Death, Languages, and T-Shirts

HEY!!!  IT'S MONDAY!!!  :)

So, you may  have heard that the Banananovian culture died out...  or at least it is slowly dying out.

The language is no longer spoken anywhere - not even in Banananovia.

On Friday we looked at an example of this happening.  (I gave 10 points for the assignment which can be viewed or downloaded HERE.)  And this Scots dialect isn't an isolated example.  If you read the end of the article, you'll see this quote:

"There are some 6000 to 7000 languages in the world and it is estimated that they are disappearing at a rate of one every two weeks."

By this point, the students should have realized some of the benefits and consequences of globalization.  The Banananovians, for instance, improved their standard of living - had access to better medicine, a written language, electricity, etc... But they lost their culture (and their very identity) in the process.

I ask the students if our interactions with the Banananovians was positive or negative for them overall.  Of course, that's a horrible question, because 99% of my students will answer the same way: I think it was both.

So, reword: if we took could go back in time and take the trip again, should we?  You're in charge - do we take the trip or not?

I wanted them to think of it from the perspective of the Banananovians, but of course, some took it further and brought up that we made a lot of money - which led to the driving force behind globalization: money and the demand for cheap labor.

We traced the route of a t-shirt, and wondered why it costs less to have it made all over the world and shipped here.  And we watched the first minute or so of this video:

I suppose some of you want the extra credit, and you don't have the time to read any more.  Fair enough...  To get the extra credit, you were supposed to read and discuss this with an adult.  If you did that find a piece of paper and write down why it costs less for a sweatshirt or a T-shirt to be made in Bangladesh than in the United States.

Have the adult you read the blog with sign the paper.  Turn it in to the extra credit tray tomorrow.