads, would say Walden is a boring book. Fortunately, unlike them, I am pretty much enjoying it. On the contrary, it is a meaningful book and everyone should read, at least, its first chapters, which are the most concise and concentrate a lot of useful information for the purposes of daily life. Anyways, we will be back to this discussion later on this article.

Reproduction of Thoreau's figure and cabin

Henry David Thoreau was born in 1817, in Concord, Massachusetts. He descended from a family of pencil makers and he actually perpetuated this business after accepting that his books would not represent a good market deal. He studied in Harvard College and worked as a teacher and even founded a grammar school with his brother, before investing in his writing. Thoreau's most famous works are Walden and Civil Disobedience. Unlike Civil Disobedience, Walden contains a peaceful narrative and message within. Since it does not approach directly a political point of view, the readers are easily led not to think about its polemic intentions. Even its title, Walden, transports us to an almost mythical landscape, to Nature and quietness. From the middle of the book until the conclusion chapter, we get mostly in touch with careful, microscopic descriptions about Walden pond and its surroundings, none of them clearly related to societal issues. Only Nature, Nature, Nature. Animals. Eventual human neighbors (such as farmers). Hunting. Fishing.

In fact - let's go back to my analysis - Thoreau lived near the Walden pond for 2 years, 2 months and 2 days (between 1845 and 1847), in a cabin built by himself. During this time, he grew food, apart from hunting and fishing. He also chose to wear practical clothes, made from inexpensive fabric.

While reading Walden, it may seem that Thoreau had isolated himself completely from society. However, he was only two miles away from Concord city center and his family house, a distance which would take him forty minutes walking. The most striking aspect about Thoreau living in the middle of the forest is not his isolation itself, nor the description of Walden pond, what is remarkable is the project that is intended by spending two years outside the city. This is the reason why the first two chapters are the ones to be read by everyone. They have a strong practical component and a great message concerning economical resources (at a national, but also at a personal/domestic level) and natural resources too - and the titles they were given do not lie: "Economy" and "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For".

Living these two years not participating in city life, Thoreau challenged himself to survive not depending on anything that he could live without, such as money and all the comforts that would come along with it (expensive clothes, prepared meat or a rented house). He wished to prove himself, maybe his fellow citizens and obviously his audience of readers that it is possible for one to live stripped of superfluous material and food goods. According to him, "I did not use tea, nor coffee, nor butter, nor milk, nor fresh meat, and so did not have to work to get them; again, as I did not work hard, I did not have to eat hard, and it cost me but a trifle for my food [...]." Of all the sentences I could possible quote from Walden's 360 pages, I think this one is the most surprising and succinct when it comes to describe Thoreau's lifestyle. In short: the less we eat, the less we work; the less we work, the less we eat. If we do not need much, we do not have to work more in order to afford those goods.

Thoreau’s social experiment is an expression of the Transcendentalist philosophical movement,  which dictates that individuals are corrupted by society and its institutions, therefore having the need to isolate themselves to become good, pure and rediscover their relationship with Nature again (to transcend themselves). Through his personal experience, he wished to reaffirm his personal independence, to reflect on people's behaviour and their mentality. This way, Walden, Or Life in the Woods is more than a personal diary or autobiography; it is a social satire and a voyage of self-discovery.

Unfortunately, on the one hand, Thoreau only sold 2000 copies of Walden until his death, in 1862, in spite of the positive reviews he obtained. His avant-garde ideas labelled him as an eccentric and misanthropic. On the other hand, Walden and Civil Disobedience became references to some of the most iconic movements in the 20^th century, inspiring Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and the hippie ideology. Even in the 21^st century, his work still has a say about capitalism, sustainability of resources and human and material ecology, topics that are especially debated in the United States of America.

In 1996, Jon Krakauer wrote Christopher McCandless's biography, later adapted to cinema in 2007. Into the Wild tells the journey McCandless took in the early ‘90s to Alaska. Thoreau’s Walden is appointed as one of the major inspirations to McCandless’s journey, but it is easy to understand that some of the reasons why he began it represented a dangerous trigger (for instance, emotional instability and family issues). Thoreau also suffered because of his brother’s death and a broken engagement due to financial and social differences between his family and her fiancée’s, but he actually channelled this sadness to a feasible project, staying permanently in one place, close to the city, while McCandless chose a radical alternative of exploring the road recklessly and cutting off almost all of his bonds with human society.

As a quick remark, regarding Portuguese authors, Eça de Queirós also deals with the disappointment one would feel about city life and the need to go back to the country side, at the end of the 19^th century (only some decades after Thoreau’s time) in his book The City and the Mountains. I almost feel that this is not a coincidence and that the influence of Transcendentalism may have reached Portugal as well, only later and less evidently than other artistic and philosophical movements.

In summary, Walden may be a challenging book for people who are not used to long descriptions, non-stop introspection and reflection or few interaction between the narrator/protagonist and other characters, but it is an enriching book as it tells a once in a thousand lifetimes experience, and its mission and results continue to be applicable to contemporaneity, somehow. I guess it is worth the try.

Reasons why Modern Family should be in everyone’s to-watch list

I am aware that I should have chosen a movie, but - let's be honest - I am not a movie person. However, I love series and automatically one of them pops into my head, when it comes to discuss American culture and way of life: Modern Family.

Its relevance to the American cultural context and to the spectatorship experience is due to a lot of reasons which make it a very special TV series. First of all, each episode is only 20 minutes long, the right amount of time for one not to get bored, but – on the contrary - excited for the continuation of the story. Still, most importantly, Modern Family is not only a comedy series. It also sheds a light on identity issues, hybridity and the role of men, women and marriage in contemporary society.

The spectator has already entered inside the lives of the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker family for seven seasons and more than 150 episodes, since 2009. This Modern Family pater familias is Jay Pritchett, who is married to Colombian Gloria, who already has a teenage son (Manny) of a previous relationship. Together, they have a baby (Fulgencio Umberto, or Joe). From his first marriage, Jay has two (no longer) children: Mitchell and Claire. Mitchell is homosexual and married to Cameron Tucker, with whom he adopted a Vietnamese baby that grows up before our eyes as seasons go by (Lily). Finally, Claire is married to Phil Dunphy (the cool dad) and they have a son (Luke) and two daughters (Alex and Haley).

In terms of discussed topics, the series conglomerates a rich list of them, sometimes stereotyping, other times giving voice to struggles that start to emerge in modern families and that are personified by the characters: 'old' parents (Jay), homosexual marriage and adoption (Mitchell and Cameron), South American immigration and being a single mother (Gloria), working and simultaneously loving mothers (Claire), fathers who start to have a relevant role inside their homes (Phil), how to raise children in the 21st century, men that are sensible and not flawless anymore, women that have a strong personality and are independent of their husbands and fathers... These turn out to be shared concerns inside American families, though we could say they are generally present in Western families as well, so the series brings about current hot topics, themselves common ground to millions of people all over the world.

In terms of spectatorship experience, it is equally crucial to refer that Modern Family's actors share their stardom thanks to an ensemble cast structure. This means that a reasonable number of protagonists are given the same amount of screen time, which is obviously the case, regarding the characters/actors in the series. Usually, as it is proven, the characters' lives and stories are somehow intertwined. We also get in contact with this type of structure in recent movies, such as Babel and The Avengers. These three examples in television and cinema state a difference and reveal an evolution from the sole main character structure, present in almost all of the Hollywood productions.

Another special attribute concerning Modern Family consists on classifying it as a phenomenon that seems to have been popularized since the 1980s and 1990s: a mockumentary (or docu-comedy), or a mocking documentary, a parody, whose objective is to film a movie or a series in a way that people actually perceive it more easily as portraying real events, with real people, while having a good time. Obviously, this will increase the spectator's level of immersion or suspension of disbelief and, consequently, reflect on the way people receive and think over the concerned episodes of modern life, even if the episodes make them laugh.

Combining an outstanding premise and plot with innovative or, at least, reborn cinematic techniques, Modern Family deserves all the prizes and great reviews that it has been given ever since it started. In my modest opinion, sooner or later it may become the representation of a turning point in society, through which American and Western culture are conveyed.

It is only a shame that in Portugal it has not yet been created a resembling TV show. The only resemblance we share is a right-wing mayor who looks just like Phil Dunphy.

15 questions which pretty much summarise the last 14 years of learning English

1. What is your native language? 

My native language is Portuguese. No surprises so far.

2. How many years have you been studying English?

I have been studying English for 15 years, more or less, since first grade.

3. What is the purpose of your English studies?  What would you like to do with your English skills when you graduate?

I always found English very easy to learn and useful when reading, watching movies or series... In general, I like to access English-speaking cultures and their products directly, without translation needed. Actually, six levels of English are mandatory in my degree, so I could not choose to study English or to ignore it in higher education. It is and will be useful, obviously, but I think I already had a similar level when I started Communication and Culture (I did my CAE on my senior year). At least, now I feel more confident while communicating and speaking to an audience, which will be even more useful, because my future Master's is completely taught in English (in Catholic University), and if I become a university teacher or researcher.

4. What areas of English-speaking cultures interest you? What would you like to learn about in regard to English-speaking cultures?

Literature is my first interest, but I am quite curious about History, Politics and the Current Events section.

5. Have you ever traveled to an English-speaking country? If so which one? 

I have already travelled to and lived for 2 weeks in Newcastle during an Erasmus + program and briefly visited Alnwick and Edinburgh. - England and Scotland is my answer.

6. Do you plan on traveling to an English-speaking country in the future? If so which one?

I am planning on visiting Ireland this year. Also, I am waiting for an answer for a summer internship, for which I signed up to, giving priority to Canada, Australia and Macau.

7. Are you involved in any English-speaking communities locally or virtually (online)?

Not really. Just keeping in touch with an Irish friend and a Slovenian one.

8. What language skill do you feel is most difficult for you in English? Listening, Speaking, Reading, or Writing?

Speaking, definitely.

9. Is there a certain grammatical function (tense, part of speech) that you have difficulty with?

I cannot think of anything specific right now.

10. Do you like to read in English? If so what do you read? Do you have any reading suggestions for our class?

I really enjoy reading the original versions of books, not the translated ones, as I mentioned. I would suggest the book I am presenting on, In Cold Blood, but when it comes to a lighter prose I would go for One Day, by David Nicholls. These days, my favourite readings in English have been academic books and essays - for instance, Martha Nussbaum's Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities. I also learnt to read in English, thanks to Harry Potter and The Princess Diaries.

11. Do you like to watch films or television shows in English? If so what do you watch?

Of course, with or without subtitles, everything is fine. Regarding movies, I mostly watch corny romantic comedies. Regarding series, I watch Modern Family, Sleepy Hollow (great historical insight, btw), Quantico and Devious Maids. Until they ended, I was a fan of Revenge and How I Met Your Mother.

12. How much time are you willing to dedicate to this class a week?

Apart from the classes, two hours.

13. How will you know this course has been a success for you? How motivated are you to achieve your goal?

I will know it, certainly, as long as I learn something new about the USA. All my English teachers ever since primary school, except for one who was a Portuguese emigrants' daughter in the US, came from whatever English-speaking country we might name (South Africa, Ireland, UK, etc etc). Finally, I feel like I will study the US properly or at least in better conditions.

14. How can you help your classmates learn?

I will try my best to engage in every class discussion or exercise and try to interpellate the others. As a future teacher myself, I guess this is one of the only ways to encourage classmates learning and participation. I'll leave the rest as their own job.

15. How can your instructor best help you learn?

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.

Besides, I seriously (and sometimes sadly) can relate to this meme:

Conclusion: I am now working with 100 seventh graders during my internship and I actually want to be a teacher... For fun. Oh my...