Comments on: Refugee children left behind as eagle lands on the moon https://languageonthemove.com/refugee-children-left-behind-as-eagle-lands-on-the-moon/ Multilingualism, Intercultural communication, Consumerism, Globalization, Gender & Identity, Migration & Social Justice, Language & Tourism Thu, 30 May 2019 05:47:48 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 By: Kimie Takahashi 高橋君江 https://languageonthemove.com/refugee-children-left-behind-as-eagle-lands-on-the-moon/#comment-1587 Thu, 22 Jul 2010 10:22:33 +0000 http://www.languageonthemove.com/?p=2138#comment-1587 Sense of alienation resulting from a lack of exposure to Western media (particularly popular culture such as movies, tv dramas and celebrities) is something I can easily relate to and also have seen in many international students here in Australia. It’s a different context from the serious issue of the testing system and cultural biases in it as in Ingrid’s post, but when I just arrived as an undergraduate student, I had no idea what and who Mr. Beans or the Simpsons or Monty Python were. No one really seemed to care about the fact that I wasn’t following what they were talking about and I used to get a “Don’t you know??” look. That was the reason I was often silent because my English was already pretty good back then;-) Luckily I had great flatmates – international students from Singapore. They rented videos for me, put me in front of the TV set with drinks and snacks and lectured me over so many nights what these programs were, why they were popular and funny to whom and which phrases were cool to use. I still often don’t get pop culture, but it doesn’t worry me any more (I’ve given up). What bugs me is when I see people such as international students from non-Western backgrounds being treated as ignorant or backwards because they haven’t heard or seen what’s popular here or in the US or the UK. I don’t expect non-Japanese to have an intimte knowledge of Mitokomon, G-Men, or Odoru Daisosasen. But you are expected to know Western pop culture which many unwittingly think are consumed everywhere (they are not), and if you fail to do so, you have failed the test of global citizenship. Particularly for new arrivals, continuing to talk in their newly acquaried second language while feeling ashamed of their lack of ‘global’ cultural knowledge with people who presumably ‘own’ the culture and language….requires superhuman power.

]]> By: vahid https://languageonthemove.com/refugee-children-left-behind-as-eagle-lands-on-the-moon/#comment-1577 Thu, 22 Jul 2010 00:17:09 +0000 http://www.languageonthemove.com/?p=2138#comment-1577 Hi Ingrid,

Thank you for sharing the story with everyone.
The boundary between fact and fiction is blurred in the modern word.
As Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007) argues, the excess of signs and of meanings in late 20th century caused an effacement of reality, which is quite paradoxical.

]]> By: Vera Williams Tetteh https://languageonthemove.com/refugee-children-left-behind-as-eagle-lands-on-the-moon/#comment-1575 Wed, 21 Jul 2010 22:59:10 +0000 http://www.languageonthemove.com/?p=2138#comment-1575 Thanks for sharing this story, Ingrid. It is timely food for thought for me as I prepare to front up for my boy’s parent teacher interview on Monday, which he is quite anxious about me attending. If only minority immigrant parents could see the culprit for what it is – cultural bias in education system!

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