Introduction

Traditions often create wonderful childhood memories. Think about any traditions you remember as a child. What stayed the same every year? How did it change as you grew older?

Do your neighbors celebrate holidays the same way you do? Perhaps they don't celebrate the same holidays at all?

In this unit, we will learn about traditions from other cultures and how they might differ from our own.

Your assignment, if you choose to complete it - and you should as your grade depends on it, is to interview someone from another culture about their favorite tradition. You will write about this tradition and compare it to a similar tradition of yours. How does culture affect the way the tradition is celebrated?

Task

You are going to interview a person from another cultural background about one of their traditions. Keep in mind that parts of the tradition may be similar or entirely different to a tradition of your own. If the tradition is extremely similar to one of your own, then you might want to interview another person.

After your interview, you are going to write a paper comparing one of your traditions to a tradition of the person you choose to interview.

Process

Part One:

You are going to interview a person about a tradition he or she celebrates - but first, you are going to need to design a few questions. In order to efficiently design questions, you're going to have to research some aspects of the culture or tradition.

If you are going to write about how a person from another culture celebrates his or her birthday, you might want to check out this website:
http://www.kidsparties.com/TraditionsInDifferentCountries.htm

Christmas is a tradition that is very popular among Christian cultures; however, it is not celebrated the same way every where. To learn more about the holiday and how other cultures celebrate it, check out http://www.santas.net/aroundtheworld.htm

Did you know that in Italy, wedding guests throw sugared almonds as "confetti?" For more wedding traditions, visit http://ourmarriage.com/html/around_the_world.html or http://www.worldweddingtraditions.com/.

Did you know that in Mexico, families picnic on the graves of the family members on Halloween. Halloween is also celebrated in other cultures. To learn more, visit http://www.jackolanterns.net/traditions.htm.

New Years has it's own set of traditions which vary from country to country. The Chinese celebrate New Years from January 21 to February 20 (it's based on a lunar calender). To learn more, visit http://www.fathertimes.net/chinesenewyear.htm.



It's always good to do more research on a particular subject than just the underlying subject. For example, research birthday traditions even if you are going to write about wedding traditions (some may overlap!).


If you have any traditions not listed that you would prefer to research, come ask me to help you get started!

Don't forget to take notes!

Part Two:

Now that you know a little more about the tradition, you can develop questions to use when you conduct your interview. To help you understand how the interview should go (and an example of what I would like to see after you conduct your interview) follow this link:
http://www.immigrantheritagetrail.org/files/pdfs/doukenie_bacos.pdf

Notice how the questions are open-ended, and the responses are detailed. The format is also easy to follow: Question, Interviewer's dialogue, Person's response.

Show your interview questions to me in class so that I may provide feedback. Your pre-interview questions will be a part of the final grade for this project.

Part Three:

Conduct your interview. If you ask for consent prior to the interview, you can record the interview. Otherwise, you must write down the persons responses. The best way to do this is to write one question on a piece a paper, and leave the rest of the paper for the response. Bring extra sheets of paper in case you think of other questions you want to ask (record them too!).

Part Four:

Now that you know about another person's tradition, it's time to compare it to one of your own. On one side of a sheet of paper, write a part of the tradition you just learned about and how the person you interviewed celebrates it; on the other side, write how you celebrate it. This will help you when you write your essay.

Part Five:

You will now start to write your essay. You will need to compare at least three aspects of the tradition you celebrate and of the tradition the person you interviewed celebrates. Try to be as detailed as possible (the more details, the better visualization of each tradition I will get). You conclusion should summarize how each tradition will be affected if they were blended.

Evaluation

Interview Questions with Responses: 0-4 points

4 points: Writer includes interviews questions with responses

2 points: Writer includes interview questions, but not interview responses

0 pointes: Writer includes neither interview questions nor interview responses

Comparing Aspects of Two Traditions: 0-6 points

6 points: Writer compares at least three aspects of each tradition

4 points: Writer compares two aspects of each tradition

2 points: Writer compares 1 aspect of each tradition

0 points: Writer compares no aspects of either tradition

Details: 0-6 points

6 points: Writer gives at least two details for each aspect of each tradition

4 points: Writer gives at least one details for each aspect of each tradition

2 points: Writer describes tradition, but doesn't provide additional information about the tradition.

0 points: The writer does not describe either tradition.

Grammar: 10 points

Unity: 2 points

2 points: The writer provides uniform language within text

1 point: The writer sometimes has diffulty maintaining unity within the text

0 points: The writer does not provide unified text

Spelling: 3 points

3 points: The writer does not misspell words

2 points: The writer misspells 1 or 2 words

1 point: The writer misspells 3 to 5 words

0 points: The writer misspells more than 5 words

Punctuation: 3 points

3 points: The writer makes minimal (1-2) errors (periods, comma error/splice, colon, semi-colon, etc)

2 points: The writer makes between 3-5 errors (periods, comma error/splice, colon, semi-colon, etc).

1 point: The writer makes between 5-8 errors (periods, comma error/splice, colon, semi-colon, etc)

0 points: The writer makes 9 or more errors (periods, comma error/splice, colon, semi-colon, etc)

Content: 2 points

2 points: The writer discusses two traditions, one of his or her own and another from an interview

1 point: The writer discusses traditions from either the interview, or one of his or her own traditions.

0 points: The writer does not discuss traditions at all.

Conclusion

By now you are very knowledgeable about someone elses tradition, your own, and how culture may affect both. Congratulations!

As you go on in life, continue to observe how culture blends and alters everyday things and/or traditions, etc.