Improving Your Cross-cultural Competence

"...national spelling contest"

National Spelling Contest (Spelling Bee) is a national competition won by an individual or a team who spelled the greatest number of words correctly. The bee is run for kids 15 years and under. Winners at the county contest go on to National Spelling Bee in Washington, D. С

Here are some problem words offered to contestants in 2003: sacrilegious, macerate, incisor, ormolu, milieu (you might look at the web site http://www.funtrivia.com/dir/5482.html if you are interested),

Americans place great emphasis on correct spelling; it has become not merely an element of school program but a very important piece of American cultural environment. Unsurprisingly, American English embraced numerous words from different languages, those of Native American tribes, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Hebrew, etc, for example: succotash, enchilada, tortilla, frankfurter, pretzel, sachet, strudel, schnitzel, mischugene, macho, Massachusetts, Mississippi, etc.

This made English spelling which had always been challenging enough, even more confusing, so that today a lot of people (among them college instructors, business executives, stenographers) have "inaccuracies" in spelling. In a national survey, conducted among colleges and universities, more than 25% of the students, seniors as well as freshmen, turned out to have serious spelling troubles.

Thus it is small wonder that parents, grandparents, nannies seldom miss a chance to bring up the subject and to coach the children to spell correctly, even when the situation has nothing or little to do with homework.'

"It is important to set a good example by our actions every day"

What Denis Waitley means to say is that parents, in the first place, should be a good role model for their children. So-called "role models" are an important vehicle in the educational process in the United States, which is yet another distinct marker of American culture.

Too often teachers admit that "children come to school with no idea how to behave in society, they don't know how to share, how to consider other people's needs, they take their freedoms and privileges too much for granted. Role models (live ones, books, puppet characters) teach how life and society are better when things are earned, how happiness does not depend on how many toys one has but on how others can be helped. Learning to place another person before oneself is a lesson parents and teachers and all persons teach whether on purpose or just by living. Finding and being a role model is necessary to understand life and how to grow into a responsible, caring, giving, loving adult" (courtesy of Ms Cathy Werle, school teacher from Connecticut).

Turning to positive role models becomes crucial for people in situations that test their ability to persevere. Just one name will suffice to illustrate the idea: Chris Reeve.

Before 1995, Christopher Reeve was known to the world as a handsome and successful American actor who played the part of Superman in the popular blockbuster and its three sequels of the same name (in the 1970s and 1980s). Now he is one of the favorite people on the planet, a symbol of hope and compassion for those who suffer from a catastrophic illness or disability.

Reeve was paralyzed from neck down in .riding accident in May 1995 when he was taking part in a cross country) equestrian event. The accident left him debilitated but not defeated. Confined to a wheelchair, able to move the tips of his fingers only, dependent on a ventilator for breathing 24 hours a day, Reeve has kept his life going. In 1998 he wrote his autobiography "Still Me" (in 1999 his audio recording of the book earned Reeve a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album). In 2002, Random House published Reeve's second book, "Nothing is Impossible: Reflections on a New Life". Up to 2004, he was the Chairman of the Board of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, a national, nonprofit organization supporting research to develop effective treatments and a cure for paralysis caused by spinal cord injury and other central nervous system disorders. CRPF also allocates a portion of its resources to grants that improve the quality of life for people with disabilities.

Reeve's activism gives encouragement to many who otherwise could be demoralized and despaired.

The following are excerpts from the transcript of an America Online Chat with Christopher Reeve (July, 2000).

— Mr. Reeve, you're a man of steel. You show such strength to persevere, you are my hero. I wish to see you walk again as much as I wish to see myself walk again.

-— Thank you, and don't give up hope. I strongly believe that there are no limits to what's possible.

• As a doctor, I know it's tough to know what to say to patients in similar situations. What is the best thing to hear-from a therapist?

• That it is absolutely essential to keep as much control over your life as possible. Don't give up and let others baby you or make too many decisions for you. After all, even though your body doesn’t work, your brain and your ability to communicate are still there. So I think control over decision-making, not giving up, all have control over, can help you feel a lot better situation.

• Mr.Reeve, I'm 13, and I want to grow up to cure people like you. Yоu'rе a great inspiration to me, and I admire you. How can you have so much hope? Could you talk about your inner discipline?

• Well, I think I'm lucky that in my life before the accident I worked in a profession that demands a high degree of discipline. Acting requires a thick skin, you have to have the discipline to give all of yourself every time you go onstage or in front of a camera. So I've taken that training into my condition now — for example, on a morning when I don't feel like breathing for an hour off the ventilator because it's very difficult, I just make myself do it anyway. And that actually is a very powerful thing that people can do for themselves, establish a routine and a discipline that you follow no mater what.

• Mr. Reeve, you played Superman and you became Superman, a living demonstration of the benefits of hope and positivity in the face of a catastrophe that might have destroyed you morally — but it didn't. Thank you, and please know that you have the good wishes and the prayers of everyone whom you have given support and compassion by your heroic triumph over disability.

— Thank you very much, very, very much.

Christopher Reeve died in October 2004.

¹ This, is a representative scene from the film "Andre" (1994, dir. George Miller).

Tony (a girl of 9) and her father are feeding the orphaned seal pup they keep secretly in the barn when who should enter but Mother.

• Harry, you in there?

• Yeah!

. — Can we please, please, please clean up this bam? We're going to do it every spring and we never... Look at all this junk in here, we've got to get rid of it! That old tub goes right now.

(When Tony tries to distract mother's attention from the tub, she realizes something is going on.)

• Don't you have some homework, young lady?

• I'm going to stay down here for a while.

• Spell "Mississippi"!

• M,i,s,s,i... don't... Who cares, Mom, I live in Maine!