August 2005
An enewsletter for CultureGrams™ subscribers
This month's Culture Matters enewsletter will help teachers, librarians, administrators, and students stay informed about the world's cultures, while providing classroom resources and giving tips for using CultureGrams™ and World Conflicts Today™. Check out our online archive for access to past issues.
Regional Focus
This month: Southeastern Europe
Next month: Central and South Asia
In this issue:
- Notes for CultureGrams Users
- Did You Know?
- Holiday Focus/Upcoming World Holidays
- Teaching Idea: National Symbols
- Southeastern Europe Quiz
- Recipes from Southeastern Europe
- In the News: Anniversary of Srebrenica
- Email Service Information & Forwarding Tool
1. Notes for CultureGrams Users
New Data Tables Format Available
The CultureGrams Online Database now includes CSV (comma separated value) files for each of the tables in our Data Tables section. One of the features most requested by our customers, CSV files are compatible with Microsoft Excel and other spreadsheet programs. These files make it simple for users to save and adapt their own spreadsheets using all of the country statistics CultureGrams offers. This feature is also available with our Comparison Table, which lets users select specific countries and categories.
Try out the new CSV files today.
Revised Product Information Pages Launched
You already know that CultureGrams go beyond mere facts and figures to deliver an insider's perspective on daily life and culture, including the history, customs, and lifestyles of the world's people. The growing diversity of the U.S. population and the new emphasis on globalism and multiculturalism make the full line of CultureGrams solutions an indispensable resource for teachers and students to understand their country and their world.
To help K-12 users make the most of their resources, we recently launched a pair of new product information pages that focus on CultureGrams and World Conflicts Today. These pages include basic solution information, training opportunities and materials, educator guides, and much more.
ProQuest Teachable Moments Newsletter
You told us you were looking for more classroom-ready activities to help you maximize use of your ProQuest digital solutions--from CultureGrams to SIRS and beyond--and we heard you. Next week, we’ll formally launch our newest monthly K-12 newsletter: ProQuest Teachable Moments. On the first of each month, readers will receive fresh, unduplicated student activities connected to a timely theme or curriculum area.
Our May sample issue focused on Science. Like all of our newsletters, it’s available to you and your colleagues free of charge. Sign up now!
[ TOP ]
2. Did You Know? Tidbits from CultureGrams
- In Romania, family members mourning the death of a loved one may wear black from six weeks to a year.
- Traditional Macedonian instruments include the gajda, a type of bagpipe.
- In Bulgaria, “yes” is indicated by shaking the head from side to side, and “no” is expressed with one or two nods.
- There are more than one hundred daily newspapers in Greece. At least thirty are published in Athens.
- Albanian hosts open gifts from visitors, even birthday presents, only after the guests have gone.
[ TOP ]
3. World Holidays
Holiday Focus:
Macedonia’s Ilinden
On August 2, Macedonia marks the anniversary of the Ilinden Uprising, a famous Macedonian revolt against the Ottoman Empire in 1903. Though the revolt was unsuccessful, Macedonians still consider the rebellion a symbol of their refusal to accept Ottoman rule. Ilinden, which coincides with St. Elijah's Day, is one of Macedonia’s most important national holidays and is celebrated with speeches, concerts, and other cultural events.
Some Upcoming World Holidays
Niger – Independence Day – August 3
Nigeriens plant trees to combat increasing desertification.
Tuvalu – National Children's Day – August 4
Features children's sports and crafts.
Multiple Caribbean nations – Emancipation Day – First Monday in August
Commemorates the end of slavery.
Japan – Bon Festival – Mid-August
Bon Festival takes place over several days in mid-August, with dates varying by region. During this time, people take vacations and return to their ancestral homes to welcome visiting ancestral spirits with bonfires.
Hungary – St. Stephen's Day – August 20
Celebrates the harvest and honors the first king of Hungary.
Moldova – Limba Noastra – August 31
Celebrates the proclamation of Romanian as the official language.
[ TOP ]
4. Teaching Idea
Summary: Students use CultureGrams to compare national symbols from different countries and discuss how these symbols reflect the nations’ values.
Curriculum standards:
Conforms to the National Council for the Social Studies curriculum standards for middle grades:
- Culture (I. c.): Explain and give examples of how language, literature, the arts, architecture, other artifacts, traditions, beliefs, values, and behaviors contribute to the development of culture.
- Culture (I. d.): Explain why individuals and groups respond differently to their physical and social environments and/or changes to them on the basis of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs.
- Individual Development and Identity (IV. e.): Identify and describe ways regional, ethnic, and national cultures influence individuals’ daily lives.
Materials:
- CultureGrams Online Database: Kids Edition
Instructions:
- Explain what a symbol is and ask students to name several U.S. national symbols (e.g., U.S. flag, the bald eagle, U.S. coins or currency, the White House, famous presidents such as Washington or Lincoln, etc.). Discuss what each U.S. symbol means and why the things they represent are important (give short historical background, as necessary). Discuss why national symbols, and traditions that include national symbols, should be given respect. Mention specific ways respect can be shown (removing a hat during a flag ceremony, or not hurting a bald eagle, etc.).
- Using the CultureGrams Kids Edition, show or describe other nations’ national symbols. These are located on the bottom right of the main webpage for each country.
For example:
The kiwi of New Zealand
The gaucho of Argentina
The panda of China
The dharma chakra of India
The Parthenon of Greece
You may also want to refer to the symbols in the different nations’ flags.
- Discuss why each country’s symbols are different and how these symbols reflect each nation’s values. Ask students what they value personally and what people in the United States value as a society.
- Have each student draw a family symbol (or symbols). Discuss why they chose what they did, and relate their respect for their family symbols to respect for national symbols.
How do you use CultureGrams? Submit your teaching ideas to our editors today, and your activity might show up in a future issue of this newsletter!
[ TOP ]
5. Quiz
- The nations of southeastern Europe occupy which peninsula?
- This loosely associated union of two former Yugoslav states has its federal capital in Belgrade. The states may hold a referendum on complete dissolution in 2006.
- Crete is the largest island of which country?
- Greece and Slovenia are the only nations on the Balkan Peninsula that belong to which 25-nation organization?
- The 1995 Dayton Peace Accords ended war in this country by dividing it into a Muslim/Croat Federation and the Serb Republic, loosely joined by a central government.
Answers
1) The Balkan Peninsula 2) Serbia and Montenegro 3) Greece 4) The European Union 5) Bosnia and Herzegovina
[ TOP ]
6. Recipes
Here are two easy-to-make dishes selected from our Recipe Collection, which contains five recipes from each country in the CultureGrams series--more than 900 altogether.
Recipes are a great way to introduce students to the culture of a country or region. You may want to create dishes as a class or hold a culture fair with foods from different countries.
Main dish from Macedonia
Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients:
1/2 cup ground beef, sausage out of casing, or two eggs
1 small onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups cooked rice or bread cubes
1 tomato, peeled and seeded
1/2 teaspoon oregano, basil, sage, or thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 medium peppers, washed, with seeds and pulp removed
1/2 cup grated cheese
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 300°F.
2. Using a pan, brown the meat with the onion. Drain excess fat.
3. Add rice, tomato, cheese, and spices to the meat and onion. Mix well.
4. Fill the peppers with the mixture and place upright in a baking pan. Put 1/4 inch of water in the bottom of the pan.
5. Bake for 30 minutes. Serve.
Side Dish from Albania
Jani me Fasule (Bean Jahni Soup)
Ingredients:
2 cups dry white beans
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons tomato sauce
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 tablespoon chopped mint
Salt, chili powder
Directions:
1. Boil beans in hot water in an uncovered pot for 5 minutes. Rinse and boil for another 15 minutes in a covered pot in 3 cups hot water.
2. Sauté onion in olive oil until it turns yellow. Add 2 tablespoons bean stock from the pot, along with tomato sauce, parsley, salt, and chili powder for taste. Cook for 10 minutes, or until a thick sauce is formed. Then pour everything into the pot.
3. Add chopped mint, cover tightly, and cool for 2 hours over low heat, or for 30 minutes in a pressure cooker. This should produce a thick juice, covering beans by an inch or so.
4. Serve hot.
Yields: 4 servings
[ TOP ]
7. In the News
On July 11, thousands of mourners attended a ceremony marking the tenth anniversary of the massacre at Srebrenica, where at least 7,500 Bosnian Muslims were killed by Serb forces during the Bosnian War. The massacre has been called the single worst atrocity in Europe since World War II. Family members at the ceremony buried more than 600 victims whose remains had been recently identified using DNA samples.
Serbian officials were in attendance, and foreign leaders apologized for the international community’s failure to prevent the massacre. Still at large are several former high-ranking Bosnian Serbs indicted by the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, including former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and army chief Ratko Mladic, under whose command the Srebrenica massacre took place.
Access the CultureGrams report for Bosnia and Herzegovina today.
[ TOP ]
8. Email Service Information & Forwarding Tool
Increase the usage of CultureGrams and World Conflicts Today!
Our forward to a friend service makes it easy to instantly send this product bulletin -- and all the great ideas and information it contains -- to others with a click of your mouse.
Also, encourage your peers to sign up for our SIRS®, ProQuest®, ProQuest Historical Newspapers™, eLibrary®, eLibrary Curriculum Edition™, and additional enewsletters as appropriate. An archive of back issues is available.
To subscribe to any or all of these offerings, click here.
To add a new subscription to your newsletter account, change your email address, unsubscribe, or modify your settings,
click here.
Cordially,
Your CultureGrams/ProQuest K-12 Team
|
