Communicating in the Global Village

Recently my Form Four Life Skills students have been studying “Communication and Media in the Global Village,” a subject in their curriculum which would be a lot more interesting to teach if we had internet access. Unfortunately, all of the dinosaur computers donated to the school have ceased functioning in the last few months, so I was left wondering how to tackle this topic. First, I brought in all sorts of books and magazines for them to peruse and consider in terms of readership and significance: Newsweek, Lonely Planet, WorldView (a Peace Corps publication), the New Yorker, Vegetarian Times, the Economist, Glamour. And wouldn’t you know they liked the last one best, especially the silky hair advertisements. A few boys asked to borrow it.

As faithful readers may recall, I am linked with a Coverdell WorldWise Partner teacher in America (who also happens to have been a close friend for 20 years). Basically, the partnership program is designed to promote Peace Corps’ second and third goals of advancing mutual understanding between countries. Anyway, Sammy, who teaches seniors at Annandale High School, and I agreed to have our students exchange questions with each other so they could learn a little bit about the daily lives of their peers on the other side of the world.

My kids, who were stoked about this idea, wrote up their questions last week, I typed them up and emailed them to Sammy, and today shared the responses she sent back. Rather than just read the answers aloud, I drew a big Venn Diagram on the chalkboard and we compared my Malawian students’ answers with those of the U.S.A. seniors. There were, unsurprisingly, quite a few similarities among the teens. Here are some of the answers:

Eugene asked: What type of behaviour do you want your friend to be?

USA: honest, loyal, funny, nice

Malawi: honest, kind, faithful, tolerant, moral

Moses asked: I want to know what kind of music do you like?

USA: Go-go, Lil Wayne, Justin Bieber, Wiz Khalifa, Nicki Minaj

Malawi: Reggae, hip-hop, Lil Wayne, Justin Bieber [Sigh.]

Noel asked: What do you want to do when you finish your studies?

USA: Some people go to “Beach Week” after school ends.

[Okay, that was a tough one to explain to my morally upright and temperate students. I compared it to celebrating at Lake Malawi.]

Noel also asked: What things do you do to keep your body strong and healthy?

USA: Martial arts, running, basketball, American football, swimming.

[Malawian kids LOVE martial arts, or at least what they call kung fu. They practice it on each other behind the school—diving, jumping, and spinning into the soft bed of grass and straw that lines the abandoned pits for burning rubbish.]

Malawi: football (soccer), netball, bathing, swimming, running [I’m not sure I believe that one; I’ve never seen a Malawian walk faster than 3 miles per hour. They failed to mention their bodies stay pretty strong and healthy just going about their daily lives, carrying buckets of water or firewood or sacks of maize on their heads, and working long hours in the fields.]

Kelvin asked: What country do you live in?

USA: All of us live in America, but many of us are from different countries, like Germany, Cambodia, Vietnam, Ireland, France, Pakistan, and Sierra Leone.

[My class gasped. “I want to go to that school!” said Emmanuel.]

Frank asked: What are your hobbies or things you like to do on weekends?

USA: Hang out with friends, watch movies, part-time jobs, play games, going to the mall, parties, homework

Malawi: Chatting with friends, watching movies, homework, dancing, church [They were surprised nobody from America mentioned church.]

Tamala asked: What foods do you like in your everyday life?

USA: Cereal, spaghetti, pizza, kabob, hamburgers, French fries, pho, Chinese food

Malawi: Nsima, chicken and chips, thelele (okra).

[They were a little confused when I explained pizza, some had tried spaghetti, all very interested in pho, and excited to hear that French fries and chips are the same thing.]

Chifundo asked: What is life in America like, to you?

USA: Very good for some people, but hard for people who don’t have jobs. [This answer surprised my students, who described life in Malawi as very hard.]

Blessings asked: Do you want to visit Malawi?

USA: Yes, if someone can pay for it! [Malawian students laughed.]

Blessings also asked: Who is your role model?

USA: Oprah, Taylor Swift, Bruce Le [many cheers from the Malawians!], JFK, Obama [more cheers], James Bond [cheers again], Michael Jordan [some kids had heard of him]

Rabecca asked: What would you like to be in terms of your career?

USA: physical therapist, voice actor, nurse, engineer

Malawi: nurse, lawyer, engineer

Gabriel asked: What are your likes and dislikes?

USA: We like girls/boys, Facebook, cell phones, music, Taylor Swift, TV, motorcycles, having a driver’s license. We dislike: bullies, Myspace, liars, homework, cold weather

Malawi: We like girls/boys, football, dancing, movies, chatting, the lake. We dislike: liars [They said more, but I didn’t get a chance to get them down]

Antra asked: What do you do when you wake up early in the morning?

USA: Most teenagers wake up at 6 am on school days, but on weekends we wake up from 11 am to 2 pm. [Malawians wake up, it seems, around 3 in the morning, on their own accord, so this was very confusing for them. It also confuses my students when I suggest that knocking on my door or calling me at 5 in the morning is unacceptable. I began enforcing this policy when I began distributing condoms from Peace Corps, and the students are still baffled at my queer desire to sleep until 6 (or even 7!) on the weekend.]

Andrew asked: Do you have a boyfriend or girlfriend?

USA: 2 out of 14 students have a boyfriend/girlfriend.

[Malawian secondary students aren’t technically allowed to be in relationships so none of them wanted to volunteer that information, but it is safe to say, based on the condom requests mentioned above, that a fair number of them are.]

So, it was a productive and entertaining exchange within the global village. And we are looking forward to some questions from the American students next week.