Presentation Notes and Homework for Week 3

I can read cats' thoughts.
This one's thinking, "Where's my friend Juan Miguel??"

Hello everyone! I hope you had a nice weekend. Here's your reminder about both the presentation this coming Saturday, as well as your blog homework for this week.

Mid-Term Presentation:

The two main guidelines for the presentation are that it needs to be related to culture and that it needs to get your audience involved somehow. Your classmates don't need to be singing and dancing during your whole presentation, but you should have something that draws your audience in and allows them to participate, instead of just passively listening to you talk for 5-10 minutes. Try to make it relevant and interesting to you and your classmates, and you should do fine.

I know we went over a few possible topics in class, but here they are again, in case you still need to choose a topic:

-Culture shock and how to survive it

-Advice on what to expect for a foreigner coming to Costa Rica

-Advice on what to expect for a Costa Rican doing business with foreigners

-Advice on what to expect for a Costa Rican going to live/study in another country

-Design a program to explain your culture to a foreigner

-Design a program to help people understand culturally-influenced behavior

Blog Homework

You had a week off for your blog homework, so this should be your second post (Most of you have done the week 1 homework, but if you've not yet, please do it now).

Since we talked about how our values influence our behavior, your assignment this week is to observe three value-influenced behaviors this week and report on them. Notice that I wrote the word "observe" in italicized bold print. That's important, because I want you to find three concrete, real, specific actions or behaviors to report on. So, no "if's" or "when's" or other theoretical situations. You can observe behaviors from Costa Ricans or people from other cultures (you can possibly even find them on TV or the internet if you follow international news or shows).
For each action, I want you to describe what the behavior was and what cultural value you think may have influenced the person to behave in the way he or she did. Please be specific on both of these points, or I'll leave annoying comments on your blogs asking you for more information!

Speaking of annoying comments, I'll be commenting on your blogs, and if there's a question or a suggestion in my comment, please respond to it. I'd also like you to comment on some classmates' blogs from week 1. Your partners are:

Ronald-Gaby 

Ricardo-Felipe  

Juan Miguel-Esteban  

Juan José-Alejandro

You can also comment on this week's homework if you want. If your partner hasn't posted his/her homework from week 1, choose a different classmate and comment on his/her blog.

If you have any questions about any of this, please tell me. Also, if you need any resources for your presentation, tell me as soon as possible.

Thanks, and have a great week!

Week 1 Homework

I built this thing but I'm not sure what it is or what it's supposed to do. Any suggestions?

Hello! I hope you're having--or had, depending on when you read this--a nice break! Here's your blog homework assignment for week 1:

You need to write a few paragraphs responding to the discussion questions we had in our first class. You can and should combine some of your responses together, making sure that your answers are clear and coherent. Remember that the blog is 50% of your final class grade, since it will be considered your "journal" for this class. Accordingly, please pay close attention to your English usage, punctuation, spelling, and clarity. You should dedicate some time and thought to each of your blog entries.

The questions you should respond to are:

-Why is culture important in studying language?

-What aspects of your culture are most interesting for foreigners?

-What aspects of your culture are most challenging for foreigners?

-What do you like best/least about American culture?

-What do you like best/least about Costa Rican culture?

-What would you change about Costa Rican culture if you had the chance?

So, if you have any questions or problems you can contact me through the comments or send me an email. Have a good time with Gina, who'll substitute teach your class on July 23rd. I'll see you all again on the 30th. Take care!

Continents

We were talking about this a bit in class today. If you click on the map, you can see different ways that different countries divide the continents. So according to some, there are only 4 continents!

You can read more on this Wikipedia page if you're interested.

I'll post your homework within a day or two, but don't worry about it yet--you're on vacation!

A New AP-6 Class!

Hello everyone, and welcome to AP-6! As you can maybe see, I've already used this blog address for a previous class. It's not as fancy as the AP-5 blog, but at least it's cozy. In any case, this is a convenient and easy to remember address, so it's probably easiest to just keep it. I'll be posting your homework assignments, comments, and links on this blog. I'll also have all the students' blogs in a tab on the right, once I have a complete class list.

As always, you can also check out my language learning blog, Sitzman ABC, for more links, tips, and other information related to English and learning languages.

Again, welcome, and if there's anything I can do to help you improve your English during this course, please tell me!

-Ryan