in their 80s so they are careful this is one of the reasons why i'm here
because i i could very easily been living on my own but i know that well
there's i have to i have many other tasks to to work on and to do at home
so it's easier with them yeah and that way you can avoid them i mean i get
specially the keyword is social support yes social support i've had to go
to two different places because the first shopping grocery store i went to
didn't have hardly any food so i had to go a second time to another one i
don't know if you've had this problem and i felt uneasy when i when i
encountered uh senior people um i was i was specially worried that uh uh
senior citizens would have to go out in with with this type of problem and
and and have to shop on their own and i i think that it probably probably
we should have much more stricter uh regulations of leaving home and and of
course we should also have a some type of service for the senior citizens
so they didn't have to leave their house like some type of free delivery
service that the government paid for or whatever because i think that we're
exposing them too much in in these circumstances to something that is
avoidable but i mean i i really hope that this all the situation it helps
us rethink some of the things that i don't like about society how we take
care of the elderly and if the senior care homes are sufficiently equipped
and and and and in an adequate state if the public health system is is
strong enough to support the normal challenges that a health system has to
support i think it's going to help us from all the negatives we're going to
extract some of the negative things that we're going to extract from the
public health system positive or at least i'm hopeful stephania what about
yourself do you have like a good environment there yeah i have with my two
kids and my husband that he's so positive okay great so optimistic well he
is even more positive than than me so okay and you can't help smiling so it
must be a great a great environment um how old are your kids well my
youngest is one and a half okay and my oldest is three oh my gosh so so
they're all about playing and they couldn't care less if they have to go to
school or yeah they don't understand the situation and they don't know
anything so they are like happy and playing and okay the only thing we have
to is do to scold them and say no don't do this and that's it don't try to
open the door to go outside the probably the only challenge is keeping them
indoors though yeah yeah for the youngest one that is very the he likes to
be in the street all day it's very hard for him he's always going to the
door and the thing is that he's not tall enough to open the the door so i
don't know if you've seen this this uh video that went viral last week of a
of a small girl that was like three in like seven different every time you
had this different meaning the first one was like we're going out aren't we
and the second one is come on stop the joking and it's like what the hell
are you talking about yeah she uses the same word and at the end my husband
was joking it because my my kid doesn't speak at all and he said now he's
gonna start saying for sure okay so um today we have a very good uh
listening and it's taking me some time to figure out how to how to present
the information so the experience is as similar as possible to the one we
have in the classroom what i've done is i've i've changed the typical sheet
that we have um in in vertical position for two sheets that are in
horizontal position so the first part of the sheet is here and the second
part of the sheet is here it's the same sheet i'll post it in the um in the
forum if you want to download it you can also download download it from
here it's got the same contents um i don't know if you you have your
textbook do you have your textbook yeah good um the first thing i want you
to do is um go to the textbook at page 74. well 74 and 75. so something
something very typical is the idea of a single story when when you see
something only from one perspective i don't know if you for example with
this uh coronavirus situation um it it has become very obvious that that
chinese have some uh market uh habits that have to change because they're
unhealthy and they're very dangerous and they can they've already provoked
two or three lethal viruses and and it's time to learn from the situation
but i i don't i think that on the other hand we've also noticed that the
the oriental way of life is probably more disciplined and and when they've
had to face a challenge like this they've been able to lock down everything
in a matter of of uh of days and and in in south korea or in vietnam or in
philippines or in china they had the the problem under control much much
sooner than we did and and that also shows that there's a there's a
different way of seeing the world depending on who you ask we tend to
always create oriental woman with occidental man I think ok yes normally
for occidental even though the word exists we say western western yeah ok
yes that's the obvious part but what is the least obvious part what do you
find I mean why is a woman dressed in white instead of with a traditional
dress Rafaela come on western I mean the eastern woman is adopting the
traditions of the western I mean western traditions yes accepting western
traditions ok so I don't know Rafaela you're not married you told me no I'm
not imagine that you got married to someone from a different religion or
from a different tradition would you have accepted getting married I don't
know in a different religion or with a different sort of celebration if it
was very special for your partner would you be completely against the idea
or Patricia I don't know I have never think about it but it could be it
could be fun I like this kind of thing ok so you would find it exotic and
interesting yeah why not Estefania what about you well it's a difficult
question for me it depends on how important it would be for my partner but
I don't think I could do it ok so you would find it difficult how do you
say yeah it depends on what thing but for me the religious I'm not a very
religious person so I don't think I could be married in a religion I don't
you don't believe in ok sorry Rafaela to be reluctant that's it I've heard
of yeah I'm taking some notes while we're talking so I can pass them on the
notes from last week well Rafaela was for a while in the class but the fact
is that my laptop did not I started fidgeting with my laptop but my laptop
didn't work at all so I made my laptop and I bought a new one oh wow you
know that I've heard that computer companies have improved their sales
25-40% these last weeks and Amazon is registering record sales they're
going to hire like a thousand people so some companies are going under and
others are rising I was speaking to a student and she's from a town in
Toledo and all of their all of their activity is industrial and like food
processing and they have more more job demand than people in the town so
they could hire the entire town and still have positions to offer because
right now they have twice as many orders from Mercadona especially because
they make like processed food for Mercadona like chorizo and salchichon and
things like that and they have more business than ever so crisis means
opportunity yeah wherever there's a crisis there's an opportunity exactly
that's a very well but then there is the other side of the oh my god I have
two brothers that their their businesses are going super bad and maybe they
have to close their business and they had very successful businesses just
one month ago so you know you never know it's from and there had been a lot
of yes yes work work many processes well before when we were talking about
Patricia's sister I was writing down some words delivery what do you think
delivery means delivery is a noun Delivery Deliver to all it's a paper
that's what delivery what I what I use it for parto yes yes what would to
deliver is that a luth oh yeah okay it's keep on to very postal no um okay
c sections that's interesting c section c dash section I I'm very happy
that Maria is in here right now because she would be ruling the class
completely she's a she's a gynecologist c section is ah she yes she's a
gynecologist so if you ever need a good gynecologist you can Maria c
section is cesarean okay how do you say embarazo pregnancy exactly yes and
how do you say le han hecho la prueba y ha salido negativo um si ha salido
is is very is is quite different in English the results came back negative
so you would normally have to invent uh a subject and put it there came
back the results came back negative ha salido negativo en las pruebas um y
and eh what I said before program delivery oh program delivery yep like eh
when you when you are eh program you decide exactly you decide that you
date yes yes yes and this thing that is happening at at every day at eight
the people are they go out to the window and they do this how do you how do
you say the verb and how do you say the noun a round of applause to applaud
applaud is a verb very good aplaudir a round of applause exactly a round a
round of applause yeah yeah a round of applause is called una ovación
that's a that's a round of applause uh-huh and but you can say ovation but
normally you only say it when when it's like very very significant you say
a standing ovation is eh aplaudir standing ovation okay applause is aplauso
okay so um and the other one that I've said so far and to be reluctant
serratizante okay um we're going to talk about eh Chimamanda eh Ngozi
Adichie and and she's she's one of the most relevant eh writers of Africa
eh and she she's given African eh people a voice a voice that is that is
very distinct and different and saying we're people we're also people and
we deserve the same type of respect so what she is go eh what she tells in
this in this TED talk in particular is the danger of having one single
story one single version of everything and her her message is very
interesting she's a very good speaker um I think that one of the best TED
talks that you can eh ever listen to is another TED talk by her um eh that
explains why everybody should be feminist eh she says men should be
feminist and women should be feminist it's probably the best feminist
speech that I've ever heard so it's a it it has it it resonates very much
with everyone so if you eh now you have so so much time and you want to
practice not that um I don't you can practice you can do this while you're
you're washing the dishes or cleaning put a tablet in the corner and watch
a TED talk eh um she she's a very good speaker and and she has a very eh
interesting type of English her English is Nigerian English Nigerian
English sounds similar to British English okay eh very separate from
American English but at the same time it's like an Africanized eh version
of British English I don't know if you know but in Nigeria the official
language is English eh even though people eh have the belief that eh well
Nigerian maybe because she's a very educated woman she speaks English no
every Nigerian speaks English eh it's it's the the official eh language and
and she's a university professor and and an author she's one of my favorite
authors in fact she she has very good eh stories if you want to read
something by her she's a great writer um eh we're going to have a look at
the TED talk before we do that I would like you to do exercise 2 on page 75
okay it's eh using these words that we have over here eh and um coming to
the definition of these words impressionable synonymous object definitive
resilience malign okay so have a look there okay I'm going to give you a
couple of minutes eh you tell me when you're finished okay eh Did you say D
or E? E. Easily influenced or led. Okay, good. The next one. Can you read
the sentence and then give me the definition? Rafael. South Africa is
synonymous with the struggle for racial justice. Synonymous. Accused
falsely. No. Patricia? D. So closely. But it appears so closely. Okay.
Patricia, can you read number three and give me the definition? It is an
area where thousands live in abject poverty. Okay. Abject. Oh, wow. Rafael,
you have one of those sentences. They're called grandfather clocks. Sorry.
No, no. Of course. It's a very nice sound. Humilating. Left without any
pride or dignity. Exactly. Humiliating. Left without any pride or dignity.
The next one. Number four. Estefania. Nelson Mandela's autobiography.
Autobiography. Autobiography. Long Walk to Freedom is the definitive story
of the great man's life. A. Authoritative and complete. Definitive. Five.
Rafael? The people of West Africa showed enormous resilience to rebuild
their countries after the Ebola virus crisis of 2014-15. Okay. Resilience.
Very fashionable word in Spanish nowadays. Yeah. B. Daphne is the capacity
to recover quickly after Okay, very good. Number six. Patricia? She was
only trying to look at the story from everyone's point of view. It was
unfair of them to malign her efforts. Okay, to malign her efforts. So what
is malign? Accused falsely or criticized in a spiteful way. Very good. So
there's an interesting phonetic appreciation here that we have. If you have
a look at 75, the gray box, there are certain grammatical not information
words, articles, propositions, linking words, auxiliary verbs that are said
quickly. And are not stressed. They often contain the schwa sound. The
schwa sound is this symbol in a phonetic dictionary. See if I can write it
here. It's like an upside down E. The schwa sound is the same sound that we
make at the beginning of the word about. This A, which is not an A in
Spanish, is the same word that we make in A. Normally, we use these A in,
for example, when we say this. The stress is going to be on the noun. So
we're going to say a car. When we say un amigo suyo, we say a friend of
his. Even this H loses its importance. This instead of saying of, a
different type of sound that is stronger when this word is just connecting
the expression before to the word. After we use the schwa sound, a friend
of his. Okay. So let's try to read those two words that you have. Será un
asunto de gran importancia. You can see there in the example. Can you try
it, Estefanía? Sorry, but I don't know where you are. The gray box on page
75 in the example. For the examples. Okay. In the example. In the example
sentence. Ah, well, yeah. It was. It was matter. Exactly. It was a matter
of importance. For example. The EG. After EG, can you read that sentence?
Exempla gratia. Exactly. Can you read it, Estefanía? Do you know where we
are? The last sentence at the end. The two problems arise with weak forms.
No, before. Yeah, the first one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now I see it. For
example, man of action. Where? No, it was a matter of great importance.
Okay, exactly. Can you say that again, Rafael? It was a matter of great
importance. Okay. So as you can see. I don't know. I was making the same
sound in the A and in the of. Patricia, can you try that? I don't know
where the samples are. In the first paragraph, the last line of the first
paragraph. Oh. It was a matter of. It was a matter of great importance.
Okay. Estefanía, did you find it? No, sorry. Fourth line in the gray box.
At the end of the first part. In the gray. The fourth line. Here. I just
wrote the sentence. Estefanía, you have it on the screen. Estefanía? It
was a . Now I found it. Sorry. So yeah, it was a matter of. Okay. Great
importance. Okay. So the key is to not spend any time or stress. Okay. On
reading a or reading of. So it's reading by them very fast. It was a matter
of great importance. Okay. It was a matter of great importance. Okay.
Exactly. Estefanía? It was a matter of great importance. Very good. Okay.
So we're going to do the text. We're going to watch the beginning of the
TED talk. How are we going to do that? With a lot of imagination. I've been
figuring this out all week long since they told me that I had to do this.
With Inteka instead of with Skype. So what we're going to do is my
microphone is going to pick up the sound from my tablet and my tablet is
going to play the video. Yeah. Don't get me started. Here we go. Okay. So
let me see if I'm going to have to put this on. Put the tablet here. Lower
the camera. The sound is very good. That's true. So we're going to do
exercise number two in the first place. No, sorry. Exercise number one.
We're going to listen to the first part of the TED talk and we're going to
try to establish the differences between British stories and African
stories. So you have to take a piece of paper. Okay. And write notes about
typical things in British stories and typical things in African stories.
Okay. Okay? When the TED talk begins, tell me if the sound quality is good.
I think it is, but tell me if it is for sure. Okay? Okay. Here you go. They
have fat fingers. I'm a storyteller. Good. And I would like to share my
story with you. I would like to tell you a few personal stories about what
I like to call the danger of the single story. I grew up on a university
campus in Eastern Nigeria. My mother says that I started reading at the age
of two, although I think four is probably close to the truth. So I was an
early reader and what I read were British and American children's books. I
was also an early writer. And when I began to write at about the age of
seven, I was a young woman. I started reading stories in pencil with crayon
illustrations that my poor mother was obligated to read. I wrote exactly
the kinds of stories I was reading. All my characters were white and blue
eyed. They played in the snow. They ate apples. And they talked a lot about
the weather, how lovely it was that the sun had come out. Now this despite
the fact that I lived in Nigeria. I had never been outside Nigeria. We
didn't have snow. We ate mangoes. And we never talked about the weather
because there was no need to. My characters also drank a lot of ginger beer
because the characters in the British books I read drank ginger beer. Never
mind that I had no idea what ginger beer was. And for many years
afterwards, I would have a desperate desire to taste ginger beer. But that
is another story. What this demonstrates, I think, is how impressionable
and vulnerable we are in the face of a story, particularly as children.
Because all I had read were books in which characters were foreign, I had
become convinced that books by their very nature had to have foreigners in
them and had to be about things with which I could not personally identify.
Now things changed when I discovered African books. There weren't many of
them available and they weren't quite as easy to find as the foreign books.
But because of writers like Chinua Achebe and Kamara Lai, I went through a
mental shift in my perception of literature. I realized that people like
me, girls with skin the color of chocolate whose kinky hair could not form
ponytails, could also exist in literature. I started to write about things
I recognized. Now I loved those American and British books I read. They
stirred my imagination. They opened up new worlds for me. But the
unintended consequence was that I did not know that people like me could
exist in literature. So what the discovery of African writers did for me
was this. It saved me from having a single story of what books are. I come
from a conventional middle-class Nigerian family. My father was a
professor. My mother was an... Okay, see if I can slightly rewind this for
the beginning of the next one. There we go. Okay, so let's try to correct
this exercise. What is typical from British stories that Sivamanda talked
about and what is typical from African stories? And first of all, did you
understand her well? Yeah. Did she need to understand or...? Yeah, yeah.
She was very reachable. Sorry? She was very reachable. Okay.
Understandable. Okay. Patricia, what about you? Did you understand her
well? Yeah. Tania? Yeah, me too. Oh, great. Fantastic. So what
characteristics can you point out about African stories or British stories?
In British stories, the main characters have white skin and blue eyes, eat
apples and drink ginger beer. Okay. And they... And she has never tried
ginger beer. She has never tried it, people. Okay. And there is snow.
There's snow. Okay, yes. All of this. Yes, yes. There is a tremendous
fascination. I had family members from Venezuela and the first time they
came here, after a nine-hour flight, they wanted to immediately drive for
six hours to Granada so they could see the snow for the first time. It was
like their obsession. What about the African stories? What do African
stories have or what are they characterized by? What did you catch about
African stories? I'm not sure if it's about African stories or that she
said that there is... She never saw snow and they don't talk about weather
and they eat mangoes and they don't try... Vamos. She hasn't tried ginger
beer. And the character can be like she's a girl with chocolate skin and
kinky hair. Very good. Yes, and kinky hair. What's kinky hair? Do you
understand what that means? I think it's very... Okay. So anything else
that you want to mention about the characters? What type of skin do they
have? She used an adjective. What? No, for African characters. Pale. Color
chocolate. Yeah. And then she said something like that. Chocolate colored.
Chocolate color. Okay. Yes. Chocolate colored. And there's a second part in
that same exercise. It says, how does Chimamanda Dichie feel now about
British and American books? Do you remember? She says that she loved them.
Yeah. Because they opened her new world. Because they opened that world to
her and they made her imagine, but at the same time, they had an unintended
consequence. She didn't have any connection with those kind of people. But
she thought that stories could only be about those kinds of people. So it
created a bias in her. The single story or the two sides of a story. How do
we say that expression in Spanish? A dos caras de la moneda. Exactly, a dos
caras de la moneda. This is what this talk is all about. And her second
question is, what did African books save her from? They saved her from
having a single story. From having a single story. Exactly. Very good,
Estefania. So now we're going to listen to the second part. In this second
part, we have to focus on exercise number two on page 76. And it says, who
is Fide? What skill did Fide's brother possess? And why did this surprise
Chimamanda Adichie? What music did Chimamanda Adichie's roommate want to
hear? And what did Adichie play her? What words sum up Chimamanda Adichie's
roommate's attitude to her? What assumptions do foreigners make about
Africa? Why was Chimamanda Adichie's professor critical of the characters
in her novel? Okay, so we're going to listen to like four minutes and a
half. And let's see if we can, if you are able to answer all the questions.
Have a notebook next to you so you can write down your answers. Here we go.
Unintended consequence. Unintended consequence was that I did not know that
people like me could exist in literature. So what the discovery of African
writers did for me was this. It saved me from having a single story of what
books are. I come from a conventional middle class Nigerian family. My
father was a professor. My mother was an administrator. And so we had, as
was the norm, living domestic help who would often come from nearby rural
villages. So the year I turned eight, we got a new house boy. His name was
Fide. The only thing my mother told us about him was that his family was
very poor. My mother sent yams and rice and old clothes to his family. And
when I didn't finish my dinner, my mother would say, finish your food.
Don't you know people like Fide's family have nothing? So I felt enormous
pity for Fide's family. Then one Saturday, we went to his village. And his
mother showed us a beautifully patterned basket made of dyed raffia that
his brother had made. I was startled. It had not occurred to me that
anybody in his family could actually make something. All I had heard about
them was how poor they were, so that it had become impossible for me to see
them as anything else but poor. Their poverty was my single story of them.
Years later, I thought about this when I left Nigeria. I was 19 when I went
to Nigeria to go to university in the United States. I was 19. My American
roommate was shocked by me. She asked where I had learned to speak English
so well and was confused when I said that Nigeria happened to have English
as its official language. She asked if she could listen to what she called
my tribal music and was consequently very disappointed when I produced my
tape of Mariah Carey. She assumed that I did not know how to use a stove.
What struck me was this. She had felt sorry for me even before she saw me.
Her default position toward me as an African was a kind of patronizing
well-meaning pity. My roommate had a single story of Africa, a single story
of catastrophe. In this single story, there was no possibility of Africans
being similar to her in any way. No possibility of feeling. No possibility
of things more complex than pity. No possibility of a connection as human
equals. I must say that before I went to the U.S., I didn't consciously
identify as African. But in the U.S., whenever Africa came up, people
turned to me, never mind that I knew nothing about places like Namibia. But
I did come to embrace this new identity, and in many ways, I think of
myself now as African, although I still get quite irritable when Africa is
referred to as a country, the most recent example being my otherwise
wonderful, beautiful flight from Lagos two days ago, in which there was an
announcement on the Virgin flight about their charity walk in India,
Africa, and other countries. So after I had spent some years in the U.S. as
an African, I began to understand my roommate's response to me. If I had
not grown up in Nigeria, and if all I knew about Africa were from popular
images, I too would think that Africa was a place of beautiful landscapes,
beautiful animals, and incomprehensible people fighting senseless wars,
dying of poverty and AIDS, unable to speak for themselves, and waiting to
be saved by a kind, white foreigner. I would see Africans in the same way
that I, as a child, had seen Fide's family. And so I began to realize that
my American roommate must have, throughout her life, seen and heard
different versions of this single story. Yes. As had a professor, who once
told me that my novel was not authentically African. Now I was quite
willing to contend that there were a number of things wrong with the novel,
that it had failed in a number of places, but I had not quite imagined that
it had failed at achieving something called African authenticity. In fact,
I did not know what African authenticity was. The professor told me that my
characters were too much like him, an educated and middle-class man. My
characters drove cars. They were not starving. Therefore, they were not
authentically African. But I must quickly add that I too am just as guilty
on the question of the single story. A few years ago, I visited Mexico from
the U.S. The political climate in the U.S. Okay. Were you able to answer
most of these questions? Yes. Good. I think that the good thing about
Chiamanda is that you can enjoy her and you don't feel frustrated that you
cannot understand some passages. Her accent is very accessible. Who is
Fide? It's a boy. Okay. When she was eight. How do you say that? House boy.
Okay. So that's like a message. Yes. And his mom used to give him food.
Used to? Give him. Food. Okay. Give him food because he was poor. Okay. So
she had the feeling that he was starving, no? So she had created a
prejudice and that prejudice had impeded her from seeing the real story,
no? Okay. Good. And when she, sorry, what skill did Fide's brother possess
and why did this surprise Chiamanda Diche? He made raffia baskets. Very
good. And he was very surprised because he didn't think that. She didn't
think. Yeah. She didn't think that Fide's family could do anything. Yeah.
They had to starve and just be outdoors all day long, not doing anything in
particular. Exactly. Very good. What music did Chiamanda Diche's roommate
want to hear? And what did Diche play for her? You really like my part.
Tribal? Tribal music? Tribal music. Yes. It's like, pon música de la tuya,
de los negros. That sounds very racist. And what did she get? Sorry. Mariah
Carey. Well, it is. It is black music. It is black music in the end. Yeah.
Okay. So what word or words sum up Chiamanda Diche's roommate attitude
towards her? Rafa, you haven't participated. Give me your answer. Rafa?
Pardon? Excuse me? No, pardon is. Yeah. Pardon is maybe it's a. A pardon is
something that you ask for when you have a sentence. Is when. When, how do
you say that in Spanish? Un, un, una condonación de condena. How do you
say that? The it's, it's, it's so popular now with the Catalonia trial. Um,
Indulto. Un indulto. Yes. A pardon is an indulto. So careful. No, but you
say, you usually say I beg your pardon. I beg your pardon. It's, it's like
an expression altogether. I beg your pardon. Um, yeah. So, okay. Uh, uh,
the, the question is, uh, number four, uh, what word or words sum up
Chimamanda Diche's roommate's attitude towards her? Um, no idea. No idea? I
have no idea. Okay. How do you say, um, condescendiente? I, I like that
word very much. Patronize. Very good. Patronizing. Write that one down.
Condescendiente. I lost, I lost the thread. Oh, you lost the thread. Okay.
Um, and, uh, what other words did she say besides patronizing the attitude
that her roommate had? Eh, bien intencionada. Uh, to say, but sorry for,
for her. Pity. Yes. Pity. Mm-hmm. As if they were unequal. The same way
that she saw Fide is a way that she, that the, the roommate saw her. Like
if they were not equal. Well-meaning. Um, okay. Yes. Uh, I don't know what,
what, what ridiculous example, uh, I, I, I used to explain about this. It
was very funny. Um, I, I don't, I don't know exactly what it was. It was,
uh, no, I can't think of it, but there was a, I had a very funny story
about this. Um, I just, I just can't remember it right now about someone
that, um, went to, well, had, had a national from a country and, and showed
them like, look, we have this in our country that do you have anything like
this in your country? And, and the other person would say, yeah, we
invented it. In fact, uh, this is a typical example of how patronizing
sometime Western countries are in general, or people from Western countries
are regarding other ones. Okay. The kids, the kids are losing their
patience. No, I think it's Patricia's little one. No. Yeah. Mom, I want to
play. Stop playing with the computer. They probably think you're, you're,
you're playing Fortnite or something like that. Um, what assumptions do
foreigners make about Africa? What assumptions do they make about Africa?
Uh, that, uh, Africa is full of beautiful landscapes, uh, beautiful animals
and incomprehensible. Um, yes, yes, they're dying from a disease and
poverty and something that she really hates is that they, uh, it's one
single country like, uh, Africa. Yeah. It's about you. Yes, exactly. Yeah.
It's not a country. There is a terrible video by Jimmy Kimmel. Maybe
afterwards you want to, uh, maybe you want to look for this afterwards. Uh,
I'm going to write the name of the comedian. It's called Jimmy Kimmel and
he has a space. A space. And it called, can you name a country, not the
country, a country. Um, and he gives them like a, like a map, uh, a map
with no, with no signs on them and no labels and, and consistently people
are completely unable to name a single country, including the United
States. They don't know how to place it in a world map. So look for the
clips. It's because they're just incredible. Okay. Um, and you name a
country, um, there are a couple of videos about this. They, they just take
a map outside in, in LA and they just ask random people that are walking
down the street and it's incredible. And they start saying, um, is this
Europe? And they say, Europe is a continent. Oh, um, and they're, and
they're pointing at Australia maybe. And they say, oh, this is Mexico. And
they point at India. So yeah, yeah. Just terrible. You have to watch it for
yourself. Because I, I can't explain you how, how ridiculous it is. Well,
the next, the next question I think is, uh, is the last one. Why was
Chimamanda Adichie as professor critical of the characters in her novel?
You remember that? Yeah, I have it. Okay. Go ahead. Okay. Uh, because, uh,
the character were not authentic. They weren't authentic enough. No? Uh
huh. Because, uh, they were too much like, like like the professor that's
still raising it. They weren't starving and they drive cars. They probably
had shoes and everything. Which is great. Okay. So I'm going to play the
next part while the Patricia negotiates with her son. This is from minute
724 to minute 1029. In that part, you just have to choose a correct option.
These are easier, okay? Because you just have to choose whether it's
Mexicans or people, whether it's overwhelmed or ashamed, whether it's one
thing or the wrong thing. I'll play this for a second. Let me see here.
Much like him, an educated and middle-class man, my characters drove cars.
They were not starving. Therefore, they were not authentically African. But
I must quickly add that I, too, am just as guilty on the question of the
single story. A few years ago, I visited Mexico from the U.S. The political
climate in the U.S. at the time was tense, and there were debates going on
about immigration. And, as often happens in America, immigration became
synonymous with Mexicans. There were endless stories of Mexicans as people
who were fleecing the healthcare system, sneaking across the border, being
arrested at the border, that sort of thing. I remember walking around on my
first day in Guadalajara, watching the people going to work, rolling up to
Tia's in the marketplace, smoking, laughing. I remember, first of all,
feeling slight surprise. And then I was overwhelmed with shame. I realized
that I had been so immersed in the media coverage of Mexicans that they had
become one thing in my mind, the abject immigrant. I had bought into the
single story of Mexicans, and I could not have been more ashamed of myself.
So that is how to create a single story. Show a people as one thing, as
only one thing, over and over again. And that is what they become. It is
impossible to talk about the single story without talking about power.
There is a word, an Igbo word, that I think about whenever I think about
the power structures of the world, and it is Nkale. It's a noun that
loosely translates to, to be greater than another. Like our economic and
political worlds, stories too are defined by the principle of Nkale. How
people, who tells them when they are told. How many stories are told. Are
really dependent on power. Power is the ability not just to tell the story
of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person. The
Palestinian poet, Mourid Bagoti writes that if you want to dispossess a
people, the simplest way to do it is to tell their story and to start with
secondly. Start the story with the arrows of the Native Americans, and not
with the arrival of the British. And you have an entirely different story.
Start the story with the failure of the African state, and not with the
colonial creation of the African state. And you have an entirely different
story. The single story creates stereotypes. And the problem with
stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They
make one story become the only story. Of course, Africa is a continent full
of catastrophes. There are immense ones, such as the horrific rapes in
Congo, and depressing ones, such as the fact that 5,000 people apply for
one job vacancy in Nigeria. But there are other stories that are not about
catastrophe. And it is very important, it is just as important to talk
about them. I've always felt that it is impossible to engage properly with
a place or a person without engaging with all of the stories of that place
and that country. The consequence of a single story is this, it robs people
of dignity. It makes our recognition of an equal humanity. Okay. Let's see
if I can rewind this. Okay. Patricia, I think you missed the entire
section, no? No, no, I was listening to it. You were listening to it,
great. So, Rafael, please, can you step up and try to do the first one?
Read the whole sentence and give in Philadelphia. I'll read out your
answer. Single story emphasizes how we are. Word number three. Three.
According to Tim Amanda Adichie, immigration in the United States has
become synonymous with Mexicans. Okay. Number two, Estefanía. I saw people
in Guadalajara. Tim Amanda Adichie realized she had absorbed this single
story and she felt, I think it's ashamed. Ashamed? What's ashamed? Because
she said overwhelmed with shame. Okay, yes. To feel overwhelmed and to feel
ashamed. What's the difference? Overwhelmed is like everything is going on
now. A lot of things like too much for you. Okay, so this is abrumado. And
to feel ashamed is sentirse avergonzado. Estar avergonzado, sentirse
avergonzado, sentirse abrumado. Okay, the next one, please. Patricia. We
create a single story by showing people as one thing again and again. Okay,
very good. Number four, Rafael. Power over other people is the ability to
create a story that dispossesses the definitive story. Okay. Number five,
Estefanía. The balance of power in the U.S. would be different if we
started that game. Okay, very good. We create a country's story with the
arrows of the Native Americans. Yes, very good. And Patricia. According to
Chimamanda Adichie, we also need to tell African stories that are not about
catastrophes. Okay, very good. The last part of the text is a fill in the
blanks part. Okay, so that should be a bit easier to complete. The single
story emphasizes how we are. Rather than how we are. Okay, let me play it.
Pressing one such as the fact that 5,000 people apply for one job vacancy
in Nigeria. But there are other stories that are not about catastrophe. And
this is very important. It is just as important to talk about them. I've
always felt that it is impossible to engage properly with a place or a
person without engaging with all of the stories of that place and that
person. The consequence of the single story. Is this. It robs people of
dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It
emphasizes how we are different. Rather than how we are similar. So what if
before my Mexican trip, I had followed the immigration debate from both
sides, the U.S. and the Mexican? What if my mother had told us that Fide's
family was poor and had walking? What if we had an African television
network that broadcasts diversity? What if we had diverse African stories
all over the world? What the Nigerian writer Chino Achebe calls a balance
of stories. What if my roommate knew about my Nigerian publisher, Mukta
Bakari? A remarkable man who left his job in a bank to follow his dream and
start a publishing house. Now the conventional wisdom was that Nigerians
don't read literature. He disagreed. He felt that people who could read
would read if he made literature affordable and available to them. Every
time I am home, I'm confronted with the usual sources of irritation for
most Nigerians. Our failed infrastructure. Our failed government. But also
by the incredible resilience of people who thrive despite the government
rather than because of it. I teach writing workshops in Lagos every summer.
And it is amazing to me how many people apply. How many people are eager to
write, to tell stories. My Nigerian publisher and I have just started
writing. We started a nonprofit called Farafina Trust. And we have big
dreams of building libraries and refurbishing libraries that already exist.
And providing books for state schools that don't have anything in their
libraries. And also organizing lots and lots of workshops and reading and
writing for all the people who are eager to tell our many stories. Stories
matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to
malign. But stories can also be used to empower. And to humanize. Stories
can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken
dignity. The American writer Alice Walker wrote this about her southern
relatives who had moved to the north. And she introduced them to a book
about the southern life that they had left behind. They sat around reading
the book themselves. Listening to me read the book. And the kind of
paradise was regained. I would like to end with this thought. That when we
reject the single story. When we realize that there is never a single story
about any place. We regain a kind of paradise. Thank you. Okay, so give me
the answers to exercise four. Look at the ideas from the fourth part of the
talk. And watch the fourth part. And complete the sentences. Let's start in
the same order as before. Rafa, Estefanía and Patricia. Rafa, please. The
single story emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are
similar. Okay, very good. Estefanía? What if my mother had told me that
Fide's family was poor and hardworking? Okay. And number three, Patricia? I
don't have it. Okay. Rafael? Nigerians often thrive despite the government
rather than because of it. Very good. You can say despite something. Or in
spite of. Of something. Okay? So there are parallel structures. But if you
say in spite, you have to put of. Okay? The next one. Estefanía? Stories
can break the dignity of people. But they can also repair that broken
dignity. Very good. You've understood this so well. I'm very happy.
Patricia? When we... Reject the single story, we... Regain. Very good.
Regain a current paradise. Okay. Very good. Going back to what we were
talking at the beginning of the class, talk to me about things that worry
to you about the future with this situation. What is your biggest area of
worry and how do you think it can be solved? It's connecting with the
conversation topic that we have at the beginning of this unit. Patricia?
I'm a bit worried about the public health system. Okay. Because I think
they are suffering so much that they will be really in problems when this
crisis finishes. Do you think it's going to be, in a certain way, the proof
that it is much more necessary? That we had... That other generations
probably had the appreciation for it because they had the feeling that...
Right. Yeah. It suffered a lot of criticism in the past and now it's going
to be more appreciated by the majority. Yeah. I'm sure about it. Okay.
Yeah. What about you? What worries you about the future, about how all this
is going to end? Stefania? Yeah. Sorry. I haven't heard you. Well, about
this crisis or about the general future? Whatever you want. You can talk
about this situation in particular or life in general. For me, the worries
about this situation is about the economy of the country because I think
it's going to be very damaged. Mm-hmm. I think it's going to be very... a
lot of earthers. There had been actually. So, I think the government is
not... I'm not sure if it's going to be able to pay everything. I mean, the
cost of these people that is going to go to the unemployment and all the
costs that the health system are going to cost in addition to the cost that
they already have. So I think that we are going to suffer a lot in regards
to the economy. We're just having so much fun. Rafael? For that reason, I
own the upper floor. You need an upper floor. Yeah, I need it. I need a
garden like the ones I see when I see celebrities on Instagram. Hey, stay
safe. This is my 300-square-meter gym. And I'm going to go for a bath now.
You stay safe. Do exercise. I have like 300 meters here to do exercise.
Stay healthy. And then you're like, yeah, sure. Whatever, man. Rafael, what
about yourself? What worries you the most about the future? Well, about the
future. I can't. I can tell you very little, very few, very few ideas. I'm
really worried about when this will finish and what we shall do in the
future with the... with the... at school and how... how children are coping
with their tasks and all. And that's it. And that's how I feel. I don't
feel very much at ease with this situation. So, as far as the economy is
concerned, I think that... the government should take the reins as soon as
possible just because it's something that cannot be postponed. So, there
have been some measures that are going to... to be... to be implemented in
this very... in this... from this very moment. And let's see in due course.
Do you think that this is going to be solved before the end of spring? That
things are going to be more or less back to normal? I wish it were. Okay. I
wish it were. Which means it won't. But... They always say that a pessimist
is an informed optimist. Yeah. Yes, but... Well, I've got a... Who knows?
I've got a planned trouble in June and I'm going to cancel next day. No,
no, no. Don't cancel it. You'll go... No, because it's to London. And in
London, the situation is going to be longer than here because they are
not... They're not doing anything. I mean, I'm very sure that experts can
probably criticize the Spanish government and the Italian government. But I
really find it complicated to criticize both governments because first of
all, people in Spain and people in Italy don't behave the same way as
people in China or people in Europe. Sure. Or people in Korea. People in
China, they tell them, go home, don't come out in 15 days. Everybody's
going home. They're not coming out in 15 days. You tell people, don't come
out in 15 days and they start to hide in parks. They go to their summer
houses. They make up excuses so they can go have drinks with their friends.
I mean, yesterday, they closed down next to... Not very far from my house.
Okay. An illegal rave party with 60 people. A helicopter detected a rave
party and they shut it down. Really? Yes, in a hotel. Okay. So... Recently
on TV? They had taken the money from the people and they were celebrating a
rave party. Well, that's... Recently on TV I heard that in the States,
those measures were... Are going to be taken, but it's up to you. If you
want to go out, it's up to you. You won't be fined. But... In France, for
example, they've allowed taking your dog out for a walk, 200 meters away
from home. But they've allowed people to go out for a run two kilometers
away from their house. So they said that they've experienced the biggest
increase in urban runners that they've ever had in France. Everybody goes
out for a run because you're allowed to go out for a run in France. You
were talking about the rave that we could read about it in the press
yesterday. And I also saw a video in a village of Valencia, people dancing
in the street. And one of the... One of the people who was dancing was the
mayoress. So... Oh, really? Yeah. The mayoress. So imagine what can we...
The mayoress. Yeah, the mayoress. Okay. So yeah. I mean, it's very... Well,
I heard that yesterday they still... They were still shutting down bars
that were opening randomly and just maintaining operations. So you say,
people are just not as responsible in Western countries. In the United
States, for example, right now is a period where university students go to
Florida for a trip... Spring break. For a spring break. Spring break. And
Florida was packed. There were thousands of people in Florida beaches... On
the beaches of Florida yesterday. So they shut down California today. Great
Britain is going to have a big problem. I guess that France is going to go
in the same direction as Spain. United States is going to have one of the
biggest problems in the world because they're not doing enough. And in
Brazil, the president of Brazil is still saying that he doesn't believe in
viruses, that that happens in countries that have too many old people. So
apparently he's not going to do anything. He's... He's going to let die old
people. Yeah. Apparently it's not important if he says he doesn't consider
himself to be too old. He doesn't give it down for the moment. Well, it's
rather... It's rather crazy. If you hear the explanation that politicians
were giving yesterday in Mexico, you're like, oh my God, this sounds so
deluded. It's like these people should be locked up in a mental
institution. The type of explanation they're giving just don't make any
sense. Other countries like Argentina or Colombia, they seem to be taking
things very seriously. And if they arrive to the problem sooner than in
Spain or Italy, they'll be in a better position. I was... I'm going to talk
to you about the writing for next week. I don't know if you've ever been in
this situation. Road rage is the type of people that their... Whose
behavior changes completely when they start driving. I don't know if
you've... If you know anyone in your family or from your friends or
yourself, when you get behind the wheel, you start honking and saying, get
out of the way. I'm in a hurry. You either get very aggressive or you take
it very easy when you're behind the wheel. Rafa, what kind of driver are
you? I... Well, I drive... I drive very, very little. Okay. Well, I... In
the last few... In the last two years, I've... I've driven... I've driven
three times, but the fact is that I've had the car out abroad. Okay. So I
haven't driven in the Spanish way... On the Spanish side. ...on the Spanish
side for almost three or four years. So even though you don't drive, you
recognize the crazy behavior that some drivers engage in when they get
behind the wheel. Yes, I know. I... Well, I'm not a driver, but I'm a
rider. Okay. I ride my bike whenever... Whenever... I used to drive my bike
when I... When I wanted to go shopping to the... To a... I mean, to the
shopping center, for example. But nowadays, I can't do it due to the... To
the... The situation. Due to the fact that we are at home, of course.
And... And to tell you the truth, I have to confess that my behavior when
I... When I am cycling with my hands... Mm-hmm. ...grabbing... Grabbing my
handle and... And my behavior is quite similar to... To any other driver.
To road rage. You... You're an aggressive rider. A rider. Yes. You're an
aggressive rider. I... I guess, yeah. It makes sense. I... I guess that
people on motorcycles must have their... Their episodes of road rage in the
same amount as drivers do. Patricia, what type of driver are you? Well,
I... It's the moment of the day where I say more insults. Oh, really? Yeah.
You have to talk about this like covering your eyes? Yeah. And changing
your words? Yeah. Swear words. I can't keep my mind in this conversation
without talking to my lawyer. I do it. Okay. So... So you... You... You
recognize yourself as an aggressive driver. Yeah. Not... Yeah. I insult
everybody who does something that is not well done. So... Okay. I know they
say nothing. You look like a patient person. Why do you think you lose your
patience when you get behind the wheel? I don't know. It's one of the
only... Only situations where I... Where I act in this way. Okay.
Estefania, what about yourself? Well, I'm not sure. I might be kind of more
aggressive than... Than the average? Are you going to just... No, no. Not
on the average. No, than I am without driving but it's not like that I am
kind of road rage. Do you... Do you recognize yourself in the expression
like... Imagine that you're arriving to a roundabout and the car that is
behind you like takes a sudden turn and gets in your way and is really
aggressive with you. Would you answer back and honk on the horn and go down
the window and... Yeah, I would do it. Yes, I would do it of course. That's
the definition of... If he's saying something to me, yes, of course, I
would say that then I am sorry. So, so my proposition for this week I see
that apparently we have three road rage riders and one road rage rider.
What about you? I'm a teacher I don't have to answer You don't have to
answer. Yeah, I have to say that my less diplomatic moment is when I when I
drive. Sometimes So where for? We have really embarrassing experiences and
I get I learn from my mistakes. For example, sometimes I'm a very I mean
when I'm not driving I'm a very nice person. So For that reason I said that
I am a nice person when I'm not driving but when I drive Maybe I'm super
kind to a neighbor for a very long time and and when I'm arriving home I
see that a neighbor I mean a car tries to do something in front of me and
I'm like honking on the horn and afterwards I see that we're going to the
same garage and I'm so embarrassed that so yeah I try to learn from those
situations and not do those those things again. We're not going to have
time to go through the listening activities the sorry the vocabulary
activities and the grammar activities I think we would have time for a
short maybe one of the shorter activities Let's move to page 78 and at
least you have a look at what we're going to see for the next class okay?
forms okay? It says one way isn't necessarily better or worse that's one
expression than another you see a way of doing something that seems much
more sensible than the way you've been used to You're far less likely to
bruise the banana as you peel it from the stock end sorry from the
non-stock end They don't suffer nearly as much from back problems as we
seem to in America It's by far the cheapest bed I've ever bought It takes
up a little more room than my old bed but I sleep a whole lot better The
more you travel the more you become aware of the different things that
people do sorry different ways that people do the same things The simpler
the solution the better it seems to work Okay so these type of expressions
are expressions that we use to compare one situation with another I would
like you for the next week to read on page 155 these type of comparative
expressions so you feel comfortable when we start the class with the
exercises that we're going to do at the beginning of the class Okay Last
week we had Lorena and Maria well Rafa was there but he we couldn't hear
him so it was kind of sad to have him in class but not being able to talk
to him Today we've had a great class with the three of you I'm hoping that
Maria Lopez and Javi and as well Maria Sanchez and Lorena they can come to
the following classes and maybe even Raquel and we can have these seven to
eight people again as we normally do and we can go a bit back to normal
even though we're in this situation of in this weird situation have a look
at the exercises that were that are on page 78 and 79 look at page 155 and
we'll retake it from there okay better to thank you so much to leave it
there the class outline I'll post it also in the forum and thanks a lot for
your participation and that's because you did a great job okay so thanks a
lot it's really to hear your comments and to see your faces Ricardo I
passed Comentario de Textos you did what mark did you get seven nine very
good you got an eight my god well done yeah very good I'm very happy so
yeah it was very difficult for me that's yeah it's one of the most
difficult subjects in the whole four years of university it's one of the
biggest obstacles so you've congratulations thank you very much thank you
for your help yeah no it's it's a pleasure guys been great to talk to you
I'm gonna start the weekend with a lot of energy okay keep smiling stay
safe okay you too thank you bye-bye see you bye