Also, you and the engineers will build the first bridge of Derdia together.. You will use cardboard paper, pens, scissors and glue to build the bridge.. The tools all have a gender: the
Trang 1You live in a country called ‘Derdia.’ There is a deep canyon between your village and the market of the nearby
town This is a huge inconvenience (=problem), because if you want to go grocery shopping there, you have to
walk for 2 days to get around the canyon and reach the market If there was a bridge over the
canyon, the trip would take only 2 hours
Now the Derdian government hired (=paid) a construction company from the EU to visit you and
teach you the science of building bridges That means you are going to be
the first engineers in Derdia with a license to construct bridges in your
country
Also, you and the engineers will build the first bridge of Derdia together.
You will use cardboard paper, pens, scissors and glue to build
the bridge You are familiar with (=you know) the materials, but not with the
construction methods (=how to build it).
SOCIAL RULES OF THE DERDS
3 Saying YES/NO
You Derds do not use the ’N’ word, that is the word ’no’, because you consider it very rude You say ’yes’ when you mean ’yes’, and say ’yes’ while very strongly nodding your
head (moving it up and down)
when you mean ’no’.
Very important: You Derds take your own cultural customs for granted, i.e you can’t imagine that others may have different customs, so you do not explain anything to the engineers!
4 Behavior during work
You Derds touch each other during work when you want to communicate
The tools all have a gender: the paper and scissors are feminine
(=female), the pencil, pen,
glue/sticky tape, stapler and ruler
are masculine (=male) Men must
not touch any feminine tools, while women must not touch masculine tools You consider touching the wrong tool embarrassing and will laugh when this happens.
5 Foreigners
You Derds are sociable
(=friendly) people, who especially like meeting foreigners You are
proud of yourselves and your culture So while you highly appreciate the engineers’ help, you do not consider them
superior (=better than you) You
Derds respect the foreigners, but expect them to behave as you
do, ie according to the Derdian
customs (=rules).
1 Greetings
The traditional greeting is to
greet (=say hello to) each
other with a kiss on the
other’s shoulder The first
person to greet the other
kisses the other’s right
shoulder, and then the other
one does the same Any
other kinds of kisses are
considered rudely impolite
The worst possible offense
(=impoliteness) in Derdia is
to shake hands as a
greeting If visitors do not
greet a Derd when meeting,
you Derds will become very
hurt and annoyed.
2 Touching
Touching each other is very important for you Derds It is very impolite not to touch during conversations However, you do not have to touch each other directly If you touch a chain of
people (=people holding hands),
you can communicate with each member in the chain Without touching, you Derds will simply
ignore (=not hear) the speaker.
Trang 2You are engineers working for a construction company in the European Union The Derdian
government has recently hired your company teach a group of Derds how to construct (=build) bridges
You will visit their village and build the first bridge together You have to keep the deadline (=finish in
time) agreed upon, otherwise you will not get paid and will lose your jobs
Derdia is a mountainous country beyond the Operentsian Sea with deep canyons and
valleys, but without any bridges There is a deep canyon between the Derdian village you
are visiting and the market of the nearby town This is a huge inconvenience (=problem),
because if they want to go grocery shopping there, they have to
walk for 2 days to get around the canyon and reach the market If
there was a bridge over the canyon, the trip would take only 2
hours
It is important to not just build the first bridge, but also to
train (=teach) the first Derdian engineers how to build
bridges alone in Derdia
PREPARATION FOR THE TRAINING
Construction
STEP 1 Decide what kind of
bridge you should build, and how
to build it
STEP 2 Then 2 members of the
construction team can make a
quick visit to the Derdian village
where the first bridge will be built,
e.g in order to
meet the villagers
discuss basic details of the job
and confirm the number of
your team
collect information on the
natural and weather
conditions and the Derdians
(e.g Does it rain a lot? Are
there forests? Do Derdians
speak English?).
STEP 3.You’ll have 5 minutes to
share the new information with
your team
STEP 4 Finally, your whole team
of engineers will travel to Derdia to
teach the Derds how to build
bridges
The bridge
You will build the bridge out of cardboard paper, using pens, scissors and glue
The bridge has to connect 2 chairs or desks standing about 80 cm from each other
It has to be strong enough to hold its own weight, and the scissors, pencils and other construction tools
You cannot assemble (=build)
parts of the bridge at home and transport the parts to Derdia, because, on the one hand, it would be expensive, and on the other hand, then the Derds could not master
(=learn) the skills of bridge
construction It is very important that they learn all
the stages (=steps) of the
construction
You and the Derds have to draw each panel of the bridge using a pen/pencil and a ruler, and cut it out with scissors
The time limit
30-45 minutes for reading these instructions, planning the construction and making the first visit to Derdia
Then 30-45 minutes for building the bridge and training the Derds
It’s very important to always behave politely during your visit!
Trang 3DERDIAN SOCIAL RULES
Greeting: Kiss on shoulder (If engineers want to shake hands, refuse it)
Always touch when you talk (If engineers don’t touch you when speaking to you, don’t listen to them)
Never say no: No = YEEES (also nod your head)
Women can only touch feminine tools: paper, scissors (If engineers touch wrong object, laugh :)
Men can only touch masculine tools: pen, ruler, glue/sticky tape (If engineers touch wrong object, laugh :)
DERDIAN SOCIAL RULES
Greeting: Kiss on shoulder (If engineers want to shake hands, refuse it)
Always touch when you talk (If engineers don’t touch you when speaking to you, don’t listen to them)
Never say no: No = YEEES (also nod your head)
Women can only touch feminine tools: paper, scissors (If engineers touch wrong object, laugh :)
Men can only touch masculine tools: pen, ruler, glue/sticky tape (If engineers touch wrong object, laugh :)
Trang 5VOCABULARY LIST
a huge inconvenience a big problem
go grocery shopping buy food, drink and basic things for the
home
government the small group of people who control a
country
a construction company a company building houses, bridges, etc
engineer a person who can design roads and buildings
cardboard paper strong, brownish paper
glue
sticky tape
stapler
ruler
construction methods ways of building
to greet each other to say hello
is considered impolite people think it’s not polite
shake hands a form of greeting in Western cultures
a chain of people people holding each other’s hands
nod, nod your head saying yes with your head
Trang 6to communicate to talk
tools useful things, e.g scissors, glue, stapler
the Derdian customs traditions, ways of living
take sg for granted be used to sg