Advocacy week report

Shuting Shen

Colorado State University

 Advocacy Week Report

On March 1, Dr. Andrew Curtis made a presentation that topic was “Connecting

Language, Cultures and Identities to Leadership in Language Education” in room

312 of the LSC from 4:30 PM to 6 PM. At the beginning of the presentation, the chair

of the TTSA who was Steven introduced to Dr. Andrew in detail. After that, Dr.

Andrew quickly began his presentation by introducing “keynotes and plenaries” that

included though-provoking, original/ creative, educational/ enjoyable, memorable/

meaningful, propose and frames of reference, and problem: if you do all/ any these

things, some people will like it. Furthermore, he shared a new about the apology. It

talked about Canadians love to say “sorry” so much, we had to make this law. In the

following presentation, Dr. Andrew introduced a 42-episode British television show,

some good books, the speaker’s context/ perspective, his journey and a short video

“What kind of Asian are you?”

In this presentation, the presenter mentioned “Advice Not Asked For/Not

Followed” including “Be Serious” “Don’t be so dramatic” “Don’t get all political”

“Don’t get all racial” “Don’t be so controversial” “Speak properly” and “No

parachute”. Whether in English or Chinese, I think these expressions have similarities

and differences. In Chinese, if the speaker or hearer doesn’t want to talk about it, the

person will say “good point” or “Speak properly” in agreement and won’t talk about

it. At the same time, this expression can be more polite. However, we rarely use

expressions like “Don’t get all political”, “Don’t get all racial” or “Don’t be so

sowing” in Chinese. As a Chinese, we might say, “almost done” or “let’s change the
subject/topic” which is a relatively straightforward way of expressing it. Because of

the differences between Chinese and English, there are different expressions used in

different situations. Not only is the expression “Advice Not Asked For/Not Followed”

different, but there are also differences in how to greet someone when meeting in

Chinese and English. For example, In English, people use “How are you going

today?” to greet someone. In Chinese, people often greet with someone by using

“what are you doing?”. Chinese and English are different not only in language but

also in many ways of expression. As a future teacher, in addition to teaching students

four aspects of English, including listening, speaking, reading and writing, I will also

tell them the differences between Chinese and English cultures to help them

understand their cultures. I also try to use real materials as much as possible.