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RAMBLE in the JUNGLE · Textbook · Unit 1: Culture, Knowledge and Meaning

Issue 1.1

Should Schools Teach "Cultural Dexterity" as a Core Skill?

YESWanaku Verdzekov, Cultural Dexterity (2015)
NOEditorial counterpoint, Manners Are Not a Subject (written for this book)

Learning outcomes

After reading this issue, you should be able to:

Define "cultural dexterity" and explain why the author believes it is needed.
Explain the author's idea of the "Biggest Microphone" and give a present-day example.
Identify the main objections raised in the counterpoint.
Distinguish between cultural rules (etiquette) and cultural values.
Write an argument that recommends how schools should prepare students for a multicultural world.

Introduction

We live in what is often called an age of globalization: goods, money, people and, above all, information cross borders faster than ever. A song, a video or a news story can reach millions of people in dozens of countries within hours. This brings cultures into contact, and sometimes into conflict.

Educators have argued about how schools should respond. Some call for intercultural competence, the ability to communicate respectfully with people from other backgrounds. In 2018, the OECD's international PISA tests, taken by 15-year-olds in dozens of countries, included an assessment of "global competence" for the first time. Others worry that schools cannot teach something so personal, or that such courses may spread the values of powerful countries.

A related idea is soft power: a country's ability to influence others through its culture, films, music and media rather than through force. Hollywood films, K-pop, Nollywood and football leagues are all examples. The author of the YES reading calls this "the Biggest Microphone".

The author, Wanaku Verdzekov, grew up in the Kom Kingdom, a traditional kingdom in the grasslands of north-west Cameroon, and later lived in the United States. The essay was written around 2015 and refers to a United States Supreme Court ruling of that year that recognized same-sex marriage nationwide. The author uses it as an example of how one culture's legal processes shape values that then travel around the world. (Students do not need to take a position on marriage to discuss the author's argument about cultural influence.)

As you read, ask: Is understanding other cultures a skill that can be taught, like a language, or something that can only be learned through experience?

YES

Cultural Dexterity (2015)

By Wanaku Verdzekov

The Age of Information is also the Age of Cultural Wars. There is a need for a new course for students of today's global space called Cultural Dexterity.

Objective: enable students to jump through all the hoops and loops of diverse cultural spaces (physical and virtual).

Example situation: if you find yourself in Malaysia, remember that you cannot point at someone with your index finger. That's considered really rude and can get you a fist in the face. So how do you point at someone? With your thumb. Ahem!

Why do I bring this up? Because it is a physical behaviour that has been encoded into the DNA of the cultural space occupied by the Malaysian people over a period of time. It is part of the cultural sauce. Note again: it is a "behaviour" that is now encoded in the mores and practical living situations of the Malaysian people. It seems (feels like) the law, if you are on location. But you probably are not in Malaysia. If you are, watch out.

Let's switch gears to another cultural space. Let me just say: the "West", as in what is also known as "Western Culture". Not forgetting that within Western Culture there are sub-cultures, sub-sub-cultures and so on, down to the goat farmer on the hills of a village in Estonia. Where were we?

Oh, let's ask a simple question: how does Western Culture perceive and implement the concept of "behaviour" in its cultural space? In other words, what are the forces in Western Culture that shape the behavioural patterns of citizens within that space?

It turns out the question is not that simple. It is interesting to note how the Information Age has sped up communication, so that news about things happening in faraway places triggers another look at one's own backyard.

As if there is something to be afraid of… which could be a legitimate FEAR. How to describe it? Mmh! Here is how anyone with an analytical attitude would face a problem: try to know everything about it. Then look at the information. Look at it again and again. Turn it upside down, inside out, then sideways and downside up… then begin to comb through it again… until maybe you come up with an answer (sort of).

Before doing all of the above, the main obstacle to solving the problem is simple: ignorance. At one point or another in life, everyone is ignorant of something. And the only medicine for the "dis-ease" of ignorance is making an effort to know everything about something, or something about everything. Either one will work (at least).

So what is the import of the paragraph above? Just this: in the current global context of information overload and instant news feeds, if you are standing on a foundation of Kom rocks (assuming that foundation is rock-solid in the current era), why should you be afraid of "behavioural patterns" imported from other cultural spaces? Of course these patterns are, and have been, imported in 101 ways, mainly (these days) through the whole mass-communication industry. Now hear me out.

In the context of cultural spaces, globally speaking, he who has the Biggest Microphone wins the day. Like it or not, it is a fact. Why? Well, you tell me. The human brain is a thing of beauty; I mean, how it works. Even its owners have no idea what their brains are doing. Not to digress, but the effect of the Biggest Microphone on the brain of the audience can stretch as far back as "In the Beginning", where there was the Word.

So in essence, the owners of the Biggest Microphone are also the biggest storytellers in the world. Humans are addicted to stories (the Word).

So when all (or most) of the stories we hear come from a Western cultural space, of course attitudes, beliefs and behaviours (remember how the beautiful brain works) are affected and begin to change or morph into something else: a mix, a mash, a patchwork, a melting pot… or… you tell me.

I found it easier to look at global cultural questions by arbitrarily splitting "Western Culture" in general from "Other Cultures". This might not work for someone else (the brain is a beautiful thing). Given the effect of the dominant cultures owning and using the Big Microphone on audiences around the globe, it is no longer a question of stopping one culture from doing this or that. It is a question of how citizens of the world can navigate the different cultures that exist as they travel through these spaces, physically or virtually, without stepping on toes, intentionally or inadvertently. That skill is called cultural dexterity. Unless, that is, one attempts to level the cultural playing field globally and have everyone everywhere conform to a given set of behavioural patterns. That's the Cultural War. Is it on yet? You tell me.

In Western Culture, take the particular case of the US Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage. Note that the process followed to bring this case to that court is itself part of Western Culture. Here is what the US Chief Justice had to say:

"If you are among the many Americans — of whatever sexual orientation — who favor expanding same-sex marriage, by all means celebrate today's decision. Celebrate the achievement of a desired goal. Celebrate the opportunity for a new expression of commitment to a partner. Celebrate the availability of new benefits. But do not celebrate the Constitution. It had nothing to do with it."

What I note here is: "Celebrate the availability of new benefits…"

If you ask me, the Chief Justice is letting it be known that the court gave in to the fight for rights rather than to a change in the real meaning of "traditional marriage" (per Western Culture). Note that some other cultures would hold their own traditional marriage, then do another ceremony (in church, or at a resort, the "white-man" way), and call it… what again? That's again where cultural dexterity comes in. As long as we find ourselves in spaces with a dominant cultural footprint, we will face the question of acquiring, or not acquiring, the skills to navigate the hoops and loops there. And that is when (with no skills) some kind of Nyamfɨkah behaviour can begin to roost.

Wakikɨki
~wv

PS: With a population of 300,000 citizens, Kom cannot be afraid of the influence of any imported behavioural pattern within its cultural space… unless we have not taken the steps necessary to maintain command, control and development of the mechanisms and institutions that make Kom Culture possible and relevant in the daily lives of its citizens. Then the Big Microphone works, all the time, in surprisingly sneaky ways. Ijaa iku tum!

— Wanaku Verdzekov

Written around 2015; lightly edited for this book.

Manners Are Not a Subject

Editorial counterpoint Written for this book, not by Wanaku Verdzekov.

This essay was written for this textbook to present the opposing side fairly. It is not by Wanaku Verdzekov.

Wanaku Verdzekov is right that today's students live in a world where cultures meet every day, on screens as much as in person. A teenager in Lagos, Lyon or Lima can watch the same video within minutes of its release. Misunderstandings between cultures are real, and they can hurt. But it does not follow that "cultural dexterity" should become a new core subject. There are good reasons to be cautious.

Culture is learned by living, not by memorizing

The author's own example is a rule: in Malaysia, point with your thumb, not your index finger. A course built on rules like this would soon become a list of do's and don'ts for dozens of countries. Lists like this age quickly and are often wrong, because cultures change and differ inside themselves. Not every Malaysian minds a pointed finger, just as not every Kom elder holds the same view on marriage. Real cultural skill comes from long contact with real people: friendships, travel, work, family. A classroom can talk about this experience, but it cannot replace it.

The risk of teaching stereotypes

When a course sets out to teach "how the French behave" or "what Africans believe", it risks turning whole peoples into cartoons. The author warns against a "Big Microphone" that shapes how the world sees others. A school subject built on cultural profiles could become a small microphone of its own, repeating simplified pictures. Students might leave the course more confident, but not more accurate.

The timetable is already full

Every new subject pushes something else out. Most schools already struggle to give enough time to reading, writing, mathematics, science and a second language. If a school must choose, learning another language may do more for cultural understanding than a separate course: a language carries its culture inside it, with all its humour, politeness and exceptions.

Better tools already exist

Much of what the author wants can be reached through subjects schools already teach. Literature lets students live inside other people's lives. History explains why peoples see the world differently. Media studies can teach students to ask who owns the "Big Microphone" and whose stories are missing. Exchange programmes, pen-pal projects and community service bring students face to face with difference. These approaches build understanding without a separate subject that must be tested and graded.

Who decides what "dexterity" means?

Finally, "cultural dexterity" sounds neutral, but someone must decide what counts as good behaviour. Should students learn to adapt to every culture's norms, even ones that treat some people unfairly? Or should they learn to stand firm? The author's own example, a court ruling on marriage, shows that cultures disagree about deep values, not just manners. A course that tells students when to adapt and when to resist would have to take sides on questions that families and communities, not schools, should decide.

Conclusion

The goal is a good one: young people who can move between cultures with respect and keep their own roots. But that goal is better served by languages, literature, history, media literacy and real encounters than by a new subject with its own textbook and exams. Cultural dexterity is not a lesson to be learned in one term. It is a habit built over a lifetime.

— Editorial counterpoint

Vocabulary

Word or phrase	Meaning in the readings
dexterity	skill and ease, of the hands or of the mind
encoded	built in, like a hidden code
mores	the customs and accepted behaviour of a group
sub-culture	a smaller group with its own customs inside a larger culture
globalization	the growing connection of the world's economies and cultures
information overload	more information than a person can take in
inadvertently	by accident, without meaning to
dominant	most powerful or influential
soft power	influence through culture and ideas rather than force
stereotype	an oversimplified idea about a group of people
etiquette	rules of polite behaviour
media literacy	the ability to analyse and question media messages
norm	an accepted standard of behaviour

Comprehension questions

Literal (find it in the text)

What example of a cultural rule does the author give from Malaysia?
What does the author say is "the only medicine" for ignorance?
According to the author, who "wins the day" in global cultural spaces?
Name two subjects the counterpoint says can already build cultural understanding.
What does the counterpoint say may do more for cultural understanding than a separate course?

Inferential (read between the lines)

Why does the author link the "Biggest Microphone" to storytelling?
In the PS, what condition does the author set for Kom not to fear imported behaviour?
Why does the counterpoint warn that a cultural-dexterity course could become "a small microphone of its own"?
What does the counterpoint mean when it says cultures disagree about "deep values, not just manners"?

Critical (evaluate and respond)

Which writer better explains how people actually learn to live with cultural difference? Use evidence from both readings.
Think of a time you or someone you know misunderstood another culture. Would a school course have helped? Why or why not?
Who holds "the Biggest Microphone" in your country today? Is that a problem?

Is there common ground?

Both writers agree that young people need to live respectfully in a world full of different cultures, and that they should keep their own roots while doing so. Both are wary of powerful media shaping everyone's values. The author worries about the Biggest Microphone; the counterpoint worries that a school course could become one.

They disagree mainly about method. The author wants a named course, so that the skill is taken seriously. The counterpoint prefers to weave the skill through languages, literature, history, media literacy and real encounters.

A middle path might be a short module or project within existing subjects: for example, a media-literacy unit on who tells global stories, combined with an exchange or community project, and assessed through reflection rather than a test of cultural rules.

Debate and writing prompt

Debate motion: This house believes that every secondary school should teach cultural dexterity as a required course.

Divide the class into proposition and opposition. Each side must use at least two pieces of evidence from its reading and answer the other side's strongest point.
After the debate, hold a vote, then discuss which arguments changed minds.

Writing task: (400–600 words) Write a proposal to your school's head teacher on how students should be prepared for life in a multicultural world. Recommend a course, a module, or changes to existing subjects. Use at least one idea from each reading, and answer one objection.