LESSON 2: CULTURAL-BASED VOCABULARY
SECTION 2
You may use this activity as a summarizing class discussion, or use Chapter 1 from the 2012 NIE Asian New Year article series
to learn about New Year celebrations through the eyes of Teri Tsuchiya Yoshimura, whose family observes both Chinese and
Japanese New year to reflect her multicultural family. Activities in this section were written for students in grades 4 – 9.
Pre-Reading Discussion
Break students into smaller groups and have them answer the questions below, then come back together as a larger group
and discuss.
Ask your students the following questions:
• What are the definitions of American, culture, ethnicity, multicultural and nationality?
• How does your culture shape who you are?
• What culture do you personally connect with?
• What are your special cultural traditions?
• How can we be respectful of the customs, traditions and values of other cultures?
• Why is it important to study and learn about different cultures?
READ CHAPTER 1
Post-Reading Discussion
We learned about celebrating New Year’s through the eyes of different Asian Americans.
1. What did you learn about how Asian Americans celebrate the New Year?
2. How is this similar or different to how your own family celebrates the New Year?
3. What are the customs you learned from your parents and grandparents? Will you pass these on to your children?
4. What does being “American” mean to you?
5. Do you consider yourself American? Why or why not?
6. How would you describe mainstream American culture?
7. Can a person choose or change their culture? Why or why not?
8. Has the definition of being American changed over time? Why or why not?
9. Do you see your school, neighborhood and city, as being multicultural? Why or why not?
10. What are the benefits to living in a diverse city?
Vocabulary Activity
Create a worksheet with the following 5 words underlined: American, Culture, Ethnicity, Multicultural and Nationality with
space for students to write the definition and a sample sentence, using the word in a sentence that they construct. Please
include space at the top and type in “Name:”
Have students use classroom resources (or this can be done as a home activity) to find the definitions to these words.
Ask students to create a sentence with each word that demonstrates the definition of the word.
American
Of or pertaining to the United States, but often used as a substitute for “U.S. citizen.” However, there are also North Americans,
South Americans, Latin Americans etc…
Bicultural
When an individual identifies with more than one culture they can be called “bicultural” or “multicultural.”
Culture
The social patterns (ways of living), values (ideas of right and wrong) and customs (holidays, games etc.) taught within a certain
group of people.
Ethnicity
This term refers to the racial and cultural group into which one is born.
Multicultural
The existence of many cultures.
Nationality
This term refers to the nation that a person belongs to by birth or naturalization.
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