CISV Dictionary Activity Introduction Imagine having your own CISV Dictionary filled with useful words in every language, unique words, slick slang and all the words your friends taught you in your CISV camps. Wait, why dream when you can help creating one? In CISV, we get the opportunity to meet new people from different places, become friends with them and learn about their cultures. Although we mainly use English in our camps to communicate with each other, we also learn about each other’s language in the process of building intercultural friendships. Language can bring people together by giving them a clear form of communication and a method of self expression, but it can also be considered something unique that differentiates between cultures. By creating a CISV Dictionary, we hope to encourage participants to learn more about different languages during CISV programs and to enrich CISV’s intercultural learning experience. The goal of this activity is to explore the topic of linguistic diversity while seeing how your culture is reflected in your language. In addition, during the activity you will collect the words that will eventually be featured in the CISV Dictionary. After we will collect enough words from different languages, we will create a digital version of the dictionary. Then, everyone could use the dictionary for any purpose: CISVers could print their own CISV dictionary, chapters could give CISV Dictionaries to every participant and camp directors could print out only the pages of the languages that are spoken in their camp to the participants. Thank you for the interest in the project, now let’s make a dictionary together!
CISV Dictionary Working Group Guli Szor (JB Israel) Itay Inbar (JB Israel) Samantha Sosnowski (JB Canada) CISV.Dictionary@gmail.com
Ella Dagan (JB Israel) Shani Michael (JB Israel) Tamir Herzberg (JB Israel)
The activity • • •
Time: 100 minutes Number of participants: Unlimited. Materials: Papers (to draw the stickman on), pens, a laptop to write down all the words which will appear on the dictionary.
1. Who am I? (15 Minutes) Divide the participants into three groups. Each group receives a drawing of a stickman, that wants to be a part of your culture. To help the stickman fit in, each group needs to give him as many characteristics and values as possible in order to belong to your culture. For example: in Israel we could draw a smile in order to demonstrate warmth and friendliness as important qualities in our culture and mention that he should be able to stick up for himself (no pun intended).
2. How can I say that? (15 Minutes) After you have given the necessary characteristics to your stickman, you will need to give him a suitable vocabulary so he could communicate with others. The first group is responsible for giving him a bank of up to 10 of the most important, useful and basic words / expressions (for example: Hello, good morning, thank you). The second group is responsible for giving him a bank of unique words / expressions that exist only in their language. (for example: -“Jayus”- (Indonesian) a joke so poorly told and so unfunny that one can not help but laugh. -”Cafuné”- (Brazilian Portuguese) the act of tenderly running your fingers through another's hair. -”tartle” - (Scottish) The act of hesitating while introducing someone because you’ve forgotten their name.) The third group is responsible for building a bank of slang words that the stickman will need. Seeing that the process of looking at our own language from a new and different perspective can be challenging (especially when we attempt to extract the most basic or unique sayings), if the participants struggle they should be permitted to use the assistance of the Internet. A Google search such as “unique Swedish words”, for instance, may help. Additionally, it is recommended that the person conducting the activity look up expressions, slang words and basic sayings beforehand in case one of the groups is stuck.
3. Have You Met Stickman? (10 Minutes) Each group presents their stickman and the bank of words they have created. Try to ask the participants why they chose those specific words / expressions and if they found it hard to decide which expressions should be included.
4. Discussion (20 Minutes) Discuss (with the whole group): • Do you think the cultural characteristics you gave the stickman are expressed in the words you chose? • How are our language and culture related to each other? • The group with the basic & useful expressions- Why did you chose those specific 10 words? Is there a connection between the words you chose and your culture? If there is, what is it? • Would you support the idea of only using one language universally? Why or why not? • How do you think language distinguishes us from one another? How does it bring us together? • Do you feel that your language is an important part of you? What is its value to you? • Do you feel as if part of your identity is “lost” when you talk in a language that is not your native language? (for example: in CISV camps) • Do you think we appreciate linguistic diversity in CISV? How can we make learning new languages more essential in CISV experiences?
5. What's That Dictionary, Again? (10 Minutes) After you sum up the discussion, explain the project and its goals to the participants. You may use the following explanation or in any way you want. Try to excite them about contributing and make sure they realize they are taking part in it right now! In CISV, we get the opportunity to meet new people from different places, become friends with them and learn about their cultures. Although we mainly use English in our camps to communicate with each other, we also learn about each other’s language in the process of building intercultural friendships. Language can bring people together by giving them a clear form of communication and a method of self expression, but it can also be considered something unique that differentiates between cultures. When we approach a new culture in CISV, we undergo a similar process of associating attributes to someone we don't know (like the stickman, in the activity). Then, we slowly discover the culture’s typical practices, understand what are the things which are valued the most in the culture, etc. However, language, which is an important part of any culture, can easily “disappear” within the broad range of unique cultures and languages in CISV camps. It is difficult to focus on the richness of every language, especially when everyone communicate in the same language (English). We want to enrich CISV’s intercultural learning experience by creating a platform which will give CISVers the attitudes, skills and knowledge needed to learn more about different languages during CISV programs - the CISV Dictionary. The dictionary would contain basic phrases, slick slang and unique words in every language, collected from the vocabulary you gave your stickman during the activities that were run worldwide. Also, every page would have enough space to make sure you don’t forget all the new words your CISV friends taught you!
6. Translation Time (30 Minutes) All the participants decide together on the words who will appear on the CISV Dictionary, divided by the three categories of words (useful/basic phrases, unique words and slang). Each word should be written in its original language, its English pronunciation and its meaning/translation. Make sure one of the facilitators writes down the words in order to send them to us later. Please do not include bad words or curses. If there is any doubt, think whether it would be appropriate to use the expression near children or not. You can find an example that illustrates how a certain language’s page in the dictionary might look like below. To see the full version our Facebook page.
7. Say "Cheese"! End the activity with a group picture next to the stickmen you have created. Send the picture, the amount of people who participated in the activity to CISV.Dictionary@gmail.com along with the list of words you have collected (separated by different categories). Please thank the participants in our behalf for contributing to the CISV Dictionary and be sure to tell them about our awesome Facebook page – CISV Dictionary (facebook.com/CISVdictionary), where they can see our progress and of course get the dictionary when it will be ready. And once again, thank you, Toda, and Merci!