MMCE (異文化理解) Presentations
You will give a 25 minute interactive presentation on your country. The audience should not just be listening, they should also be participating. Your presentation should focus on the macro and micro aspects of the country. This means that you need to present information about some or ALL of the following
- Your country’s geography, economy, and people (See my demonstration)
- Some products and practices
- National values (We will discuss national values on 7/6)
- Global issues the countries are facing (show a video)
To research about the above you can use the below sites.
You can put tasks on your country profile page or Powerpoint and have other class members try them!
1.Geography and basic facts
- Country facts (Geography and basic facts)
2. Products and practices
- Food in your country (Products)
- Etiquette (Practices: Acts, operations, Haptics, Kinesics, Oculesics, etc.)
3. National Values (cultural dimensions)
- Cultural dimensions (Get a detailed explanation of your country)
- Country list by dimension (Receive a list of countries ordered by score for each dimension)
- There is various information about the Maldives here that can answer about (at least) power distance and masculinity.
- There is various information about Sao Tome and Principe here that can answer (at least) about power distance and masculinity.
4. Global Issues Daily Life
- The below sites show case studies of how countries deal with global issues. I have found videos that can be used for each country.
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- Bolivia: Efforts to reduce poverty
- El Salvador: Crime and Gang Problems
- Trash issues in Peru
- How Finland Fights Poverty
- A Story about a disadvantaged girl in Bangladesh
- A Video about e-Trash Dumping in Ghana.
- Egypt: Poverty in Cairo
- France: Poverty
- Singapore: Singapore’s economic success
- Maldives: A tourist’s experience in the Maldives
- United Kingdom: Poverty Issues
- Sao Tome and Principe(Choose 1, James recommends the first one)
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Other Useful Links The annual U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network report – known colloquially as the World Happiness Report – ranked Finland first this year (2019).
- EveryCulture: As the title indicates, this site has information about every country. It is free.
- Geerte Hofstede’s Home Page Contains an explanation of the questionnaire used and a list of countries by cultural dimension score.
- Nationmaster: Contains almost any kind of data about any country
- Global Issues: You can see case studies of people under various global issues.
- Country Watch: Good overviews of countries and the issues they face. James has a trial subscription that can be used for two weeks.
Our Country Members
Asia
- Bangladesh: Moka, Nao, Riku, Satoshi
- Maldives: Akari, Saki, Tomoko, Yuuki,
- Singapore: Ayano, Minami, Mio, Nami, Tomomi
- Myanmar: James
Americas
- Bolivia: Kaho, Natsumi, Miyuu, Ryou,
- El Salvador: Minori, Nanami, Nao S., Sakura,
- Peru: Chiaki, Hanano, Miyu, Rei
Africa
- Egypt: Ayumi, Manae, Moritoro, Ryouji,
- Ghana: Ayaka, Maki, Miho, Moe, Shizuka
- Sao Tome and Principe: Honoka, Sae, Sayaka, Yuki, Yuuna
Europe
- Finland: Aoi, Kifuu, Kotoka, Natsuki, Shinya
- France: Ai, Ayano, Rinka, Ubeha
- United Kingdom: Ellen, Chiharu, Kotaro, Yui
Presentations: 12:00 – 12:30; 13:30 – 15:00
Each group will have 30 minutes.
- Group 1: Finland/ Bangladesh / Bolivia / Egypt in E35
- Group 2: France/ Maldives / El Salvador / Ghana in E33
- Group3: United Kingdom/ Singapore / Peru / Sao Tome and Principe in E32
Post-Presentation Report
Please hand in the report by submitting the file on Google Drive under the folder CountryReports (See below) within two weeks. Please put your student number and name in the file like this: e018363JamesHall.doc
- Write a profile of your country by summarizing the major points of your group’s presentation (basic facts, products and practices, national values, and global issues/ daily life). Do not discuss everything, only write the information that, to you, was most meaningful. Also, discuss how your country compared to Japan or the other countries which you presented about.
- You were only able to touch the surface about your country. Discuss what you need to investigate more to understand your culture on a deeper level.
- In this class, we studied about culture (culture 1, culture 2, micro & macro culture) as well as the below concepts. Please describe one to two concepts which you think will be useful to you. Also, please describe 1 to 2 concepts which you did not understand well.
- Write a reflection of your presentation, to what extent were you able to make it interactive? What kind of comments did you receive? What were the good points of the presentation as well as points to improve?
For your reference, below is the PowerPoint file for all the class concepts as well as the class mind map.
Reflection
As a comment below, please write a reflection about the Meeting of Multicultural Educators ‘(異文化理解). What did you get out of our class? How can this class be improved in the future? Any thoughts you have about this class would be appreciated.
I feel a little wiser after learning about various countries.It was hard to find out about the country, but there were a lot of interesting things.
I listened to Finland, Bangladesh and Egypt presentation. These countries have good points and bad point. I tended to focus on good points.
There are many problems more than good point.
We should think about them. Today, I noticed and learned a lot of things.
I understood various of country’s environment, economy and problem and so on for the Meeting of multicultural educators. Especially, I want to know about food in Bangladesh. I want to go there to travel sometimes. I had good experience to make apresentation.
I can learn about various of cultures what I didn’t know. Also I know about the Peru and other countries. After finishing our presentation, I thought we should use more pictures and ask lots of questions. Through this class, I think I can see things from multiple points of view.
I learned that Japanese common sense may not apply in other countries. And, I understand from the presentation that there are various cultures and customs by country. So we need to understand each other’s cultures and practices. I would like to teach children the importance of meeting of multicultural educators country in the future by making use of today’s presentation.I feel I have to learn more about this. I am not good at English, but thanks to the group members, we were able to make the presentation a success.Thank you!
I can learn other countries and cultures . However, I think there will be a lot to learn about different cultures from now on .
In particular , I am interested to Arica because there’s culture has many different points from Japanese cultures.
I get chance to know other countries and understand different culture thanks to this class. I feel speech in English is difficult but it may improve my English skills, so I try it. Also I wanna make good use of reflection. I want to know other culture and countries more deeply. I think we need to learn other culture and countries.
I could learn about other country I think it is difficult to understand about different culture. I tried to English presentation for the first time.It is very difficult because I have no vocabulary. If we have more time,I want to listen another group presentation. But,I was enjoyed about this class. In the future,I want to go another country and I want to learn about different culture more.
I could about many countries culture, lifestyles, food, security and so on. And I could learn about perspective when we think about some countries. There five types of cultural dimension, each part shows the country’s and people’s characteristic. There are many countries in the world and many problems each areas, too. We live in Japan, so we think about own country. However we think about other country because other’s country’s problem related us, maybe. This class is the opportunity about thinking world.
Through the 4 days of the classes, I learned many things. I have lived in Japan for 21 years, so I didn’t know about other country’s culture almost. But each country has very interesting culture and some problems. To know about the world status, we may know about Japan deeply. Every country is great and every people are wonderful. There is not truth or forth about the culture. Sometimes, we are uncomfortable with foreign people and foreign people must feel same. We have to learn about the country and culture of people who communicate with. Through the presentation, I could… Read more »
I learned many problems and issues in the world. Also, poverty is the biggest problem in the world. Because of poverty, people couldn’t go to school and they are forced to work hard. I heard this, I felt very sad and terrible. And I learned that women’s rights are being neglected, I felt frustrated. Before I learned about the Meeting of Multicultural Educators, I don’t know what is poverty, and I don’t know the importance of women’s right. But now I really know these well. So I should (we should) think these problems carefully. Life is a journey. So I… Read more »
It was very good chance to start learning about multi cultures. In this class I learned about many countries which I have never heard. Some countries is similar to Japan and some is quite different. Multi culture made the world and I have to accept the others.
And I thought environmental issues are very important now. In many developing countries, there is a lot of garbages from developed countries. I want to learn about what I can and what education can.
The class gave me chance to know world custom , issues, information and etc.
Honesty,I could’t understand something. But, I can almost understand thanks to my friends and teacher’s polite teaching.
I understand culture is different each country. But, I don’t know detail things. So,There is many things that to know for the first time.
I think it’s lead to peace to know culture all over the world. If you have knowledge, you haven’t no bias.
It many be overblown but I can lead to peace or future.
I can understand culture and custom by speaking English. they are differ from Japan. I was surprised at many things. And, I leaned clture of other country. We can be connected by search same country. I should learn other culture, because there are the country I do not.
Through this class, I learned each country has each problem but it is same that we have to understand the situations. I could notice that i did not know about foreign countries. There were a lot of new informations in the presentations today. I did not know Sam Tome and Principe. This small country is poverty but beautiful. Economy of this country depends on the supports from other countries. I was surprised that japan also supports this country. I thought i have to have interact in foreign countries.
I learned a lot of global issues in the Meeting of Multicultural Educators.
Especially I am grad of knowing in detail about countries around world.
I examined Maldives,I am surprised garbage problem.
It is severe problem around world so I want to learn this problem.
Thank you.
I learned that many countries have each problems. And the problems are sometimes same. It is important to solve these problems, cooperating all over the world. I had a nice time. Thank you.
This 4days class was very interesting for me. Through this class, I was able to think about any other countries and what I don’t think in daily life. There are few chance to think humanities and issue of overseas, so that was very interesting and a little difficult. For me, on Day1 and Day2, we compared many informations with some countries over the world. It was very interesting and meaningful. And on last day, I heard the presentations of Ghana, Maldives and Salvador. There were many good informations and Quiz, so I could enjoying studying and knowing about that countries.… Read more »
I have a good time in here. I think that English is useful for comunication. But, it is not only. English open the door to a world that I did not know.
Presentation was very difficult for me, But I think
I will be able to do better than this time.
I learned there are many problem in countries, and religion, so I think it’s natural that there are many thinking and acts. This class was very interesting for me. I could know many countries and these backgrounds. It is just tip, so I should learn more for myself.
Thank you, Mr. Hall.
I learned about international understanding. It is important to know the culture to communicate with different countries people through this class. There are a lot of different countries, culture and customs. So we have to make efforts to understand each other. I decided to do that when I communicate with people.
This class gave me a lot of new knowledge. Many countries have suffered from problems. In group 1, what impressed me most about Egypt. It was my first time to know about forced marriage. We don’t think it is small problem, but think it as an global issue. This way will be first step to solve problems.
This class had become very meaningful for me. I can get many thing from this class. I didn’t know about different cultures until studying in this class. However my understanding about different culture is not enough yet. So I want to study about it more deeply. For example, I would like to compare the difference between Japan and other country. I don’t know the dairy life of people who living in other country. It is very difficult to understand about them. So I think it was good to come to this class. Presentation was a little difficult. But we can… Read more »
I could know actual circumstances of many countries. Each country has unique culture and several issues. I want to think about global issues from now on. When I teach English to children,what I learned and its knowledge will be useful.
After finishing the presentation,I learned the difficulty of expressing what I want to say.
In this class, I learned the important things in understanding a lot of other cultures. Many countries have numerous issues, for example poverty, education and nature. It is so difficult to know all of it and it is not enough to research with only internet and books. We can learn well about them through communicating with them actually. Therefore, I thought learning about saveral language is very important. I want to study more many culture.
The program of presentation was good experience for me. Because I could understand about other country’s culture, economy, poverty problems…etc. Almost things were I didn’t know before learning. Today, I did presentation and I was nervous. So, I want to be used to speak in front of lots of people. I want to remember that it is important to understand and accept different culture.
I have wanted to interact foreign people and study abroad for many years. So I need much information about in the world. In this class, I could get a lot of information and issue around the world. This study will connect to my future and now. I can get knowledge about various culture, and chance to consider serious issue. I think this class is good study. Thank you.
I was talking fast and looking scenarios. So I think hard to hear. I want to remember scenarios and look at listeners.
I think, our slides are many letters. It’s hard to see if there are many letters. I also want to emphasize the ease of viewing.
Other groups presentations have many inventions. I want use it next.
I could learn a lot from the Meeting of Multicultural Educators. Especially, problems of each countries were interesting and impressive for me. I think we should know other countries more and more. Understanding each other is difficult for us, but it’s really important. Also, I felt a lot of things. I’m thinking of studying abroad now, but I thought I have to study hard again. I would like to try to learn hardly from now on. Thank you so much.
Thank you for your classes.
In this classes, I learned countries have own culture, customs,etc. It was very interesting to know other countries.
But some countries have serious problem(ex: economic gap, environment issues, garbage problem…).It is important for all countries to think these problems.
I didn’t know there are a lot of important issues before the presentation in this classes.So I tell them to Japanese children if I become teacher. I thought it’s important to learn other country’s attraction, or current states.
It was interesting classes for me. Thank you!!
I learned about many countries. We can’t perceive the specificity and feature in our usual lives. This class, theMeeting of Multicultural Educators gave me an opportunity to understand the difference of culture. Other groups’ presentations were very interesting and easy to understand. They thought out their presentations by being colorful and using pictures. Also they made lots of questions, and it is good point for me to take part in enthusiastically. Presentations was difficult. However, through making presentation, I got knowledge about world. I would like to think it over about global issues.
I understood a lot of things about other countries.
It is interesting that there is something different from Japan.
Reform Measures
・Have English subtitles
・Show alternative when I give questions
I joined them in the middle of the conversation.
But they welcome me warmly,so l worked hard.
Publishing in English Was not so simple but I tried my best!
This activity was a lot of fun!
Thank you very much!!
I was very interested in various countries.
I could learn about many culture of each countries and know about the components of culture.
Especially, I was very surprised that there are bridge made of PC screens in Ghana…
I can learn some country’s things like environment problem through this time presentation, l have’t ever known each country facing problem and l found problem that we have to think and solve. So l want to know problem of each country more. I think it is important for our general to think several problem. And I want to continue to think country’s difference and problem connect this class.
I don’t understand various countries before I take this class. If I took this class, I would not study about Bangladesh. I got many information about Bangladesh. And, I can get various knowledges all over the world. In the world, there are many good points and many bad points. I think that knowing bad points in the world is very important to live in our life. I can notice it.
This four days was good for me. I want to travel all over the world, so I will try to study my favorite countries.
I learned many things in this class. Counry presentation was a little difficult. I should learn about international understanding, and I would like to know many things of many county and many problems.
I’m weak in English. So I had fear when I know we must make a presentation. But, I felt pleasure of knowing various countries and their values. It is different that countries think idea and values. They are different, they are all nice!! Thanks to this class I knew other countries, and we need to think their issues to solution.
I can learn a lot of countries. Many countries have garbage issues. So, I want to look back about my life. I understood cross culture by this class. Thank you.
I enjoyed understanding about many countries. I could be interested in many countries. Especially, I was surprised Ghana’s environment. I want to study other countries.
I could know about many countries in this class, and that is about not only cultures but also serious issues.
I want to learn about various country’s situations, so I think I should read many books, read news papers, go abroad ,talk many people, so on.
I could think about other country’s values, which was good for me.
I thought learning other countries is very important.
Through acts , I learn very much. This class is speaking, talking, and writing only English. So I thought very difficult many things.smooth. First, speaking English to understand for everyone . I want to use some examples . Second ,to pronounce fluently . Third ,listening English and remembering words. I can listen some words. But I can’t recall meaning of theirs words . I should practice listening and recall meaning. Presentations is good, so I get out home , I study to understand the contents immediately.
I experienced to notice my ability.
It was hard 4 days, but I learned a lot about different cultures. Especially, I learned various countries more deeply yesterday and today. I could find so many problems, like garbage, poverty and so on from other groups. These presentations taught me what happened in the world, and I thought we do not somebody else’s problem. We have to discuss after understanding. And also. I could know various kinds of cultures. There happened normal in my county, but not in other countries. So, it’s really interesting for me! We all live in the same planet, but culture is really different.… Read more »
I learned some countries for some presentations.
I think it is important to learn a lot of countries because Japan’s culture is different from other countries. I want to learn many countries.
After I finished 4days classes , I could learn many knowledges and views that I didn’t have before.
Especially, I was interested in the components of culture ‘s lecture. I could decide into 7 thinking (Proxemics, Kinesics, Haptics,…etc)
And also , through our presentation and preparing for that , we could think of real and history of the country.That was very good time for us to start to know mutual culture . And then we could think deeply by listening to other group’s presentations!
Thank you for teaching us.