Globalperspectives-week+1.

=Global Perspectives=


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Weeks 1 (sample class)
13.1 Tradition, Culture and Language G/I P Why do people value tradition? Why do people divide into nations? Why do some people move from one country to another? How does this affect their lives? If we have ‘European citizens’, should we aim eventually for all people to be ‘World citizens’?

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13.2 Tradition, Culture and Language N/L P
What traditions give my country a sense of national identity? How many different ethnic backgrounds live in my community? What can we learn from each other? The existence of numerous and diverse cultures in the world often outlines problems of coexistence among themselves. It is necessary to keep in mind that the social customs of each one of them are inspired by historical events that determined the social evolution of those communities and that, therefore, they are based on their cultural and historical tradition. However, the fact that certain customs have a traditional base it doesn't justify that these customs can attempt against the basic rights of people, essential rights that have been recognized expressly by all the States that are part of the United Nations (UN). For example, in many cultures, the right to equality of women is not recognized, situations of injustice are admitted by religion or dominant traditions in those societies. Equally it happens to the marginalization of certain castes in other cultures, or with the rights to education that are not recognized for certain social communities in certain States. That fact often outlines a moral dilemma of significant importance: should we be respectful with the intolerant cultures for the mere fact that they rely on religious, cultural or historical dominant traditions during many centuries? Or on the contrary, should we combat any type of human discrimination, independently of the respect due to other peoples and to other forms of understanding life? Will this last attitude be considered an interference in internal matters to cultures different to ours, that is to say, like a form of ethnocentrism, practiced historically so often by the western civilization? Until where should our respect arrive in any event, that is to say, which is the limit that we should settle down?

13.3 Tradition, Culture and Language F/P P
Should I be proud of my country? Do I have duties to my country? What cultural traditions have I inherited? How important is tradition to me? How important is it for me to learn a foreign language? Sociology understands culture as the general group of ways of life, customs, beliefs and traditions that characterize to a society or social wide group, and that distinguishes it from other social groups. Inside the concept culture are also included techniques and characteristic technologies of that society, the rites, the ceremonies, the folklore, the systems of values, the juridical and social norms, the aesthetic approaches and in general all their religious, philosophical and scientific ideas. Numerous cultures exist in the world, all of them fruit of the historical different experiences and adaptations that diverse peoples on earth have suffered. That diversity constitutes a cultural patrimony common to all human beings; that is why it is necesary to preserve them, although eliminating of them those customs or traditions that are not respectful of the essential Human Rights.