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Tasks: Becoming the American Child – a Blog Post about Identity

Understanding the text:

Work with a partner and discuss the following questions.

  1. Nandana Surendran grew up in suburban Illinois. What does 'suburban' mean?

  2. When Surendran was little, she was fascinated by her parents' culture and her own background. How and why did that change when she began school?

  3. How did Surendran adapt to American culture?

  4. What was Surendran's attitude to her cultural background when she wrote the text?

Discuss:

Work in pairs or groups and discuss the questions.

  1. Around 330 million people live in the United States. Do you think it is possible to define what a typical American is like?

  2. If you moved to the United States, do you think you would have to change anything about yourself to fit in?

  3. For people who are different in any way, how common is it to experience microaggressions, insults, bullying, and mockery from peers at the school you attend?

  4. If someone appears strange or different to you, are you still able to treat them well?

  5. If you were going to write a manual describing what you should do to be accepted and fit in at your school, what would you include?

  6. What should schools do to ensure that everyone can be themselves?

Define:

In this task you are not allowed to use the internet or any other sources.

  • What is a blog?
    Discuss with partners and write a shared definition.

  • Share your definitions in class and work together to agree on one definition.

Write:

Choose one of the tasks and write a text that is minimum 400 words, maximum 800 words long.

  1. What made you who you are today? Write a blog post about the topic.

  2. How can we stop bullying? Write a blog post about the topic.

  3. Write a blog post with the following title: 'You can be yourself for as long as you are exactly like us'.

Analyse:

In the box, you will find excerpts from the speech 'Nine Life Lessons', which comedian Tim Minchin gave at the University of Western Australia in 2013. Write a short analysis of the text, maximum 500 words.

The speech has a humorous tone. What does he do to achieve this effect? What language features and literary devices are used? How do they contribute to conveying the speaker's message?

Excerpts from 'Nine Life Lessons' by Tim Minchin, 2013.

First advice:

You Don’t Have To Have A Dream.

Americans on talent shows always talk about their dreams. Fine, if you have something that you've always dreamed of, like, in your heart, go for it! After all, it's something to do with your time… chasing a dream. And if it's a big enough one, it'll take you most of your life to achieve, so by the time you get to it and are staring into the abyss of the meaninglessness of your achievement, you’ll be almost dead so it won't matter.

I never really had one of these big dreams. And so I advocate passionate dedication to the pursuit of short-term goals. Be micro-ambitious. Put your head down and work with pride on whatever is in front of you… you never know where you might end up. Just be aware that the next worthy pursuit will probably appear in your periphery. Which is why you should be careful of long-term dreams. If you focus too far in front of you, you won't see the shiny thing out the corner of your eye. Right? Good. Advice. Metaphor. Look at me go.

(...)

Ninth Advice

Don't Rush.

You don't need to already know what you're going to do with the rest of your life. I'm not saying sit around smoking cones all day, but also, don't panic. Most people I know who were sure of their career path at 20 are having midlife crises now.

I said at the beginning of this ramble that life is meaningless. It was not a flippant assertion. I think it's absurd: the idea of seeking 'meaning' in the set of circumstances that happens to exist after 13.8 billion years worth of unguided events. Leave it to humans to think the universe has a purpose for them. However, I am no nihilist. I am not even a cynic. I am, actually, rather romantic. And here's my idea of romance:

You will soon be dead. Life will sometimes seem long and tough and, god, it's tiring. And you will sometimes be happy and sometimes sad. And then you’ll be old. And then you'll be dead.

There is only one sensible thing to do with this empty existence, and that is: fill it. Not fillet. Fill. It.

And in my opinion (until I change it), life is best filled by learning as much as you can about as much as you can, taking pride in whatever you're doing, having compassion, sharing ideas, running(!), being enthusiastic. And then there's love, and travel, and wine, and sex, and art, and kids, and giving, and mountain climbing … but you know all that stuff already.

It's an incredibly exciting thing, this one, meaningless life of yours. Good luck.

(If you want to read the full speech you can find it by searching online, or by following this link: Link to Tim Minchin's Speech at the University of Western Australia on the website Genius )

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