Living reading(1)

e-lesson Week starting: August 16, 2010
1. The manners minefield
This week’s lesson looks at some of the differences that exist between cultures with regard to ideas about what constitutes good and bad manners.

Level
Upper intermediate and above (equivalent to CEF level B2 and above)

How to use the lesson
1. Ask your students what they understand by manners, or try to elicit the word from them. Ask them to give examples of what are generally considered good and bad manners in their country. Then ask if they can think of examples of the ways in which other countries/cultures have different manners. Can they think of examples of normal behavior in their country that might appear strange, funny, or even offensive somewhere else (and vice versa)? Have any of your students ever been in a situation – either traveling abroad or in the presence of foreign visitors to their own country – where differences with regard to manners have become apparent? If so, encourage them to describe exactly what happened, and how they felt, to the rest of the class.

2. Give your students between five and ten minutes to read through Worksheet A, encouraging them to look up new vocabulary. Note that many of the words that might be new are not in the glossary because they form part of Exercise 1.
3. Give each student a copy of Worksheet B, then divide the class into pairs and ask students to work together to complete Exercise 1, in which they have to find the words to match the definitions.
4. Check answers in open class.

5. Ask the students to turn over their copies of Worksheets A and B, and their glossaries. Keeping the students in their pairs, hand out Worksheet C, which contains the text from Worksheet A with twenty incorrect words that the students have to identify and correct. The words containing the mistakes are all in bold, as are five other words that are correct. Point out that the mistakes are all grammatical or lexical, and that no correction requires them to write more than one additional word.

6. Check answers in open class.


Answers:

Exercise 1
1. stick out like a sore thumb 2. insult 3. rude 4. make allowances for 5. aggressive 6. misunderstanding 7. innocuous 8. humor 9. firm 10. suffice (it) to say (that) 11. hug 12. sole 13. globalization 14. belch 15. gender

Exercise 2 1. constitutes 2. offense 3. globalization 5. thumb 6. countless 8. soles 9. tips 10. hosts 11. compliment 13. mistaken 14. firm 16. beyond 17. embarrassment 18. misunderstanding 19. expectations 20. greet 21. forms 23. respectful 24. make 25. apparent
Words in bold that are correct: 4. abroad 7. Middle 12. tricky 15. Asian 22. on



2. Related Websites
Send your students to these websites, or just take a look yourself. Please note that the opinions contained in the websites do not reflect the views of Macmillan Publishers, S.A. de C.V. or any of its staff.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_manners
Wikipedia’s guide to table manners in various countries. Intermediate level and above.

http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/etiquette/doing-business-in.html
An online guide to business etiquette in various countries. Intermediate level and above.

http://www.peacecorp.gov/wws/multimedia/videos/culturalgaffes2/
A video on “Cultural Gaffes at Home and Abroad,” from the United States Peace Corps, with links to English and Spanish transcripts. Upper intermediate level and above.