CROSS CULTURAL PACKAGE - TEACHING INDONESIAN LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL AWARENESS

Cross Cultural Package

COMIC STRIPS AND CARTOON FOR TEACHING INDONESIAN AND CULTURAL AWARENESS

M. Bundhowi

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COMIC STRIPS AND CARTOONS TO LIGHTEN UP TEACHING LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL AWARENESS ABSTRACT Developing techniques for teaching cultural awareness is often neglected or put second to the development of the language teaching methodology. That teaching of cultural awareness is an inseparable part of a second/ foreign language teaching receives less attention from language teaching practitioners. The teaching of cultural awareness is often minimized to discussions, lectures or comparative study of cases or critical incidents from Indonesia and English speaking countries. Comics and Cartoons have a significant and useful roles in helping the students see themselves in the situation of the target language and culture in a fun and less threatening atmosphere. The workshop shall attempt to present techniques for teaching language and cultural awareness using comic strips and Cartoons.

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COMIC STRIPS AND CARTOONS TO LIGHTEN UP TEACHING LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL AWARENESS INTRODUCTION Demand for a mastery of foreign language as a means of global communication is getting greater and greater. Teachers, especially those in tertiary level institutions and trainers in cross cultural understanding, are required to be professionals, knowledgeable and skillful in helping learners prepare themselves for the target language and culture. However, developing techniques for teaching cultural awareness is often neglected or put second to the development of the language teaching methodology. The fact is that teaching of cultural awareness is an inseparable part of ELT or ILT. Unfortunately it receives less attention from language teaching practitioners. The teaching of culture is often minimized to discussions, lectures or comparative study of cases or critical incidents from Indonesian and English speaking countries. This paper contains some suggestions on how to use cross cultural cartoons that were especially designed to lighten up teaching language and cultural awareness. Comics and cartoons have significant and useful roles in helping the students see themselves in the situation of the target language and culture in a fun and less threatening atmosphere. The workshop shall present techniques for teaching language and culture using cartoons and comic strips. BACK GROUND So far I have taught English, Indonesian language and cultural awareness to three different groups of students. They are: 1) The students that enrolled in the Indonesian for Academic Purposes Program at the Indonesia Australia Language Foundation (IALF). They come from different government departments and from the private sectors, and they are intending to study at a post graduate level in tertiary institutions in Australia, Canada or USA. Not only do they come from different academic backgrounds, but they also come from different social - cultural backgrounds. 2) The Indo - Chinese refugee students. My assignment at the Galang Refugee camp1, Indonesia, required me to conduct cross cultural orientation and pre departure Orientation to Indo-China refugees who were going to resettle in a third country: USA, Australia, Canada, England, France and some other European countries. The majority of the refugees did not have sufficient English, and no Indonesian at all or the languages that was used in the target countries. 3) Australian and other international students and professionals, who come to study, work or live in Indonesia. These groups learned Indonesian language either at a language course or from a private language service/ course.

Both the EAP post graduate students at the IALF and the refugee students have something in common, that is: they will live in a new country with a totally different culture. But they differ in that the IALF post graduate students have much more Indonesian fluency than the refugee students whose Indonesian is mostly survival level.

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Under Save the Children Federation and the Experiment in International Living, funded by The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

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As was mentioned above, much of the discussion and teaching of the cultural awareness has been theoretical. At university level, at least in my personal experience, the discussion of the cross-cultural issues has focused on the geography, history, customs and tradition of the target countries, whilst, in respect to language, much of the discussion has been focused on the linguistic aspects of the intercultural communication, e.g.: discourse analysis and socio- linguistics. Much less attention had been given to the practicalities of the target culture. Here I assume that, instead of learning the cultural awareness, the focus on was more on the knowledge about the culture which can often become very dry or uninteresting for students. CROSS - CULTURAL CHALLENGES TO COMMUNICATION “Language is inseparable from culture as cultural values are reflected in language. Culture is among other things, a set of shared values among a people. Challenges to cross-cultural communication arise when a value held in one culture is not held in another.” (Reznich - 1985) 2. It is apparent to Reznich that language reflects the underlying cultural awareness which speakers may not be aware of. In some cases, it may be very difficult to know when a person means “yes” or “no”, or when someone understands what the other speaker says or that s/he pretends or thinks s/he understands. As is suggested through the well known ‘iceberg cultural analogy”3, much of the influence of culture on an individual cannot be seen. The part of the culture that is exposed is not always that which creates cross-cultural difficulties; the hidden aspects of cultures have significant effects on the inter-cultural interaction. It is inevitable that when people are immersed in a new culture or when a student learning a language is confronted with a native speaker of the language learnt, ‘culture shock’ 4 is a typical response. Therefore students should be prepared for feeling bewildered and disoriented at their first stage of settlement or encounter, especially when they neither speak the language nor understand the daily behavior. I believe that teachers of both language and cross-cultural studies, should try to enable students to enhance communication and be aware of the cultural aspects of the language without giving the students the burden to learn about the culture. The urgency to speak the language, and to be aware of the culture in the case of immigrant students or those bound overseas for academic study should be addressed by presenting both language and culture as an integrated concept. This integrated concept can be introduced by focusing on cultural practicalities (daily practices). Therefore It is a challenge for us to develop a concept that integrates language and cultural awareness. THE RATIONALE FOR USING COMIC STRIPS AND CARTOONS The idea of using cartoons and comic strips is an attempt to teach cultural awareness as an inseparable part of teaching language. In my experience, by using them not only will the students have the opportunity to practice their language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) but they will also acquire cultural awareness in a less burdensome way. Comics and cartoons will give the students a sense of fun and humor. As Reznics puts it, “Within the confusion of misunderstanding, lies the potential for learning. A sense of humor with respect to human folly: a mind aware of potentials pitfalls, respect for cultural differences, can serve as means to use cross - cultural misunderstanding as a basis for learning to communicate effectively.”5 2

Christopher Reznich, Teaching Teachers: an Introduction to Supervision and Teacher Training, The Experiment in International Living, Safe the Children Federation, inc. and World Education, 1985. 3 See appendices 4 The cultural experience usually falls in The second phase at the W curve . See appendices. 5 Christopher Reznich, Teaching Teachers: an Introduction to Supervision and Teacher Training, The Experiment in International Living, Safe the Children Federation, inc. and World Education, 1985.

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A comic strip is a series of pictures which illustrates a chronology of an event. It usually includes pictures, conversation bubbles and/or sight words. The conversation bubbles contain words, phrases or symbols which serve as cues which the students can use to create picture story dialogue. There is, usually, a “punch” line at the end of the story. According to Anderson cartoons are the most readily decipherable and that they are usually responses to particular historical events they can, at least, be mined for their “factual” content.6 I would add here that cartoons can also reflect the culture of the society. CARTOONS AND COMIC STRIPS A cartoon usually refers to a picture which stresses the deformation of the lines. It creates humor. The difference between a cartoon and a comic strip is that a cartoon can be a single picture, and it represents, the whole situation of an event. Most of the picture stories involve humor. Some of the characters find themselves in situation that are simply absurd, and meant for humor and language production. Other characters find themselves in the situation that are potentially real and serious. Both cartoons and comic strips encourage language production and serves as a point of departure for the students to learn cross-cultural communication and understanding. THE USES OF COMIC STRIPS AND CARTOONS Cultural Context: Cartoons and comic strips may contain cultural, political and social content. The fact that they contain few or sometimes no words at all make them effective for highlighting cultural clashes between two or more cultures which are difficult to explain. For this reason, they are the perfect substitute for other kinds of visual aids (photographs, posters or other kinds of realistic drawings). Cultural Sensitivity Cartoons and comic strips may become a substitute to sensitive pictures or texts which are potentially offensive to people of particular culture. By using them to point out the cultural issue in language classes, the misunderstanding that can be resulted through them can be avoided or minimized. Language skills Since cartoons and comic strips usually contain very minimal sight words, they have a very good potential for developing language skills in the sense that the language learners and teachers can manipulate them for various language activities. Thus, students’ attention will not be glued to the text, but they will have fun learning: producing language actively. Cartoons and comic strips can be used to illustrate words and dialogues. THE TECHINIQUES OF USING COMIC STRIPS AND CARTOONS SEQUENCING Comic strips can be cut up frame by frame for ordering activities. For card sequencing activities the students can be divided into small groups. Each group is given a set of cards. Within a given time they have to put the pictures into a correct, logical orders. Then the students can narrate the strips. The

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Benedict R.O’G. Anderson, Language and Power, (Cornel University Press, 190) pp:156-157).

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teacher can also prepare a text about the comic strips and read it out loud for the students who later have to arrange the strips based on what they read. Dialogue/ pair work. MATCHING In this activity the students match the cut-up pictures with the sight words, sentences or even paragraphs corresponding to each of the strips. The picture stories/strips can be written on 3x5 cards. For example, if the story has 10 frames, 10 cards can be used to write out the story, frame by frame. The students can then be divided into groups and given the 10 picture cards used in the sequencing activity and the 10 cards that have been written on for a matching activity. WRITING All activities using comic strips and cartoons can always be followed with writing activities: writing essays based on the cartoons, dialogue for the strips, interpretation of the cartoons. - Lower - level students can be asked to tell/retell the story. While they are doing so, the teacher can write the students’ words/sentences on the board. The students can then circle the particular words (verbs, nouns or adjectives). Possible writing tasks can be: writing the story on the white board, dictation, copying, rewriting and substituting parts of the words. SPEAKING AND READING THE PICTURE In this activity students sit facing each other. This is a pair work A and B. Student A gets half of the comic strip, whilst the other half goes to student B. Student A would ask about the parts that they do not have (the other half of the strips) to student B, and vice-versa. As the strips contain 10 frames, student A would ask about pictures 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9, whilst student B would ask about picture 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 one after another. For lower-level students, questions for the other half of the pictures can be provided before hands, whilst for the higher ones, the students explain half of the pictures freely in the sense that they are not helped by questions. CULTURAL DISCUSSION. Students can discuss the comic. They can tell the cultural differences between their country and the target countries or the cultures they are studying. ROLEPLAY A role play can follow up the activities that use the comic strips. The students can be asked or to volunteer to play the characters in the comic strips. Usually fun will follow this activity. The conversation does not have to be exactly like what appears in text. The teacher should collect any signs, telephones or visual aids before the class begins and plan how to rearrange the class. S/he can walk through a story exactly as it is written and using the dialogue suggested by the conversation bubbles. Students first observe and then role play the story. The roleplay should be observed without looking at the picture story. OVERHEAD TRANSPARENCY 1. RESPONSE By using the OHT students can give direct responses. They can describe the pictures. In this activity the teacher usually becomes the facilitator who asks questions for each frame. Teacher shows the strips frame by frame and asks students questions regarding the frames. After this activity the students can be asked to:

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retell the whole story in the strips.

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write a written report about the strips.

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predict what may come up in the next frame of the strips.

2. COMBINATION Like other kinds of pictures, cartoon and comic strips can be used for different activities such as games, warmers or for fillers.

3. Ice-Breakers: 1. Identifying: Teacher can flash up a frame of comic strip, which has been redrawn or enlarged on a photocopier, and have the students identify it. 2. Puzzle 3.

: Teacher can cut up a cartoons into pieces. Students put the pieces into a correct form of the cartoons.

Chain Whisper: Teacher provides sentences that correspond to the comic strips. The students are divided into groups of five to ten, and each group stands in a row. The teacher calls the first student s in the row and whispers to them the first sentence from the first strip. The students then return to their rows and whisper the sentence to the second students in the row and so on. The last student has to shout the sentence. Teacher then checks if the sentence is correct or wrong. When all the sentences have been whispered, the students race to put the prepared strips into correct order that correspond to the sentences. This activity can be done as a competition.

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Sample of discussion using the cartoon Practicalities (Lesson plan sample) Topic Title

: Hygiene : The First Encounter

Purpose: To teach Ss correct use of bathtubs, showers and toilets To prevent serious landlord/lady problems in target country To give Ss correct bathroom lexis. Possible steps: • •

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Present groups with cartoon. Focus Qs: Who are the characters? What country are they in? etc. Ss describe exactly what is happening in the pictures and identify the problem. (There are many variations on a theme for doing this). This is also good fluency practice and introduces a lot of new vocabulary. Ss report back. Elicit differences between Indonesian and western systems in 2 columns on whiteboard and discuss their significance. Indonesian style bak mandi gayung (scoop/dipper) tile floor cold water drain in floor, slanted floor

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western style bathtub or shower no scoop carpet, wood, lino or tile hot and cold water flat floor, drain only in tub

Ask: “What are the implications for you in Australia?” Explore “solutions”. Move on to toilet issues.

Issues: • • • • • • •

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No word for gayung or bak mandi in western countries. How to describe them. The need for shower curtain and how to use it. Caution with hot water. Frequency of bathing. Damage on bathroom floor Rinsing (or not rinsing) off the hot soapy water. Implications for Muslims who wash before prayer. Using the toilet: toilet paper, no tap in public cubicles.

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II. Indonesian Do’s and Don’ts Do’s

Don’ts

1. Say your name when you are introduced. 2. Shake hands lightly only. Some women, especially Moslem, do not shake hands with men. 3. You can ask personal matters: marriage, children, origin, age, etc. 4. Regardless how serious you are smile back to people who smile at you. Generally Indonesians smile in any situation. 5. Soften your sometimes piercing western gaze. 6. Normally people would start with trivial questions first. Indonesians like to beat around the bush. 7. When investigating, you should be active in leading the questions (ask them to give you details). Sometimes Indonesians are selective in giving information. 8. When they do not know about something, sometimes they do not say: “I do not know”. Instead they will invent information. 9. Many find it very difficult to say “No” – so they say “Yes” in a way that to them means “No”. 10. Confirm what people say by asking them to repeat. Sometimes they just tell you what you want to hear (for your benefit). 11. At speeches they normally apologize even when they do not do anything wrong. 12. Indonesians are known for their “rubber time”. Do confirm about the time when you want to make an appointment. 13. When you visit someone come at appropriate time, although in many cases you do not have to make an appointment. 14. When you visit dignitaries, people of religious importance, offices or houses of worships dress neatly 15. Announce your arrival by saying: permisi (excuse me/us) or knock lightly. 16. Wait till pleased 17. Take your shoes off when they host does 18. Accept food/ drink when offered regardless you want them or not. 19. Speak softly without raising one’s voice. 20. Control your emotion. 21. Maintain an attitude of calm 22. Display great tact and modesty 23. To thank someone, smile or nod in acknowledgement where you would normally say thank you for small exchanges.

1. Don’t be surprised when people ask you what you consider personal matters. 2. Don’t mind it when people call you with the Indonesian terms of address: pak or bapak (sir or mister) or bu or ibu (mom, Ms or Mrs.). 3. Don’t call adult Indonesians by their first name or nickname until invited to do so. 4. Don’t be suspicious if people do not maintain eye contact with you. Prolong eye contact may indicate a challenge to the authority. 5. Don’t contradict harshly. 6. Don’t criticize people in front of other people. They will lose face. 7. Don’t joke about religion. 8. Don’t ignore people who greet you, even if he/she is a stranger. 9. Don’t lounge. 10. Don’t talk launch in straight away. 11. Don’t use left hand for passing things. Left is always associated with impoliteness and evil. 12. Don’t beckon with one finger. It indicates the person you are calling only worth one finger. 13. Do not point with one finger. (Use thumb or open hand or sometimes chin). 14. Don’t smack your fist into the palm of your other hand. 15. Don’t shrug your shoulders. 16. Do not put your hands on your hips as it means anger or aggressiveness. 17. Don’t stand with legs apart. 18. Do not point your foot at other people. 19. Do not sit cross-ledged on desks or chairs. 20. Do not sit on tables. 21. Don’t shout. 22. Don’t be unsmiling. It is an intimidating sign of displeasure or anger. 23. Don’t laugh raucously. 24. Don’t be surprised if Indonesians don’t thank you for the compliment you give to them.

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