http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBpoAFRE5iw
The Klipdrift brandy ad is from the post-1994 democracy era. The emphasis here is on multicultural understanding (3 languages consistently spoken throughout), overcoming linguistic misunderstanding through good cheer and brandy, and the fact that things have changed. They make fun of the white guy who insists on helping people who don't need it, and the black guy is patient, polite, and ultimately grateful for the hospitality.
By this I don't mean that these intentions are absent in South Africa, but it is probably statistically not that prevalent -the brandy company, however, makes it clear that they associate with that kind of drinking.
(Cynics might mention that the ad is about a black family sightseeing on white land in Africa, unless they knew the areas involved and the regional demographics.)
2011년 3월 31일 목요일
My pop culture posts Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtmIHICLLYk
In terms of how pop culture reflects society and what it aspires to, I've decided on 2 ads for alcoholic products; the first 1, from the 1980's, is for a beer popular among white people at the time, and the second, which was made after 2000, is for a brandy ( a drink that was considered a "working-class white" drink in the 80's).
The interesting thing about the Lion Lager ad for the contemporary South African viewer is not the conspicuous, how shall we put it, "lily-whiteness" of everyone in the ad, but the fact that they were rowing. SA is a dry country and rowing as a team sport is virtually non-existent there -the only times I ever saw it on TV as a kid was when the Henley boat race in upper-class England was broadcasted.
At the time it was very important for White South Africa to align itself with the First World, pragmatically as well as for reasons of morale. For the Afrikaans-speaking population, this meant the British against whom they had lost a war at the beginning of the 20th century.
Ironically, Lion Lager eventually went off the market -older white people drifted towards Castle Lager, while younger people from the 90's onwards started to drink Black Label, a beer whose advertising targeted working-class black people. All of these beers belonged to the same brewing company -SAB (today SAB-Miller).
In terms of how pop culture reflects society and what it aspires to, I've decided on 2 ads for alcoholic products; the first 1, from the 1980's, is for a beer popular among white people at the time, and the second, which was made after 2000, is for a brandy ( a drink that was considered a "working-class white" drink in the 80's).
The interesting thing about the Lion Lager ad for the contemporary South African viewer is not the conspicuous, how shall we put it, "lily-whiteness" of everyone in the ad, but the fact that they were rowing. SA is a dry country and rowing as a team sport is virtually non-existent there -the only times I ever saw it on TV as a kid was when the Henley boat race in upper-class England was broadcasted.
At the time it was very important for White South Africa to align itself with the First World, pragmatically as well as for reasons of morale. For the Afrikaans-speaking population, this meant the British against whom they had lost a war at the beginning of the 20th century.
Ironically, Lion Lager eventually went off the market -older white people drifted towards Castle Lager, while younger people from the 90's onwards started to drink Black Label, a beer whose advertising targeted working-class black people. All of these beers belonged to the same brewing company -SAB (today SAB-Miller).
2011년 3월 29일 화요일
Teaching culture in an English class
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=some-40000-foreign-teachers-to-be-assigned-2011-03-27
Mahfuz Yalçınkaya, the press consultant for Eğitim Bir-Sen, another Turkish education union, said his group was not sure whether the foreign teachers would bring a secret agenda along with their language skills to the elementary schools and kindergartens of Turkey.
“There could be missionaries among the teachers, or they may have other goals like promoting their own culture,” he added.
Even though it wouldn't be surprising if some teachers went to Turkey intending to spread the gospel, I'm not convinced that it in itself poses a threat to Turkish culture. Neither probably does teachers talking about their own or other cultures, but the fact is that a far larger percentage of teachers will probably do that, making the impact much bigger than that of religious proselytizing. Many of the native-speaker English teachers in Korea consider it part of their job to explain Western , and more specifically their own, culture to students, and it would probably be the same in Turkey.
The questions posed by the Turkish education union mentioned above are thus valid, if a bit hyperbolic. As teachers hired to help students improve their English, can it be considered an abuse of our position of power if we use it as an opportunity to explain our cultural viewpoints? Do we really broaden horizons, or are we expounding "broad horizons" according to our culture-specific definition?
Mahfuz Yalçınkaya, the press consultant for Eğitim Bir-Sen, another Turkish education union, said his group was not sure whether the foreign teachers would bring a secret agenda along with their language skills to the elementary schools and kindergartens of Turkey.
“There could be missionaries among the teachers, or they may have other goals like promoting their own culture,” he added.
Even though it wouldn't be surprising if some teachers went to Turkey intending to spread the gospel, I'm not convinced that it in itself poses a threat to Turkish culture. Neither probably does teachers talking about their own or other cultures, but the fact is that a far larger percentage of teachers will probably do that, making the impact much bigger than that of religious proselytizing. Many of the native-speaker English teachers in Korea consider it part of their job to explain Western , and more specifically their own, culture to students, and it would probably be the same in Turkey.
The questions posed by the Turkish education union mentioned above are thus valid, if a bit hyperbolic. As teachers hired to help students improve their English, can it be considered an abuse of our position of power if we use it as an opportunity to explain our cultural viewpoints? Do we really broaden horizons, or are we expounding "broad horizons" according to our culture-specific definition?
2011년 3월 22일 화요일
Putin and the "crusade" against Gadaffi
I found it interesting that Putin was trying to present the current military action against the Libyan government as a "crusade", a war between Christendom and Islam, especially considering (and possibly because of) his own governments' military actions in Chechnya and Georgia.
Note: The Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, distanced his government from the wording of the statement within hours.
http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE72K0DF20110321
Note: The Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, distanced his government from the wording of the statement within hours.
http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE72K0DF20110321
2011년 3월 16일 수요일
a luta continua...
PC's flipping back and forth between English and Korean ... need a post to check what's going on.
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