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Oral Test 2013




Homework

Describe and analyse ONE of the two following cartoons:

Look at this information!!! and read the included guide before you start!






Recent Homework

Recent Homework has moved to a separate page!


Vocabeltest

Vokabeltest

  • The test will be held on FRIDAY, 8 February 2013.
  • The test will be held on the basis of ONLY ONE of the two vocab-sheets.
  • The sheet relevant for the test is the one titled "Attitude to/Way of treating others"

Attitude.pdf


It is strongly recommended that you also learn the vocabulary on the second sheet, as your descriptive skills needed for characterizations and descriptions definitely need to be improved!

Basic Skills & Information




US Political System

How Obama won the presidential elections in 2012

The summary of the lessons on this topic can be found in this PDF.

Obamawins.pdf



Useful Vocabulary

Committee Komitee, Ausschuss
politicians Politiker
declare ones candidacy Kandidatur ankündigen
campaign (Wahl-)Kampagne
key states Schlüsselstaaten
the primaries die Vorwahlen
to pledge sich verpflichten, schwören
delegate Deligierter
the party convention Parteitag
running-mate ein Kandidat für die Vizepräsidentschaft
rival Rivale / Konkurrent
state-by-state staatenweise/ Staat für Staat
campaigning
swing states Bundesstaat mit hohem Wechselwähleranteil
televised debate Fernsehdebatte
Voters Wähler
electors Wahlmann
electoral college Versammlung aller Wahlmänner

Religion in the USA and Britain

Vocabulary

Religion-voc.pdf



Cartoon



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Facts on Religion and Politics in the US

Special Religious Groups and Institutions

  • (Evangelical) Mega-Churches
  • church should not play the role of the state, but have clear positions
  • against stem cell research
  • against gay marriage
  • against abortion
  • some are liberal in enforcing their views
  • 7,500 seats in church
  • 11,000 congregants

Trends

  • 72% of the Americans want their president to be clearly religious
  • majority says churches should not endorse candidates
  • half of the Americans think churches should express views on political matters
  • 41% of the Americans want more religion in politics
  • Americans are comfortable with showing their faith in public
  • vote for candidates who aren't afraid to express their religious views
  • only about 30% of Americans refuse gay marriage in 2003 - as compared to 41% in 1996
  • about 25% are white evangelical christians and vote republican
  • so many Americans believe that religion should not have any direct influence on and US politics but believe in religion being a privately exercised, individual matter
  • many American Christians are not evangelicals and clearly want a more liberal, open-minded idea of Christianity and belief in God


Typical aspects/facts concerning religion in the USA

  • US constitution strictly separates church and state
  • US politicians - unlike their counterparts in Europe - often mention God in their speeches (God bless you, God bless America ...)



Influence of the Christian Right in the US

Cf. Book, p. 80/81

  1. Majority of conservative judges at US Courts appointed by Bush - hope for Religious Right?
  2. Religious Right fails at forcing schools to do school prayer and teach intelligent design.
  3. Religiously motivated influence on US Foreign Policy
  4. Most states forbid gay marriage while Washington refuses to include ban in Constitution
  5. Christian Right successful with ban on new stem cell research
  6. Supreme Court still rejects display of religious symbols in public institutions


Christianright1.jpg Christianright2.jpg

TV Evangelism & Lakewood Megachurch

Watch the video at least two times!

Collect facts about:

  • Lakewood "Megachurch"
  • Joel Osteen's message
  • the "Services"
  • financial matters

What is your impression of Osteen and his church?

Why do you think is his church growing so fast?

Download Summary of facts about Osteen's megachurch




The Amish in the USA

Facts about the Amish (mainly from)


different about life, family:

  • transport+farming with horses, mules
  • work from dawn to dusk
  • hard physical work: baling hay, picking beans + tomatoes
  • animals are highly valued
  • 6 children
  • girls' dresses è modesty ...
  • day starts with reading from the bible
  • homeschooling (to be with them, not to lose contact, really educate them ...)
  • work-ethic of children
  • family/time with children valued very highly
  • modern technology is not accepted if it threatens to break up the family or community or link the Amish too closely to the world outside - but "independent" gas refrigerators or a small generator just for the washing machine are allowed in some groups.


  • Look at text1 and text2! They contain good information about the Amish
  • Write an interview with an Amish!
  • Start with a short characterization of the person you interview (name, appearance, why/when/where interview is done).
  • Structure: question and answer form. Use interesting questions, make sure the answers fit the questions.
  • Language: Make sure the register/style of interviewer and interviewee are appropriate (they may be different!) Remember to use "spoken language"!
  • Last step: careful proofreading


  • The interview should cover the topics of
  • electricity
  • using cars
  • the clothes they wear
  • attitude to tourists and being photographed!

Creationism


Muslims in Britain

Texts

Read from beginnin to "And it's a very powerful grip on one's mind. And in my case it took years to shed that influence." (third box)
  • crucial event: death of thousands of European muslims in war in Bosnia in 90s! West just watches and doesn't help the muslims there. (Parallels to wars in Iraq .... muslims are being killed and no-one cares)
  • Islam is cleverly presented as way of looking at history: like in Marxism it is always a struggle, them against us, bad against good, everybody against the muslims (idea of Western/Jewish conspiracy against Islam/muslims)
  • at school/in university young muslims become part of an active, organized, outspoken movement ⇒ proud to be an active muslim, feeling of power, feeling of belonging to group and of changing the world.

Cartoon ⇐Klick!

  • 4 frames, three show acts of violence/hatred committed in the name of Christianity/Western Civilization
  • evangelical pastor [=church] burning Korans, evangelical/conservative politician [politics] against building mosque in USA, secret service agent [=government] torturing terrorist suspect)
  • irony: they all want revenge/act as unchristian/intolerantly as those they accuse of doing this to them
  • irony: preacher is completely stupid: of course "them folks don't act like Christians" - they simply aren't christians!
  • preacher also doesn't seem to know his Bilble: "Jesus hates Mohammed" is absolutely like anthing Jesus preaches in the Bible: Jesus preaches love, peace and forgiveness - not hatred!
  • picture four shows the result: children in USA have learned, that you needn't act as you wish others to act towards you (in civilized way, mercyfully, helpfully, tolerantly ...) but can do anything you want as long as nobody stops you.
  • General criticism: christian/western preachers and politicians and governments do the same things they accuse terrorists and radical islamist of ⇒ they are no better than them


Society and Class

Hierarchy of needs - and the role of the individual in society

Class and Society in Victorian England

Questions on the text

  1. Try to characterize the two protagonists!
  2. How does the narrator influence the readers feelings towards the characters? (Give lines)
  3. What different attitudes towards class and marriage can you identify? (Give lines)


Watch from 6:40 to 9:00!


Definitions of "Class"



Victorian Society = 3 classes: upper, middle, and lower/working

Upper class = nobility, or peerage (dukes, earls, viscounts)

  • sometimes related to royal families of Britain and Europe
  • society distinct and separate to the other two classes
  • aristocrats without profession, as their families had sufficient funds to live in affluence (But captains of industry, esp. mining, ship building)


Middle class = rich families (respectable, sometimes with land - but lack a "title")

  • often had skilled professions (doctor, teacher)
  • beginning of Victorian times: small proportion of the population.
  • Industrial Revolution  more people defined as 'middle class' (improvements in education and more opportunities to work your way up, make money)


The lower class (working class) = rural and urban poor

  • often low skilled, dangerous, dirty and boring jobs due to lack of education
  • some are 'lower middle class', but living in terraced housing  defined as working class
Paupers = class below working class
  • extreme poverty (old age, unemployment, illness or strained resources)
  • targets of Philanthropists in the 1890s (idea to reduce alarming poverty)


Welfare in the USA

Write a short description and analysis!


  • Give some thought to what is criticized and how people/attitutudes are shown to be wrong/absurd!
  • Translate the elements in the cartoon into real objects (e.g. man stands for embittered public feeling they worked hard but now get a small pension)



Popular Myths: Who is on welfare?

Welfare-myths.pdf

Compare this page as source and for more analysis!


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Welfare reform in the USA 1996 (cf book, p. 16/17)

Available Benefits

  • cash welfare benefits
  • Medicaid
  • food stamps
  • disability benefits
  • TANF – Temporary Aid for Needy Families


Welfare reform in the USA 1996
reasons welfare reform 1996 - changes effects of 1996 welfare reforms
  • people stayed on welfare too long
  • people didn't become independent from state help
  • rules discouraged people from working, as they lost welfare benefits if they earned "too much"
  • Single parents lost welfare benefits when they moved in with the other parent of the children → system mainly supported single-parent families
  • Higher costs and lower benefits from employers for health care
  • Five-year time limits on cash benefits for people in the TANF program
  • New rules allow people to work and still receive Medicaid and food stamps under certain conditions of
  • new rules allow moving in with the other parent and still keeping (some) benefits
  • clear reduction in the number of families receiving cash benefits (-60% from 1969 to 2005)
  • Few former welfare recipients have become fully independent
  • Majority have moved from welfare to work but only found low paid jobs that offer no further career
  • Poverty was not reduced and personal economic stability was not achieved
  • more people work but still receive welfare support → step towards self-sufficiency
  • increase in number of people who need other government assistance
  • Increase in the number of people receiving Medicaid and food stamps
  • Rise in employment of single mothers
  • Child poverty rates have gone down, but absolute numbers have risen

Talks

  • Use your own words! (You may include some short, illustrating/fitting quotations ...)
  • Write clear statements or questions and answers! Show and explain contrasts, problems, developments, cause and effects .....
  • Use your computer's spellchecking!


System of Welfare in the USA (Hemmerlein)

Welfare-general.pdf

Criticism of Welfare, its recipients and its effects (Keupp)

Defence of Welfare and the people that depend on it (Brandl)

Defence of welfare.pdf

Welfare in Britain

  • Watch the short video on Welfare in Britain twice.
  • Take notes

Try to identify/explain

  • the causes and effects of so many people being on welfare
  • why it is so difficult to get people off welfare
  • what measures are taken to achieve this



Ecology and Protecting the Environment

How green are you?

  1. Look at How green are you?
  2. Look through the test again an create a simple list of dos and don'ts!
  3. Prepare a short talk about at least 4 environmental dos and don'ts and tell people about your favourite!


Environmental DOs and DON'Ts

Zum Vergrößern mehrfach klicken und dann speichern ...!


Do-dont.jpg



Mixed society: Immigration, Ethnicity, Racism

Different concepts of a mixed society:

Concepts of mixed society.pdf


Multiculturalism - Does it work?

Facts

The ideal of multiculturalism: Pros and Cons

Book p. 51

  1. Multiculturalism is a failure as it leads to segregation and lack of assimilation into British culture
  2. Ghettoization and lack of intermarriage speak a clear language ⇒ no assimilation of some ethic groups
  3. Criticism of multiculturalism is not not racism, but an expression of the mainstream culture's efforts to defend against all otherness
  4. Not only immigrants, but all groups and classes live and socialize preferrably with people of a similar social type
  5. Most Britons think: Not mixing is okay as long as it doesn't threaten society, as long as general acceptance of British laws and culture is not in danger




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Stereotypes

  • ... are fixed, simple ideas or images that many people have of a particular type of person or thing
  • ... often use simple criteria and give a simplified version of reality
  • ... help us to categorize/distinguish between dangerous and harmless, attractive and unattractive, relieble - treacherous ...
  • ... help us to understand and explain the world in a quick and simple way
  • ... can be positive (men are strong) and negative (men don't have true feelings)
  • ... are often very hard to change, even if experiences suggest thtat the stereotype may be wrong/to simple to explain complex realties or individual behaiviour


... against Asian Americans


What stereotypes about Asian Americans are there? Make a structured list (sex, positive/negative ...)

  • Men
+ clever, hard working
+ technology-freaks, good with computers
- nerds
- not masculine/effeminate
- not athletic
- short


  • Women
+ exotic (sexually attractive)
+ clever, hard working
+ submissive/demure
- too clever(for many men), tricky


What effect do these stereotypes have on the way they are treated by others? Develop theories for at least 4 of the stereotypes you found!



... against African Americans

Positive or negative ..? - what effects?

Africanstereotype.jpg



... against Hispanic/Latino Americans

Positive or negative ..? - what effects?

Hispanicstereotype.jpg



Racism

A clever Way of Addressing racism ...


  • What is the topic and message of this song?
  • How does the artist try to sell his message cleverly? Look at the images and lyrics (To say what part of the video you are talking about, use the timecode, e.g. 3:32)
  • What phrase/image do you like?
  • How does it work?
  • What rhetorical tricks are used?




Immigration

Buch 64/65 (Q 1): Typical features in lives of immigrants

  • belief in American dream (job, house, provide for family)
  • (parents) came to USA to have more opportunities/due to poverty in home country
  • work
  • first jobs in agriculture (fruit picking) or fast-food sector, textile industry
  • children often have to work with parents
  • often migrant workers
  • often non-permanent, short-term employment
  • low-paid jobs
  • permanent resident or citizen status often through marriage with permanent resident or US citizen
  • live simple lives, work hard, believe in American Dream
  • often support other family members (in home countries)
  • often not accepted/looked down upon by established/Caucasian US population


Pros and cons of immigration

  1. http://www.embraceni.org/migration/the-pros-and-cons-of-migration/
  2. http://www.balancedpolitics.org/immigration.htm
  3. http://www.europeaninstitute.org/20060902138/Fall/Winter-2006/polish-migrants-to-britain-pros-and-cons.html
  4. http://boomerous.sb.siliconmtn.com/docs/taking_sides/immigration/pros_and_cons.html



PROS of immigration CONS of immigration
  • exchange of cultural values → cultural diversity
  • new opportunities for the people from both cultures/countries (work, family…)
  • immigrants bring energy and fresh new ideas
  • it improves the image of a country (open, international and welcoming )
  • transfer of knowledge from one nation to another
  • results in amixed population, ready for a connected/ global market
  • job vacancies and skills gaps can be filled
  • immigrants and their children help to fight the problems of an ageing society
  • economic growth is much easier and can be sustained
  • young migrants enhance their prospects in life
  • it gives struggling, persecuted people a possibility to have a better life/future in another country
  • developing/poor countries profit from savings sent from migrants to their home countries
  • high rate of unemployment in poor countries gets lower
  • overpopulation
  • ghettoization
  • growing number of immigrants in certain areas → local population feels in danger of becoming minority (language, culture, politically)
  • problems with integration and quarrels with/unrest among local population
  • immigrants may bring in diseases, may be terrorists
  • jobs are “stolen” from "native" population → danger of unemployment esp. for low-qualified "native" population
  • lower average wages due to availability of cheap labour
  • less educated immigrants are believed to increase crime rate → more security demanded by citizens → high costs, loss of liberties
  • exploitation of (esp. illegal) immigrants
  • unemployed/poor/illegal immigrants get social benefits, healthcare, free schooling although they pay little/no taxes → burden for social services
  • drain of knowledge/qualified people from one country to another → poor countries end up donating their educated minority to other richer countries
  • most workers leave on their own, so their families break up + some couples leave their children behind → end up on the streets and get criminal



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The American Dream!

Links




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Mindmap: The American Dream

The American Dream.png

Madonna: American Life


Explain the function of the massive use of questions in "American life"!

Collected Ideas

  • Make audience think about questions
  • Express a generally doubtful attitude about the American dream
  • What do I have to live the American dream?
  • Express the insecurity of the speaker
  • all the changes in questions affect how you are seen by others


Final answer In Madonna’s song American life are many questions that have a special meaning. Generally these questions express a doubtful attitude towards the American dream, which is not clearly defined. The speaker wonders if the attitude of the American dream fits him/her at all. (l. 7) Furthermore he wonders what she has to do to live the American dream and even thinks about changing her name. (l. 1) This shows the extreme insecurity of the speaker, who is almost willing to give up her identity. Doing this would all mean to change the impression that you make on other people. Audience may find that opportunistic or at least strange or sad. All in all these questions aim at making the reader doubt the American dream and try to find answers to these questions. Some readers may see themselves in these lines and critically rethink their own attitude towards the American dream.



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What is the special effect of the rap section (2nd part of song)?

Tone and Content

  • machine-like sound of the rap part
  • shows how fast modern life moves on
  • list of fashionable or trendy materialist items/ goods that you must have ==> critisism
  • speed of song is confusing as modern life is
  • contrast between first and second part of the text: doubts vs. reality of the American Dream
  • contrast between "I am satisfied" (repeated 4 times) and "Do you think I am satisfied ?"
  • "I just realized that nothing is what it seems" finally shows her attitude towards the American Dream, which is not what it should be




Globalization

Definition and Key Facts

Book, p. 178


History / 3 Phases of Globalization

Globalzation 1.0 (first phase/era) - 1492 (Columbus) until around 1800

  • world got connected, shrank from size L to M
  • trade between Old World and New World
  • countries' power defined by use of horse power/wind power/steam power/ (horses, ships, engines)
  • aim: to fit into global competition
  • motivation often religion / imperialism


Globalization 2.0 (second era) - 1800 to 2000

  • interrupted by the Great Depression, World War I and II
  • world got more connected, shrank from size M to S
  • industrial revolution and multinational companies (e.g. East India Company) as most dynamic forces
  • global integration ⇐ breakthroughs in hardware development
1. falling transportation costs (steam engine, railroad, cars, airplanes)
2. falling telecommunication costs (telegraph, telephone, PC, satellites ...)
  • development of really global economy ⇒ massive movement of goods and information


Globalization 3.0 (third era) - from 2000 to …

  • world got even more connected, shrank from S to XXS and countries got even closer
  • newfound power for individuals to communicate, collaborate, compete globally
  • key developments:
- fiber-optic cable + Internet + work flow software + mobile computing
- final end of simple East/West division
⇒ very small, flattened world/playing field (many forces on same level, even individuals are very powerful)
- China has become more powerful
- now much more diverse, non-white, non-European influences ⇒ West no longer dominant in globalization

Source: Friedman. The three eras of globalization (Book, p. 176f) .

Pros and Cons



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Talks

Globalisation and the Internet





Globalization and culture

Obesity

Talk: Why our food is making us fat