StereotypesAssignment: "What You Know"Each class member will click on this What You Know Google Doc Chart. Fill in the chart with What you Know about various Cultures.
Stereotypes are ideas or generalizations that people have about different cultures or groups. For example: All Japanese people know Karate. There are usually both good and bad stereotypes about any culture. Although they may be based in truth, they generally don't reflect the reality of a diverse group of people. While stereotypes often do develop from the effort to understand something new or strange, such as a new culture, the danger of stereotypes comes from accepting this understanding as true without investigating if the generalization is actually true, or without discovering the motivation for the creation of the stereotype. Many stereotypes can be accepted as both positive and correct by most people – e.g. the Japanese are a hard working people; however, there are many stereotypes which are both incorrect and negative and they can really be hurtful or offensive to the people the stereotype is referring to – for example, one offensive stereotype of black people is that they are very aggressive. Often these negative and incorrect stereotypes are developed by people who dislike a culture or want their own culture to seem better in some way – e.g. when Great Britain was governing India in the 19th century, a common stereotype was that Indian people were lazy. This stereotype was used to promote the need for white government in India and to suggest that white people are not lazy but instead are hard working. _________ snakes harmful?
Quantifier grammar reminder. Many, much, a lot of : These are all used to talk about a large quantity of something; many is used only with C nouns, much with U nouns and a lot of can be used with both. Only many and much can be preceded by the words how, to form questions (how many / how much ...?). The word too can be used to express a negative idea (too hot, too cold) and so, to show the speaker's attitude to the quantity (so many that ... /so much he couldn't ...). Manyand much tend to be rather formal in use and are therefore often found in legal documents, academic papers and so on; in speech we often use phrases like a lot of, loads of, tons of, hundreds of. Few, little Again: the meaning of these two words is similar since they both refer to small quantities, except that few is found with C nouns and little with U nouns. If they are used without the indefinite article, a, they have the sense of not enough and are negative in feeling (few events, little interest) but these are quite formal and we would normally prefer not many events and not much interest.When few and little are used witha they simply mean a small quantity with no extra negative overtones: a few events (i.e. three or four) and a little interest (i.e. some interest, but not a lot). Any: Any can be used before countable and uncountable nouns usually in questions and negative sentences: · Are you bringing any friends with you? · Do you have any coffee? · I can't remember any songs. · He isn't taking any chances. If we stress the word any heavily when speaking, we are suggesting an unlimited choice from a range of things or an unrestricted quantity; in this case its use is not confined to just questions and negatives: · Help yourself to any sandwiches. (the choice is yours) · Don't you like any Beatles song? (I can't believe you dislike them all) · I can't see any difference. (nothing at all) Some Some is usually thought of as the positive counterpart to any in many circumstances. · I'm bringing some friends with me. · I have some coffee. Like any it is used before both C and U nouns, and means an indefinite quantity but not a large amount. The general rule given above for the use of any in negative sentences and questions does not always hold in requests and offers where we often use some to mean a small amount of a known quantity: · Would you like some cake? (here is the cake, do you want a piece of it?) · Could I have some biscuits instead? (any would not be possible in this case) If we stress the word some in positive and negative sentences and in questions, we are suggesting a limited quantity or number of something: · I like some Beatles songs. (but certainly not all) · I can see some difference. (but not a lot) |