1. Think of an "L2 double" (cioè pensare ad un sosia tuo in una cultura anglofona, cioè uno che vorresti essere se dovessi rinascere in Scozia, Giamaica, Africa del Sud, Texas, Galles, Nigeria, California, Australia, India... Come vedi, i paesi elencati sono quelli del inner circle e del outer circle che ho illustrato in classe e di cui trovi delle spiegazioni anche cliccando sul tasto nel RECAP of LESSONS).

2. Document yourself on that double: use the Internet, magazine articles, TV programs you have seen, Encyclopedias, autobiographies, interviews, etc. Since you will try to speak like people in your double's community, it is important that you find audio or audiovisual materials: on the Internet there are often interviews of famous people or recordings of their speeches. (Cioè, raccogliere documenti, soprattutto audio e audiovisivi, sul sosia e sulle persone che appartengono alla sua comunità, ossia le persone che egli o lei frequenta come intimi.)
   -- Make a list of everything that has possibly influenced your double's way of seeing and saying things; click HERE for the form to fill out (as much as possible) to define the influences;.
   -- Then, indicate your source materials: click HERE for the form to fill out (fill out everything EXCEPT the psychological data, since you are documenting your double's culture, not his or her psychology).

3. From your documentation, guess (indovinare) the value system of your double. This is the most important part of your task and it is, for now, completely subjective. In fact, what you will learn – by discussing your hypotheses with your group if you want – is to evaluate people's way of being from their way of speaking (and also from the biographical data you have collected in your documentation). (Cioe', indovina i valori esistenziali latenti.)

4. Write the value system of your double first in ordinary language. For example, for Bob Marley, I could write: "He believes that if you are patient, you will obtain justice." Then transform these values into maxims, for example in the case of Marley: "Take it easy, in the end justice will come." (Cioè, trasformare i valori in massime.)

5. Then write OTHER values of your double, this time as parameters. The parameters we will use are Cultural Dimensions. See the slides by Beamer (in the Handouts section) for an explanation. (Cioè, indovina ALTRE valori che rappresentate con parametri.)

For example, for Bob Marley I could use the dimension "individualistic" versus "collectivist":

|_individ.____ ---------------------------------------------- ___collect.__

But BEFORE I situate Marley (BM) between these two extremes, To give meaning to the point in which I situate him, I will also situate myself (Me).

|_individ.____ --------------------------Me--------BM---- ___collect.__

As an addition point of comparison, I can add the Queen of England, Elisabeth (QE), using the stereotyped image we all have of her, plus the teacher of this course PB:

|_individ.____ ----------------------PB---Me---BM---QE- ___collect.__

The Queen is extremely collectivistic when she speaks and acts like the “mother of the nation”, treating Britons as one big family. As the French King Louis XIV said: “L'état, c'est moi” (“I am the Nation”).

NOTE: According to a “leftist” political-economic analysis, the Queen should instead be considered, in her real-life relationship to Britons, extremely individualistic. “I am the nation” is thus pure egoism. The graph should be:
|_individ.____ --QE---------------------PB---Me---BM---- ___collect.__

Now my task is finished. Anyone can look at my parameter and say: "Ah, now I understand why Bob Marley always sings about the oppression of his people; Marley considers the collectivity first. He is also different from "Me" as an Italian. As an Italian I consider collectivities – family, clan, network of friends, society – important but maybe not as much as Marley. Marley has more of a collective vision.

Is this clear?

You do this with 5 more parameters, that you can take from Beamer (under HANDOUTS) or that you can invent. (Cioè, potete prendere in prestito i parametri elencati da Beamer. Oppure potete inventare parametri vostri.)

For example, I can invent the polarity "PAST ORIENTED... FUTURE ORIENTED" – a culture is past oriented if people justify their choices on the basis of traditions; it is future oriented if they justify their choices on the basis of faith in the future. Between the two extremes are cultures that are present oriented: people in present-oriented cultures choose things opportunistically for immediate gain.

_past orien._ --QE--------Me--------------BM---PB------- future orien._ 

A person looking at my parameter can say: "Ah, now I understand why Bob Marley always says 'Just take it easy, justice'll come', he sees his people as part of some Grand Design where, in the future, there will be salvation for them. He is different from Me, since as an Italian I situate myself left of middle, a little towards the past. Not entirely, however, I also live for the present: I am opportunistic, I live for the moment, although sometimes I choose to perpetuate traditional values, even if there is no immediate gratification in the present. As for the Queen of England, she is clearly different from an Italian and a Jamaican: ONLY the past counts! Or rather, this is what she is like according to the stereotype. (Also Bob Marley and Me are not necessarily representative of ALL Jamaicans and ALL Italians.)

So you see, by using parameters we have clarified the unconscious differences we feel when we hear the Queen of England speak and Bob Marley sing. Intuitively we feel there is a world of values that differentiate them. Now, with our parameters, we have made some of those values clearer.

Then I transform these parameters into maxims: for example, “Live for the future!” Or “Honor tradition and it will honor you!” (I have just invented these maxims.)

I will repeat these maxims every morning when I get up and especially before entering class. With time I will probably notice that I have changed my way of seeing things and saying things in English.