Friday, January 30, 2009

SESSION 3: EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION AND FINAL TASK

SESSION 3: EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION AND FINAL TASK
2. EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION
2.1 Same Roles: How acceptable do you think each of the following is?
  • Men crying watching sad movies
  • Boys playing with Barbie dolls
  • Men plucking their eyebrows
  • Male nurses
  • Househusbands
  • Women asking men out on dates
  • Women using foul language
  • Female religious leaders
  • Female boxing

2.2 Discrimination: are women discriminated against in these areas in your country?

  • Salary
  • Promotion
  • Hiring or buying a house or car
  • Work atmosphere
  • Sexual harassment
  • Titles of address (Mrs. / Miss /first name...)
  • Levels of respect from the opposite sex

2.3 Discussion: Here are some questions you can try asking yourself before you come to our discussion on Wednesday:

a. Did the headline make you want to read the article?

b. What is your image (or experience) of gender equality in Japan?

c. How equal is your society regarding gender?

d. Do you think a 30 percent target for women in top-level government posts is a good one?

e. How could the system of maternity and paternity leave in your country be improved?

f. Do you think men or women make better managers?

g. Do you think your country will ever achieve perfect gender equality? How?

h. Are there areas in your society where gender inequality hits men?

i. What kinds of institutionalized inequalities exist in your country?

j. What kind of harassment do women complain about in your country?

k. Would you say your country is a male-dominated one?

l. Are you surprised that Japan ranks a lowly 43rd in the world in the United Nations index of gender equality?

m. Which countries do you think are at the top of the UN index and why?

PREPARING A DISCUSSION IS FUNDAMENTAL. THIS MUST BE DONE IN TWO DIRECTIONS: FIRST, YOU NEED TO LEARN NEW VOCABULARY AND EXPRESSIONS THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO USE FOR THE DISCUSSION, SECONDLY YOU HAVE TO PREPARE THE TOPIC BY LOOKING UP INFORMATION IN THE INTERNET, BOOKS, ENCYCLOPAEDIAS. THIS WAY YOU WILL FEEL MUCH MORE CONFIDENT AND AT THE SAME TIME YOU WILL HAVE MUCH MORE TO TALK ABOUT.


THERE IS ONE FINAL TASK THAT YOU MAY DO AND THIS WAY YOU WILL COVER THE FOUR SKILLS YOU MUST IMPROVE WHEN LEARNING A LANGUAGE: LISTENING, READING, SPEAKING AND WRITING.

WRITING:

Write a composition of not more than 180 words and leave it in the blog as a comment to Session 3, I will edit it in the blog so that everybody can learn from other people´s opinions

WRITE A COMPOSITION TITLED: SPANISH WOMEN TO HAVE MORE EQUALITY

2 comments:

  1. It is supposed human beings are different from animals because of our intelligence, but if I analyse our behaviour I’m not sure about this. One example of our ‘civilized’ society has been set out in this article where we can see as in one of the most developed countries of the world big differences still exist between women and men, but I feel more optimistic after reading that it is an AMBITIOUS plan to increase the number of women in top-level government posts to 30 percent from the current 21.5 percent by 2020. If this is the situation in Japan, what can we hope from Islamic countries, if women who live there (Islamic countries) have luck maybe after one thousand years they can manage a big company.

    This is for your girls: you not only have to be good at work, you have to demonstrate it and if you can’t, you know, you should stay at home and have a good dinner cooked when your husband get home and don’t forget to do the washing up, to iron, to clean,…

    Are we living in the 21st century?

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  2. Personally I think Spanish society is in a turning point: government has made very important laws and endorsements; people tend to adopt a sensible point of view about the question. On the other hand, we can read an article about aggressions against women in the newspapers every day. The more we do to fight inequality, the more criminal men seem to be out there, growing the figures. Moreover, if you read the small print of the news you will find a kind of women who attracts a particular type of men. Try to remember that forced girl who insisted on defending her brute partner after he hit a man who tried to defend her. I feel something is wrong in the couple’s minds: the abused woman, who loves her bulling macho man, but hasn’t got almost a bit of pity on that caring, gallant man who watch over her, risking his own life. Not only men resist changes in women’s roles in nowadays society: even certain women do. Because of that is extremely important that laws and public polices force the cultural change, one of a no go back kind.

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