American Culture

That would be the name of the class I’m teaching this semester. Since it’s a bit of a broad topic, I was thinking of turning it into something of a pop culture class. At training they gave us a list of the elements of conversation that make it difficult for non-native speakers to follow. It included things like accent and speed. It also mentioned background knowledge. There are so many things that we say that come from a common cultural knowledge that we may not even be conscious of. So, while I obviously won’t be able to cover even close to everything, I’m going to try to introduce them to a lot of things that (almost) every American knows.

I’m going to be showing movies like “The Sound of Music” and “ET” and TV shows like “I Love Lucy” and “Friends.” I might show the soup Nazi episode of “Seinfeld” if I can get my hands on it. I’m going to teach lessons on Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, Archie comics, and Dr. Seuss. There will be a whole unit on baseball. When you really stop to think about how many of our expressions have their origins in baseball it’s unbelievable.

The problem is that, as many ideas as I’ve had, I still don’t have a whole semester’s worth. So I’m putting this out there hoping that people back home might have some good thoughts. If you do, please leave me a comment or email me. And here’s a note especially for all the teachers who might be reading this: I’m also struggling with how to keep this from becoming a lecture series. I need to find activities I can do with the students to get them involved and using their English. I am open to any and all suggestions.

Thanks!