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 Chapter 3: Bully Trouble and What Animal Are
You?
This chapter illustrates two different attitudes towards people
who are different, embodied by Porter and Jane. Porter displays
behavior that is disrespectful and insulting especially when he
speaks “Chinese”: this also can be interpreted as stereotyping.
Jane, on the other hand, is eager to learn Chinese and has already
learned some vocabulary in other languages. He is closed and she is
open.
Talking Points
1. Define stereotyping and talk about why this can cause
problems.
2. Discuss Porter’s use of “Chinese.” Acquaint students with the
idea that every language sounds like gibberish if you’re not
familiar with its sounds.
3. Talk about Porter’s pulling at the corners of his eyes to make
them slant. Why is this insulting? If your students visited China,
whose eyes would be a different shape then? Is the way people look
something to make fun of? Why or why not? (a somewhat rough
transition between the eyes and New Year . . ?)
Activities
1. If possible, find recordings of songs or speech in different
languages and play them for your students. Ask community members who
speak other languages to come in and read or give a speech to your
class. Can they tell where one word ends and another begins? As an
amusing extension, bring in a movie in which the actors speak
British English or the Yorkshire dialect. Even English can be
difficult to interpret if pronounced with a different accent!
2. Working out what animal you are may require a bit of math –
addition and subtraction. Once the students have figured out which
animals they are, a good extension would be for them to go home and
work out the animal for each of their family members. To do this,
your students must first ask what month and year they were born.
Remember that if someone was born between January 5 and February 18
it will affect which animal he is. A website that has a calendar
listing all the New Year days since 1900 can be used to determine
whether the person with the birthday that falls in between these two
dates was born in the previous year or the New Year. See:
http://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/NewYearDays-PST.htm
3. It can also be productive to work on multiples of 12 by figuring
out what year on our Western calendar is the next year of your
particular animal. Your year recurs every time your age is a
multiple of 12. So when you’re born, then again when you’re 12, 24,
36, 48 etc. Ask your students to think of people in their family and
other people they know: are any of them currently an age that is a
multiple of 12? If so, this is their year!
Websites to Extend Your Knowledge about…
…the Chinese New Year:
http://www.educ.uvic.ca/faculty/mroth/438/CHINA/chinese_new_year.html
http://www.c-c-c.org/chineseculture/festival/newyear/newyear.html
And here is a lesson plan to help you teach about the Chinese New
Year:
http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/tlresources/units/Byrnes-celebrations/chinese.html
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