Stereotypes; When it comes to humankind, they are assumptions or generalizations that we make about an entire group of people.
Even though I teach my eighth graders oral English and need to get them talking, I still want them to learn other things that aren’t necessarily related to English. For example, last week I decided to teach a lesson revolving around stereotypes
The Warm-Up: Stereotypes in Popular Culture:
In every class, I would start with a real world example of a stereotype. In some classes I used Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice as a warm-up exercise. I would then ask the students two questions; What country do you think this singer is from, and what color do you think their skin is? Why did you choose this answer. Students who answered “America” mentioned the facts that the song was in English and rap music is very popular in the U.S. But when it came down to skin color, almost all of them thought Vanilla Ice was black, and they explained why. For example, one person mentioned the style of music as their reason. Once I showed them a picture of Vanilla Ice (who is white), a lot of them were really surprised. I used this to set up the lesson and explain what stereotypes are.
In a few other classes I used Darlie toothpaste, which is popular here in China. The Chinese name for it is “black man’s toothpaste.” After already haven given a stereotype to the students, I would ask them what the stereotype was in the name. These kids are very bright, and some of them answered that it was saying all people of African descent have white teeth. A few of them even were even able to explain why people might believe this stereotype; The contrast between dark skin and white teeth.
After that, I explained to them how this toothpaste was once sold in the U.S. under the brand name, Darkie. I then explained what the word meant, why you can’t say it, and why Darlie toothpaste is banned from being sold in America.
My First Version of the Lesson:
When I first did this lesson, it was on-the-fly. I originally planned on teaching one class something using music, but that lesson didn’t go over very well in other classes. Because they are upper level students, I decided that a discussion would be possible, and stereotypes seemed like a good topic. We covered positive and negative stereotypes, and I had them come up with a list of each for foreigners. We came up with a list of physical attributes and character traits.
The students appeared to have more difficulty coming up with negative stereotypes, though “fat” and “unhealthy” made their way on to the list. One girl surprised me when she stood up and said something like this, “France stole many things from the Summer Palace in Beijing, and they still haven’t returned them.” She was referring to the 1860 looting of the Summer Palace by French troops. A lot of the artifacts that were stolen are still in French museums.
If there’s one thing that the Chinese are proud of, it’s their country’s long and rich history. And while many historical artifacts were lost to China’s own Cultural Revolution (1949-1976), there is still resentment over those lost due to foreign occupation. Today, strict laws exist to keep such items from leaving the country.
The girl’s answer, while not a stereotype itself, was a specific example of one; foreign countries that occupied China did bad things but, since then, they don’t do enough to recognize that what they did was wrong. Japan especially gets a lot of flak for seemingly ignoring their role in China during World War II.
My Revised Lesson:
For the second version of this lesson, I decided that a discussion wasn’t enough to drive the point across that I wanted to; that stereotypes are simply just that and can’t be relied upon as being true. Just as I did before, I started things off with a warm-up activity to get them to be able to understand what a stereotype is. Then I asked them to list some stereotypes about Americans.
The rest of the lesson revolved around a game in which I would show the students a picture of someone and ask them where the person was from (America, Italy, Germany, Africa, China) and why they believed that. At first, I showed them pictures of stereotypes, which they then identified. They didn’t seem to have trouble with these.
Then I showed them pictures of people from these countries that weren’t so easy to identify. For example, I chose a picture of an African American woman celebrating Kwanza, a white South African (Neil Blomkamp), and a Chinese American (Michelle Kwan).
They had a lot of trouble figuring these out. Some of my students initially thought Michelle Kwan was from Africa, which surprised me a little bit. When I told them that she had Chinese parents, one of the boys said, “No…She must be mixed blood!” I quickly changed the subject to avoid digging myself into a deep hole.
In every class, the last picture I would show was that of martial artist, Bruce Lee. When I asked my students where Bruce Lee was from, almost all said he was from China. I asked them where he was born, and most said “China.” In fact, Bruce Lee was born in California. I told them this, and a lot of them were surprised.
Because he was born in America, I tried to tell them that this would make him an American. However, they persisted in arguing against this point. I soon realized that my statement was informed by Western culture. In China, family ties and ancestry have much more significance than they do in the West. Here, children are expected to take care of their parents (though this is beginning to change) and anything a person does, be it good or bad, affects the entire family’s image. With this in mind, one can see why they view Bruce Lee as being Chinese. First, both of his parents were Chinese and, second, his fame achieved in film brought honor, not only to his family, but the entire nation of China as a whole. For example, one girl justified her response saying, “he made Chinese culture popular in the West.”
The teacher as the student:
Teaching oral English, it’s important for me to get the kids talking as much as possible. However, I also feel it’s necessary to teach them other things. I chose to do a lesson on stereotypes because I felt it was something significant enough to talk about. Ultimately, I wanted them to see that things aren’t always black and white and that using stereotypes isn’t a reliable way to view the world.
Even as a teacher, I must admit that I learned a lot from my students. For one, this lesson made me think about the preconceptions I had about Chinese people before I came here and how you can’t roll the entire population in the same mould. The world isn’t made up of carbon copies. Another thing I learned is that I still have a habit of looking at the world through a Western lens. Living in another country, you need to shatter that lens and take the time to observe and understand the new culture, as difficult as it may be.
A picture of Darlie Toothpaste, formerly known as Darkie toothpaste. The Chinese characters mean something like "Black man's toothpaste." It's pretty easy to find in the stores over here.
