Friday, February 26, 2016

Exam tasks

Task 1a 
Comparison of text 1 and 2
In the first text there are used literary tools such as allusion" If, as Psychologist Peter Adler says, the intercultural experience begins with "an encounter of another culture and evolves into the encounter with the self" and assonance" twenty-first century" or "people to become responsible". In the second text there are literary tools such as metaphor "an Ebola monster under every stone" or "an image of the clumsy flashy new rich" also assonance in this text is used" on morals and long on lethal looks", "Stories about India are about street kids" or "and judge them according to our not so well-informed myths". 

The rhetoric in the first text is ethos. The text describes beliefs that characterize a community and ideology about the issue. In the text the fundamental values are particular to people and culture. For example "Intercultural understanding is a fundamental part of living with others in the diversified world of the twenty-first century" or "Society must be cohesive and culturally diverse". The speaker in the text is seemed to stand out as trustworthy, because of what the person is saying. However, the rhetoric used in the second text is pathos. In the text the person plays on the feelings and emotions of reader. For instance "If we believe in Western press, there´s no real education in Africa", "I want to draw everyone's attention to this and perhaps in discussion groups we can try to change prevalent misconceptions about others" or "If we hang out on the stereotypes, we are part of the problem". The reader is moved by what the person has written. In the text there are also used quotes such as "noses-up" and "slumdogs". 

The language in the first text is formal. The person takes on the simple topic in the directl way. The sentences are much longer than in the second text and the writer has used full sentences, without any contractions or abbreviations. The text is also objective. In the second text the person shows the emotions and uses more of the personality. The text has been written directly to the audience "You know, looking down on others?". The sentences are shorter than in the first text and the person has used contractions such as there´s or world´s. Both texts have a very important message and convey it in the good way

Task 1b

Challenges of identity in the English-speaking world 
The challenges of identity in the English-speaking world can be difficult in many different ways. It could be the religion, language, traditions or basically just your habits where you come from. It could be difficult to find your identity or to be yourself in an English-speaking world, when everyone else is very different from you. In this picture, we see five Muslim girls wearing the flag of the United Kingdom as a hijab. These girls come from a religion called Islam, where they have some rules and traditions that are not similar to other religions. Having another religion or culture can be strange and tough in other social societies. 

Other problems could be communicating with people with a different language than you. But communication is more than just a language. We communicate with our body language and our expressions. People who come from other countries and have different religions, can respond or send out some other signals that other people are not used to or can understand in a wrong way. People from other countries also have their own habits, so they can misunderstand some of the signals they get. So understanding everyone and what they mean is sometimes not that simple. Some problems of intercultural communication can arise from the way the message itself is stated by one culture and understood by another. 

Cultural relativism is the opposite of ethnocentrism. It means that one does not dismiss or condemn other cultures simply because they are different from one´s own. Rather, one views them as equals. Cultural relativism does not require you to give up your own beliefs. It is quite the opposite. It means that you must be extremely conscious of your own beliefs. Otherwise, you might let them get in the way of understanding the beliefs of other cultures.