From January 27-31, 2010, the World Economic Forum will hold its fortieth annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
Discuss with your students the role of the World Economic Forum, an organization that brings together some of the world's most powerful leaders and makes decisions with far-reaching influence.
Then have students prepare to greet people as though they were hosts at the World Economic Forum meeting. Divide the students into groups of three or four students. Assign each group one country, whose CultureGrams World Edition report the group members will study, paying special attention to the Language, Greetings, and Gestures sections.
As they study the reports, the group members should make a list of "dos and don'ts." This list should include how to say hello in the country's language. The group members should identify any gestures that accompany a greeting as well as any other unique gestures. They should also learn things that people from that country might consider impolite.
Using these "dos and don'ts" lists, each group will then train the other meeting hosts (the rest of the class) on how to interact with representatives from the country studied. As part of the presentation, each group will train the other class members on how to say hello in the language of the country studied.
As an extension activity, have students research some of the criticisms protestors have raised against the World Economic Forum and present their findings to the class.
Cultural Learning Activity
For a twist on Inauguration Day, when the new U.S. president and vice-president are sworn in, have students become the "president" of a new, fictional country. To begin, give each student a copy of a CultureGrams World Edition country report and have him or her read it before class.
Conduct an in-class discussion to help students draw connections between categories. Discuss how history or religion can impact economy, how land and climate might influence transportation, how general attitudes could affect visiting, etc.
Assign each student to create his or her own fictitious country of which he or she may choose to be the president. They must then write a CultureGrams report for that country. Inform students of the following rules:
Students need to follow the natural cause-and-effect principles in geography and history. Meaning, if a student creates a desert-like country, he or she cannot have an economy based on the production of tropical fruits. The student's CultureGrams report for his or her fictitious country should include all of the same categories and subcategories as an actual CultureGrams report.
Have the students get together in smaller groups (about 4-5 per group) and have them analyze how their countries would get along. Which countries would trade with one another?
What political problems might arise? Which country would hold most of the resources? What alliances would develop and why?
Extrension Activity
As an extension activity, have the social studies and language arts teachers form a panel to judge the students' CultureGrams reports based on writing and plausible connections between categories (i.e., plausible geography/history scenario). Post the winner on the school website.
