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From: "You Have to Live in Somebody Elses' Country to Understand: A Lesson
on Outsiders," by Patty Litwin. In: The New Americans Teacher Guide. www.pbs.org/newamericans/6.0/pdfs/warmup.pdf
(Reprinted with permission.)
Introduction and Purpose:
The goal of this one-hour warm-up is to provide students with an opportunity to explore the feelings of people who are considered outsiders in society. By the end of the lesson, students should be able to experience the feelings of outsiders more sensitively, and use their experience to practice the skills of active listening, empathy, compassion, and problem solution.(Note: This lesson is generally intended for American-born students.)
Materials:
Handout: poem, Noy Chou, "You Have to Live in Somebody Else's Country to Understand." (See poem below.) A Spanish translation of the poem is available on The New Americans Teacher Guide Web site.
Process:
- Arrange ahead of time for an adult who is literate in a second language to read the poem in the second language to the class. For the purpose of this lesson, be sure that the language spoken is one that most of the students do not understand. It's even better if just a few students understand. They will provide an interesting contrast to the experience of the majority. Tell the class that they will be having a guest speaker who will be sharing a poem with them. Have the guest introduce him or herself briefly in the second language, without speaking any English. Expect students to feel mildly uncomfortable not understanding the speaker.
- Instruct the class that they will be listening quietly to the poem with their eyes closed. Have the guest read the poem to the class.
- After the poem is read, have the guest give the following instructions in the second language to the class: "Please take out a piece of paper and complete this journal assignment in five minutes. Describe a time when you felt like an outsider, or when someone made a judgment about you based on things over which you had no control." Repeat the instructions in English. Start by saying something like, "For those of you who are non-native speakers, here are the instructions in your language."
- Hand out copies of the poem in English and read the poem to the class. (You may want to ask the guest to read the poem in English to the students as they follow along.
- After the poem is read, have the students write a second journal entry. Students should review the text of the poem and select phrases, lines, or passages that have meaning for them and copy them. Have them give examples from their own life experiences to explain each of their choices. Allow five to ten minutes.
- Have students share their journal entries with each other in pairs or groups of three.
- Debriefing: You can use an overhead for the debriefing and cluster their ideas as they speak. Ask students to share how they felt while the poem was being read. Label the cluster, "Feelings of Outsiders." Continue the debriefing discussion with the these additional questions:
- For the students who did understand the poem, how did you feel? About yourself? About the other students who couldn't understand the poem?
- Who do you think are treated like "outsiders" in America today? Individuals? Groups?
- What are the possible results or consequences when people feel like outsiders in their surroundings? For themselves? For others? In school, for example, how might these feelings interfere with a student's ability to learn or collaborate with other students in a group?
- How might you act differently toward someone when you recognize that s/he might be feeling like an outsider?
Poem:
You Have to Live in Somebody Else's Country to Understand
By Noy Chou*
What is it like to be an outsider?
What is it like to sit in the class where everyone has blond hair and you have black hair?
What is it like when the teacher says, "Whoever wasn't born here raise your hand."
And you are the only one.
Then, when you raise your hand, everybody looks at you and makes fun of you.
You have to live in somebody else's country to understand.
What is it like when the teacher treats you like you've been here all your life?
What is it like when the teacher speaks too fast and you are the only one who can't understand
what he or she is saving, and you try, to tell him or her to slow down.
Then when you do, everybody says, "If you don't understand, go to a lower class or get lost."
You have to live in somebody else's country to understand.
What is it like when you are an opposite?
When you wear the clothes of your country and they think you are crazy to wear these clothes and you think they are pretty.
You have to live in somebody else's country to understand.
What is it like when you are always a loser.
What is it like when somebody bothers you when you do nothing to them?
You tell them to stop but they tell you that they didn't do anything to you.
Then, when they keep doing it until you can't stand it any longer, you go up to the teacher and tell him or her to tell them to stop bothering you.
They say that they didn't do anything to bother you.
Then the teacher asks the person sitting next to you.
He says, "Yes, she didn't do anything to her" and you have no witness to turn to.
So the teacher thinks you are a liar.
You have to live in somebody else's country to understand.
What is it like when you try to talk and you don't pronounce the words right?
They don't understand you.
They laugh at you but you don't know that they are laughing at you, and you start to laugh with them.
They say, "Are you crazy, laughing at yourself?
Go get lost, girl."
You have to live in somebody else's country without a language to understand.
What is it like when you walk in the street and everybody turns around to look at you and you don't know that they are looking at you.
Then, when you find out, you want to hide your face but you don't know where to hide because they are everywhere.
You have to live in somebody else's country to feel it.
*Published in 1986 by the Anti-Defamation League in the "A World of Difference" project.
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